The budget that was approved Thursday does not include funding to pay off that debt. District officials said they were negotiating with the state to find a way to pay it.
Even with the remaining problems, there is more cooperation between Pennsylvania officials and Chester Upland than there was in January, when it went to federal court to get funding from the state to stay open, Thomas Persing, the acting assistant superintendent, said in an interview before the meeting.
"There seems to be a very bright future compared to what it was like in January," Persing said. "We're very hopeful at this point."
The budget passed Thursday leaves things in the classrooms in the Delaware County district much as they were this school year, except that full-day prekindergarten and full-day kindergarten are being added.
Persing said that the district also would beef up its special-education program, but he had no details. Negotiations with state officials over how to achieve that are also continuing, he said.
The grade configuration of the schools will be changed, but all will remain open, he said. Some security positions have been cut.
The district will continue to have no art or music programs except at one elementary school, and no Advanced Placement or honors classes, Persing said.
The district gets about 80 percent of its funding from the state; the new budget includes a 2.7 percent tax increase, but that will bring in only a few hundred thousand dollars, business manager Robert Bruchak said.
Looming over the district is the prospect that in the near future, a proposed state law on financially distressed school districts will be enacted in Harrisburg and a "recovery officer" will come in to craft a new financial plan for Chester Upland.
That could change everything that is now in the works, Persing said. "So we're only speculating on what the future will be. We don't know. It's out of our hands."
Contact Dan Hardy
at 601-313-8134 or dhardy@phillynews.com, or follow on Twitter @DanInq.
