The Northgate School District will receive more than $700,000 in the coming school year as part of a grant program that could send similar amounts into the schools for the next five years.

Superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield reported Monday that Northgate was among only 11 percent of the original grant applicants to receive full funding in the Keystones to Opportunity program through the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Some $38 million was awarded to the PDE as part of the U.S. Department of Education's Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Program.

Northgate superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield will retire on June 29, 2012.

The district’s school board voted Monday to accept his resignation, and to hire Joseph Werlinich to serve as the consultant and advisor in a search for a new superintendent, at a fee not to exceed $5,000.

Next year's early primary election for the presidential nominations will have an impact on the school district budgeting process, triggering early deadlines for certifying whether 2012-13 millage increases will fall within the state index.

Under state law, school districts must hold a primary election referendum in order to increase property taxes more than the index, unless the district is granted exceptions by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

By VICKI MORTIMER

Although a high number of children living in the Northgate School District may have asthma, there is no reason to believe the district’s schools have caused or contributed to the problem, according to school officials.

Citizens questioned Northgate officials at Monday’s school board meeting about a WTAE news report that stated that some 37 percent of the students in the Northgate School District have asthma, the highest percentage among school districts in Allegheny County. According to the WTAE report, the national and state average is 11 percent.

The Northgate School Board honored a number of educators who are retiring from the district at the board's regular meeting Monday.

Superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield said that the nine educators had taught more than 15,000 students over a combined total of 304 years.

Honored were Lelanda Andria, Sharon Baling, Jack Downey, Gail Hustwit, Roberta Johnson, Athena McMonagle, Bonnie Mohr, Barbara Sandy and Trish Staab.

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.

"Everything is on the table."

That statement by Northgate superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield sums up the district's approach to doing whatever is necessary to eliminate a $1.6 million budget deficit facing the school in the coming fiscal year.

In an open letter to residents of Avalon and Bellevue that was posted on the district's Web site last week, Bonfield outlines the impact of Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed cuts in educational spending, which could add another $700,000 to the $900,000 deficit already faced by the district.

No Northgate School Board members will be attending the National School Boards Association meeting this year, and some are not too happy that superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield will be traveling to Denver, CO in February for the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) conferences.

Bonfield told school board members at their meeting Monday that conference attendance was a requirement of his contract, and fees were approximately $1,000 for the AASA meeting. He said that the conferences are educational, offering excellent technological information.

At the Northgate School Board meeting on Monday, Superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield announced that the National Inclusive Education Initiative (NIEI) has selected the Avalon Elementary School as one of 20 model schools in the country.

The NIEI works to improve education and outcomes for students with autism. The model school project will help teachers improve their ability to teach students with autism as well as non-disabled students in regular education classes.

By ROBERTA SLANINA O’BRIEN

With officials still coming up empty-handed when it comes to reducing costs, the Northgate School Board has approved a preliminary 2010-11 budget that will increase property taxes by the full 3.1 mills allowed by the state.

Initially limited to a tax increase totalling a fraction of that amount, the district successfully applied for exceptions from the Pennsylvania Department of Education that gave the school board the power to raise the millage rate beyond the annual index amount without having to obtain voter approval of a ballot referendum.

The Northgate School Board is expected to vote Monday to ratify one make-up day, and approve a second.

Superintendent Dr. Reggie Bonfield said at the school board's work session on March 8 that he had reconsidered his prior statement that Northgate could apply to the state education department to obtain waivers of the days missed during recent bad weather. Not only did Northgate not want to reduce the amount of time students spend in the classroom, he said, but the state criteria for obtaining waivers is difficult to meet.