Charleroi takes budget plea public
Christopher Buckley|Herald-Standard
Officials in the Charleroi Area School District posted a cry for help on the district website, noting that schools may shut down on May 1 if a state budget is not passed.
Student Performance Profile scores rose from 70 to 78.1 in the Charleroi Area School District.
Like many districts statewide, the Charleroi Area School District is living on borrowed money.
“We feel like we’re being held hostage,” said Superintendent Ed Zelich.
The district has already borrowed $4.5 million, and with a dwindling fund balance, it may have to borrow again if the ongoing state budget impasse continues.
“They need to find a solution instead of playing Republican/Democrat,” Zelich said. “They have to figure this out for the children. They’re our future leaders.”
The district took its concerns public, posting “A Message to the Community from the Charleroi Area School Board” on its website. In that message, the district indicates, “without significant funding relief from the state, the Charleroi Area School District may be forced to consider closure due to budgetary concerns by May 1, 2016.”
“A state budget partially enacted at the end of December allowed school districts to receive just 45 percent of the funding owed for this current school year, and we are still waiting for the remaining subsidies that have not yet been approved,” the district wrote in the letter posted on its website, www.charleroisd.org.
“Our school board and administration are now in the process of developing a 2016-17 budget; at the same time, we are unsure of what additional funding we will receive, if any, to cover the expenses for the remainder of the current 2015-16 school year. With no resolution to the budget impasse in sight, state funding is uncertain, and we are taking every step possible to provide quality educational programs and services for our students.”
“We’re just trying to get support and get a budget,” Zelich said Monday.
“Can’t they figure it out and stop pointing fingers?”
Zelich said the district is paying $400 a day in interest alone on the new debt it had to incur in order to keep the school district open.
“I’m just as angry as everyone else that our school districts, especially Charleroi, are struggling,” said state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township.
“It is vital that our schools and other critical services get their funding so they can continue to operate.”
Bartolotta criticized Wolf for vetoing several spending packages, including a budget last June, which she said would have increased education funding by $370 million.
“I’m behind Charleroi Area 100 percent,” Bartolotta said. “I’m behind all school districts, not only those in my district, but across the state.”
Asked how to remove the bipartisan fighting at the heart of the impasse, Bartolotta said, “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, you were sent here to represent the people and be an adult.
“At this point, we’ve come to a pinnacle in this struggle.”
Bartolotta said the legislature and the governor “need to move beyond partisanship and political rhetoric to do what is right for the people of Pennsylvania.”
“I have always been, and remain, committed to working together in a bipartisan manner with the governor and members on both sides of the aisle to adopt a spending plan as soon as possible,” Bartolotta said. “Our commonwealth and our schools depend on us.”
State Rep. Peter J. Daley, D-California, said he agrees 100 percent with district officials and vowed to take the letter to the governor as well as House and Senate leadership.
Daley said be believes the impasse stems from a major schism between Wolf and state Sen. Scott Wagner.
“They have to resolve their personal issues before we can resolve the budget,” Daley said. “It has to happen now. You don’t run a state without a budget.”
Asked who is to blame, Daley replied, “We all take blame for it. But leadership runs the engine. If they don’t come together, we have no leverage over them. They schedule the bills.”