The newly proposed 2008-09 Pennsylvania education budget that provides an historic $274-million increase in education funding for the upcoming school year has officials in three Crawford County school districts cautiously optimistic.

Gov. Ed Rendell originally proposed a $291 million increase in funding. While the governor got the majority of the hike he asked for, special-education funding was cut as were several grant programs.

According to Norman Yeager, business manager at Conneaut School District, the plan giveth and the plan taketh away.

“You really have to take it into perspective,” he said. “Our district will receive about $40,000 more in subsidies than we initially budgeted for.”

And while $40,000 isn’t chump change, Yeager said about three-fourths of that will be eaten up by reductions in special-education and grant funding that the district had planned on receiving.

One of the programs that was slashed by a whopping 50 percent under the new plan was Classrooms For the Future, which aims to greatly expand the technology available to students by giving them greater accessibility to laptop computers in the classrooms. All three districts signed on for CFF grants in May.

Crawford Central

Crawford Central School District Superintendent Michael Dolecki said if districts had known the increase was on the horizon they may have “looked at things differently” with regard to the budget process and the 2.65-mill tax increase that was recently passed.

“But it didn’t happen that way,” he said.

Pennsylvania requires that all 501 school districts pass their general fund budgets by June 30.

Crawford Central had budgeted receiving a 1.5 percent increase in state subsidies, but according to the plan, all school districts will receiving a minimum of a 3-percent hike.

While the plan hasn’t been inked yet, Dolecki said, “At this point, we are encouraged and optimistic.”

Any additional funds that Crawford Central receives will be added to the fund balance which should bring it just under the 6 percent mark.

“If it happens that way, then it would increase our fund balance from 5.05 percent to 5.9 percent, which is better than it has been in years,” Dolecki said. “This would make the budgetary process much easier for next year.”

PENNCREST