On Thursday May 12, 2011, Northern Lehigh School District Superintendent, Mr. Michael Michaels and Business Manger, Mr. Jeremy Melber had the privilege to attend a luncheon with Governor Corbett at DeSales University. The Governor was there to address the current state budget. Governor Corbett asked Mr. Michaels and Mr. Melber to stand and be recognized for their outstanding job with their district budget. Governor Corbett further stated that Mr. Michaels, Mr. Melber and the Northern Lehigh School Board and community were “getting it right”. They were acknowledged for having presented a district budget with a zero mill increase which included NO major K-12 educational program cuts, NO pay freezes and NO furloughing of teachers, administration or staff members.
This was not an easy task by any means. District administration had an insight many months ago into possible basic education subsidy cuts that would be presented in Governor Corbett’s state budget. They met as a team and discussed ideas on how to move forward if in fact the district did lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in basic education subsidy. One idea was to implement a Retirement Incentive Plan. This plan was presented to the Board of Education and adopted at the January 10, 2011 regular school board meeting. Within days the Retirement Incentive Plan was rolled out to the professional staff. They were given until April 6, 2011 to advise the district if they would be participating in the Retirement Incentive Plan.
In February the Governor’s state budget was released and Northern Lehigh saw a decrease in their basic education subsidy in the amount of $618,637. Not only will the district receive less basic education subsidy, the Governor also proposed to cut the Accountability Block Grant, Dual Enrollment Grant and Charter School Funding which was an additional loss of $455,077 to the district. With all of the above listed state budget cuts and increases to health insurance, retirement and payroll, the district’s general fund budget for the 2011-2012 school year was at a deficit of $1.8 million, or 6.2% of the overall budget.
To help offset this deficit, fourteen (14) staff members elected to participate in the Retirement Incentive Plan which realized a savings to the district’s general fund budget in the amount of $1.2 million. Couple that with realigning of staff and cuts to various department budgets, Northern Lehigh was able to present a 2011-2012 district budget with a zero mill tax increase at its May 9, 2011 regular school board meeting. Final approval of the 2011-2012 district budget will be on the June 13, 2011 school board agenda which will be held at 7:30PM in the Middle School Auditorium.
During the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 school years Northern Lehigh School District received federal stimulus money in addition to their basic education subsidy. Northern Lehigh School District knew that the federal stimulus money wouldn't be around forever and had the foresight to use this money for one-time investments only, alleviating the chance of ongoing expenses in future budget years.