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Monessen School Board hears crowd’s concerns at meeting

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Students, residents and teachers gather to voice their concerns to Monessen School Board Tuesday night. Many wore red in support of district teachers who are facing layoffs.

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Rose DuBreucq, center, addresses Monessen School Board with her concerns for her children’s education.

MONESSEN – A crowd of residents, teachers and parents packed Monessen School Board’s meeting Tuesday to express their concerns over a tax increase, teacher furloughs and various program changes that are included in the proposed budget for the 2017-18 school year.

The budget will be voted on June 27 and includes $15,736,965 in total expenditures, down from $15,891,144 in expenditures from the tentative budget passed last month. This budget also includes a 78.41 millage rate, up 6 mills from last year. According to business manager Jeff Festor, the budget also factors in the furlough of approximately eight full-time teachers with one full-time teacher being cut down to what the district calls half-time.

Russell Johnson, a district parent, spoke to the board concerning the teacher furloughs and the tax increase. Johnson said the constant cuts will only drive student numbers down further.

“What is there for her to be positive for me as a father to want to keep my child here?” Johnson said, referring to his daughter. He said he is looking into the future plans the district has and wants to see programs that will help his child excel as a student. He said he is not looking for “dwindling numbers and a high administration.”

He said the biggest impact on the students in the district is the loss of teachers. “Strength is in numbers,” Johnson said. He said teachers are the first line of defense when it comes to discipline and asked the board if it planned to make any cuts to administration.

Vice President Roberta Bergstedt said they do not plan to cut administrators at this time because they have found there is a need for what they have in place based on student population and their socioeconomic position.

“People came to us for years, Mr. Johnson, and asked us to do something about discipline in our buildings. They were dissatisfied, so we in turn did something and have seen improvements and that is what we are basing it on,” Bergstedt said.

“You’re going to tax everything and not get taxes because there are more abandoned houses on most blocks than there are occupied houses,” Johnson said. He said he lives on a block with eight abandoned houses, so he does not believe it will be taxes that will help bring the district back, but keeping the students in the district will.

Bergstedt encouraged citizens to become more involved in politics. “I would encourage our citizens to get very active politically and approach your legislators about funding education fully, which they do not do for us, and also finding some other means to decrease the disparity among school districts,” Bergstedt said. She said it is not fair a child living in Monessen should get less than a child living in Mt. Lebanon, but because “property tax funds education” that is the situation the district finds itself in.

Norbert Vesely, a former board member, asked if the board plans are the bond payments over the next few years. “As I recall, next year and the year after that you’re going to have two bond payments of over $1 million each. What is your plan?” Vesely said.

Festor said the current plan is to get through this year first, which is the most immediate concern. Festor said the district hopes to end the year with a bit of a surplus to help offset costs in the future.

“When I was on the board, our collection ratio was at 89 percent and in 12 years it dropped from 89 percent to 73 percent, all of which says that you have fewer people paying more taxes and you essentially end up with the same bottom line,” Vesley said.

Rose DuBreucq, a district parent, expressed her concerns about the lack of items in the budget that will serve to better educate the children. “When did this become a business? This is education,” DuBreucq said.

“We’re worried about padding everybody else’s pensions and we’re worried about taking of everybody else’s benefits and your salaries and I didn’t hear once that we’re going to make education better for our kids,” DuBreucq said. She said due to her concerns, she plans to remove her children from the district.

“Given the graduating class this year, I am in full support of our teachers. I believe they do an outstanding job educating and preparing our kids for the future. And all the students I have interviewed say the same about their teachers and the education they have received at Monessen,” Bergstedt said.

Parents Tiffany and Ronald Harrison, who recently moved back to Monessen, addressed the board with concerns about enrolling their children in the district after learning full-time art, gym and music teachers at the elementary center are being furloughed.

Ronald Harrison said he is isn’t sure if they want to stay in the district with the lack of activities in the district and in the community. He said if the children in the community have nothing to do, they could get on the wrong path.

Bergstedt said administrators think programs like art, music and gym are important but since they are not mandated by the state, they are the programs that unfortunately get cut. She said these programs are not being taken out of the curriculum because, as part of the state mandate, these programs can be taught in the classroom setting. She said art, music and gym classes are being redesigned to continue in the classroom rather than having a separate teacher for each of them.

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