Monessen furloughs 6 teachers

MONESSEN – Monessen School Board furloughed six schoolteachers Tuesday in a district that is being crippled by declining student enrollments and a shrinking tax base.
The board also demoted three other teachers to half-day positions and raised real estate taxes to balance the 2017-18 budget that increased to $15.7 million.
“It’s been very difficult and certainly none of us are happy about a declining enrollment,” board Vice President Roberta C. Bergstedt said following the board meeting in the Monessen High School auditorium.
Monessen Elementary Center took the hardest hit in terms of cuts in programs next year, which mostly involve art, music and gym classes, said Nicole Popelas, president of the Monessen Education Association. She said the middle school also will be losing two teachers next term.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Popelas said. “We all understand the financial situation.”
Monessen lost 69 students this term, ending the school year with 776 students, Monessen Superintendent Leanne Spazak said.
The city in Westmoreland County during its heyday when its steel mills were in operation had a population of nearly 25,000 people, a number that had dropped to 7,529 in 2014.
The school board initially proposed raising $2.2 million to meet expenses without making cuts in the fall through a staggering 37.5-mill increase in real estate taxes.
That announcement drew large crowds to board meetings dealing with a large amount of blight and houses with low market values.
The average house here is assessed at $15,000 and an owner of one of them would see a $15 increase in their tax bill per mill. Property owners will receive a 6-mill tax increase this year.
The tax rate this term stood at 72.4 mills, with one mill earning the district $58,919. The millage rate was raised Tuesday to 78.41 mills under the terms of the budget adopted Tuesday.
Jill Scavincky approached the board Tuesday and said she planned to withdraw her children the next day from the elementary center. She was one of two parents who told the board they were going to enroll their children in private schools and drew applause from the audience.
A person who wanted to remain anonymous greeted the school board outside of the high school wearing a Grim Reaper costume bearing an R.I.P. sign and another drawing attention to the district’s enrollment decline.
The board also voted to apply for a $2 million loan to meet expenses next term while real estate taxes are collected.
The budget passed with little discussion in a 5-2 vote with directors Cindy Pawelec and Cheryl C. Galilei casting the no votes. Meanwhile, the district ended this term with 80 teachers.
The teachers offered a wage freeze to avoid furloughs, but the board declined the offer, Popelas said. The districts administrators have agreed to a wage freeze next year, Bergstedt said.
The district also reached out to the neighboring districts of Belle Vernon Area and Charleroi Area to discuss a merger with them, but it received no response from them, she said.