Wilkes-barre Area Plans Tax Increase
By MARK FITZHENRY [email protected]
Thursday, June 29, 2000 Page: 10A
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board tonight expects to pass a
budget that will raise taxes for the first time since 1997 and eliminate up to
Superintendent Jeff Namey said the district could eliminate 11 positions –
six teachers, four custodians and one administrator – all by not replacing
retirees.
The proposed shuffle will leave one principal in charge of the district’s
two smallest elementary schools, Mackin and Bear Creek.
The proposed tax hike is four mills, so taxpayers will pay $212 for every
$1,000 of assessed property value. The tax increase is expected to bring an
additional $500,000 to the district. Assessed property value in Luzerne County
is typically lower than the home’s actual worth.
Board members say the staff cuts and tax hike are necessary. As of last
month, the district had about $350,000 less to spend than last year because of
tax abatements on properties and tax breaks for Keystone Opportunity Zone
businesses.
“The board has to make decisions,” Namey said. “It’s time to make
difficult decisions. I think they’re prepared to do that.”
Namey said the district is not expected to replace four or five elementary
teachers in kindergarten to sixth grade, one or two secondary teachers and an
elementary school administrator.
Cutting an administrator means one principal will be in charge of the 523
students at Mackin and Bear Creek elementary schools. According to Namey, the
proposed plan works this way:
The board would hire one of the district’s elementary school assistant
principals to replace Peter Gruszkowski, who is retiring as Flood Elementary’s
principal. Robert Anthony of Kistler Elementary and Brian Benedetti of
Heights-Murray Elementary have expressed interest, Namey said.
Bear Creek Principal Michael Croughn or Mackin Principal Ned Evans would
fill an assistant principal position. Whoever doesn’t move would be the
half-time principal at Bear Creek and Mackin.
The board would hire head teachers at Bear Creek and Mackin to run each
school when the half-time principal is at the other school. Each head teacher
would earn a stipend of “a few thousand dollars,” Namey said.
Namey said the plan could change before tonight’s meeting. He said Croughn
and Evans are candidates to replace Gruszkowski at Flood; neither has
full-time principal experience because each teaches classes.
Margaret Grillini, treasurer of Mackin’s PTA, has said Mackin needs Evans
on site full-time so the students would have the same “authority figure every
day.”
Jim Atherton, chairman of the board’s budget committee, and Namey counter
by saying the district has employed half-time principals at those schools
before, that the move will save the district nearly $100,000 in salary and
benefits, and that pagers and cellular phones will allow the half-time
principal to travel between schools in time to solve most problems.
Bear Creek and Mackin used to employ a half-time principal, but each school
got a full-time principal in 1997 when several schools consolidated to form
the Leo Solomon Educational Complex-Plains Memorial K-8 School. The combined
enrollment at Bear Creek and Mackin is smaller than Kistler, 900; Solomon
Plains, 750; and Heights-Murray, 645.
Namey said he expects strong opposition from Bear Creek and Mackin parents
tonight, but said no one has called to request a meeting.
Board members Jim Kelly and Jack Jones voted against the tentative budget
when it was proposed on May 31. Kelly, reached Wednesday, said he’s not sure
how he will vote tonight but he expects the budget to pass.
“I’m not opposed to the budget,” Kelly said. “I just felt we could have
saved in other areas we could have looked into.”
FOR THE RECORD, ran 7/1/00: PETER TRUSZKOWSKI’S NAME was misspelled in two
recent stories. He retired as principal of Flood Elementary School.
