Jun 14, 2018 3 min read

School officials often have to make tough decisions.

Central Greene School Board made an especially unpopular one when the district decided to eliminate 26 teaching positions.

The June 5 vote attracted backlash from the teachers union and parents upset by such drastic steps, with much of the venom being spewed toward Superintendent Helen McCracken, who’s been on the job for less than nine months.

While some in the community may disagree, it seems that the school board had little choice in order to close a gaping deficit.

Unfortunately for the district, the harsh cuts this year probably could have been avoided with better foresight and planning by the previous administration.

Less than three years ago, former superintendent Brian Uplinger hailed the purchase of 17 acres of land near the football stadium as an opportunity to build a new middle school as the district planned to shutter the outdated Margaret Bell Miller Middle School in Waynesburg. But does a school district whose enrollment has declined by 10 percent in the past decade really need to expand with a new middle school? For whatever reason, Uplinger thought so.

Now, that $550,000 spent to purchase the land seems foolish as the district is exploring ways to consolidate its buildings rather than expand.

Even with the area’s declining population, that administration and school board refused to make hard decisions. They offered early retirement packages in 2015 and 2016, while pulling a plan to furlough six teachers in the latter year. When no teachers took the early retirement offer in 2016, it put the district in a bind.

While this was happening, the teachers union and school board were locked in contentious contract negotiations that went on for months. Finally, the two sides came to an agreement in October 2016 on a five-year contract that included long-overdue pay raises for the teachers.

The first year of the contract gave the teachers a 1.54 percent increase, with subsequent raises increasing to 4.3 percent in 2017, 4.97 percent in 2018, 5.63 percent in 2019 and 5.07 percent in 2020. It’s unknown how those larger pay raises in later years may have affected the number of furloughs needed this month.

Even with these other issues, the elephant in the room all along was the loss of coal severance tax money due to the bankruptcy of Alpha Natural Resources and closure of Emerald Mine near Waynesburg, which is costing the district millions in revenue. The recent closure of 4 West Mine near Mt. Morris was another punch to the gut.

Whether people want to admit it or not, McCracken and the school board appear to be making the hard decisions that the previous superintendent pushed off to another day. Well, that day has finally come.

There are many reasons for the deep cuts, but McCracken hasn’t been around long enough to be blamed for all of them. Not yet, at least.

If there is any criticism of the school board and current administration, it should be that the district did not do a good enough job of explaining why these cuts were necessary. More transparency is needed for a school board that often comes out of executive sessions ready to make monumental votes with no discussion and little feedback from the community.

As the school board prepares to vote on the district’s 2018-19 budget at its June 19 meeting, which includes another tax increase, the administration would be wise to give a lengthy explanation to the public about the state of its finances and the path moving forward for the school district. Teachers, students, parents and taxpayers all deserve at least that much.