Holding the hand of his son, standing at the height of his knee Monday night, an Altoona man addressed the Altoona Area school board, which moments later would unanimously pass an $88.4 million budget.
"Is there not something more we can do?" Jules Bianchini of Altoona asked.
Bianchini was speaking of cutting expenses - namely non-instructional, administrative expenses. Board member Sharon Bream was equally unhappy with the budget. She voted to pass it, finding little power to affect the budget process from her year-old seat on the school board.
The board had no finance committee meetings, only discussing the budget to approve it for adoption, Bream said.
If any part of the budget pleased Bream, it is that no tax increases are included. Millage remains the lowest in Blair County at 55 mills.
But Bream said district spending needs to be decreased.
"We have a bloated administration, declining enrollment, a pension issue, and we have to do something about it," said Bream. "We can't get there and be at the site of a train wreck."
Overall, administrative costs are climbing to $6.4 million, $342,078 or a 5.6 percent increase from 2011-12.
Employee benefits are rising by $800,000 to $10 million in 2012-13, and will continue to rise in later years because of the state pension program. The district faces rising employee retirement costs mandated by the state.
The district filled a $2.8 million deficit for 2012-13 with its reserves.
By the end of the 2012-13 school year, those savings are estimated to be $7 million.
Projections based on no tax increases for years ahead and no significant state funding increases indicate the reserve fund would be whittled dangerously low, $2 million by the end of 2013-14. By the end of 2014-15, the district is projected to face a deficit of $8.6 million and reserves at the end of that year would be minus $7 million.
There is one way the board and Superintendent Dennis Murray believe the district could avoid that anticipated crisis.
That solution would entail lawmakers reforming the Public School Employees' Retirement System.
"It will have to be a legislative initiative," Murray said.
Increasing employees' contributions to their retirement plans could be one way to fix the problem. Under state law, enrolled employees pay no more than 12 percent of their salary toward their retirement plans.
Mirror Staff Writer Russ O'Reilly is at 946-7435.
