CLEARFIELD – During Monday’s Clearfield Area School District board meeting, Business Administrator Sam Maney reported that he’s working on the district budget, the deadline for which is June 30, when the district will have to adopt the final budget for the 2020-21 school year.
Maney then reported that the district received a letter from county Solicitor Heather Bozovich requesting the tax millage rate for the upcoming school year and duplicates by the end of May. He expressed concern about this because the millage will not be finalized until June when the budget is formally adopted.
He sent an e-mail to Commissioner David Glass, who is a former member of the school board, as is Commissioner John Sobel, and Glass replied that he had been unaware of such a letter being sent out to any of the districts and that he would look into it. Maney said he concluded that none of the commissioners were aware of the matter.
Regardless, he said the district has to follow Act 1 and cannot change the schedule. Maney said he would continue to work as scheduled and update the board as needed.
Superintendent Terry Struble also spoke to the board about upcoming retirements in the district, including Joseph Ryan, secondary English teacher, Susan Zelenky, secondary science teacher and Holly McKolosky, secondary special education teacher. He said the deadline to submit letters is March 15 and there could be one or two more.
With the total number of years represented, he said it will be difficult to fill those positions and said they would be advertising immediately for new staff.
Struble also reported that Mark McCracken will be helping the district with acquiring funding from the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program through the Clearfield County Charitable Foundation.
EITC provides credits to eligible businesses which contribute to “a Scholarship Organization, an Educational Improvement Organization, and or a Pre-Kindergarten Scholarship Organization,” according to the state Department of Education.
Struble said credits can be applied against tax liability for the year the contribution was made, and in return, the funding will help the district.
