The Northgate School Board's annual debate over when to start classes in the fall is expected to be settled at the Dec. 12 board meeting.

Board members continue to discuss whether school should start before or after Labor Day, with the calendar changing in that regard almost every year.

Northgate teachers will not see an increase in their paychecks until next spring, having accepted a six-month pay freeze as part of a new four-year contract with the district.

Also being frozen by the new agreement is the schedule of salary “steps” that govern what teachers will be paid. Although teachers will receive various pay increases while moving up the 17-step schedule, the freeze means that a teacher hired in 2010 and one hired in 2014 will have the same starting salary, according to Northgate School Board member Gary Paladin.

The faces of the Avonworth School Board have changed.

At its work session on Monday, the board voted to accept the resignation of board member Lynn Evans, effective Aug. 26. President Brenda Barlek praised Evans for her many years of service on the board, as well as her ser-vice on the board of the A.W. Beattie Career Center.

The board then voted to appoint Jeff Carraway to fill Evans' remaining term of office, which expires this December. Carraway was nominated for a board seat on both ballots in the spring primary.

Even as the Northgate School Board approved a plan required by the state to detail how the district will address low test scores for special needs students, the entire district is preparing to switch to more rigorous state educational standards.

Board member Dr. Shannon Smithey said that special needs students did not achieve "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) on the 2009-10 PSSA test, although test scores were acceptable the following year. Nonetheless, she said, the state required that Northgate submit a plan for improvement.

Despite protests from a handful of residents who attended the Northgate School Board meeting Monday evening, the district’s elected officials not only adopted a budget funded by a one-mill property tax increase, but found another $60,000 in additional expenditures to add to the bottom line.

The Northgate School Board can balance the coming year's budget, but it will not be able to raise taxes enough next year to fund the 2012-13 budget.

That is the rationale expressed by a majority of board members for why they plan to vote in favor of a 2011-12 property tax millage increase next week.

Finance committee chairman Daniel O'Keefe said at the board's work session on June 13 that of the $1.6 million cut from Northgate's budget for the coming year, about $1 million is a one-time savings due to retirements and staff furloughs.

Although the Allegheny County elections department continues to tabulate write-in votes from the May 17 primary election, elections officials have confirmed the winners of nominations for the Avonworth School Board and Emsworth Council.

The nearly 1,900 write-in votes cast for Avonworth School Board resulted in a slate of candidates comprised primarily of write-in candidates to upset an opposing slate that appeared on both the Democratic and Republican ballots.

Longtime election observers -- and even some of the Avonworth School Board candidates themselves -- would have told you that it couldn’t be done.

With a healthy slate of cross-filed candidates, it was the longest longshot ever that a write-in nominee would get enough votes to appear on the November ballot.

It appears, however, that the “Concerned Citizens of Avonworth” may have done just that, times three.

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.

The next step in the construction of a primary center in the Avonworth School District was successfully made Monday night, as the school board approved the purchase of 8.45 acres of property.

A crowd of about 150 people -- most of them parents of young children and elementary school staffers -- watched a presentation by board member Patrick Stewart that outlined financial issues facing the district and argued in favor of construction of the $20 million facility that will ease overcrowding in the current elementary school by moving grades K-2 to another building.

The Avonworth School District will eliminate 15 aide positions in the next school year, the first step in budget cuts that could encompass an end to full-day kindergarten, salary freezes, and a request for voluntary concessions from union employees.

While the Northgate School Board seeks permission to increase property taxes 2.5 mills in the coming year, a challenge to cut spending was endorsed more heartily in theory than in practice at the board’s work session on Monday.