MAHANOY CITY — The Mahanoy Area school board approved at Thursday’s meeting the Schuylkill Technology Center secondary budget for the 2016-17 school year that includes the assessment the school district will pay for students attending the centers in Frackville and Mar Lin.
The school district would be assessed $8,052.65 per student for a projected 42 students who will attend the vocational schools for a total assessment of $338,211.
“That’s a $33,308, or 11 percent, increase from the prior year,” Business Administrator John J. Hurst said.
Board President Jay Hanley, who represents the district on the Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29 board and the Schuylkill County Area Vocational Technical School board, reported on a recent meeting.
There are 12 school districts in the consortium that fund the vocational schools, but in recent years the Pottsville Area and Blue Mountain school districts have considered leaving the consortium if changes are not made due to the way the vocational education at Schuylkill Technology Centers is funded. While both districts are remaining at the present time, there is concern that either or both of the districts could leave in the future and affect other school districts.
“Quite frankly, because we don’t know who’s going to be here later, whether Pottsville or Blue Mountain will opt out, we decided to go along with this (budget),” Hanley said. “At the last meeting, we (school district representatives) were presented with the budget.”
Mahanoy Area Superintendent Joie Green, who attended Thursday’s meeting via telephone, commented on the matter.
“We were supposed to have a (IU) meeting this past Monday, which was canceled due to the weather,” Green said. “They did say that they want to stay with the status quo and keep it the same way until we come up with a decision (on funding). At least keep it status quo for one more year. Nothing has been decided on that because no one has made a formal vote on it because the meeting was canceled and it has not been rescheduled. We received an email (from the IU) that the January meeting will not be rescheduled. The next meeting will be the last Monday in February. I’m not sure what is going to happen.”
Hurst added, “Based on what we know now, I think this budget is based on an assumption that 2016-17 will stay status quo.”
“We still have to approve the budget based on what we have there at $338,211,” Green said.