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Public opinion at a packed meeting at Springfield Township High School Tuesday ranged from supporting any property tax increase to maintain the quality of the schools to asking that the board recognize the economic burden on township households.
The Springfield Township School Board held the meeting to get public feedback before its vote on a final budget June 15.
Earlier this month, the board approved a proposed budget that would increase property taxes 5.49 percent, an increase of $247 and a total property tax bill of $4,417 for a home assessed at the township average of $165,095.
Another budget discussion will take place at the board’s June 1 meeting, board President Mal Gran said.
After the Tuesday meeting, Gran said he felt he heard from many members of the community and hoped the board and administration had been able to answer their questions.
“It’s a two-way street, and I felt it was successful,” he said.
During the meeting, Superintendent Wendy Royer recommended a budget with a 4 percent property tax increase, saying it would save cuts to academics, technology and an eighth-grade world language program.
Holding the increase to 4 percent will require a $943,047 decrease in spending next year.
“I think for this year we would like to get through with as many things in tact as we can and keeping class sizes as low as we can,” she said.
The difference between a 3.5 to 4 percent increase is about $22 per household, Royer said. While understanding it can be a hardship for some, it’s difficult for administration to cut programs and teachers for $22, she said.
Nobody wants to see any programs or positions cut, she added.
The vulnerable programs are the academic support program in the high school, which serves 180 students, and world language in eighth grade. Other vulnerable areas are activities, clubs and sports in the secondary schools.
On a nonacademic level, spending for transportation and maintenance capital could also be on the chopping block.
Henrik Berdsback, a retired township resident, said it was important to maintain the excellence of the district but told officials he worried the district had not been managing its expenses of the past years closely enough, citing what he called too much spending on capital projects.
He referenced the demolition of the former Erdenheim building, which he said occurred after a new wing had been built, to make way for the construction of a new school, and construction at the middle and high schools.
“As a taxpayer, I have to tell you that I get upset,” he said.
Parent Lisa Guyer said she appreciated the concerns of those retired in the community, but the current students should have the same opportunities of children in the past.
“It’s only fair that our children also have those same opportunities and those same programs and if that means having a tax increase, then I am all for that,” she said.
Some asked about using reserves to balance the budget. The board has $2.7 million that could be used for this year’s budget, but that will be the board’s decision, said Victor Orlando, the district’s business administrator.
Several at the meeting were elementary school parents who have been urging the board to keep classes sizes low, expressing concern the small district will lose its small-town feel, and students will lose the opportunities afforded to them in small classes.
A budget with a 4 percent property tax increase could add another teacher to the first or second grade, which would provide for more sections with smaller class sizes, Royer said.
Last summer, the board, anticipating a difficult budget, asked elementary school principals to submit a cap per class for each grade that class sizes could surpass in the future. The result was a system that places consecutive class maximums starting with 20 students per kindergarten class and 21 in first grade, up to 25 for each fifth grade class. The space in Erdenheim was based on those sizes, Royer said.
Parents have said it was not clear from the start the district’s intention to allow for an increase in class sizes, and some had spent their time crunching numbers to figure out ways the district could keep class sizes lower.
“I’m concerned that you are rebuilding the entire school system from scratch, and we are going to lose what has made the school district so special,” Amy Wojeck, a parent, said.
Another parent, Anne St. Clair, said while she is in support of smaller elementary school class sizes, it was necessary to realize that it could affect programs in the middle and high schools.
The question is whether the district should put its resources into small class sizes at the expense of cutting the valued high school and middle school activities, she said.
