The Easton Area School Board has approved its 2012-2013 budget, which raises taxes and eliminates dozens of positions.
The Easton Area School Board has approved the district's 2012-2013 budget, a $133 million spending plan which eliminates 102 jobs. The board voted 5-1 Tuesday evening to OK the budget, which is balanced with a combination of those job cuts, a 2.2 percent property tax increase, and $1.5 million in reserve money. Michael Simonetta, the district's chief operating officer, said the budget raises Easton's millage rate to 55.4, a 1.7 mill increase. In layman's terms, this means an average increase of $88 on a tax bill for a property assessed at $75,000. The jobs cut by the district range from teachers -- 49 of them in total, including 22 just from the Easton Area Middle School -- to custodians to part-time lunch monitors. (We've attached a PDF…
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Easton Area High School
2601 William Penn Hwy, Easton, PA
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Easton Area School Board members say they want to know how the district will cope with 40 fewer teachers.
In two weeks, the Easton Area School Board will vote on a budget that -- if approved -- will cut 40 teaching positions, as well as 37 other jobs. But board members said Tuesday they were concerned that the district hasn't given them a clear picture for what happens next. They also worry about how the district -- which is projecting deficits in the next two years -- will improve its financial situation. "What is the plan here? asked board member Janet Matthews. "What does increased class size look like? What does middle school restructuring look like? How do you decide what teachers are cut? This is troubling that we don’t know any of this, and we're scheduled to move on the budget." That vote is slated for May 22. The $133 million budget …
How should the Easton Area School Board handle this year's budget?
At its committee meeting tonight, the Easton Area School Board will take another look at its 2012-2013 budget. It puts the district between a rock and a hard place. Easton Area Chief Operating Officer Michael Simonetta has presented the board with three different plans: one with a 2.2 percent tax increase, one with a 1.7 percent tax increase, and one with no tax increase. If the district chose not to increase taxes, more than 100 district jobs would be cut. But even with the larger tax increase, job and program cuts would still be part of the budget plan. "We're either going to kill the taxpayer or kill the students," board member Frank Pintabone said last week. Tonight's meeting -- which will also include a presentation from city …
40.68139
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Easton Area High School
2601 William Penn Hwy, Easton, PA
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louis kootsares
11:46 am on Wednesday, July 11, 2012
we do need to eliminate the current school tax system i myself would not mind that there are overpaid over staffed administrations one would believe that with the modern cummunication systems there would be less need of assistant anything and positions created in the last 50 years what looks to me to be products of stacked school boards ex teachers and other boo hoo liberals spending our tax … more ›