{"id":39545,"date":"2018-05-16T08:45:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T12:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=39545"},"modified":"2018-05-16T08:45:33","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T12:45:33","slug":"ucf-sets-budget-vote-for-june-18-honors-retirees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=39545","title":{"rendered":"UCF sets budget vote for June 18; honors retirees"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Unionville High School Music teacher Scott Litzenberg and art teacher Heidi Benson are retiring. ” Two colleagues that are irreplaceable,” said Principal Jimmy Conley.<\/p><\/div>\n

EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The $87.1 million 2018-19 budget moved forward during Monday’s Unionville Chadds-Ford School Board work session.\u00a0 The final tax levy vote set for June 18.<\/p>\n

After hearing the financial ramifications from options that would have lowered the tax impact on residents, the Board opted to go with the Administration\u2019s initial recommendation.\u00a0 This keeps the 10-year building plan on track.\u00a0 Also, this year\u2019s projected $.5 million healthcare savings can be earmarked for unexpected future health costs (the district is self-funded).\u00a0 It additionally keeps the unassigned fund balance projected at 5%–which, according to Business and Operations Director Bob Cochran, is board policy\u2014after a five-year period.<\/p>\n

Board member Tom Day concluded that if the board chose to use the healthcare savings to offset the tax increase, the impact to each Chadds Ford resident amounted to only $2 per month.<\/p>\n

It appeared that many on the board were not happy with Delaware County\u2019s 6.43% millage increase.\u00a0 Board member Gregg Lindner blamed the state code that dictated how taxes must be split in school districts that span more than one county.<\/p>\n

The overall 1.56% weighted average increase (the lowest in twenty years) translates to a .35% increase ($27 per assessed property on average) for Chester County residents, and 6.43% increase ($398 on average) for Delaware County.<\/p>\n

The budget was approved with an 8-1 vote, with board member John Murphy dissenting to protest the state-mandated formula.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate that we are being put in this position by the state code that\u2019s been in place since 1949,\u201d said Murphy.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t like any of these four options.\u00a0 I feel like we are being forced to put one of our seven townships in a very bad position.\u00a0 There is nothing we can do about it except voting a scenario that puts too much risk in our out-years, which could impact our bond rating and future tax rates.\u201d\u00a0 He added, \u201cI think we need to make sure that our constituents understand it\u2019s the math dictated by the state of Pennsylvania and not the people in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Times<\/em> detailed the budget and the county split formula in the May 12\u00a0budget session article.<\/a><\/p>\n

Curriculum and Instruction Director Tim Hoffman, together with UHS Principal Jimmy Conley, reviewed a three-year plan to revamp the high school\u2019s class schedule.\u00a0 The final plan includes increasing lunchtime from thirty-minutes to one-hour and rotates afternoon classes.<\/p>\n

To find the time for the hour lunch, homeroom would be eliminated, two minutes shaved from each of the seven class periods, and one minute from in-between-class passing time.\u00a0 This \u201clunch and learn\u201d time could be used by students to connect with teachers for extra help, meet with other students for project collaboration, do homework, attend a weekly club, or de-stress via some physical activity in the gym or courtyard in addition to having lunch.\u00a0 Teachers can use this time to connect with students and increase the frequency of department collaboration and best practices sharing (which, according to Conley, only occurs once per quarter now).<\/p>\n

Rotating afternoon classes would be helpful to students who need to leave school early for sports or other events.\u00a0 They will not continually miss the same class, as is the current situation.<\/p>\n

There are challenges that will be worked out via some pilot days planned for next year.\u00a0 There will have to be other places for students to eat (the courtyard, library, etc.)\u00a0 as they cannot all fit in the cafeteria at one time.\u00a0 Ideas include more food kiosks in addition to the cafeteria and the Cyber Caf\u00e9, like \u201cgrab and go\u201d boxed lunch stations.\u00a0 Afternoon class rotations would impact some seniors who, for example, take a last period study hall so they can get to work.\u00a0 Classes that have double periods, such as science labs, may not have those times back-to-back.\u00a0 And though no student will be able to leave the building\/courtyard, Administration is determining if there should be a way to keep track of each student\u2019s location to ensure safety.<\/p>\n

The plan is the result of eight months of work by a committee of students, teachers and parents.<\/p>\n

If approved by the Board during the June Board meeting, \u201cLunch and Learn\u201d would be added to the 2019-2020 school year, with rotating afternoon classes starting in 2020-2021.<\/p>\n

The Board also recognized three long-time employees\u2019 retirements.\u00a0 Two high school teachers–Music Department Chair Scott Litzenberg and Art teacher Heidi Benson\u2014are retiring after 20 and 38 years of service, respectfully.\u00a0 Bus driver Jessica Turgoose is also retiring.<\/p>\n

Next up:<\/em><\/strong> Board Meeting May 21 at 7:30 in room 14 at Pocopson Elementary.<\/p>\n

All board meetings are open to the public.\u00a0 They are broadcasted live (and archived) on the UCFSD web site.<\/p>\n

Board documents related to the work session:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.boarddocs.com\/pa\/uncf\/Board.nsf\/public<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JP Phillips, Staff Writer, The Times EAST MARLBOROUGH \u2014 The $87.1 million 2018-19 budget moved forward during Monday’s Unionville Chadds-Ford School Board work session.\u00a0 The final tax levy vote set for June 18. After hearing the financial ramifications from options that would have lowered the tax impact on residents, the Board opted to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[144,7426,10955,1286],"class_list":["post-39545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-budget","tag-featured","tag-retirements","tag-unionville-chadds-ford-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39546,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39545\/revisions\/39546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}