Once upon a time, when the Pottsville Area School District used state subsidy to send a child to charter or cyber charter school, the state gave the district a bit of reimbursement, Superintendent Jeffrey S. Zwiebel said Wednesday.
"They would give us a little bit, not the full amount," Zwiebel said.
But while the district's been giving more and more state subsidy to send children to charter school in recent times, the state stopped giving such reimbursement two years ago, Zwiebel said.
At the school board's March meeting Wednesday, the board in a roll call vote decided to send a letter to lawmakers in Harrisburg to do something about it.
The letter is "calling for reform of the commonwealth's charter and cyber charter school funding formula," according to school board President John F. Boran.
"Now 100 percent of the burden of charter school tuition falls to local taxpayers," Boran said, reading from the letter.
In the 2012-13 school year, the Pottsville Area School District paid $7,545 in state subsidy per elementary student in grades kindergarten to 6; and $8,386 per secondary student in grades 7 to 12, according to David J. Delenick, district business manager.
The district must also pay the same subsidy for each student who enrolls in charter school, Zwiebel said.
In Pottsville, those options include Gillingham Charter School at 915 Howard Ave., which opened in the 2011-12 school year, and cyber charter schools.
On Wednesday night, Zwiebel did not know how many charter school students were part of the Pottsville Area School District. But he knew how much was spent to educate them over the past few years:
- In the 2008-09 school year, there were $320,561.33 in charter school expenditures and the state reimbursement to the district was $60,107.01.
- In the 2009-10 school year, there were $577,901.80 in charter school expenditures and the state reimbursement to the district was $84,690.40.
- In the 2010-11 school year, there were $515,867.19 in charter school expenditures and the state reimbursement to the district was $119,723.77.
- In the 2011-12 school year, there were $1,714,430.23 in charter school expenditures, but there was no state reimbursement.
- In the 2012-13 school year, there was an estimated $1,600,000 in charter school expenditures, but there was no state reimbursement.
The letter states Pottsville Area "urges the General Assembly to correct the flawed funding formula for charter schools as part of larger reforms needed to address appropriate mechanisms for authorization, oversight and intervention to remedy various funding and governance concerns as well as to establish and maintain financial and academic accountability."
Present at Wednesday's meeting were Boran and board members Gary A. Cortese, Scott D. Krater, Michael D. Smink, Scott Thomas and, via an Internet video projection system, Charles R. Wagner, who was vacationing in Florida.
Absent from Wednesday's meeting were board members Linda Grube, Cindy M. Petchulis and Karen E. Rismiller.
In other matters at the board's March meeting, the board took the following actions:
- Approved a two-year contract for its 206 teachers, for the 2013-14 and 2014-15 school years.
An extension of the teachers current two-year contract, it also contains salary increases of 3 percent per year, according to Krater, the board vice president, who heads up the board's negotiations committee.
Krater said the Pottsville Area School District Teachers Association has already approved the contract. Beth Pillus, association president, could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
Boran abstained from the vote because his wife, Michelle, is a reading teacher at D.L.L. Lengel Middle School.
- Approved a letter of resignation from Pat Brennan, varsity wrestling head coach. "It's effective immediately," said Smink, who heads up the board's personnel committee.
- Appointed Karen Bevan and Monica Natishak as full-time paraprofessionals at the D.H.H. Lengel Middle School retroactive to March 18 each at an annual salary of $15,740.16.
- Hired four part-time cafeteria workers at $12.45 per hour retroactive to March 1: Lisa Frederick and Crystal Major at the John S. Clarke Elementary Center; Patty Devine at D.H.H. Lengel Middle School; and Karen Pretti at Pottsville Area High School.