Mt. Lebanon School District plans resolution against state budget impasse

The state budget impasse is prompting Mt. Lebanon School District to take action.
School board members and Superintendent Timothy Steinhauer will be drafting a resolution to send to legislators in support of fellow districts that are encountering financial difficulties because of lack of state funding until a new budget is adopted.
Many of Pennsylania’s 500 school districts need to borrow money to continue to function, resulting in more expenditures because of the interest on loans.
“It’s time for us to step up and say something,” Elaine Cappucci, the board member who called for the resolution, said at the Nov. 9 discussion meeting.
Mt. Lebanon is among the districts that are in a financial position to weather the impasse.
“We have more than enough money to pay our bills this year,” Janice Klein, director of business, told the board. “We will be able to go for a very long time until the lack of state funding affects Mt. Lebanon.”
Mary Birks, the board’s representative to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, castigated those who are responsible for letting budget negotiations drag on far past the June 30 expiration of the previous fiscal year’s budget.
“They are not providing what they are constitutionally bound to provide, a free and appropriate education for all children in the state,” she said.
Board member William Cooper pointed out that, although plans call for the state to cover the interest on loans to school district, the cost still will be passed on to Pennsylvanians at large.
“It comes from us,” he said. “All taxpayers should be very upset about it.”
In other business at the discussion meeting:
• Amy Lewis of North Side public accounting firm Maher Duessel CPAs reported on the school district’s audit for 2014-15, with Mt. Lebanon earning an unmodified opinion, which occurs when an organization is in accordance with all requirements.
“You’re getting the highest level of assurance from this audit,” Lewis said, explaining that the district consistently receives the same opinion.
She thanked Klein and her staff for their assistance in providing district financial records, particularly with regard to the moving of offices during the year because of the high school renovation project.
Because the Government Accounting Standards Board has made substantial changes to the accounting and financial reporting of public employee pension plans, Mt. Lebanon’s unfunded liability for the state’s Public School Employees’ Retirement system – Lewis put the total at $131.8 million – now must be carried as an expenditure when it is earned.
“It is our understanding that bond ratings are not going to be impacted” by the new system, she said. “Every school district in Pennsylvania is sitting in the same boat.”
• The number of Mt. Lebanon students attending Parkway West Career and Technology Center has almost doubled for 2015-16 over the previous year, to 42, representatives of the school who attended the Nov. 9 meeting told the board.
In the past two years, total enrollment has increased by 202 students, to 750. While Parkway West has become the largest career and technology center in Allegheny County, it also is the most cost-effective, providing education at $5,800 per student, according to Darby Copeland, executive director.
Mt. Lebanon is one of 12 districts in Parkway West’s joint operating committee. Dan Remely is the Mt. Lebanon board’s representative to the school and has served on the joint operating committee since 2006.