CLEARFIELD – During Monday night’s Clearfield Area School Board of Directors meeting, Superintendent Terry Struble briefly mentioned the fair funding lawsuit, which was filed in 2014 by six districts, six sets of parents and two educational advisory groups and went to trial in November 2021.
In February of this year Judge Renee Cohn Jubelier handed down a 786-page ruling, stating that the state’s school funding system is unconstitutional.
The state had argued the state has made strides in funding the school districts, especially in recent years, with funding increasing this year alone by $1.3 billion and with districts sitting on reserves of about $4 billion, according to statements made by state Senator Jake Corman in 2021.
Struble said the ruling resulted in the General Assembly forming a study commission to look at the issue and that recently a Penn State professor involved in the lawsuit has stated that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania needs to be contributing $6 billion in the budget to fund districts adequately.
He said he would keep the board updated on the progress of the commission’s findings.
In other business:
- The board will maintain seven classrooms in grade four, five and six and a senior high Learning Support Classroom. Current enrollment indicates a possible collapse of each grade level for the 2023-24 school year.
- Board member Kate Wood will be attending the Pennsylvania School Board Association conference in October with the district covering costs.
- The scheduled meeting for Nov. 27 is cancelled and the workshop and voting meeting week be held Nov. 20. The meeting on Dec. 4 will be the reorganizational meeting.