JM superintendent: District could lose $857K in state funding
JEFFERSON – Jefferson-Morgan School District’s superintendent said Monday that the district stands to lose about $857,000 of its state funding under Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget proposal.
Superintendent Donna Furnier said she and the other four school district superintendents in Greene County will meet with state Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, on Friday to discuss the proposed budget.
Furnier said the proposed cuts in state funding would decrease the district’s budget by about 7 percent from the 2010-2011 budget.
The district, according to Furnier, has focused on remaining fiscally responsible, and had increased the fund balance for a “rainy day,” but she said that the governor’s proposed cuts seem more like a “tsunami.”
Furnier also shared with the board that the district was commended for a successful special education audit preliminary report, which she said is indicative of the staff’s good work. She added that the only problems the district faced were issues that are common in small, rural schools, such as providing a “least restrictive environment.”
A least restrictive environment requires that students with disabilities be included with the general student population as much as possible. The amount of least restrictive environment time is indicated in the student’s Individualized Education Program.
The district will create a corrective action plan to address the problems. The preliminary report commended the district for its networking with preschools and school-based mental health program.
In other business, Furnier said that the district’s successful after-school program will come to an end March 31. The state funding was cut for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, and Furnier is not expecting the district to receive further funding.
Don Martin, a representative from the Cyber Solutions Initiative, presented the board with a cyberschool option that could potentially allow cyberschool students to receive an online education that would parallel the district’s regular in-class curriculum. The initiative is the Intermediate Unit 1 online learning program.
The plan, if approved, would cost the district $20,000 for a three-year commitment. The company would provide students with the learning software, hardware and curriculum, but the district would have the option to create its own curriculum. The cost to the district, per full cyber student, would be $2,300 annually for each full cyberstudent or $250 per cybercourse.
Martin said Jefferson-Morgan School District, which is part of IU1, could tie in with IU7 and use its curriculum.
The initiative also includes duel-enrollment programs with the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State University and California University of Pennsylvania.
The board did not vote on the Cyber Solutions Initiative.