September 09, 2015
Street View/Google
Chester Upland School District administration building in Chester
More than 300 Chester Upland School District teachers and staff will receive paychecks today, Sept. 9, nearly two weeks after they agreed to work without pay as the district rumbles through another funding crisis.
The unions for faculty and staff voted Aug. 27 to work without pay after administrators announced the district did not have the funding required to meet its Sept. 9 payroll. The financially distressed district, under the authority of a state-appointed receiver, faces a $22 million budget deficit that could grow to more than $40 million.
Classes began Tuesday.
“As a result of the State of Pennsylvania making the district’s debt service payment, as well as the district’s efforts to allocate resources, the district will be able to make its payroll payment today,” Chester Upland Receiver Francis Barnes said in a statement. “We greatly appreciate our dedicated staff’s commitment to our students during these times. We also sincerely thank all who have continued to support the district.”
Chester Upland administrators are expected to join Pennsylvania Department of Education officials in court Wednesday.
Jeff Sheridan, a spokesman for Gov. Tom Wolf, told the Washington Post that Chester Upland "is in danger of not existing" unless drastic measures are taken. He cited local mismanagement, state education funding cuts and antiquated charter school funding formulas for the funding shortage.
Chester Upland has been under some form of state control for two decades, save for a two-year stretch from 2010 to 2012.
The district faced a similar financial crisis in January 2012, when teachers also pledged to work without pay. When the school board sued the state in federal court, a judge ordered the state to pay the district enough to keep its doors open through the school year. Chester Upland and state officials later reached a settlement that netted the district about $31 million.
But the state declared Chester Upland financially distressed just months later, appointing a state official to implement a financial recovery plan.
District officials have long pointed to charter school funding formulas as a major burden on Chester Upland's finances.
According to the Wolf administration, the district must pay charter schools about $40,000 per year to educate each special-education student they enroll — twice the amount the district spends on its own special-education students.
