School’s Future Worries Staff, Students
By Ivonne D’Amato, The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.
May 8–WALLACETON — Like many employees at Wallaceton-Boggs Elementary School, kindergarten teacher Tina Mottin is looking for another job.
The Philipsburg-Osceola Area school board is considering closing the quaint school as part of its effort to bridge a $3.9 million budget deficit. That likely would mean the loss of jobs for many teachers and support staff.
“I have looked everywhere but every place is an hour away,” Mottin said. “It’s awful. It’s a slap in the face that they (the school board and administration) can think they can get rid of us. It just seems unfair we’re being held responsible for someone else’s mistakes.”
“It’s like there is a cloud hanging over us,” kindergarten teacher Vanessa Myers said. “The second you walk into the school building it’s the first thing you think about.”
It’s not just teachers at the elementary school who would be affected. Students worry about having to attend a new school and make new friends. Cuts in teaching positions and support staff are being considered throughout the district, as are cuts in arts, music, athletics and other programs.
And then there’s the community of Wallaceton, for which the closing of the school would be the end of an era.
Lifelong resident Harold “Zeke” Hummel saw the school being built in 1954. Two sons and one granddaughter attended the school, and one grandson is enrolled there now.
Hummel owns a small grocery store about a half mile down the road from the school called Hummel’s Grocery, or just plain “Zeke’s” to many. He said he owes 10 percent of his business to the parents, students and employees of the school.
After 47 years in business, Hummel said, he finds it hard to contemplate the next school year beginning and not seeing many of the faces who now stop in for the usual “pop and chips.”
“I feel sorry for the people that are employed there, the ones that will be laid off,” Hummel said.
The board is estimating that 28 to 30 teachers, as well as 16 support staff, throughout the district could be laid off.
“There will be across the board cuts,” district Superintendent Sonja Brobeck said. She said Wallaceton-Boggs was targeted for possible closure because it is the smallest school and the most distant building.
“The closing of a school is always an emotional issue,” Brobeck said. “Especially the closing of a small school like Wallaceton-Boggs. It’s the heart of the community.”
Cuts in teaching positions will occur according to seniority. Teachers at Wallaceton-Boggs who are higher up on the ladder may be transferred into jobs now occupied by teachers with less seniority.
Mottin ranks seventh on the seniority list. She said she realizes that the board has tough decisions to make and that “something has to be done.” But sitting on the edge of her seat waiting to hear whether or not she has a job next year has not only affected her, but also the students at the school, she said.
They’ve heard the news and some have told teachers and parents they are nervous or sad over the possible loss of their school. One student made a comment box for other students to contribute their thoughts about the potential closure.
“I try to give it a positive spin,” Lori Lippert said about talking to her fourth-grade daughter about the possibility of the school closing. “She knows, she hears things. I tell her that if this school closes it’s not the end of the world, and she will make new friends.”
While Lippert said she does not want the school to close, she also can’t afford to see her taxes go up $750.
“There must be a middle ground somewhere,” Lippert said.
The preliminary 2006-07 budget numbers presented at a meeting Tuesday show that Clearfield County taxpayers are facing a possible 57.54-mill increase; Centre County taxpayers could see an 18.15-mill increase. The disparity is attributed to a difference in market and assessed values of properties in the two counties.
At the same meeting, Kim McCully, district director of financial affairs, said failure to raise taxes after the Philipsburg Elementary School was built — the district hasn’t raised taxes since 2003-04 — tax-calculation errors, and spending down the fund balance to balance past budgets are all reasons for the district’s financial pinch.
The tax-calculation errors refer to an estimate that the district would collect 100 percent of property taxes owed in the past two years, Brobeck said. But rarely does a district collect all tax revenue it’s owed, and delinquent taxes has been a problem in Philipsburg-Osceola for some time. The district said it is now owed $4 million in unpaid taxes and is looking to sell the delinquencies to a collection company.
In addition to the tax-calculation errors, expenses were budgeted too low and revenue too high, Brobeck said.
“When that happens it creates a gap and that has grown over the past few years,” Brobeck said.
That gap could force cuts in several programs at the high school including music, arts and athletics. Students at the high school have responded by creating T-shirts asking the board to save the arts programs, wearing orange ribbons and speaking up at school board meetings, all in support of their music and arts teachers.
The board estimates that four of the seven instructor positions in arts and music will be cut.
Brobeck said the board continues to work toward a balanced budget this year so a deficit will not be carried over to next year.
The board has until the end of May to approve a budget that can be presented to the public for a 30-day comment period before final adoption.
Ivonne D’Amato can be reached at 231-4619.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.
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