There are sighs of relief being breathed around Warren County after last week’s Warren County School District Board of Education meeting.

At least a few of those sighs are coming from school board members and administrators who, we’re sure, weren’t relishing explaining to residents that after closing two school buildings in 2025 that the district still wasn’t saving enough money to keep taxes at a manageable level for taxpayers. Some of those same taxpayers have found themselves hit with higher tax bills after the countywide property reassessment driven in part by the school district.

So, yes, some people’s lives got a little bit quieter after last week’s meeting.

Now the district needs to keep the 2026-27 budget from being a one-trick pony.

That will likely require some help from the state of Pennsylvania, which as Superintendent Gary Weber said last week isn’t doing much to help school districts like Warren that are making the unpopular decisions to help themselves balance their budgets. Many thought a state court decision ruling that schools throughout the state were being underfunded, and the ensuing increases in education funding included in the state budget, would help rural counties like Warren County. Much of that increased funding is heading toward bigger cities. And federal Secure Rural Schools funding that is supposed to compensate local schools for taxes lost by hosting national forests has decreased by 75% over the past several years.

The Warren County School District has made hard choices over the past couple of years. There will be more hard choices in the coming years, we’re sure, unless our population and taxable assessment trends reverse themselves. But the school district needs some help from the state and federal governments. If there was ever a time for Rep. Glenn Thompson to use his influence in Washington, D.C., this is it. And, for state Rep. Kathy Rapp and Sen. Scott Hutchinson, it’s time to bring additional school funding back to Warren County as state budget talks continue.

We’ve helped ourselves. Now it’s time for some outside help.