Plum School Board Plans to Hold Line on Taxes

Plum Borough adopted its 2011-12 preliminary general fund budget at a special voting meeting held May 24 and, while that budget is tight, officials say there are no drastic reductions—and no tax increase.

Board member Tom McGough said the budget includes no major program cuts, furloughs or additional fees for students.

“It has been an exceptional team effort to start with an almost $3 million deficit between expenses and revenues just a few months ago and to now have closed that gap to a few thousand,” he said via email before the meeting.

That gap, he said, was closed by only an “effective line by line review” of the budget.

Board member Loretta White said the budget proposed taking $300,000 from the district’s budget reserve, but with the possibility of Gov. Tom Corbett increasing grant money available to schools, that move wasn’t written in stone.

“We’ve really cut our budget to the bone,” she said.

She added that the early retirement incentive offered to district teachers “really helped” with cost-cutting measures.

“Our budget may be in really good shape,” she said.

A total of 23 teachers are scheduled to retire in the 2012 fiscal year. Thirteen will retire on the early retirement program.

Four to five teachers are anticipated to replace those retiring. They would include teachers in the subjects of speech, math, elementary art, special education and possibly elementary music.

All board members in attendance voted in favor of the preliminary budget with the exception of Jeffery Matthews, who voted “no.”

The preliminary document will be available for viewing for a month, according to McGough. The district will pass its official budget at its June 28 meeting.

Directors said the budget would be available online. This reporter attempted to locate the preliminary budget at the district’s website at www.pbsd.k12.pa.us but it was not yet available Tuesday night.