A research group that arrived last year to examine the Butler School District's budget reports that the district is using its money well but needs more cash to thrive.

The Butler School District was one of three throughout the state selected by the Philadelphia education nonprofit Research for Action. The group contracted with Picus Odden and Associates, a small consulting group that uses academic research on education and school case studies to create a model on how districts ought to allocate their cash.

The consulting group's Allan Odden, a professor emeritus from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said academics in the Butler schools don't have enough money to do everything research says they ought to. However, he also had a lot of praise to give.

“There wasn't really anything material that I could say to the superintendent,” Odden said. “All of his ideas of what he could do, and what he would do if he could, align with what we would advise.”

Odden said that was unusual, and isn't the case in most school districts they dissect.

This is an excerpt — read the full article in Friday's Butler Eagle.