$3M in Cuts Considered for Upper Dublin Schools

Upper Dublin Superintendent Michael Pladus kicked off his budget presentation Monday night by telling parents and those in the audience that they should leave if they didn’t want to hear bad news.

“I’m sad to say, the future is here,” Pladus said.

The Upper Dublin School District is facing a $2.75 million deficit — and that’s after a proposed 3.04 percent millage increase. As part of a budget presentation, Pladus unveiled a list of proposed budgetary reductions to the tune of about $3 million. Most of the reductions come in the form of teacher demotions, and a portion of the reductions come from eliminating several elementary, middle school and high school clubs and activities.

Pladus did say that the district shaved about $400,000 off of its deficit by cutting at the administrative level since January.

In the elementary schools, the proposals include reducing teaching assignments of elementary specialist positions to 0.8, meaning a teacher would essentially take a 20 percent pay cut and teach fewer hours. By demoting four elementary specialists in the area of in art, physical education, library and music, the district would save a bit under $400,000.

Other proposals in the elementary schools include the elimination of two math coaches, to the tune of $124,500; the reduction of six full-time reading specialists, which would save about $130,000 and the elimination of five other positions, which would save the district $311,400.

Pladus said with the reductions, projected average class sizes would increase, but would not exceed 25. 

There are also between $360,000 and $440,000 in proposed demotions at the middle school level; and between $1 million and $870,000 in proposed demotions at the high school level, depending on who is demoted.

To see Pladus’ whole PowerPoint presentation, see the pdf section.

Board president Joseph Chmielewski commended Pladus on the thoroughness of the presentation, but added that it was tough to take in.

“This is an exhausting presentation and the task is not easy at all,” Chmielewski said. “The board is seeing it for the first time ourselves — and that’s probably a good thing, number one, because the budget process is not supposed to be neat, it’s kind of messy and the number of options laid out for us are difficult.” 

In fact, many residents lauded Pladus’ presentation even if many weren’t happy with the figures.

One resident was bothered that several high school clubs could be on the brink of elimination; she said high school students need to be active in clubs to be considered by the National Honor Society, adding that colleges also look at a student’s activities.

Another resident said the demotions would affect the overall morale of the teachers, adding that the teachers would be less likely to give up their time to after-school activities. 

Meeting-staple Richard Petruschke asked the board to go through with all of the $3 million in cuts — even though the deficit is only about $2.3 million — instead of raising property taxes.

“Nowhere did we say these cuts were OK, benign or good,” Pladus said. “They will be negative … they’re just not devastating.

“The bottom line is we need $2.3 million,” Pladus continued. “We will need input and none of those cost reductions options are good, but with that said, we need to make 2.3 [million] in cost reductions.”

Pladus said the listed budget-reducing proposals could turn into recommendations next month and added that furlough and demotion notices may be sent out in April or May.

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The next budget meeting is scheduled for Monday, March 18 at 6 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Cardinal Room.

The next work session meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 1 at 6 p.m. in the Cardinal Room.