Peters Township School Board mulls ending retroactive requests
The Peters Township School District may soon be changing how reimbursement and payment for student trips is handled.
The potential move came about after school board member Lynn Erenberg questioned at a Feb. 17 board meeting why they were being asked to approve a Peters Township High School band trip to Hermitage after it had already happened. The band trip took place Feb. 11-13 and cost the district $708.
“This is the third time in a year that something like this has happened,” Erenberg said.
Superintendent Jeannine French said the issue stemmed from someone not getting the proper paperwork in on time.
“This will be corrected and will not happen again,” said French, adding that monetary requests will not be brought to the board retroactively.
French said she thought about leaving the band trip off the meeting agenda, but decided to put the funding request on it.
“This is my ship and I am responsible, so I put it on,” said French, adding that she did not think it was right to deprive students of opportunities. “If there had been enough time, a check would have been cut,” she said.
Board member Sue Smith said she was annoyed that the board is not informed in time about school trips. She suggested the board explore a procedural change so retroactive requests for funding do not keep occurring. The board is expected to revisit this topic at its March 16 meeting.
In other business, the board approved the preliminary general fund budget of $60.45 million for the 2015-2016 school calendar year.
The district is faced with a $2.5 million budget shortfall for the 2015-2016 school year, which means a tax increase for township residents when the final budget is adopted in June.
As of now, the district is considering a 2.03-mill increase, which would bring next year’s budget gap to $1.87 million. The increase for a township resident would be relatively small, if taxes are increased. If a property owner’s school tax is $1,000, the amount would increase by $18.95 a year.
The board also adopted a 2015-2016 tentative technology budget of $1.019 million and a preliminary 2015-2016 curriculum budget of $431,540. The curriculum budget is included in the general fund budget.