Local school districts see mixed results under Pennsylvania budget

Sean P. Ray, The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
·2 min read

Aug. 13—When Pennsylvania passed its budget for the new fiscal year last month, it included an additional $1.8 billion in education spending.

However, what sounds like a purely great development for school districts has been met with mixed results locally. While all Crawford County school districts saw more money, the amount came up short for some while an unexpected benefit to others.

Kristen Eckart, business manager for PENNCREST School District, said the school district's basic education funding increased by 2.8 percent, to $19.7 million. While a benefit, she said initial projections she received from state government indicated the school district would receive $20.4 million.

Special education funding also came up short of what was initially expected. PENNCREST had anticipated $2.79 million, but instead are getting $2.72 million. It's still a 5.3 percent increase, but not what was hoped.

"It's not large enough to be too much of a worry," Eckart said. "We'll tweak what we need to tweak, but we got more back in the homestead money."

Eckart was referring to the state's homestead/farmstead exclusion program, which lessens property tax on some homeowners while reimbursing the school district. The amount came in higher than expected this year for PENNCREST.

Eckart said the experience has taught her to budget on the "lower side" of what the state projects. She said it'd also be better if the school district budgets weren't due the same time as the state budget.

Meanwhile, Conneaut Business Manager Greg Mayle was more celebratory on the results. Conneaut received $625,148 in additional basic education funding, $120,837 in special education funding and qualifies for two new grants under the budget of $129,004 each, for a total of $1.3 million in new money.

"While it wasn't as much as the governor's original proposal, I was definitely pleasantly surprised by it," Mayle said.

Mayle believes the funding will help close the school district's operating deficit. While Conneaut has been able to balance its budget for next school year, it is only thanks to COVID-19 stimulus money which is set to run out in the next several years. Mayle has repeatedly cautioned the Conneaut School Board to be aware of the deficit and prepare to tackle it in future fiscal years.

Still, especially with the increased basic and special education funding, Mayle is overall happy with the result.

"Those two items alone are nearly a third of our budget," he said. "So very important, very significant."

Sean P. Ray can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at sray@meadvilletribune.com.