District eyes spending cuts

First Posted:

CAMILLE FIOTI Times Leader Correspondent

HANOVER TWP. – At the Hanover Area School Board meeting Thursday evening, Business Administrator Tom Cipriano presented the school board with the most recent draft of the proposed budget for the 2011-2012 school year.
He outlined a number of possible measures that would help reduce the district’s deficit of $1.5 million to just over a million.
By cutting spending on a number of programs including sports and drama as well as classroom supplies and field trips, the district will save about $145,000 Cipriano said. Consolidating some buildings will net $856,000 in savings.
Several factors affect the budget, such as an 18 percent increase in health insurance and a 3 percent increase in pension fund costs for district employee.
A voluntary employee separation program, which was introduced last month, will save the district approximately $445,000 if at least 17 faculty members participate. The program gives faculty members who choose to participate the option to retire or resign from the district early and receive a lump sum of $15,000 and a year of continued health insurance, if needed.
These latest figures include a decrease in the proposed tax hike from 1.6 to .6 mills. The current millage is 6.2283. A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value. For each mill, the district brings in about $750,000, the board said.
“We’re definitely not done with this,” Cipriano said. “This is still a work in progress. We still have seven weeks to work on it. We all know the goal is to get this down to a zero increase.”
Cipriano said during a meeting at the Luzerne Intermediate Unit last month no other school district representatives mentioned early retirement as a way to save money.
“No district floated an idea that we’re not in the process of doing already,” he said. The district has until May 30 to finalize a budget.