A significant increase in funding for schools in the 2022-23 state budget comes as a welcome relief for Butler County school districts hit by inflation.

Approved by Governor Tom Wolf on July 8, the Pennsylvania state budget, which allocates a total of upwards of $7.6 billion for the Basic Education Funding category and $225 million to supplement school districts with a higher at-risk student population, ended up with a more than $767 million — or 10.83% — increase over the 2021-22 funds allocated to schools. The increase to the Basic Education Funding category alone amounts to more than $542 million, or 7.66%.

An additional $1.3 billion is allocated for special education, which amounts to an 8.1% increase over the 2021-22 state budget for the category.

Debbie Brandstetter, business manager at Mars Area School District, said she had anticipated some of the funding increases while planning the Mars Area budget for 2022-23.

“I already had most of (the special education funding) in my budget, because I budgeted a 2% increase,” she said. “Last year was 2%, and they had said there would be increased funding.”

The additional $457,306 in basic education funding was not as anticipated, and comes as a welcome surprise.

“The Basic Ed funding, I am always very cautious. We knew we were going to be getting additional funding, but we just didn’t know how much,” she said. “I just kind of flatlined it and kept it that way, and figured we would see what we get. Because of the lateness of the state budget, I wasn’t really comfortable putting a number in, without really knowing where it was going to be.”

The additional funds will go towards balancing out the district’s deficit of $1.04 million, which would normally come out of Mars Area’s district fund balance. The deficit is now reduced to approximately $585,000.

Two physical security and mental health grants, amounting to $150,588 each, will open for applications on August 1, and the district’s administrators will meet to determine what projects to use the $301,176 allotted to Mars Area for.

“There are baseline criteria for both of the grants,” Brandstetter said. “One of the things we are looking at, for safety, is we’re looking at doing new metal detectors, where you can walk through, and it sees if you have anything on you. We have already ordered three, and this would allow us to get the rest of them.”

The district is still in the process of evaluating what they would want to use the funding for, she added.

“There are certain things you can spend it on, and you have to basically go through the eGrants system,” she said. “From what we understand, they are putting together an application that will open August 1. We’ll have until August 31 to complete that and submit that grant.”

The additional funds may help with the impact of inflation on school expenses, said Evan Garvey, director of business affairs at Karns City Area School District.

Karns City will receive $10.3 million for basic education funding, which is a 3.54% increase from last year’s funds, and $1.3 million for special education funding, which is a 5.5% increase from last year.

“I think, (for) the plan for the additional funding for these two allocations, primarily, our first thing would be to offset the inflationary pressures that the district has incurred as we are purchasing supplies for the next school year,” Garvey said. “I think that’s something that everybody is probably (dealing with). In addition to that, any funding above and beyond what we would apply to those inflationary pressures would probably be used to support the building projects here at the district.”

During their annual budgeting process this year, Garvey said, Karns City’s board was also cautious about overestimating potential increases.

“The district's approach throughout the budget process was relatively conservative,” he said. “When the original proposal was shared by Wolf, it was quite optimistic, so we did try and look at historical increases, and try and base our budget allocation off of that.”

For the Physical Safety and Mental Health Grants, the district plans to work with school police officers to determine the best use of the funds.

“I can tell you that the administrative team here at the district, we have had plans to continue to meet with the school police officers to make sure we come up with a comprehensive plan to best use those funds,” Garvey said. “We are going to apply those to both school security and mental health as applicable, but we are still waiting right now to get a little further guidance as to how we need to apply those, and we will incorporate those needs into our discussions as we develop a plan.”

Butler Area School District superintendent Brian White, said that the increases were more than expected in past years. Butler Area School District received $27.5 million in basic education funding, an increase of $1.2 million from last year, and $5.2 million in special education funding, a $322,903 increase from last year.

“The general fund basic education increase and the special education subsidy are both generous,” he said. “A big piece of this will be used on inflationary increases for things we’ve already budgeted for, like the diesel in the school buses. Everyone is paying more at the pump for their own gas, and we are paying more for the school buses.”

He expects the district may use some of the mental health funds to offset costs of the district’s partnership with Glade Run Lutheran Services.

“We have a strong partnership with Glade Run, and we have eight therapists right now,” White said. “We will be talking with them, and we will probably be using some of that money to offset some of the therapy costs.”

While the increases will help even out funds at the district, White said he is cautious of large increases in funding as a rule.

“I am encouraged that the resources are coming to the school, but I worry about the sustainability of funds long-term from the state, because I know there is a huge injection of COVID funding,” he said. “Schools are long-term investments, and sometimes you throw a lot of money at it at one point, and don’t make long-term plans. If we had consistent, gradual increase of funding and a commitment to the long term, I would feel more secure. I worry when big numbers come up quickly, that they go down quickly as well.”