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HANOVER TWP. — The Hanover School District will have to borrow money to make ends meet, district Business Manager Tom Cipriano said on Friday.
“We may need to borrow, but at least we know the money is coming,” he said.
The district may not see $210,000 in promised state reimbursements for construction work performed more than a decade ago until the 2016-17 school year.
“We don’t want to borrow now,” Cipriano said. “It’s not fair to the current taxpayers to pay the fees (associated with borrowing) because Harrisburg is not sending the money quick enough or regular enough. There is no timetable that we can find that says when we’re going to get the next allotment of basic education funding. We don’t know when these next payments are coming.”
Cipriano said the district has received basic education funding “forever” five times a year at very regular intervals.
“This doesn’t help districts like ours that have increased poverty, English language learners and an over reliance on school property taxes because we get less from the state,” he said.
“It’s hard to plan your payroll,” he added. “We just keep waiting and watching. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
In other matters, the school board recognized Dominick Gurnari as the March Student of the Month at Thursday’s regular meeting. The board also recognized Jared Stefanowicz for winning first place in the U.S. House of Representative’s Congressional Application Challenge.
The board also voted to:
· Accept the retirement of Michelle Klug, confidential secretary, effective Dec. 31, 2016.
· Accept the retirement of Betty Cinti, elementary school clerk, at the end of the 2015-16 school year.
· Appoint Rosemary Jimenez Ortiz as a paraprofessional for the 2015-2016 school year at a rate of $10 per hour.
· Appoint Melissa Luksh as head varsity cheerleading coach with a pay of $2, 474 and Benjamin Webb as an unpaid assistant varsity football coach
The next school board meeting will be held on May 5.