Payments to charter schools is a major issue for school districts in Pennsylvania and Warren County School District in on board with proposed changes.

The school board unanimously approved a resolution calling for charter school funding reform at Monday night’s meeting.

Charter schools receive the bulk of their funding from the districts their students reside in, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

According to the resolution, because of funding rules that have not changed in 23 years, in many cases, districts are sending more dollars to charter schools than “is needed to operate their programs.” That “places a significant financial burden on districts’ resources and taxpayers.”

The resolution states that the formulas particular to special education funding were revised in 2014 “to more accurately target special education resources,” but those revisions were not applied to charter schools.”

In a Thursday release, Gov. Tom Wolf said more than 100 districts had signed on to his reform proposals.

“We have been waving the flag on charters for what feels like a decade,” Superintendent Amy Stewart said. “The legislators… I think they’re starting to hear it.”

When a handful of students leaves a Warren County School District cohort, “this district has no net savings,” Stewart said. The classes those students would have attended still must be held. The buses still have to run. But the district has to pay thousands of dollars per student to the charter schools — brick and mortar schools like Tidioute Community Charter School and cyber-charter schools — they attend.

Previous budget projections showed estimated charter school payments of more than $5 million out of the district’s expenditures of more than $80 million — about 6 percent of the budget.

Board president Donna Zariczny said a map of financial impacts to districts by charter schools shows Warren County School District among the hardest hit. “Our Warren County School District was one of the higher ones per capita,” Zariczny said. “Don’t discount where we are compared to some of those others.”

Coronavirus

According to board member Marcy Morgan’s report from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA), districts are also keeping their eyes on the coronavirus.

She said PSBA has resources for districts regarding the outbreak and it will be a topic of discussion at the March meeting. Those resources are in addition to those available through the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), she said.

The district has issued numerous releases and sent information to families on several occasions regarding the virus.

Seussical Jr.

Producer Amy O’Donnell introduced two performers — Ella Getner (Gertrude McFuzz) and Blake Ristau (Horton) — from the All-County Musical Jr. — Seussical Jr. — who performed a song from the show.

Performances will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, at Warren Area High School.

No donkeys

The issue of donkey basketball as a potential fund-raiser in the district was brought to a vote Monday.

The motion, made by board member Mary Passinger, failed with Passinger, Morgan, and Kevin Lindvay voting in favor, and Joe Colosimo, Jeff Labesky, Paul Mangione, and Zariczny voting against.