The financial issues confronting the Penn Hills School District in eastern Allegheny County has prompted the state representative for the area to ask the state to place the District in financial recovery status under Act 141. The representative made a similar request in early 2016.
Under the Act a district is determined to be in financial distress if it has enrollment over 7,500 and gets an advance of its basic education subsidy from the state, or it receives an advance on its basic education subsidy and is either subject to a declaration of financial distress or is engaged in litigation against the state for financial assistance. As of now four districts are in financial recovery status: based on the letters from the Department of Education to each district there were advances of state basic education subsidies at various points to the four districts and one (Chester-Upland) was involved in litigation against the state. There are also five districts in “financial watch” status under the law.
The state says it will review the request, and decide how to proceed. In the meantime, with a fiscal year approaching for 2017-18 next month and a proposed budget that would raise taxes 4.76% (the millage currently is 26.3061, meaning the rate would rise to 27.55 mills) is under consideration.
