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With high spirits Susquehanna Community School Board kicked off its first meeting of 2012 at 7:03 p.m., on Wednesday, January 18. Those high spirits were dampened, at least marginally, by statistical projections that forewarned of exponential expense increases not necessarily supported by the revenue base. Superintendent Bronson Stone and Business Manager Gary Kiernan both stressed that the budget was early in the development process. Despite their cautious optimism, red flags were obvious. The state is reporting a $480 million shortfall in revenue collections from the final quarter of 2011, and a mid-year budget freeze appears likely when the state’s next fiscal-year budget commences on July 1. Susquehanna School District pension costs are estimated to come in at $761,000 this year. At that amount, the school district’s PSERS (Pennsylvania State Employment Retirement System) contributions will be increasing by 43%, which moves the employer’s (SCSD) contribution from 8% to over 12%. And as challenging as those percentages are, Superintendent Stone said they could have been far worse.

Also troubling are the increases in employee healthcare costs. With healthcare costs rising at 13% this year, $1.4 million dollars is the projected cost in the next budget. Unless the cost curve is severely curtailed, the cost of both pension and healthcare costs will grow from a combined figure of $2.1 million to $3 million in as little as three years.

At the beginning of the January 16 Mountain View school board meeting, President James Zick began the evening with an official statement that there would not be an official statement. He guessed that many of the people at the meeting were present due to a situation in the community, he said, but that the board would only say that the situation was being monitored and the board would not answer questions about it and would not make comments. That topic hung in the room for the rest of the evening, with no one acknowledging it despite the presence of television news until the very end.

Mr. Twining asked a question regarding the subject of tuition reimbursement for staff. He asked Dr. Chichura whether such reimbursements were generally reported to the board, regarding what classes were being taken. Mr. Twining asked for such a list, when Dr. Chichura answered that traditionally this had not been provided. Dr. Chichura said that the board was entitled to that information, and it would be provided.

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