Nov 10, 2015 3 min read

With rumors swirling in Harrisburg that state officials have reached a tentative agreement on school funding, school districts in Greene County say it can’t come soon enough as some pinch pennies while others search for loans to continue operating.

State funding has been at a standstill for more than four months because of fiscal disagreements between Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled state legislature, and the budget battle has affected Greene County’s school districts differently depending on their local property tax base.

“They are talking about a framework laid out,” said state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, after leaving a democratic caucus meeting Monday night.

“Things are moving quicker than the last five months, and I hope things will be put forward to a vote very soon,” Synder said.

Carmichaels Area School District has been watching its spending since the beginning of the school year.

“We spend to the extent to provide the absolute most necessary items, and that’s it,” district business manager Amy Todd said.

The district has saved enough to continue through late December or early January. After that, it will likely have to resort to a tax-anticipation loan.

“We are getting the numbers and the quotes out now,” Todd said. “We will need to tap into a loan if we do not have a budget. Hopefully, we won’t need to do that.”

Central Greene School District is continuing to operate off of real estate taxes and does not have to watch every purchase for now but is planning for the worst.

“We are getting close to where we have to watch our spending,” Central Greene Superintendent Brian Uplinger said. “Come the turn of the year, we may have to start.”

Uplinger said that if a state budget is not passed soon, they also will have to look into tax-anticipatory loans to continue operations for the remainder of the school year.

“It’s very frustrating to have to deal with issues like this especially when our budget has to be completed by June 30,” Uplinger said. “I don’t understand why our state cannot have a budget passed at the same time.”

Uplinger said these issues make school districts scramble to give its students a good education, which should be one of the country’s priorities.

“How are we supposed to do our jobs without proper funding?” Uplinger said.

West Greene School District officials think they’re in a good position until April regardless of what happens with the budget negotiations.

“The majority of what we base our budget off of is our local taxes, which are steady and constant,” West Greene Business Manager Shannon Rutan said.

The school district is being conscientious about spending by not buying anything that is not a necessity, she said.

“We are making sure we cover payroll and other priorities first and fully before other types of spending,” Rutan said.

Come January, Rutan said they will start looking into borrowing options for the district to make sure they have a plan in place if the budget is still not passed.

“What angers me is that we are not getting a lot of information about any type of conversations that they are having at this point,” Rutan said. “I would like to see a little bit more moving forward it seems to be in a literal grid lock.”

Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll, could not immediately be reached for comment late Monday afternoon.