{"id":1235,"date":"2022-03-22T18:57:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T18:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/elizabethtown-school-budget-cuts-could-eliminate-all-sports-funding-lnp-lancasteronline\/"},"modified":"2022-03-22T18:57:57","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T18:57:57","slug":"elizabethtown-school-budget-cuts-could-eliminate-all-sports-funding-lnp-lancasteronline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/22\/elizabethtown-school-budget-cuts-could-eliminate-all-sports-funding-lnp-lancasteronline\/","title":{"rendered":"Elizabethtown school budget cuts could eliminate all sports funding – LNP | LancasterOnline"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Elizabethtown Area School District Athletic Director William Templin has been doing his job as always, scheduling games and compiling the district\u2019s athletic budget for the 2022-23 school year.
In the background is the possibility that all that work will be wasted.
The Elizabethtown school board in January asked the district administration to come up with a list of items that could yield $1 million in budget cuts. The ultimate hope is avoiding a 3% property tax increase.
The administration presented the list at a six-hour work session of the board held March 8. It included the elimination of extracurricular activities, including sports, music and clubs. That would save $1.2 million.
The potential cuts will be voted upon at what promises to be an emotional board meeting Tuesday. School board President Terry Seiders opposes cutting sports and other extracurriculars, but admitted Friday he has no idea what will happen.
\u201cThere was a time when I could answer that question,\u2019\u2019 Seiders said. \u201cWith the dynamic on the board right now, I can\u2019t.\u2019\u2019
Public sentiment, as expressed in comments at board meetings, on social media and in a petition created by an Elizabethtown High School student, seems strongly opposed to eliminating extracurriculars.
\u201cI think everyone understands that athletics and extracurriculars are a part of the educational process, and a valuable part,\u2019\u2019 Templin said Thursday.
\u201cWhat I\u2019m hearing is in support of continuing (with sports). I guess there are some who disagree, but I haven\u2019t heard from them.\u2019\u2019
Jordan Higgins, the school\u2019s baseball coach, says he has not heard his players talking much about the controversy.
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s a bigger story outside our district than inside,\u2019\u2019 Higgins said Thursday. \u201cOur district does a pretty good job of keeping the kids, and what\u2019s best for them, at the center. I think they have to find a way to make room for (sports).\u2019\u2019
Separate from budgeting<\/strong>
Tuesday\u2019s vote is separate from the district\u2019s formal budget process. That process, at Elizabethtown and most public schools, occupies administrations and school boards throughout the year.
Elizabethtown\u2019s budget is normally approved tentatively in May and formally in June.
At the board\u2019s Jan. 25 meeting, Dan Forry, the district\u2019s director of finance and operations, presented a preliminary budget for 2022-23 that includes the 3% tax increase. It shows revenues of $71.15 million and $71.64 million in expenses.
That deficit, about $490,000, has been trimmed to about $52,000 over the past three months.
\u201cWe\u2019re very pleased that the deficit is only $52,000,\u2019\u2019 Troy Portser, the district\u2019s director of school and community information, said Thursday, adding that the request for cuts is completely separate from the regular budget process.
Portser said, and Seiders confirmed, that about 90% of the district\u2019s expenses are state-mandated, collectively bargained with staff or otherwise fixed. Also, specific government funding allocations and other details could tweak all of the above figures between now and June.
When the board asked the administration for potential cuts, Portser said, the only off-limits item was an ROTC program that has not yet been implemented.
\u201cThey said, \u2018If you had to give us an additional million, what would that look like?\u2019\u2008\u2019\u2019 Portser said.
Other than extracurriculars, potential cuts included eliminating all bus transportation except for special education students ($1.6 million), staffing reductions ($597,745); ending a cyberschool program ($275,000) and smaller reductions from eliminating field trips, a school resource officer and a trauma\/crisis counselor position; and providing less supplies and technology to students.
Portser emphasized that the administration is not recommending any cuts.
\u201cWe have simply responded to their request,\u2019\u2019 he said.
\u2018Keep E-town great\u2019<\/strong>
At the Jan. 25 board meeting, 16 district residents, half of them Elizabethtown students, addressed the board in opposition to the cuts.
Adrian Grosh, a junior at Elizabethtown Area High School, told the board he had created an online petition opposing the cuts. The petition, “Save Sports and Arts Programs @ EASD,’’ can be found online at change.org<\/a>, and had 1,489 signatures as of this morning.
One citizen who addressed the board Jan. 25, William Yoder, drew applause when he said, \u201cLet\u2019s keep E-town great. Please, raise my taxes.\u2019\u2019
\u201cIt appears that all they did was look at the budget from a 100,000-foot-level and make sweeping, huge cuts,\u2019\u2019 said another speaker, Theia Hofstetter, \u201cMostly picking things that are unrealistic and have upset parents, students and the community.\u2019\u2019
Mike Sernoffsky, who has taught and coached wrestling at Elizabethtown Area High School since 1983, addressed the board at last week\u2019s meeting and pointed out that the cost of extracurriculars have already been passed to parents in the form of activities fees, and the providing of uniforms, warmups and equipment in a manner comparable to club sport programs.
\u201cI know that students need a sense of belonging and acceptance,\u2019\u2019 Sernoffsky said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t provide it, kids will find other places to find that sense of belonging, and unfortunately, those places may not be a positive influence.
\u201cThere\u2019s a place for everyone in these programs. \u2026 My experience is that we have been very frugal at the expense of our children.\u2019\u2019
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An Elizabethtown Area School Board member who is a critic of property tax increases has conv…
When: Elizabethtown Area school board workshop meeting, March 8.
The Elizabethtown School Board is looking at ways to trim the school district’s budget by up to $1 million, as reported by LNP education repor…
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Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site.Elizabethtown Area School District Athletic Director William Templin has been doing his job as always, scheduling games and compiling the district\u2019s athletic budget for the 2022-23 school year.In the background is the possibility that all that work will be wasted.The Elizabethtown school board in January asked the district […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}