Board skips extended care fee hike
Program operating at a deficit due to pandemic enrollment drop
LANSDALE >> Just days after hearing of a growing deficit in the district’s extended school care program, North Penn School Board voted against a proposed fee hike.
“We need to lower as many obstacles as possible for the community to access the services so desperately needed to catch up after the pandemic crisis,” said board member Jonathan Kassa.
On Tuesday night the school board’s finance committee heard details of a massive deficit for the district extended care department, which provides professional child care to students outside of school hours. Prior to the pandemic, that department had a roughly $956,000 surplus, but the shutdown of schools and subsequent work-from-home environment over the past year caused enrollment to plummet by more than 500 students, from 839 to 317 according to district staff, resulting in a $720,000 deficit for the current year.
Staff proposed two solutions: a five percent increase in fees for extended care programs meant to help close that gap and a transfer from reserves to the department. The finance committee voted Tuesday to recommend the school board approve the increase, but when district Superintendent Curt Dietrich read the request on Thursday night, Kassa moved to make an amendment.
“I would like a motion to amend this motion, so that we waive the tuition fee increase,” Kassa said. District solicitor Kyle Somers then asked for clarification, on whether Kassa wanted to waive the entire fees or only the proposed increase, and Kassa clarified that he was proposing to waive the increase only.
The board voted unanimously to do so, and district CFO Steve Skrocki said afterward that the total budget impact to the district of waiving the increase would not be known until parents begin to enroll their children. Based on current extended care enrollment, the impact could be roughly $40,000 for the year, and for every additional 100 students the impact would be an additional $15,000, according to Skrocki.
A similar vote was made just minutes before, on a separate motion for the board to approve the district’s 2021 summer programs. After Dietrich read that motion, board member Al Roesch made a similar request to lower costs.
“The pandemic has created and widened certain achievement gaps for students. Because of these facts, summer school fees must be waived, so students and families of our community have no obstacles in getting essential educational supports,” Roesch said.
Referring to the roughly $17 million in COVID stimulus funds the district has secured from several rounds of federal spending, he continued:
“This is exactly the type of relief the federal funds are meant for: student learning, front-loading spending on students, and addressing the equity gap. Therefore, I make a motion to waive all fees related to the 2021 summer school program,” Roesch said, and the board unanimously approved.
Skrocki said afterward that the district estimates that summer tuition cost to be roughly $80,000, “and will no longer need to be paid to access the programs.”
North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on May 11 and the finance committee next meets at 6 p.m. on April 21; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.