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State increases for education not quite reaching classrooms

Area school districts received increases in state funding with the passage of the state budget in June, but a number of local educators say mandated costs have gone up even higher.

“I think, given the vast majority of the state’s increase, it ends up going into PSERS (the Pennsylvania School Employees’ Retirement System),” said Dr. Mark Stamm, South Williamsport Area School District superintendent. “So I think the state is contributing a significant amount of money into education, but unfortunately, most of it is not filtering down into classrooms.”

He said the funds do not end up going to the students who need it.

Agreeing with Stamm, Michael Pawlik, East Lycoming superintendent, said PSERS is an ongoing problem.

“We still haven’t addressed the thousand-pound elephant in the room. Until we address PSERS continually increasing, no matter what increase they give us, we are going backward,” he said.

He said the increase the district received was nothing compared to the cost of PSERS.

“PSERS far out-increases our state increase. The issue is, we cannot control the cost of PSERSs,” he said. “The other number almost becomes irrelevant.”

Ben Enders, Jersey Shore Area School District business manager, said the increase of expenditures was not covered by the increase of state funds.

“The increase of funding we received from the Commonwealth didn’t even cover the mandated increase of expenditures like retirement expense, cyber charter schools, etc. Those are all mandated by the government,” he said. “I think this is a problem that needs to be addressed. Reform needs to happen, particularly on cyber charter schools and retirement.”

Dr. Jill Wenrich, Jersey Shore Area School District superintendent, said the district has been in contact with state Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Loyalsock, and Rep. Garth Everett, R-Muncy, in regard to cyber charter school concerns.

“In Lycoming County, we’re the only district that has the impact from a brick-and-mortar charter school. They reside within 10 miles of our boundaries,” she said.

Enders said the district has “zero say” in the charter school because it is outside of the district’s boundary.

“They do not reside in our school district, but because they lie within 10 miles of our school district boundary, the state says they are able to receive transportation to that charter school,” Wenrich said. “We are required to transport students there at a cost to the district, not them.”

“We’ve requested release from that, but it doesn’t seem to be coming,” Enders said.

As for retirement, he said he does not anticipate the situation getting better any time soon.

“The Legislature did pass a change in the retirement system a year ago. However, the impact is that change will not be seen by the district for at least 20 years,” he said.

He said he was happy to see the budget come in on time this year, and numbers reflect what the district was expecting.

Loyalsock Township School District received an increase this year as well.

“Our numbers were fairly consistent with prior years. Our general fund budget for the upcoming school year reflects the proposed increases,” said Gerald L. McLaughlin, Loyalsock superintendent. “Our state contribution is significantly less than other districts in the area. However, our school programs and services benefit from any increase.”

Williamsport Area School District officials reported seeing a little less than their district’s budget had anticipated.

“The 2018-19 state basic education subsidy for Williamsport Area School District increase is over the prior year by just under $315,000,” said Wanda M. Erb, district business administrator. “Although this is about $38,000 less than our budget projection, it will have minimal impact on our fiscal plan.”

Stamm said school districts are on a different timeline than the state.

“We pass a budget ahead of the state. So, our budget is based on often the governor’s proposal from the prior February,” he said. “When our board approves a budget, it’s based on our best estimate of what those figures are.”

He said it can make passing a budget complicated. When a school district passes its budget, he said, officials don’t know what the state numbers will be.

“We don’t go back in and reapprove it if the numbers change,” he said. “We simply make adjustments as we work through the year. An annual budget is just an estimate of what you anticipate in revenues and what you anticipate in spending.

“We still get the money the state sends us. It’s simply at the end of the year, we have more money left over in the budget than what we had anticipated,” he said. “We still have the ability to spend that if we need to.”

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