Jan 13, 2015 By Terry Kish 3 min read

During a special board meeting on Jan. 12, members of the Upper St. Clair School Board voted unanimously to accept the resignation of USC High School principal, Dr. Michael Ghilani.

Dr. Ghilani, who has been with the district for 16 years and principal of the high school since 2006, accepted a position as deputy superintendent with the Montour School District. Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Patrick O’Toole, commented that Dr. Ghilani was “a very positive leader.”

“We will miss him, and we wish him success,” said Dr. O’Toole.

Dr. O’Toole was confident in the strong leadership team in place at the high school until a replacement is found for Dr. Ghilani. He asked the board to take action at their Jan. 26 meeting and name an interim principal.

In an 8-1 vote, with board member Louis Oliverio casting the lone “no” vote, the board approved the posting of the proposed preliminary budget on the district’s website.

The district’s finance director Frosina Cordisco explained that in order to comply with the Act 1 timetable, the board needed to vote to publicize the proposed preliminary budget that evening.

Act 1, a state law adopted in 2006, requires school districts to go to the voters for approval if their proposed budgets exceed a state-set inflation index. The timelines for Act 1 give districts only a short time to share their proposed budgets with the public, decide whether to go to referendum, seek exceptions to the law, and plan a referendum.

Because of USC’s meeting schedule, the proposed preliminary budget had to be made available to the public by Jan. 20. The deadline to give the public notice of the intent to adopt a preliminary budget and to request referendum exceptions is Jan. 26. The board needs to adopt a preliminary budget on Feb. 9 in order to comply with the Feb. 18 deadline.

The board is expected to vote on the proposed final budget in May and voted on the final budget in June.

Before reviewing the proposed preliminary budget, Dr. O’Toole told the board that the figures were “very, very preliminary.”

Cordisco said that the PA Dept. of Education’s index percent is 1.9 percent, or .4217 mills, which generates $875,000. The school district real estate tax increase for the next fiscal year is limited to the index percent unless the proposed tax rate is approved by voters pursuant to a referendum or the district qualifies for an Act 1 exception.

Two items focused on during discussion of the budget were the Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS) employer contribution rate, which increases from 21.4 percent to 25.84 percent, equating to 0.377 mills, and a five percent increase in health care cost, which equates to 0.172 mills.

In addition to the increased cost of benefits, the budget reflected an increase in salaries of 2.7 percent. Plans to replace three buses and provide iPads for fifth, sixth, and seventh grade students were reflected in an increase in equipment costs.

More information on the proposed preliminary budget can be found online at www.uscsd.k12.pa.us under the school board committee meeting for Jan. 12.