The East Penn Board of School Directors passed their final zero-increase budget June 24 for the 2013-214 fiscal year after several hours of debate.

Superintendent Thomas Seidenberger began his presentation with thanks for the many faculty involved in the budget development, saying, "Changes are not made in isolation. It is a collaborative team process. Each person charged with developing the budget does his or her own budget based on the future, not the past."

Immediately following Seidenberger's presentation was a presentation by board member Lynn Donches, who proposed a revised budget with $841,906 in reductions from Seidenberger's budget.

Donches had developed her revised budget entirely on her own based on numbers gleaned from the last five years. Naming no fewer than 21 individual line items, cutting each by anywhere from $200 to $258,000, Donches argued the 2012-2013 budget had ended in excess of $3.7 million, higher than the five percent remaining fund balance recommended by financial institutions.

Seidenberger countered Donches, expressing his disappointment that not once had he been consulted or solicited for help in her development process. Donches, who admitted to being ignorant of what each of her cuts affected, reminded Seidenberger she has repeatedly asked for check accounting codes on the bill list only to be voted down by the board. With that information, she said, she would have been able to answer her own questions. "I don't really care if anyone else wants it; it would have been helpful for me," Donches said.

Seidenberger also pointed out to Donches her cuts would involve over $240,000 in funding required by the government for special education students, both in class and in residential programs, as well as charter school students up to 28 of these would lose funding based on Donches's numbers.

Board President Charles Ballard began his comments with an analysis of propaganda. It starts with small stuff, Ballard said; demonizing the opponent, labeling everybody "educrats" and funds as "excess money." Then follows the ambush, trying to present the opponent with a new set of facts without giving the opportunity to review or analyze them in order to respond.

Ballard mentioned the tactics of the Big Lie propaganda technique, outlined infamously in Hitler's Mein Kampf, directly comparing it to the techniques used for the proposed budget cuts. Donches's position that specific budget items had historically been overbudgeted was, Ballard said, based solely on the fact of money left in the fund balance. "This was an ambush attempt, there is nothing clearer to me than that."

It was also mentioned at the meeting, in his blog, The Stolz Report, board member Julian Stolz had proposed reductions amounting to $286,854. He did not, however, mention any of his cuts Monday evening formally before the board, even stating some of Donches's cuts were too radical for him.

"I'm sorry but if it looks like a snake, if it hisses like a snake, if it bites like a snake it's a snake in the grass. And I am literally incensed that we have to go through this kind of crap in a district like East Penn. This kind of stuff has gotten me angry and I have reached my limit," Ballard said. "You do not want to see me in full on debate mode."

Stolz responded by calling Ballard a hypocrite and a liar. "The next time you dabble me down for saying that I am casting aspersions on my fellow board members I will be more than happy to say you compared me to Adolf Hitler," Stolz said before stating his wish the board would not vote on something that had only been presented that evening.

Donches was the only nay on the vote for the budget; her amendment did not receive a second, dying without a vote.

Donches also refused to support Seidenberger's request to submit a letter to the Lehigh County Commissioners regarding their decision on the controversial TIF for Hamilton Crossings and outlining his idea for what the district might do with those revenues. Donches urged the board to take more time and reconsider, pointing out that another developer had stated the project could be done without putting the district in the position of giving up on half of the tax revenue as the TIF would have it done. In the end, Seidenberger won out. Only Donches, Stolz and Michael Policano voted against the letter.

Public opinion on the common core standards raised some debate as well when Stolz asked that a teacher attending a conference on the same be asked to submit a public presentation before the board on the conference. The board voted this down, agreeing instead that a written report was sufficient.

Janice Bowman had addressed the board to adjust for the absence of Common Core in the future. "We have a very active group and we will be getting rid of Common Core in Pennsylvania," Bowman said, who wants to see the state go back to standardized testing without data being sent back to the Federal government.

Seidenberger says all of the testing data is part of a teacher evaluation system integral to the structure of the district's curriculum, but emphasized that it was not curriculum rather a framework within which teachers are required to structure their curriculum.

Assistant to the Superintendent Kristen Campbell was appointed to the position of assistant superintendent with congratulations from the board and high praise from Seidenberger. "I have been blessed with working with some outstanding individuals and I certainly put Kristen in that category," he said.