Woodland Hills School Board Postpones Budget Vote

At its legislative meeting Wednesday evening, the Woodland Hills School Board postponed voting on its 2011-12 budget, while a group of advocates protesting proposed budget cuts swarmed the meeting anticipating a vote.

The board scheduled a special legislative meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 21, at which time it expects to vote on the budget.

On Wednesday evening, students, parents and teachers concerned about the proposed budget’s elimination of funding for the Boyce Campus Middle College High School—a guidance-based program geared toward students struggling in larger high schools—held protest signs and spoke against the proposed cut.

According to Woodland Hills spokeswoman Maria McCool, the district currently funds transportation for BCMC students who fall under the Woodland Hills district, and three of its faculty teach full-time at BCMC.

McCool said that while earlier in the academic year , Superintendent Walter Calinger later cut funding for the program in budget proposal drafts, citing a need to use resources more effectively within the district.

“To this point in the budget discussion, that (funding) has not been put back yet,” McCool said.

Three other school districts—Gateway, Plum Borough and Penn Hills—are involved in the program.

Robert Rodriguez, one of the Woodland Hills faculty members who teaches at BCMC, said the issue is about more than Woodland Hills students.

“Basically, if one school goes, (BCMC) is going to collapse,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez, who has taught at BCMC for seven years, said the program serves children who don’t “fit the mold” in public high schools. Students with problems relating to drugs and alcohol, social anxiety, or parental abuse, for instance, benefit from BCMC’s smaller class sizes and guidance-based approach, Rodriguez said.

“We serve a particular (kind of) student who basically slips through the cracks,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a very necessary program, because there’s not another program like it.”

Haley Rohlf, who graduated from BCMC in 2005 and was at Wednesday’s meeting, said BCMC helped her get through school.

“I was going to drop out of high school,” Rohlf said, teary-eyed, “or kill myself, or hurt someone else.”

McCool said that while the board is scheduled to vote on the budget at Tuesday’s special legislative session, that doesn’t mean the budget will pass. Even though school code requires the board to approve a budget by June 30, she added, previous budget debates have continued through July.

In other happenings at Wednesday’s meeting, the board appointed Alan N. Johnson as assistant superintendent, who then took the podium to address the board and the attendees.

“I very much look forward to coming to work for the Woodland Hills School District,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s appointment is effective July 1, 2011. According to an information sheet the district provided at the meeting, his salary will be $110,000.

When the board reconvenes on Tuesday, it will also address a consulting agreement related to vocational programs, the amount of its 2011-12 capital reserve budget, and its bill list for this past May—all of which the board delayed voting on at Wednesday’s meeting.