DeLuca: Penn Hills schools need state financial oversight

Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG — As the Penn Hills School District tries to right its finances, state Rep. Tony DeLuca is renewing his call for the state Department of Education to step in and oversee the process.

Mr. DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, wrote in a letter to a Department of Education official that he believes the district’s financial situation can’t improve without state intervention. He wants the state to appoint a chief financial recovery officer to oversee the district.

When a school district enters the state’s financial recovery program, a chief recovery officer is appointed to come up with a plan and oversee its implementation. A financial recovery officer, Mr. DeLuca said in an interview, “would be able to come in here and make hard choices that it’s hard for the school board sometimes to do.”

The district’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year would raise taxes 4.76 percent, said business manager David Roussos. The proposal anticipates a surplusof a little more than $4,000.

Mr. Roussos said the plan will allow the district to begin shrinking its general fund’s negative balance, which is projected to be between $10 million and $11 million at the end of the current fiscal year.

In May 2016, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale released a withering audit of the district and said he had referred the conclusions to law enforcement officials. The auditor’s report found the district’s former superintendent, Thomas K. Washington, and school board had not held accountable its former business manager.

This January, the new superintendent, Nancy Hines, told board members the Allegheny County district attorney’s office was requesting records and