Cash-Strapped Penn Hills School District Takes First Step To Eliminate Budget Deficit
PENN HILLS (KDKA) -- The Penn Hills School Board of Directors voted 5 to 2 late Monday night to cut a variety of classes and programs, in a bid to start putting its financial house back in order.
The vote came despite a large crowd in the Linton High School auditorium that showed up mostly to criticize the proposed cuts. Many in the audience were teachers, and those program cuts would place teacher jobs in jeopardy.
The District did not say, however, how many teacher jobs would be eliminated. The classes facing possible elimination include special education, arts, music, mathematics, robotics, and business.
The District approved-plan now goes to the Pa. Education Department for review.
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Robert Hoffman, the president of the Penn Hills Education Association, said he was disappointed in the Board vote, and the students will be the losers in the long run.
Erin Vecchio, a School Board Director, says the problem in Penn Hills stems from over-spending on among other things, the new high school, and a new elementary school. Vecchio also said an independent audit of the district also found discrepancies in the operations of the Business office, but she did not elaborate.
Last year, you recall, the School Board placed then-Business Manager Richard Liberto on paid administrative leave, and then later fired him. He was never charged with any wrong doing. Liberto now is in charge of financial operations in the Wilkinsburg School District.
Liberto said he repeatedly warned Penn Hills officials about the problems like rising costs for Charter schools, transportation, as well as over-spending, but, his warnings were always ignored.
