Union Superintendent Warns School Board that District May See Less Funding Because of Pandemic

Chris Rossetti

Chris Rossetti

Published April 20, 2020 4:41 am
Image

RIMERSBURG, Pa. (EYT) — Union Superintendent John Kimmel warned the Union School Board during its virtual meeting on April 16 that the school district very well may see less funding from the Commonwealth next year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Something to keep in mind is that we are hearing from the state repeatedly that state revenues are currently down anywhere between $2 and $4 billion,” Kimmel said. “Also, there is some legislation out there that hasn’t been passed as of yet that they are talking about freezing property taxes at their current rates and also delaying earned income tax collections.

“So, we are not really sure what all we might be bringing in next year as far as revenue. But, it looks like we might get hit with some less funding, I guess, than what we had this current year or last year. Just keep that in mind as we are going through the budgeting season.”

The fiscal year for all school districts in Pennsylvania runs July 1 through June 30, so school districts need to finalize their budgets for the 2020-21 school year soon.

“We need to set a committee meeting for the Finance Committee,” Kimmel said. “We are in the middle of budget season, and although that hasn’t really been the main focus with our building closure, it’s something we really need to put more of a focus on over the next two months. So, I am going to push out a couple of meeting dates here next week from the Finance Committee, so we can get together, review the current budget where it is, and then we can discuss any possible changes within the budget.”

UNION MEALS SERVICE PROVIDED ONCE A WEEK

Union has been providing meal service for several weeks now since schools were closed March 13 by Pennsylvania Governor Wolf. However, the district has taken a different approach to the service than a lot of other school districts.

“Some school districts provide meals three days out of the week, other districts provide meals every day of the week,” Kimmel said. “What we do prep meals on one day of the week for pickup, but we’re prepping a whole entire week’s worth of meals.”

Kimmel said the reason Union has taken this approach is to limit the amount of contact that its workers have with students and parents and vice versa.

According to Kimmel, the district originally started off with 81 students who were signed up for the meal service in the first week but that has jumped to around 129 as of April 16.

Of those, around 15 families receive delivery service, which is only intended for families who don’t have transportation. Families with transportation should be picking up the food at the district.

“We keep trying to remind people that delivery is for people that don’t have transportation because we do have limited room,” Kimmel said “It’s very difficult to be able to get all those deliveries made. It takes anywhere between an hour and an hour and a half to make the deliveries.”

Kimmel said it looks like the district will be adding two or three more families to the delivery service in the coming week meaning that multiple delivery runs will most likely be needed.

“It’s great that we can provide that service to families in our community,” Kimmel said. “But, we also want to make sure that the people that are needing the service are the ones that are getting it.”

DISTRICT WON’T COMMIT TO HOSTING EXCHANGE STUDENTS FOR 2020-21 SCHOOL YEAR

Because of the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kimmel has decided it wouldn’t be wise to commit to the district hosting exchange students for 2020-21 at this time.

Kimmel said the Clarion County Rotary Club is seeking a family to host a boy from Japan for next year.

“I’m currently not going to recommend that we do that,” Kimmel said.

A lot of Kimmel’s reasoning stemmed from the fact that school districts in Pennsylvania don’t know what the 2020-21 school year might look like.

“I know that the Secretary of Education had mentioned, through some discussion with the Pennsylvania IU executive directors, that there is the possibility that we might have extended closure into the beginning of next year,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel said even if school does start on time for the 2020-21 school year, there is a chance that there could be a resurgence of COVID-19 pushing schools back into distance learning.

“For continuity, and for this student’s sake, I would recommend that we not push forward with having a host family,” Kimmel said. “I think it would be very difficult, at this point, to have any kind of consistent education for that student.”

ART, GENERAL SUPPLY CONTRACT APPROVED AFTER LENGTHY DISCUSSION

The school board approved a contract with Kurtz Brothers, of Clearfield, Pa., in the amount of $12,836.90 for the purchase of general supplies and art supplies for the 2020-21 school year after a lengthy discussion as to why the cost was up from $4,830.90 from this year.

“This year’s (2020-21) amount is pretty much the standard. It’s actually a little bit under,” Union Business Manager Megan Hepler said. “But, last year (2019-2020) we cut all the supplies.”

School Board President Brenda Brinker said it was her recollection that when the supplies were cut for the 2019-2020 school year, the district was relying on parents, particularly at the elementary schools but not exclusively at the elementary school, to provide different supplies.

“I take it that’s not the game plan for the 2021 school year?” Brinker said.

Kimmel said it is not, and part of the reason was that during the 2019-20 school year, there were some things that were stockpiled from previous years in the classrooms or within the art department.

“There were things that just weren’t used up yet,” Kimmel said. “Going a year without replenishing some of the supplies will help you to eliminate some of that stockpile. There would then be the need that we would have to replenish those.”

One board member asked if the district would have extra supplies from the 2019-20 school year because of in-building schooling ending March 13.

“There would be some for the end of the year,” Kimmel said. “We can always adjust what we actually order.”

OTHER BUSINESS

In other business the school board:

  • Hired Lisa Hummel as the 2020-21 band director at a salary of $5,050.00, an increase of $70.00 from the 2019-20 school year.
  • Hired Rob Heichel as the 2020-21 first assistant band director at a salary of $2,026.00, an increase of $60.00 from the 2019-20 school year.
  • Hired John Zanot as the 2020-21 second assistant band director at a salary of $1,190.00, an increase of $50.00 from the 2019-20 school year.
  • Hired David Gibson as the 2020-21 choir director at a salary of $1,985.00, an increase of $60.00 from the 2019-20 school year.
  • Approved Heather Chadwell as a substitute cafeteria worker and substitute custodial worker effective March 20, 2020.
  • Accepted the retirement of maintenance technician Wayne Wyman effective June 30, 2020.
  • Set the 2020-21 tuition cost for domestic (non-international) out-of-district students at $9,000.00 per year. In the event the student requires special education services above the general education needs, the cost of those services will be added to the tuition cost. The tuition remains the same as it was for 2019-20.
  • Hired Candice Johnston as the 2020-21 cross country coach at a salary of $1,220.00, an increase of $60.00 from the 2019-20 school year.
  • Hired Scott Kindel as the 2020-21 athletic director at a salary of $5,165.00, an increase of $70.00 from the 2020-21 school year.
  • Hired Ange Salvo as the 2020-21 assistant athletic director at a salary of $1,500.00. This will be Salvo’s first year as the assistant athletic director.
  • Hired Corri Shumaker as the 2020-21 head volleyball coach at a salary of $2,600.00. Shumaker took over as the head coach in the middle of last season.

Recent Articles

Community Partner