Funding formula makeover pitched

from the bcct:

Funding formula makeover pitched

By CHRIS ENGLISH, staff writer Calkins Media, Inc. | 0 comments

Bucks County Technical High School - The best way to come up with a fairer way to fund the Bucks County Technical High School is to start from scratch and negotiate a new formula, the leaders of four area school districts said at a meeting Tuesday night at the technical school in Bristol Township.

The school, a fulltime institution which provides both academic and vocational instruction, is funded by the six school districts that send students there: Bristol, Bristol Township, Bensalem, Morrisville, Pennsbury and Neshaminy.

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Any change in the funding formula would require unanimous approval from the school boards of all six sending districts, according to the technical school's articles of agreement with the six sending districts.

That will never happen because any change that benefits one district would likely hurt another, said Pennsbury Chief Executive Officer Paul Long.

Instead, the six sending districts should agree to dissolve the articles of agreement, the document that includes the funding formula, effective at a certain future date, possibly in a year or two. That way, representatives from the six districts could start from the beginning and formulate new articles of agreement fair to all six districts before the current document expires.

Superintendents Lou Muenker of Neshaminy and William Gretzula of Bensalem, and Morrisville Acting Superintendent Bill Ferrara, all agreed with Long.

"We're being held hostage by the articles of agreement," said Gretzula.

"I'd like to get to something that will not hurt anybody and be even for everybody," added Ferrara.

Tuesday night's meeting included technical school joint school board members and board members and top administrators from the six sending districts.

The technical school is funded under a formula that assigns each district a certain fixed percentage of the school's fixed costs, and a variable payment that depends on the number of students the district sends to the technical school in any given year.

Representatives from Morrisville and Bristol, the two smallest school districts sending students to BCTHS, feel the formula places an especially heavy financial burden on their districts. Morrisville is holding most of its scheduled $767,000 payment to BCTHS this year in escrow in protest of the funding formula.

A hearing on the Morrisville funding dispute will be held before the state Department of Education, said BCTHS Administrative Director Leon Poeske. No date for the hearing has been set, he added.

Chris English can be reached at 215-949-4193 or cenglish@phillyBurbs.com Follow Chris on Twitter at Twitter.com/courier.c