Armstrong School District board directors will vote on their preliminary budget next week, but Business Manager Sam Kirk assured them and taxpayers that it will “dramatically” change as the State budget and other department budgets are sorted out.
by Jonathan Weaver
A $21 million influx of State aid received earlier this week will help keep the lights on in the Armstrong School District.
Business Manager Sam Kirk gave the news to school directors during their open caucus session.
“Over the Christmas break, it was on-again, off-again whether there would be a State budget or not – there was a State budget passed, and for the most part, the Governor signed off on everything. Except for the Basic Education line-item – which the district receives most of their funding through that subsidy,” Kirk said.
“We were going to come to you this month asking you to open up a line of credit so we can make payroll, pay bills, but we won’t need to do that. It’s a good thing we got that money to pay our bills – we were able to free some things up - but if that stands true, we’re going to be $337,000 short and we’re going to try and find some ways to make that up.”
School directors will still vote on a proposed preliminary budget at Monday’s regular meeting.
“This will just enable us if need be to apply for exceptions and utilize those exceptions when we adopt a final budget in May or June,” Kirk said.
Kirk said the $97.5 million budget will change “dramatically” before the final budget in May/June.
He planned to begin budget discussions in April.
School Superintendent Chris DeVivo said administrators will keep elected representatives apprised on any budget updates. In December, he referred to the current projected funding plan as a “worst-case scenario budget.”
“It’s been difficult trying to navigate the economic front here the last six months with all the different reports coming out of Harrisburg,” DeVivo said. “The ironic part is the governor is supposed to present on next year’s budget in early February when we don’t have a budget this year.”
School Board President Joseph Close was glad the State funding was received earlier this week.
“It’s a little relief. We want to see that coming so we have some certainty of where we’re going,” Close said.
Still, he referred to it as “seed money” when asked about the upcoming preliminary budget vote Monday.
“It might be just a little quick fix, a little injection to keep us going a little while. We can’t have our final numbers until they have their final numbers,” Close said.
School Directors Chris Choncek, Paul Lobby and James Rearic were absent.
Monday’s regular meeting begins at 7:30PM.