In the March Finance Committee meeting, the 2012-13 proposed budget was discussed. At that time, Business Manager Richard Liberto announced that the proposed total budget was estimated at approximately $75.8 million. With expenditures down this year over the previous year, all legitimate options to reduce the budget had been exhausted, he told the committee.

 Increases in the proposed budget which are beyond the control of the District include:

• Charter school expenditures are expected to hit $8 million in the new budget, which is twice the current amount paid by the District.
• PSERs rate going from 8.22 to 12.76 percent, meaning an increase of over $1 million in retirement costs to the District, even with a reduction in payroll. In addition, the increase in the PSERS rate inflates charter school payments. Over the next two to three years, the PSERS increased employer contribution will mean an extra $510 million to charter schools.
• Health care has gone up 5 percent for the coming year, equating to a $500,000 increase in costs.
• Insufficient funding for PlanCon has led to the state owing the District $2 million as of January for its construction projects.
• Accountability Block Grant funding has now been reduced to zero, after being halved for the current school year. In 2011-12, this funding was $419,960. The reduction is a 2.7 percent loss in revenue from the state.
• Budget cuts at the state level have affected basic education funding, charter school reimbursements, and other public education programs to the tune of an approximate $3.6 million decrease in state revenue since 2010-11.
• Elimination of federal stimulus funds has cost the District $4 million.

Liberto said that, due to the extensive cuts in state funding and reduction in real estate revenue, the District is going to have to make some difficult choices in the coming months in order to pass an acceptable budget for the upcoming school year.

Click here to view a presentation which provides a breakdown of the 2012-13 budget issues.

The Westmoreland County Association of School Librarians, in conjunction with the Greensburg Salem Middle and High Schools, once again sponsored the annual Westmoreland Interscholastic Reading Competition (WIRC). This competition was held at Seton Hill University, and teams of students from Grades 6-12 had the opportunity to compete to see who could correctly answer the most questions about books they had read.

The students read 40 different titles, with each member of the team reading at least five different books. The competition involved 3 rounds with 40 questions, one from each book, with each team receiving 20 different questions. One of the Linton teams took 5th place out of 45 teams competing at that level and one of the Senior High teams finished 7th out of 38 teams. Penn Hills was the only school competing from Allegheny County.

Linton participants in their PTA-supplied shirts

Each year, juniors are chosen to participate in lectures and hands-on exercises as part of the Westinghouse Science Honors Institute (WSHI) at George Westinghouse Research and Technology Park. Topics for the program range from nuclear energy and radiation to anatomic double-bundle ACL reconstruction to sustainability strategies in corporate settings. Students participate in project teams and work together on group exercises supporting lecture topics, with an opportunity to win a final group project competition. Students also have the opportunity to compete for scholarships and awards. To be accepted into the program, students must be nominated by their science coordinators or guidance counselors and carry a minimum B average in both science and the humanities, as well as have a strong interest in science.  This year, three students from Penn Hills participated. They were Gavin Davis, Shawntel Freeman, and Jaynell Nicholson.

Shawntel Freeman also enjoyed the program, liked the hands-on aspect, and found it taught her a lot as far as learning about science careers. Not only were you learning, she said, but you were having fun as well. The environment was laid back and she found herself having a great time while benefitting from the program. She was able to learn something new about a different career in science every day. Shawntel said she is interested in helping people and/or working with infants. Her college plans include nursing or pre-med, with a career as a nurse anesthetist or neonatal nurse.

Jaynell Nicholson said the program was definitely something new to her. She said she likes to get involved in different things to help determine her interests and what she would like to do in life career wise. Science has always been one of her better subjects, and she felt this would be an opportunity to learn more about the sciences and how they might be applied to a future career. She found she really loved the program and it opened her eyes to how many options there were in the sciences. The different hands-on group activities allowed her to be creative and innovative while getting to know students from other schools with similar interests. She also enjoyed the trips to Penn State University Park, where they visited the nuclear reactor and learned more about its use and attended a lecture in agricultural sciences that she found to be amazing. The lecture discussed research on green tea and weight loss and opened her eyes to how much a person could do in a biological profession. She felt the program overall opened her eyes not only to the possibilities out there but the competition as well from fellow students with the same interests. She said the experience helps to motivate her to "be the best because there is always someone else that will try and be better than you." She is President of the school's Medical Careers Club and an original interest in animal medicine has moved toward environmental health or environmental engineering.