Friday, January 3, 2014

School Pension Costs Rise 42 Percent in Bucks County

School pension costs rise 42 percent in Bucks County

The cost of school pension plans increased 42 percent last year with most local school districts forking over millions of dollars more for retirement plans, according to a new report by Temple University’s Center on Regional Politics.An analysis conducted by the university found that the overall cost of school retirement plans increased by a combined $12 million in a single year for the 13 districts in Bucks County.A similar increase was reported in Montgomery County and across the Philadelphia region. The amount paid out by all 62 southeast Pennsylvania school districts was found to be up $61 million over the prior year, according to the report, which forecasts even higher payments to sustain retirement plans in the future.
According to the study, Central Bucks paid out nearly $8.3 million in pension contributions for the 2012-13 school year, as compared to just $5.7 million during the prior school year. Officials in Central Bucks said a tax hike was avoided this school year by refinancing debt and eliminating or outsourcing more than 600 positions from its $290 million budget.
In the Neshaminy School District, pension costs rose 40 percent, or $1.2 million, in a single year, according to the report. Neshaminy said it kept taxes stable this school year after drawing about $5.8 million from its savings.
Bensalem’s school district also drew from savings − taking nearly $7 million from its reserves – to avoid a tax hike. Pension costs there rose 44 percent with the district paying $989,699 more than it paid the previous year.
The greatest increase, percentage-wise, was in the New Hope-Solebury School District. Pension costs there nearly doubled, from $686,123 in 2012 to just more than $1 million in 2013.
New Hope-Solebury homeowners paid $82 more in school taxes on the average assessed home in 2013, officials said. At the same time, the school board also drew $1.7 million out of reserves to balance the fiscal year 2012-13 budget.
Pennsylvania’s school pension plans are funded through a mix of employer and employee contributions. Currently, the plans cover an estimated 267,428 active members while another 209,420 former employees collect an annuity, according to the state.
Active employees typically contribute between 7.5 percent and 10.03 percent of their paychecks toward retirement. As the employers, the state government and local districts also make regular contributions to keep the plans afloat.
In the 2012-13 fiscal year, the Temple University study found that local districts covered about 44 percent of the employer contributions to the pension funds. The state covered the remaining 56 percent.
Those funds were once flush with cash 15 years ago before the state and local school districts drew back on contributions. Reducing the amount in government contributions over the past decade freed up more money for schools and helped balance budgets, officials said.
The recession caused the market value of pension funds to drop from a height of $67.2 billion in 2007 to a low of $43.1 billion by 2009, according to the latest actuarial analysis reported by the state in June.
At the same time, the number of retirees on the plans is growing. So is the annual pension benefit for retirees.
In 2004, an estimated 151,122 retirees received payments of $18,646 annually, according to the actuarial analysis. Nine years later, the system is serving some 209,240 beneficiaries who each receive payments of $24,603 per year.
It’s a recipe for disaster, notes Joseph McLaughlin, director of the Center on Regional Politics at Temple.
“Modest increases in the state basic education subsidy in the wake of the recession have been overtaken,” McLaughlin warned. “Even steeper pension funding increases loom in the future for the commonwealth, school districts and municipalities, all supported by the same taxpayers.”

Potluck #98

Morrisville School District Tackles 2014-15 Budget

MORRISVILLE SCHOOLS
Morrisville School District tackles 2014-15 budget
 
Posted: Thursday, January 2, 2014 3:08 pm | Updated: 10:16 pm, Thu Jan 2, 2014.
Morrisville School District officials are busy at their calculators, working on a 2014-2015 budget that currently has a gap of more than a half-million dollars.As of Thursday, the district was looking to balance a $770,000 difference between its revenues and expenditures, business administrator Paul DeAngelo said. That’s $82,361 more than the $687,639 figure reported to the council in mid-December.
“As always at this time and until June, we are reviewing all items within the preliminary 2014-15 budget,” DeAngelo said.
Under state law, school district budgets have to be finalized by June 30.
At the board’s next meeting on Jan. 15, school directors will vote on how to move forward with the spending plan.
The board will have two options.
“The first is to adopt a resolution to stay within the 2014-15 Act 1 Index, our Act 1 index is 2.5 percent. This would be the max(imum) percent increase to our millage rate. The second option is to approve a preliminary 2014-15 proposed budget, which would need to be approved in February,” DeAngelo said.
School board President Damon Miller said the administration is working to present the board with detail figures regarding the two options; the board will work from those numbers.
“Everything is on the table at this point in time,” he said.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Upcoming School District Events

From the Morrisville School District Calendar.  Please click on the links below for details like time and location.

