CLEARFIELD – Kathie Pearcy, business manager, presented the Clearfield County Career and Technology Center’s 2010-11 budget for review by the Joint Operating Committee at Monday night’s regular meeting.
When she first entered the figures, Pearcy said the budget called for a 10 percent increase. She said they have since worked to reduce the hike to less than 5 percent.
Pearcy said they have presented the budget to the member districts’ superintendents and business managers. She said they will now take their suggestions and incorporate them into a final budget.
“We don’t ask for anything that we don’t need. There are not too many bells and whistles,” she said. “We consider five years of data. If we don’t use it, we make cuts even if it’s to save $50.”
According to the proposed budget, the CCCTC will have a total expenditure of $2,778,354 for 2010-11. It presently results in a 4.533 percent increase from 2009-10.
Pearcy said they still have a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Vocational Education (VOC-ED) subsidy. She said she’s met with the member districts’ business managers and reviewed allocations for 2008-09 and funding received to date for 2009-10.
Pearcy said their consortium agreed to use the figures for the 2008-09 VOC-ED subsidy, which was in the amount of $274,642. She said they’d alter the amount if they received additional information at a later time.
In her expense summary, Pearcy indicated the “Programs” subsection represented the largest share of their expenditures. She said it accounts for more than $1.4 million of their budgeted expenses.
Pearcy said their salaries and benefits fall under the “Programs” subsection. For the 2010-11 budget, she noted they have increased retirement from 4.78 percent to 8.22 percent. She said it contributed to the more than $28,500 increase in costs for benefits from last to this year.
In addition, she also noted the “Maintenance” subsection was their second greatest expenditure. She pointed out a future electric increase, when the cap comes off on Jan. 1, 2011.
Pearcy, however, said they’ll see “significant savings” due to architect changes in diesel. She said they may also be able to reduce expenses related to Atlantic Broadband services.
Lois Richards, executive director of the CCCTC, said she believed they could eliminate a solar energy component of the electric program. By doing so, she believed it would result in a $16,000 savings and reduce any increase to less than 4 percent.
“We’re still working on lowering it,” Pearcy said, of the budget for the upcoming year. She noted a typical increase has been 4 – 5 percent. She said she’d bring back a final budget with changes to their May meeting.
Richards said she was confident they’d reduce the budget increase to below 4 percent. She said they’d vote on the budget at the next regular meeting.
She said she’s requested the member districts’ school boards place the CCCTC budget on their May meeting agendas.
Richards said they must receive a total 36 votes from the member districts in order for the budget to pass.
