Centennial School District Approves Preliminary Budget

With an 8-0 vote, the Centennial School Board approved the 2012-2013 preliminary budget during Tuesday night's meeting. The work now begins on finding the cuts and revenue necessary to overcome a .

More than a $100 million in expenditures is projected against approximately $96 million in revenue, which includes a 1.7 percent tax increase that is in accordance with the Act 1 index.

By approving the preliminary budget, the district has met the first of several deadlines necessary to properly apply for Act 1 exceptions that will create the option to increase taxes by a total of 3.79 percent, or 4.3 mills. A mill equals a dollar tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value. The increase would add approximately $1.2 million in revenue and decrease the gap to $2.3 million.

Applying for the exceptions does not automatically mean they will be adopted. Centennial Business Administrator Chris Berdnik is hopeful that other revenue sources and expenditure cuts can be found.

"I was given the impression that the board wanted the budget to be solved with 25 percent taxes, 75 percent from other sources, and I am trying to adhere to that," said Berdnik.

The first of those cuts were made Tuesday night when the board approved the discontinuation of , including the senior graduation project and the PSSA math and reading courses. Instead, those studies will be incorporated into the full curriculum, eliminating four high school teaching positions.

William Tennent's technology education courses and French and German classes were saved from the district's chopping block during the Education Committee meeting on Monday when current and former students made impassioned pleas to the committee members.

Junior Victoria Ricci led the charge to save the German classes with a speech that highlighted the success of the school's exchange student program and the requirement of top colleges and universities that admission candidates complete four years of foreign language study, a requirement that could not be met if the classroom instruction moved to online courses.

"My class was very discouraged to hear that German might be eliminated," Ricci said Monday night. "Learning it online is not the same as being taught in the classroom."

Technology education students made it clear to the Education Committee that relying on the Middle Bucks Institute of technology to provide computer-aided design (CAD) courses would reduce the opportunity for many students to explore the engineering field.

"Enrolling in MBIT is a big commitment," said technology education teacher Jeff Czekaj, whose position would have been eliminated. "You have to be certain about your career choice when you enter MBIT. By offering the course at the high school, students can dip their toe in the water while also exploring other electives."

The approved high school cuts, plus the additional eight teachers that will be lost during the elementary school consolidation have not been incorporated into the budget.

Another variable that Berdnik is waiting to fully incorporate is the amount of state funding the district will receive from Harrisburg. The 2012-2013 preliminary budget projects $21 million from state subsidies, lower than the $22 million posted in the 2011-2012 budget. In light of Governor Tom Corbett's spending freeze earlier this month, Berdnik is not very optimistic about the amount of help the Centennial will receive when the 2013 preliminary budget is released in February.

Other possible sources of revenue include the sale of the Dorothy Henry Satellite School to Ivyland Borough and the sale of the  property. The school board gave final approval Tuesday night to put the  and  properties on the market.

"It's a long process until we get to June's adoption of the final budget," said Berdnik.