The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
NASD board to review new budget
Act One deadline requires preliminary budget to be available by Jan. 9; board sets meeting for Jan. 6
NORRISTOWN >> Come January, the Norristown Area School District will have a new budget to consider.
The Facilities and Finance Committee recently came up with a preliminary budget that will be presented to the board on Jan. 6, noted board president Shae Ashe.
“The Act One deadline requires us to make a preliminary budget available by Jan. 9, so we scheduled a meeting for Jan. 6,” Ashe said.
“Deadlines are all moved up due to the presidential year, so it requires school districts to adopt a budget a little earlier. The budget which we are going to vote for is in line with last year’s goals, which is not to
Ashe exceed the index of a 3.3 percent increase.”
That’s with three major goals in mind, which includes maintaining job security for the staff and develop a budget that doesn’t rely on the general funds as a revenue source.
“We don’t want to deplete our rainy-day funds. We want to make sure that we have a general funds budget that is responsible for a district of our size.
“We’re still very early in our budget season so it’s something that the Facilities and Finance committee will review monthly for any type of adjustments that might be necessary. Our finance team feels strongly that they can bring us at or under that number to make sure that we maintain our programs and our staff and
pass a budget that doesn’t harm taxpayers.”
Significant gaps need to be fulfilled each year, Ashe added.
“That’s something that we’ve been pressuring our state legislators to do, to make sure that our schools are adequately funded because that (burden) does fall on taxpayers every year. We recently joined with 17 other school districts in the region to call on our state legislators to make changes to our funding structure for school districts in Pennsylvania as well as some cyber charter reform too because school districts pay a significant amount to cyber charter education, which typically kids don’t receive as much instruction as a kid who attends a brick and mortar school. So we’re calling for that type of reform. Districts like Norristown have a cyber learning option as well that is significantly less money to adequately run. School districts are required to pay the same amount, whether they’re in a cyber charter or brick and mortar, and that’s where a lot of our budget comes from as well. So we’re calling for some changes in the way that Pennsylvania funds its education system, so school districts like Norristown and others don’t have to continue to pass on the bill to taxpayers (local property owners.)”
A press release noted that Pennsylvania League of Urban Schools (PLUS) has called on legislators to
“enact true charter and cyber-charter funding reform. Charter schools are funded by state and local taxes, but local school boards have no oversight. “
According to the release, by law, up to 25 percent of their teachers can be uncertified, and schools do not have to account for how they are allocating their tuition payments from public school districts.
“We are standing up for our students, and for our community. The charter and cyber charter school laws need immediate reform to relieve the taxpayer,” said Norristown Area School District Superintendent
Christopher Dormer.
“There has been a little more of a push recently for some of these reforms by state reps Matt Bradford, Tim Briggs and Joe Webster,” Ashe said. “Something that has been a significant contribution from school districts is the 35
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