They carried hope into East Hills Middle School. Because that's all Katie Devine, Jamie Ott and Kristine Grim had left. It was not enough.
Their hopes and their jobs as Freedom High School educators were dashed Monday when the Bethlehem Area School Board voted 6-3 to approve next year's $203.8 million budget, which eliminates 145 jobs and raises taxes 1.7 percent.
"We came tonight with last-minute hope," said Devine, 26, of Bethlehem, a now laid-off math teacher. "Many of us who were cut are super-dedicated to our jobs and this has not yet sunk in."
The job cuts include 49 teachers who were laid off and 39 other teaching jobs that are not being filled through attrition. Other cuts include eliminating parent liaisons who worked in the shuttered family centers and reducing teacher aides and hall monitors.
All told, the district shed nearly 8 percent of its payroll as it sought to eliminate or curtail several long-standing education programs to combat a massive reduction in state funding under Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed $27.3 billion budget.
After the meeting, Superintendent Joseph Roy said the job cuts could be reduced if more retirements or resignations come in this summer. He also said he never envisioned that his first budget as a superintendent would be so difficult.
"I knew it would be an extremely challenging budget season," Roy said. "I talked to veteran superintendents before I took the job, and no superintendent envisioned it being so difficult ? because of the state budget."
Under budget cuts, the administration and board killed middle school teacher teams that integrated curriculum across disciplines while teachers addressed academic, social and family needs of students. Officials also closed the preschool SPARK building and will offer fewer preschool classes in certain neighborhood elementary schools. The high schools also lost guidance counselors and dozens of electives after a 20-student minimum enrollment was established.
"I would not have gone through years of school while having a child if I thought I'd lose a job," said laid-off guidance counselor Grim, 31, of Breiningsville, as her 3-year-old daughter clung to her hand.
On the tax side, the millage rate rises 0.75 mills to 44.92 mills. Property owners will pay $57 more for a total of $3,369 for a home assessed at the district average of $75,000.
After the school tax is set, qualified homeowners will receive an average $176 tax rebate funded by casino gambling money issued by the state Homestead/Farmstead law. The state rebate has no bearing on the district's finances and does not factor into its budget.
Voting for the budget were: board President Michele Cann, Vice President Bill Burkhardt and Directors Michael Faccinetto, Gene McKeon, Aurea Ortiz and Rosie Amato, who voted via a teleconference call.
Voting no were Directors Loretta Leeson, Irene Follweiler and Benjamin M. Tenaglia III.
Ortiz said she was approving the budget even though she disagreed with the family center cuts, which eliminated many of the district's bilingual employees who worked as parent liaisons.
Leeson said she voted no because she did not think the administration had done an analysis on the educational benefits and detriments of middle school teaming before deciding to cut it. She also said the budget is financially unsustainable over coming years.
Leeson, however, did not mention the costs of a new teachers contract that she orchestrated by starting negotiations early while she was still board president. The three-year contract, approved in December, goes into effect in July and carries annual average raises of 3.9 percent.
Tenaglia cited the teachers contract, which he voted against, as one of his reasons for not supporting the budget.
Union President Jolene Vitalos, who did not attend the meeting, has said in the past that the contract will not cost extra money because the raises are offset by the 2011-12 job cuts.
As Ott stood in the hallway of East Hills, she declined to say whether she, as a young teacher, felt abandoned by the school board and her union, which did not vote on a pay freeze after Roy first announced job cuts in March.
"But it's obvious the positions were not saved," said Ott, 26, a laid-off English teacher with four years of experience. "So obviously the teachers were not the most important."
steve.esack@mcall.com
610-820-6506
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