State subsidies rise, but less than budgeted

LANSDALE >> With the state’s budget now finalized, the news is mixed, but mostly good, for the North Penn School District.

The district will receive nearly all of the money they had expected in state subsidies — nearly, but not quite all, according to district Director of Business Administration Steve Skrocki.

“Our basic education funding for the upcoming fiscal year will be slightly over $11 million. We received a $473,000 increase, almost 4.5 percent, in our basic education funding, so that’s great news,” he said.

“The bad news is, unfortunately it’s about $18,000 less than

what we budgeted,” Skrocki said.

That slight shortfall was due to what Skrocki termed last-minute changes in budget priorities and agreements between Gov. Tom Wolf and the state legislature, Skrocki told the school board during a recent meeting. The school board voted in June to approve a roughly $274 million budget for the 2019-20 school year, with roughly $40 million available in various reserve funds, and staff and school board members said at that time that the state funds were one of the few outstanding items left.

“We’ll start out the year a little bit behind on our basic education funding, but still, a 4.5 percent increase is awesome,” Skrocki said.

The state budget agreement has also provided specific numbers for two other budget categories, Skrocki told the board, including word that North Penn will receive roughly $6.6 million from the state for special education funding.

“That’s about an $88,00 increase, only 1.35 percent, in special ed. As we’ve discussed in previous finance committee meetings, we know our special education costs are rising much higher than 1.35 percent,” Skrocki said.

The state budget agreement also means that state “Ready to Learn” grant funding will total $577,000 for 2019-20, which Skrocki said is “the exact same amount as the previous year.”

Audit underway, 201819 surplus likely: Skrocki also reported to the board that the budget for the fiscal year just ended still looks likely to produce a surplus.

“The 2018-19 fiscal year still looks like we’re in good shape to be able to recommend a transfer to the capital reserve fund, of at least $1 million,” Skrocki said.

“We spent less money than what we budgeted, and we brought in more than was budgeted on the revenue side,” he said.

Staff and the school board have said that capital reserve fund is meant to cover the costs of smaller long-term projects, while talks are ongoing about several

large projects including renovations to multiple district schools, that could require bond borrowings to fund.

Early projections had the 2018-19 budget finishing that year with a roughly $2.5 million deficit, but Skrocki told the board that the final figures look likely to be well to the positive

Solicitor reports state changes: District Solicitor Kyle Somers also updated the board on several changes to state law passed and/or enacted as a result of the state budget package.

One change staff and the solicitor are examining is a new provision requiring that districts provide an alternative lunch to students who owe more than $50 for lunches already provided by the district.

“There’s a prohibition against identifying students who didn’t have the financial means to pay for a lunch — you couldn’t single them out,” Somers said.

“One of the concerns was, having a more basic lunch option available, if that was the only option available for a student who maybe didn’t have the funds to pay for a lunch that day — was that singling the student out? The legislature made it clear, moving forward, that that doesn’t constitute singling them out.”

The state has also mandated additional training for security staff and school board members, and has modified the state school code to allow state to apply for up to five additional days of flexible instruction time.

“There are a number of requirements associated with that. It’s an application process, that the state Department of Education will need to review those requests from school districts,” Somers said.

Due to the timing of certain provisions included in the law, any changes look likely to not take effect until the 2020-21 school year, he said, so any changes needed to board policies and procedures will be vetted through the appropriate committees first.

Other changes included in the budget package include a widening of the state’s compulsory attendance age, for which students are required to be in schooling of some sort, from age eight to 17 to, now,

age six through 18.

Personnel transfers get OK: The school board voted unanimously on July 18 to approve a long list of personnel changes, including two transfers involving the district’s central administration team.

D’Ana Waters, formerly principal of Hatfield Elementary School, was approved for a transfer into a newly created position as district “Director of Curriculum and Equity” as part of the district’s Act 93 administrative group.

Board member Ed Diasio joked that he expected to see some resistance to the appointment for Waters, calling her “one of our all-stars.”

“I thought maybe we’d see some of your staff here for public comment, telling us not to let you go. Truly, that is going to be a bittersweet moment for Hatfield,” Diasio said.

Also among the transfers approved was a promotion for Ruth Desiderio from a position as special education supervisor to Director of Special Education, a position Diasio said she is already familiar with.

“I wanted to thank Ruth for stepping up to the plate twice now for us, in our time of need, and I’m thrilled to see that this is going to be, finally, a permanent position for you,” he said.

Policy updates also approved: A package of updated policies was also approved by the board, pertaining to hiring of staff.

The four new policies set out revised rules for staff to follow regarding creating a position, employment of staff, nepotism, and personnel assignments, and transfers, with an accompanying motion repealing the previous policies. In talks on the new policies in June, board members said the updated policies were based on recommendations from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and the solicitor, and are part of a larger look at the district’s entire codebook.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 15 at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E. Hancock St.