01.02.14

Education Committee Meeting

01.03.14

01.09.14

Keystone Exams, Construction Two Hot Education Issues for 2014

 

Keystone exams, construction two hot education issues for 2014

 
Pennsylvania's new Keystone Exams and ongoing construction will be two of the major issues confronting local education officials in 2014.Officials of the Bristol Township, Central Bucks, Council Rock and Pennsbury school districts are among those expressing concerns about the Keystone Exams. Starting with this year's freshman class, Pennsylvania students will be required to pass Algebra 1, literature and biology Keystone Exams to graduate from high school.
"Our superintendent, Dr. Kevin McHugh, recently joined more than 50 school leaders from Southeastern Pennsylvania in endorsing a letter to state legislators about shared concerns with regard to the Keystone Exams," said Pennsbury spokeswoman Ann Langtry.
"Primary among those concerns are the excessive costs and inordinate amount of lost instructional time associated with the Keystone implementation and the fact that these high-stakes exams could potentially preclude students from graduating, even after they pass rigorous courses and common assessments given by the local high schools," she continued. "Finally, there is the concern that the Keystones are likely to cause an increased dropout rate among a disproportionate number of low-income and at-risk students."
Paul Beltz, supervisor of reading, federal programs and elementary technology for the Central Bucks School District, expressed many of the same concerns.
"While Keystone Exams more closely align to course content than the previous grade 11 PSSA tests, we remain concerned about the overall impact of state testing," he said. "Administering the three Keystone Exams has increased the number of hours of testing time for many students. Student testing, and re-testing to demonstrate proficiency, results in additional hours taken away from classroom instruction."
"Also of concern is the overlap in the timing of Keystone Exams, AP (advanced placement) testing and College Board exams for many of our students," Beltz continued. "The state Department of Education has planned to add Keystone Exams in other subject areas. We view this as just increasing the time that would be spent away from classroom instruction."
Joan Benso, president of a group called Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, praised the approval of Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement as a positive move that will boost student education levels statewide.
"For too long, Pennsylvania has been graduating tens of thousands of students each year who received their diplomas despite failing to demonstrate proficiency in reading and math," she said.
That reasoning is not alleviating concerns among many school district officials.
Council Rock Superintendent Mark Klein said the Keystone Exams will cost the school district well over $200,000 this school year and said the new requirement is another unfunded mandate from the state.
"It's unreasonable to connect the results of one single exam to the award of a Council Rock diploma," Klein said at a recent school board meeting. "We don't want to teach to the test. There is no clear line between what we're teaching and what the state is testing for. The Keystone Exams, along with a lot of other things coming from the state, treat all 501 school districts the same, and that is not the right way to do things. We don't have confidence that these exams are viable and reliable."
In addition to the three Keystone Exams members of the Class of 2017 will be required to pass, tests may be added in areas such as composition, civics and government in future years.
"I'm OK with the transparency and accountability concepts of the Keystones and glad these high-stakes exams are tied to course content," said Bristol Township School District Superintendent Samuel Lee. "However, we have been challenged by the transition process from PSSA to Keystones and concerned that the remediation process connected with the Keystones requires significant resources, both financial and human. I am fairly sure that these resources would better serve our students elsewhere."
He continued: "On a more global level, I am concerned that the high-stakes testing culture borne by the No Child Left Behind Act and continued through Race To The Top has not improved student outcomes and opportunities and diminishes and minimizes the possibility of a more holistic, rounded educational experience for our students."
While continuing to grapple with Keystone issues, Superintendents Lee and Klein said they're also keeping track of major construction in their school districts.
After finishing major renovation/addition projects at Churchville and Holland Elementary schools, Council Rock is in the middle of another one at Goodnoe Elementary. Council Rock officials are also taking some initial steps toward major work at Newtown Middle School.
Bristol Township is well on the way to building three new elementary schools estimated to cost about $41 million each. Other construction work planned in the school district adds up to a total estimated package of about $150 million, officials said.
Both Lee and Klein said they hope the state loosens up its moratorium on reimbursements for school construction. Lee said he hopes the state will reimburse Bristol Township about 13 percent of construction costs there.
"We're fortunate in that our Southeastern Pennsylvania legislative delegation seems to be proponents of getting the PlanCon (state construction reimbursement) pipeline flowing again," said Lee. "It's confusing to me why Pennsylvania would disincentivize such economically feasible and responsible construction programs."