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Chester County Press

Avon Grove School Board set to approve final budget on June 9

05/31/2016 11:27AM ● By Steven Hoffman

The Avon Grove School Board will adopt the final budget for the 2016-2017 school year at its next meeting on Thursday, June 9.

The school board previously approved a proposed final budget of $87.8 million. Projected expenditures have dipped slightly, to approximately $87.7 million. A tax increase of 3.1 percent will be necessary to balance the budget if it is approved as is. The millage rate would increase from 28.1570 mills to 29.0400 mills.

School board vice president Brian Gaerity said during his Finance Committee report at the May 26 school board meeting that the 2016-2017 budget is still a work-in-progress as officials work to finalize the budget.

Finance Committee meetings are slated for Tuesday, May 31 and Tuesday, June 7. Both meetings will begin at 6 p.m. In the Avon Grove Intermediate School audion. The June 7 meeting is tentative.

Bonnie Wolff, the school board president, said that they expect to adopt the final budget on June 9.

There is also a possibility, Wolff said, that the school board will vote on whether to move forward with a full-day kindergarten program on that same night.

The district’s administrative team has been working out the details of a full-day kindergarten program since last fall. Initially, the goal was to transition from a half-day to a full-day kindergarten program for the 2016-2017 school year. Now, Avon Grove officials are working on implementing the program for the 2017-2018 school year. The board was deadlocked, 4-4, on the previous vote on the full-day kindergarten proposal.

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, the school board approved a number of retirements, resignations, and requests for leaves.

Dr. Margaret Sharp, the assistant superintendent, is retiring at the conclusion of the current school year on June 30.

We will miss Dr. Sharp,” Wolff said. “She accomplished a lot for the school district.”

There are no immediate plans to fill the assistant superintendent position, Wolff said. District officials have not yet made a decision about whether they want to keep the assistant superintendent position as it is or assign duties to other members of the administrative team.

A number of teachers in the district are retiring or resigning at the end of the current school year: Sherry Gillolly, a high school teacher; Theresa Hamilton, a Penn London teacher; Frank McCue, a high school teacher; Joan Shaw, an intermediate school teacher; and Rebecca Stanzik, a high school teacher. Lynn Engle, a teacher at the Fred S. Engle Middle School, is also retiring.

The school board also approved a number of appointments, including naming Christie Snead as the assistant principal of the Fred S. Engle Middle School. Snead, currently a math teacher at the high school, will begin the new position on July 1. The assistant principal position opened up when Patrick Hogan resigned.

Daniel Carsley, the district's business administrator, was designated as the treasurer of the school district for a one-year term from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. Carsley will also serve as the district's right-to-know officer for that same period.

The school board approved an agreement with the Chester County Intermediate Unit for network engineering and management services for $118,000 for a year. The agreement is effective on June 15.

The school board will meet again on Thursday, June 9.