School Board Meeting 11-27-06

Unfortunately, Brad Moulton who has been providing detailed reports of the School Board meetings was unable to attend last night. If you did and are could share your notes, please send an email to editor@newsovercoffee.com and I'll post them for you, or include them in the comments. Thanks!

According to Arlene Martinez of the Morning Call (read the article here) the Administration presented the 2007-2008 school district budget to the School Board that calls for a 10% increase in spending. Under Act 1, a draft budget must be approved by January 23. The Board voted to have the Administration return next month with a budget that includes no new hires and only essential items as it was noted that the 10% increase included all individual and departmental requests.

While the new budget was not yet posted online, the agenda included the following items that were voted on (though I don't know if they were approved):

• Lower Nazareth Elementary will have aluminum canopies from the modulars to the buildings and card swipe access to the modulars themselves at a cost of $18,435.
• The District will offer $637,200.00 to the owner of 5.9 acres, which is part of J8-11-2A
• To install fiber optic lines/network cabling/data cabling, at a total estimated cost of $66,000.00 at the High School.
• $3,246.00 for modifications to the main entrance of the North Campus of the Nazareth Area High School, in order to provide a secure entrance.
• To provide Phase II Archeological Investigation services at the Nazareth Area Middle School, in the amount of $67,500.00.
• Acknowledge approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education for PlanCon Part A, Project Justification, and PlanCon Part B - Schematic Design, for the Nazareth Area Middle School New Construction, Project #3325.
• Approve the budget of Northampton Community College for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, Nazareth Area School District’s share of the budget will be approximately $502,140.00.
• Approve the 2007-2008 General Operating Budget of the Career Institute of Technology, in the amount of $7,055,856.26, which includes debt service. The Nazareth Area School District’s share is $1,292,250.07, including debt service.

The final two items were approved per Martinez's article in the Morning Call and the amounts will be in the 2007-08 NASD budget.

What do you think? Is 10% too much? Act 1 requires anything over 6.24% of prior year spending to face voter approval. Does this encourage late year spending up to but not over budgeted amounts to avoid going to the voters? What items will be 'cut' to make the 6.24% threshold (popular items that citizens will rally for?)? While the numbers need to be closely looked at, maybe now is the time to evaluate one readers note of the 65% solution to see how much spending is on classroom learning and how much is elsewhere.

Were you at last night's meeting? What else can you add about it? Let us know!