The Whitehall-Coplay School District Board of Directors rejected a reorganization plan that would have furloughed, reduced and eliminated staff positions Monday night at the education center.<\/p>\n
The resolution was Superintendent Christopher Schiffert’s attempt to address a roughly $6 million budget deficit in the district’s $110.7 million proposed 2026-2027 spending plan. The proposed budget, approved April 27, also features a 4.7% tax increase. The proposed 4.7% tax hike is the highest amount Whitehall-Coplay can raise taxes per the Act 1 Index.<\/p>\n
“We have reached a crossroads where our educational aspirations are being directly challenged by our fiscal reality,” Schiffert said prior to the proposed budget’s approval. “…The district is facing a significant budgetary shortfall.”<\/p>\n
Schiffert said the reason for the deteriorated fiscal situation is “complex” and “multifaceted.”<\/p>\n
“We are no longer have the luxury of making minor adjustments,” Schiffert said. “…We must consider a significant organizational restructuring.”<\/p>\n
To assist in closing the gap, the superintendent said the restructuring included “personnel reductions” impacting “many of our more recently hired staffs.” Those personnel reductions comprised Monday night’s resolution which was rejected. In total, the proposal would have cut about 30 positions.<\/p>\n
Monday night’s meeting featured public comments who offered proposal criticism.<\/p>\n
“Senior citizens simply cannot afford this continuous tax increase,” resident Joni Tedesco said. “Why have there not been any suggestions to cut administrative positions? Who made these suggestions?”<\/p>\n
“We homeowners are constantly expected to write a blank check to this school district to cover unrealistic spending and mistakes made by the board,” said resident Bruce Charles. “This is not acceptable and ripping us off each year.”<\/p>\n
A Gockley Elementary School employee called all district employees “vital” in their own ways. She added that if other districts can figure out how to address shortfalls without laying off employees, then Whitehall-Coplay could as well.<\/p>\n
A building substitute at Steckel Elementary School whose position was scheduled to be eliminated under the proposal said there “isn’t enough time in a contractual day” to get tasks adequately completed. Eliminating staff further would only worsen the situation.<\/p>\n
Another resident, Joan Crowley, said it was time the board took Whitehall-Coplay taxpayers into account.<\/p>\n
“From the outside looking in, many taxpayers see what appears to be a growing administrative structure,” she said. “…If schools are expected to do more with less, shouldn’t administrators be willing to do the same?”<\/p>\n
The proposed property tax increase continues a district trend. The 2025-2026 spending plan included a 4.6% tax increase on Whitehall-Coplay property owners. The district’s 2024-2025 budget featured a 4.5% tax increase, with the 2023-2024 spending plan containing a 2.59% tax hike.<\/p>\n
Directors are scheduled to adopt the final budget June 8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Whitehall-Coplay School District Board of Directors rejected a reorganization plan that would have furloughed, reduced and eliminated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,15761,19581,87638],"class_list":["post-197449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-superintendent","tag-whitehall-coplay-school-district","tag-whitehall-coplay-school-district-board-of-directors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}