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Octorara Officials OK Football Program

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 00:00 CST

By DEBBIE WYGENT, Correspondent

Before a crowd of nearly 100 people, Octorara Area school board gave a private club the nod to put the district's first football team in play this fall. School board member Sam Ganow called Octorara Football Club's four-page agreement with the school district "a model" for school sports funding. "Why should we deny this group of kids the chance to play football when it's at no cost to the taxpayer?" school board member John Malone asked. The school board's sanction agreement gives the 200-member club, which has a Web site at www.octorarafootball.com, until April 28 to raise the $39,628 it will take to give a seventh- and eighth-grade team its first year in action. The arrangement between the school board and the club calls for the sport to be run and funded solely by the volunteer organization, and it gives the school board the option to cancel or expand the program at the end of three years. Games will be played on a district field maintained by the club. "It's a win- win situation," school board member Pete Mango said. "Let's give the boosters a chance.""If you have a football team, please make sure they can compete," Kaye Ralston of Parkesburg said

. "I do hope a teaching position is never replaced by a sports uniform." While sanctioning football, the school board made an effort to make it clear the football issue was entirely separate from the proposed 2006-07 budget, which includes a tax hike that could leave residents living on the Lancaster County side of the school district facing increases in the neighborhood of $500. The $36.9 million spending plan carries millage rates of 28.7 mills for Chester County, up 4.91 mills, and 24.51 mills, up 4.39 mills, for Lancaster County. Octorara Area School District taxpayers currently pay the highest school millage rate in Lancaster County, followed closely by Columbia Borough School District at 20 mills and School District of Lancaster at 19.95 mills. Neighboring taxpayers in the Solanco School District pay 8.6 mills, and the millage rate is 15 in nearby Pequea Valley School District. Atglen Borough resident Mona Schutsky spoke to the school board Monday, telling them if they pass the budget as proposed, the school district's Chester County taxpayers will have that county's highest millage rate. "I'm not going to approve the budget as proposed, so you guys have to look at cutting somewhere," Ganow said. Board members seemed divided over the issue of where to cut, with some suggesting that Superintendent Tom Newcome make cuts, while others said this was a school board responsibility. Newcome said he is looking at possibilities, including moving positions and programs. "I can't vote for a 4-mill increase," Ganow said. "Cut either sports or transportation. We're not required to do either." Bill Kemner of Atglen introduced himself as an 80-year-old resident and said he felt there should be a cap on school taxes for senior citizens. Ganow said the school district has received a recent $1 million income shot in the arm from the Parkesburg Wal-Mart and Home Depot, with $556,000 a year alone coming from Wal-Mart. Top reasons for the proposed tax increase are debt service, an increase in identified students in special education, an increase in tuition costs to charter schools and salaries. Budget handouts prepared by business manager John Lee are available at the administration office at 228 Highland Road. The school board set a special budget meeting for 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 17 in the middle school all-purpose room to crunch numbers and hear community concerns. Lee said he would like to see a tentative budget approved by May 30. "We've known for three years this was going to be a bad one," Ganow said. "We have some serious funding problems. We have funding problems because we have no industry," said Ganow, pointing out that the district instead has "green space and high taxes.""We need to reform property tax funding in Pennsylvania," Mango said.

Source: Intelligencer Journal

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