LANSDALE-  On Tuesday, March 6, Superintendent of North
Penn School District, Dr. Curtis Dietrich, presented the Revised 2012-2013
Proposed Cuts to Balance the Budget at the School of Board Directors
Worksession meeting.

Revising the Preliminary budget involved reducing the total
amount for which the cuts would allow from $7.1 million to $2.8 million. Dr.
Dietrich explains that the first draft of the preliminary budget prepared for
the “worst case scenario,” and that the latest draft is still a work in
progress.

“We still have to figure out what we want to put in the
budget for revenue estimates, involving extrapolation and budgeting for taxes,”
says Dr. Dietrich, “We still have some money in reserve that we can use towards
pensions for example. We don’t want to have to draw upon that, but if we need
to, we will.”

Although Governor Corbett presented his budget proposals for
the state of Pennsylvania, “there remain questions about what kind of funding
we will receive from the state,” according to Dr. Dietrich.

“We have to wait until the State Legislature determines what
they want to fund and at what level. However, Governor Corbett’s budget is
basically a level-funded budget for us: we didn’t get an increase, but we
weren’t cut. He is proposing doing the budget in a different way, which we are
concerned about. He wants to combine things into one large-sized grant, rather
than having the individual categories that we’ve had over the years. Our
concern about that is that individual categories are tied to actual costs, such
as transportation, where as his suggestion will lump everything together,” says
Dr. Dietrich.

Despite the uncertainty that remains, Dr. Dietrich states
that we “know a lot more than we did in January.” In the original budget, it
was proposed that classes with low enrollment such as the Latin and Japanese be
removed from the course offerings for North Penn students. While the courses
must meet a minimum number of registered students in accordance with board policy
#6151, the revised budget does not cut classes with low enrollment outright.
According to Dr. Dietrich, Principal at North Penn High School, Mr. Burton
Hynes, will analyze the course registration and make recommendations about what
courses should remain.

“[Cutting courses] will only be of value to us if we have a
reduction of our staff. It doesn’t change the budget if we don’t run a
particular class, but we still have that teacher. It really ties into whether
there are retirements or resignations, which is what the vacancies would be… If
none of those happen, then it wouldn’t be an impact on our budget,” says Dr.
Dietrich.

In the event that vacancies do occur, the School Board will make
decisions on what courses, albeit with low registry, are vital to the education
of the District’s students. The Board will consider combining certain levels of
courses in order to maintain the course itself as well as taking into account a
course’s popularity in recent years.

The Alternative Revenue Committee has been making strides
towards locating sources of revenue to prevent possibly detrimental cuts. Dr.
Dietrich reports that they are currently working with the idea of implementing
advertisements on school grounds, using Pennsbury School District as a model. While
advertising could bring in a possible $400,000, such an action would require
the District to change its current advertisement policy.

“It’s difficult for
me as a Superintendent to see the reduction in services or the reduction in
curricular offerings, because I’m a teacher, I’m an administrator, I’m a dad;
you really don’t want to do have to do that. But people need to understand the
reality of our economy that you can’t always have everything that you had,”
explains Dr. Dietrich.

To address public concerns over the Preliminary Budget, Dr.
Dietrich will present the Budget proposals and answer questions in an open
conference in the North Penn High School Auditorium on Monday, March 11 at 7
pm.

“I would invite all stakeholders to come. Students should
come; parents should come; taxpayers who no longer have children in our school
system should attend, because everybody has a stake in this. What you’ll see is
a presentation about school budgets. We’ll talk about the state and their
responsibility to fund schools. We’ll also talk about our local system of
funding school, and we’ll also talk about specifics,” says Dr. Dietrich.

Dr. Dietrich encourages people to email their questions and
concerns to [email protected].
More information and the complete revised budget can be accessed through the
following link: http://www.npenn.org/557710323155936523/site/default.asp