Phoenixville Library a Topic of Discussion at School Board Workshop

Following the final library ad-hoc committee meeting, the discussion on the future of the Phoenixville Public Library headed into the different school board committees.

At Thursday’s board workshop meeting, discussion on the library cropped up again as the different committee reports highlighted information on the library’s role in the school district.

Board Treasurer Josh Gould gave the finance committee report and told the board that the library was not on that agenda. It was, however, discussed, Gould noted.

Gould said the committee talked about looking at all costs from the Phoenixville Public Library as a whole. Currently, the district splits the allocation for the library out but doesn’t account for maintenance and other costs separately, as those are mixed in with the regular district budget.

The committee looked at whether the library should be listed as a separate millage on the tax forms. Gould said finance committee members also wanted to know if the tax allocation for the library is beholden to the Act 1 index for taxation in the district.

Superintendent Dr. Alan Fegley said the answer to that is yes, and the district would have to hold increases in library taxes to the Act 1 index, which for 2012-2013 is 1.7 percent.

Gould said he was also curious as to whether or not other committees have taken up the topic of how much control the school administration and its board should exert over the library and its staff.

School Board Member Dan Cushing said he didn’t feel like any further discussion on that topic was needed because he felt nothing had changed with the way the library is structured within the district.

“I’m not interested in having that discussion because I don’t think it’s necessary, but if a majority of the board does, then we can approach whether we should,” Cushing said.

Board Member David Ziev said a little more explanation may be needed on how the library is governed.

Regarding the fact that the library taxes are part of the Act 1 index, Board Member Irfan Khan said that perhaps someone else should handle the taxation for the library. Specifically he mentioned the local municipalities taking over the taxation authority for the library.

Board Member Ken Butera said that may be difficult.

“I think you’d have to get a municipality taxing authority to agree to do that,” Butera said.

All the municipalities added together wouldn’t amount to the school district’s budget, Butera pointed out, and municipalities are unlikely to want to take on that burden, even if it’s solely as a pass through.

“It’ll just never happen,” Butera said.

Fegley said he meets with borough and township officials on a somewhat regular basis and he said the general sentiment is that the school district created the library and therefore has a responsibility to be the taxing authority.

“They were very, very clear that they had no desire to take this on …” Fegley said. “Their answer was an emphatic ‘no.’”

Board Member Betsy Ruch pointed out that the borough raised taxes 19 percent for 2012 and that just having the borough or one municipality serve as taxing authority would place a hardship on the residents of that municipality. Fegley explained that the tax would be large compared to the other taxes administered by the borough and surrounding townships.

“It would be such a high number in comparison to the rest of their budget,” Fegley said.

Cooperation between all the municipalities would be difficult, Gould explained, and everyone would be tasked with making joint decisions.

“We know that never works,” Gould said.

Fegley said that most likely, the school district will have to continue to be the taxing authority for the public library.

“I don’t think anyone else is going to take on the taxing authority,” he said.

In addition to the discussion at finance committee, the policy committee is also taking a look at how trustees on the library’s board are selected. Ziev, who heads up the ad-hoc library committee, said progress was being made on determining how the district and the library will work together.

“At this point, it’s actively being worked on in the individual committees,” Ziev said.

The school board’s regular monthly meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 15 at 7 p.m. in the district’s administration building.