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Saucon Valley to Add Six Positions: District Manages to Pare Property Tax Hike, Bolster Special Education Staff.

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Steve Esack, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

Jun. 21--After parents made emotional pleas to bolster special education staff and funding Tuesday night, the Saucon Valley School Board approved adding six positions to next year's tentative $35.7 million budget.

The special education positions were just some of seemingly countless budget items the board and public tackled in a three-hour session that eventually resulted in a slightly lower tax increase for the 2006-2007 school year.

Through a series of line item votes, the board has cut the proposed tax increase from 6.2 percent to 5.5 percent by shuffling money around to add positions while cutting $137,000 from the budget. The millage rate would go up 2.62 mills to 49.68 mills.

If the budget is approved in its current form at the final budget meeting Tuesday, owners of property assessed at the district average of $74,000 would see their tax bill climb about $194 to $3,676.

"My 14-year-old son is in middle school," Terry Fistner of Lower Saucon Township said before the board began its budget deliberations. "He is a special needs child. I ask all of you to please consider the most needy students. We need the professionals."

Daniel Burkholder, supervisor of special education, said the district needs to add a learning support teacher at the high school because the current enrollment had surpassed the state mandatory limit of 1 teacher for every 20 special education students. Burkholder also said the district is near its legal limit for speech therapists, who cannot have a caseload greater than 65 students.

The board then agreed with a recommendation by Superintendent Sandra Fellin to use $103,154 earmarked for a mental health specialist for most of the staffing holes. With the earmarked money, the board agreed to make a part-time learning support teacher in the middle school full time and to hire three instruction assistants to provide one-on-one care to students. The board decided to spend new money to hire an additional learning support teacher at the high school, and a speech therapist for the district.

While the board agreed that special education needs to be bolstered, it did not agree to add other positions. The board voted down a motion by School Director Lachlan Peeke to put back in the budget money to hire a human resources director to help Fellin and business manager David Bonenberger handle employment and health care issues.

The board also rejected School Director Sandra Miller's motion, which was endorsed by elementary school Principal Ro Frey and other administrators, to add an assistant principal for kindergarten through eighth grade.

steve.esack@mcall.com 610-861-3619

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

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Source: The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania

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