Area superintendents wish they could predict the future.
On the eve of the governor’s 2016-17 budget address, school leaders across the state are trying to forecast revenues for the next fiscal year, while still waiting for a state budget for this year.
“I can’t even find the right adjective to express my level of frustration,” Carbondale Area Superintendent Joseph Gorham said.
On Tuesday, Gov. Tom Wolf will propose increasing the state basic education subsidy by $200 million, or 3.3 percent. The proposal is on top of the unrealized $377 million subsidy increase for the current fiscal year.
Districts went six months without receiving any state funding until a partial budget compromise at the end of December released some much-needed funds. Last month, districts started to receive state money owed to them through Dec. 31. The emergency funding is based on 2014-15 levels. A final budget amount remains unknown.
Pennsylvania’s budget process
is always a challenge for districts, said Hannah Barrick
, director of advocacy for the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.
“School districts always have to look into their crystal balls to see what they’re going to get in June,” she said. “This is just magnified ... this is making two big guesses on top of each other.”
The association is recommending that districts budget conservatively.
“We’re encouraging them to talk to legislators, reach out to the governor and to do the best they can in the difficult circumstance,” Ms. Barrick said.
School districts have notified the state whether they will keep any possible tax increase within the state-given index rate, or are applying this month for exceptions to raise taxes above the rate. With more than four months before final budgets must be passed, and with uncertainty on the state budget, business managers advise it is very early in the budgeting process.
“We want to forecast out as far as we can. It’s pretty much impossible,” said Valley View Business Manager Corey Castellani
, who is also acting superintendent. “We’re halfway through the school year, and we have no idea what’s going to happen with this year.”
Some districts, including Valley View, Old Forge and Lakeland, are applying for exceptions to raise taxes above the index if needed.
“It’s frustrating, it’s challenging, it’s impossible,” said Lakeland Superintendent R. Scott Jeffery
. “We can’t predict the future ... We are using the same exact state subsidy for both basic education and special education that we budgeted last year even though that wasn’t even finalized.”
Abington Heights passed the resolution to keep any tax increase within the index rate, which varies in each district.
“We hope at least our subsidy won’t decrease,” Superintendent Michael Mahon, Ph.D.
, said. “We certainly are not expecting it to increase.”
However, a bigger problem than forecasting revenue is dealing with the ever-growing cost of pensions, he said.
If Old Forge receives an increase in state funding, Superintendent John Rushefski said the district will purchase its first Common Core curriculum-aligned textbooks.
“We have to be cautious going forward,” he said. “There’s nothing you can do than basically expect the same amount of money ... we’d be fools to do anything more than that.”
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