March 3 B-W Council of PTA Meeting Notes

Parents grilled  Superintendent Dr. Lawrence C. Korchnak at a Baldwin-Whitehall Council of PTA meeting at  on March 3 about recent hot-button issues within the district.

Korchnak also revealed that the B-W school district will now conduct a half-day of classes on April 1 to make up for a Jan. 21 poor-weather day.

After the PTA Council conducted its normal business, led by President Sandy Costantino and including a recap of its successful Founders Day Dinner at  on Feb. 25, Baldwin Principal Kevin J. O'Toole spoke briefly before giving way to Korchnak.

O'Toole asked for the council's help with a fine and practical arts festival that he is trying to organize for the near future, possibly even this coming spring. The festival would feature the work of Baldwin High School students and invite area residents to come to the high school to see that art.

"If not this spring," O'Toole said, "absolutely a must for next [school] year."

O'Toole pointed out that some of the B-W school district's peers hold similar festivals. He also spoke about plans for an international-language festival, which he hopes to debut next school year.

The council more or less agreed to help with the arts festival, now turning to brainstorming to look for ways to assist the effort.

Korchnak then opened himself up to answer questions and hear concerns from meeting attendees.

One attendee asked Korchnak to address the way that the school district responded to .

"Parents were, in general," that attendee said, "dismayed with the lack of communication, the rumor mill, the fact that police were not apparently reportedly contacted."

Korchnak responded, "We did absolutely the right thing at the middle school. You don't want to jeopardize kids by having some crazy loon say there's a bomb threat, get them [the kids] out there and start shooting at them.

"What we did – which was the best thing to do – was control all of the students. We knew which areas were clear, because we swept them and knew there were no bombs.

"It was, in my estimation, an idle threat ... If a bomber wants to kill someone, they generally don't tell you when it goes off.

"When there's a threat, it's a lockdown; we don't want you [parents] there. I know, as a parent, I would want to rush to get my kid ... But if it is genuine, and there's a bomb out there sitting under a bush – boom – you're gone, too. You gotta stay away from it."

When asked why the was not called to the scene, Korchnak said, "We had it under control. What would the police have done? That's the point."

Another attendee asked Korchnak to respond to the school district's handling of .

"The school district was kind of mum about a response [to that incident]," that attendee said.

Korchnak responded, "We had two guys mutually combat in the cafeteria, and one kid punches the other kid ... I didn't know about it until two days later, because it was just a fight. Kids fight in the high school.

"Some people want to make things of it. They need their 15 minutes of fame."

Korchnak said that the incident was routine and innocuous.

"It was a fight," he said. "Kids fight."

Korchnak also revealed at this meeting that the B-W school district received final numbers for the high school's recently completed construction projects. He reported that the costs came in $2.8 million under budget.

"That means we'll have $2.8 million in our budget to deal with some very serious things like the increases in health-insurance premiums, the teacher raises, the contractor we're working now with [and] the classified employees," Korchnak said, "and [to] put some additional money away for the retirement, the benefit stabilization.

"And also, anticipating – and I hate to say this – but the administration in Harrisburg right now is not very kind to schools. We're going to get killed.

"I'm waiting for March 8, when the regular budget is announced by the government. I'm figuring 2006 levels of funding from the state. Five years. We're going to go back five years. It's not a very pleasant picture.

"[But] we're in better position than probably 95 percent of the school districts in Pennsylvania. We have an extremely healthy fund balance. We've run things very efficiently and effectively.

"It's my intent to come out of this [budget cut] by not cutting programs and, at a minimum, maintaining the tax.

"I think it can be done ... If even I think we could reduce a 0.1 [for B-W millage], given what the future holds, I would not, at all, recommend any further decrease. We have reduced a millage three years in a row now.

"I think we're still in a very good position, and I don't want to jeopardize the future financial resources of the district by reducing taxes again. That's where I'm coming from."

Korchnak also unveiled that the B-W school board is expected to approve the 2011-12 school-year calendar to run from August 29 to June 8.

The next Baldwin-Whitehall Council of PTA meeting will be held on Thursday, April 7, at the Harrison Middle School auditorium at 9:30 a.m. Anyone is invited to attend.

Click to learn more about the Baldwin-Whitehall Council of PTA.

PTA stands for Parent-Teacher Association.