Showing posts with label Pocono Mountain School District. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pocono Mountain School District. Show all posts

Saturday, July 23, 2011

This is pretty interesting.

Josephine Posti writes about the Pocono Mountain School District on her blog, Center Court: Governor Corbett is Blowing Smoke, Say Pocono School Officials .  What she fails to include is this article: Pocono Mountain school board plans for 118 lay offs  dated February 17, 2011, months before Corbett's budget passed.

The Pocono Mountain School District*, which is looking to plug an $8.7 million budget deficit, has seen a 13 percent decrease in the number of students attending its schools over the past four years.

In addition to the 87 teaching positions, another 25 staff support and six administrative positions are also slated for the chopping block.
In addition, here is the Auditor General's report dated December 2010.

On  page 7 of the audit: 
 
The current down-turn in the U.S Economy has had a direct impact upon the School District's local revenue stream. Two major revenue items have decreased significantly and caused an additional burden on the District's financial resources. With an economic decline, lagging payments in property taxes and lower earned income tax collections due to job losses has also added to the negative impact on local revenue sources.
Remember, this audit was performed in December 2010 while Rendell was still governor.
So why blame Gov. Corbett?

*Spans 305 square miles and serves a population of approximately 55,000 within seven municipalities and one borough in Monroe County including the Borough of Mount Pocono, and the Townships of Barrett, Coolbaugh, Jackson, Paradise, Pocono, Tobyhanna and Tunkhannock.