Butler superintendent urges Pa. House to fund district
Butler Area School District superintendent Brian White testified Thursday about the funding challenges faced by the school district, as well as others across the state, at a Pennsylvania House Appropriations and Education Committee joint hearing.
In his presentation to members of the committees, White said the basic funding formula used to determine how much money each school district receives should be reworked to address the needs of each.
Allocating funding to school districts for specific purposes could help quell problems like staffing. White said that employee recruitment is a constant routine for Butler Area School District.
“Hope for students and staff is larger than the estimated $6 billion needed for adequacy in the basic education formula,” White said. “Our starting salary is $49,523. For comparison, one of our contiguous neighboring school districts' starting salary is $60,712.
“The top of our teacher salary scale — with a master’s degree — is $86,753. There are multiple districts within 30 minutes of us where the top of the salary schedule is over $100,000.”
The committees met at Allegheny Traditional Elementary Academy in Pittsburgh, allowing White to present his testimony in person. White was joined on a panel by Amy Arcurio, superintendent of the Greater Johnstown School District, and Michael Churchill, counsel with the Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center, who each discussed ongoing school funding challenges.
White also included written testimony, which included references to an April 2019 study by Picus Odden & Associates. The study aimed to “identify the gap between current school resources and the array of educational goods that would allow Pennsylvania schools to ‘work.’”
White said the study identified systematic changes that could cut costs in several areas, including transportation and school construction, and even addressed collaboration with charter schools. The cost to address some of these existing needs, however, would be steep.
“It cited significant staffing shortages in many areas and indicated that the district would need an additional $7.6 million per year to implement an evidence-based model,” White said.
The Butler Area School District school board in June approved the 2023-24 budget, with expenses totaling about $110.4 million. The board also approved a tax increase of 2.95 mills — bringing the millage in the district to 106.98.
White said in his testimony that the “community is not in a position to handle large tax increases,” so a solution should be identified soon.
“Butler Area School District has 10 schools and serves 6,200 students; 46 percent of our students receive free and reduced lunch,” he said. “We have 453 teachers and 210 support staff. We are currently fully staffed with teachers and are short 15 support staff.”
In a summary of his talk, White said he would like to see state legislators meet with school district superintendents to open a line of communication that will help best address funding issues through resource allocation, rather than strictly money.
“We need a system that puts teachers in the best possible position to successfully provide instruction to their students with the materials and resources they need,” White said. “My fear is that if we inject a large amount of money into the system of public education without addressing some of the underlying expense issues, we will unintentionally erode support for a comprehensive, effective and contemporary system of public education.”
