The Big Freeze: East Penn School Budget in Crisis

East Penn’s school board votes on the district’s preliminary budget Monday, Feb. 14. Here’s a primer of what you need to know:

Background

On Feb. 3, superintendents from school districts all over the state were notified that Gov. Corbett had frozen $364.3 million in state funding. Of that, $337 million affects state funding to school districts.

According to reports, the silver lining is that the state plans to offset that freeze with federal stimulus money and federal Education Jobs funding. All of that federal money, however, vanishes at the end of this year.

So, as East Penn faces a bleak 2011-12, it seems now that 2012-13 may be even worse.

This comes as the school board votes on the district’s preliminary budget Monday, Feb. 14. That budget could include a tax increase to homeowners by as much as 4.79 percent this year.

That amount is higher than the state index for East Penn of 1.4 percent because Act 1 allows district’s to seek exceptions that enable them to raise taxes above the index. East Penn is seeking exceptions.

Superintendent Thomas Seidenberger did not return requests for comments about the governor’s freeze, though he has said previously that it is difficult to speculate about how the final budget will look when there are so many factors involved.

The state budget is one factor, but things like kindergarten enrollment, which hasn’t even started yet, is another unknown at this point.

That said, Seidenberger did write a memo to school board members that outlined potential cuts, including teacher layoffs, if schools did not get more revenue.

Budget Calendar

•  Feb. 14: Vote on Preliminary Budget (Agenda attached to this article)
• Feb. 21 - Preliminary Budget is submitted to Pa. Department of Education
• Feb. 24 - Deadline for publishing intent to file for exceptions
• March 3 - Deadline to seek exceptions
• March 28 - First Draft of Proposed Final Budget submitted to School Board
• April 11 - Board Discussion of Proposed Budget
• May 9 - Vote on Proposed Final Budget
• June 13 - Vote on Final Budget

News on Patch

Keep up with the budget process by following these stories exclusively on patch:

Links

Help educate yourself about the school budget by following these links:

East Penn School District Budget Information

Superintendent’s PowerPoint Presentation on the State of the District

Essential Budget Questions Survey