Board Approves Budget Supplement

After initially facing a , the Hatboro-Horsham School District will end up with an extra $453,000 in its coffers, officials said Monday.

In all, the district will receive $817,433 more in state funding than previously expected. Notification of the funds came after the board’s , Robert Reichert district business manager said during Monday’s school board meeting.

A little more than half the funding - $453,304 – the governor’s proposed cut to social security subsidies, will be unallocated, Reichert said and will be recorded as a fund balance at year’s end.

Since the board used about $3 million of its current fund balance to finalize the 2011-2012 budget, Reichert said that money will come in handy in the future.

“It’s very likely that these could be shot-in-the-arm type of funds that could be eliminated from the governor’s budget next year,” Reichert said. “We don’t have that hole to fill the following year. Those funds will actually help.”

What the funds won’t help with, Superintendent Curtis Griffin said after the meeting, are projected furloughs to be considered at the board’s Sept. 6 meeting.

“These positions were due to true declining enrollment,” Griffin said.

At the outset, Griffin had said . Then, as teachers opted for offered under the new teacher contract, ratified in April, Griffin said the projected .

On Monday, he said the number has been whittled down to one full-time position and five part-time positions and hinted that the number could be reduced even more.

“There could be other changes,” Griffin said. “All these things continue to play out every week.”

Griffin said 15 positions have been eliminated, but said many were due to attrition. Staff have been relocated throughout the district and, in some instances, part-time teachers were granted full-time status, which saved the district from hiring a separate full-time teacher.

“We keep finding ways so that all our members have a position,” Griffin said, adding that administrators are also looking at how cuts would impact the district beyond the current school year. “We don’t want a short-term solution.”

How the state allocation breaks down

• The district’s $112,990 accountability grant funds:

1. Three elementary instructional coaches  ($86,850)
2. Part-time instructional assistant for kindergarten support class ($9,233)
3. Digital projectors ($9,000)
4. Materials and supplies ($7,907)

• The district’s $251,139 basic education subsidy funds:

1. Late-run high school buses ($36,000)
2. Antivirus software for four years (prepaid at $15,922)
3. School calendar ($7,500)
4. Special education interim director ($70,000)
5. Professional development ($55,000)
6. Instructional and program improvement ($66,717)

• IDEA Section 619 in the amount of $6,083.05 will help offset the costs of 5-year-old students in the district’s special education program, officials said.