HERMITAGE SCHOOLS Budget increases taxes and cuts staff

The average residential taxpayer will have to pay $120 more a year.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- A tax increase and staff cuts are part of the new Hermitage School District budget that takes effect Tuesday.
The school board approved the $21,753,970 spending plan Thursday. It shows a $1,088,440 spending increase.
Most of that increase can be found in a $730,000 jump in employee health-care costs and $380,000 in salary increases.
Duane Piccirilli, board president, said it also reflects a 4-mill property tax increase that raises total millage in the district to 50.75 for the new fiscal year.
Cost per year
One mill costs the average residential taxpayer about $30. A 4-mill increase will cost $120 more per year.
Piccirilli said the board didn't want to raise taxes or cut staff but wound up having to do both.
A loss of federal Title I grant funding resulted in the furlough of Ruth Ann Mlakar, a Title I aide.
The board also furloughed Christine LaRock, a monitor aide at Hermitage Middle School, because her position is being eliminated.
Two special-education teachers, Michael Jones and Megan Glus, have been notified that they may be cut from full-time to half-time positions, Piccirilli said.
Depends on program
Their status depends on the continuance of a special-education program that has students from West Middlesex attending classes in Hermitage.
If West Middlesex decides to pull its students back to their home school, Jones and Glus will see their positions reduced, Piccirilli said.
The board also voted to reduce the substitute teacher pay rate from $90 to $70 a day, a move that should save the district about $60,000 a year, he said.
In other business, the board accepted the resignation of Business Manager Eugene Fornadel, effective immediately. Fornadel, who served as business manager for 29 years, is retiring.