The proposed final budget that will be voted on by the Northgate School Board Monday night will not include an increase in property taxes. It also will not include full-day kindergarten, a spring musical or a number of classes that could be lost due to teacher furloughs.

Although the board will vote Monday to approve the final proposal for spending in 2011-12, that proposal will not become the final budget until the board votes on June 20.

Finance committee chairman Daniel O'Keefe reported at the board's work session on May 9 that more cost reductions in the areas of supplies and no price increase from the health insurance consortium had brought the budget deficit to just over $59,000.

To reach that point, however, board members had to get past the issue of eliminating full-day kindergarten and going back to a half-day program.

It costs Northgate nearly $200,000 a year to offer full-day kindergarten, a cost that has been paid by a state grant since the full-day program's inception several years ago. That grant has been eliminated in Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed state budget. Superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield said there is talk in Harrisburg of restoring the accountability block grant program, but only at about 40 percent of its past level. The $82,000 Northgate might receive would not be enough to fund full-day kindergarten, he said.

Keeping full-day kindergarten, even if it means increasing taxes, was an idea that had its supporters among board members. Shannon Smithey suggested reducing the number of language classes offered at the high school from three to two so that more money could be directed to maintaining full-day kindergarten.

"It's a program that works," Smithey said, noting studies that indicate full-day classes continue to have an impact on children's learning after they enter the regular school system. Without full-day kindergarten, she said, "the amount we'll have to spend on remediation is not insignificant."

Board member Tim Makatura cited the same studies, however, in arguing against increasing taxes to fund full-day kindergarten. Within a few years, Makatura said, the advantage gained dissipates and those with a full-day kindergarten history perform no better than their classmates without the experience.

The YMCA has proposed offering a "Wrap Around" program if Northgate goes to half-day kindergarten. This program would provide ongoing education during the second half of the school day, but Smithey said its cost to parents -- possibly hundreds of dollars a month, she said -- was too high.

"It just transfers the cost from the people to the parents," she said.

Bonfield said that tuition for the Wrap Around program would be based on income.

Smithey was joined in her support for keeping full-day kindergarten by board members Shirl Reinhart and Tony Barbarino.

The other board members agreed that the program should be cut now for budget purposes, but reinstated if state funds become available.

To bring the budget into balance, Bonfield proposed the addition of three-and-a-half teachers to the furlough list that already includes one teaching position, on top of nine retirees who will not be replaced next year.

The furlough process, which must be started now because of the state approval procedure involved, does not have to be carried through if money is found, Bonfield said, but warned board members that the decision even to begin was not to be taken lightly.

"This impacts people's lives very significantly," he said.

It also will have an impact on what classes are offered to high school students next year.After evaluating enrollment figures, Bonfield said, administrators identified a tech ed teaching position, a Family and Consumer Science teaching position, a math teaching position and half of an English teaching position -- all at the high school -- as being added to the furlough list.

The elimination of the family science position would reduce the curriculum to food science and eliminate child development, Bonfield said. With the elimination of the tech ed position, he said, Northgate would lose CAD classes I-IV, robotics and a transportation and energy class, along with graphic arts. All of these classes have relatively low enrollment, Bonfield said.

Also scheduled for the axe in the final budget proposal is the spring musical, which O’Keefe said would be turned into a play with the elimination of funding for two supplemental contracts that cover the musical aspects of the production.

Musical director Karen Klicker argued against the move, reporting to the board that 80 students in grades 7-12 -- and another 130 in the district’s elementary schools -- produce a “tangible cultural benefit” for the community.

Cutting the supplementals would save the district about $2,300, Klicker said, while eliminating a lot of student opportunities that include scholarships available through participation in the Gene Kelly awards program.

She suggested cutting a percentage from all extracurricular activities -- including athletics -- rather than turning the spring musical into a play.

O’Keefe confirmed that one other targeted program -- the Northgate Community Swim program -- remains in the budget so far. Board members said that rates for nonresidents could be increased in order to make the program pay for itself completely. Residents of both the Northgate and Avonworth districts would continue to pay the lower residents’ rate, Smithey said.

With the cuts getting deeper and many board members visibly struggling with the proposed actions, Bonfield reminded them that this year’s deficit would arise again next year, without some of the resources available to the board this year.

“You also have to bring in a budget that sustains this district not just for this year,” Bonfield said. “Next year we will not have nine retirees.”

Although administrators have taken a voluntary wage freeze for the coming year, Bonfield said that the unions representing other district personnel, including teachers, have not responded to a request to do the same.