Philly schools to open on time, with temporary spending cuts
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Philly schools to open on time, with temporary cuts.
Philadelphia public schools will open on time in September, but only because of spending cuts that are designed to be temporary, Superintendent William Hite said today.
Hite ended months of speculation on whether schools would stay closed in response to the district's ongoing funding crisis.
He announced $32 million in cuts to transportation, cleaners, maintenance, school police, and other areas that will help the district close a $81 million budget gap. Hite hopes the remaining $49 million will come from a cigarette tax that has yet to be approved by the state legislature. The General Assembly is currently in summer recess.
District administrators are assuming the tax, if passed upon the legislature's return, would take effect Oct. 1. If the cigarette tax fails to pass the legislature, the district will be forced into additional cuts that could include more than 1,000 layoffs, Hite said.
"For the sake of minimizing disruptions for families and for the sake of educating children, we've made the decision to make a series of additional and hopefully temporary cuts in order to open schools on time," Hite said.
"To delay school openings, during which time we would be required to continue paying employees, make our charter school payments and meet other contractual obligations, all while students are not being educated, punishes students for the failures of adults," he said.
