SUPERINTENDENT’S MESSAGE
“The need for charter school funding reform has never been more
apparent. Norwin School District pays more than $1 million per year
for state-mandated charter school tuition. However, it only costs charter
schools a fraction of that cost to actually educate students.”
—— Dr. Jeff Taylor, Norwin Superintendent
Dear Norwin Community Members,
I
t is an honor to address the Norwin
community with a Superintendent’s
Message once again. This message
will describe my philosophy of
budgeting for fiscal integrity and
the District’s efforts to address the
budgetary challenge of charter school
tuition.
First, I will address the topic of charter
school tuition. At Norwin School
District, the Board of Education and
I are urging lawmakers to make the
state’s charter school funding system
more fair and balanced.
Charter school payments are calculated
in a manner that requires school
districts like Norwin to send more
money to charter schools than is
needed to operate their programs.
This places a significant financial
burden on Norwin School District
resources and taxpayers. For example,
Norwin School District’s state-
mandated payments to charter schools
cost more than $1 million per year.
This cost has been the equivalent of
between 2.8 to 3.2 mills of real estate
taxes during the past two years.
For the same amount of money as our
annual charter school costs, Norwin
School District could hire an additional
10 teachers, which would greatly
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NORWIN
improve educational quality for
Norwin’s 5,289 students in grades
K-12.
The Board of Education approved a
resolution urging the Pennsylvania
General Assembly to revise the
existing charter school funding
system for regular and special
education. The resolution has been
shared with Pennsylvania elected
officials to ask for their support.
Many cyber charter schools
underperform academically,
according to The Future Ready
PA Index (futurereadypa.org).
They require significant financial
resources from taxpayers, yet create
substandard academic outcomes for
children. In that sense, Pennsylvania
cyber charter schools are guilty of
educational malpractice.
In contrast, Norwin students are
academically outperforming
Westmoreland County and
Pennsylvania averages on several
major assessments, including the
state PSSA and Keystone Exams, the
SAT, on Advanced Placement (AP)
tests, and on the NOCTI technical
skills exams. These results are
phenomenal and a credit to Norwin’s
great teachers, hardworking students,
and supportive parents.
Charter school costs are one of
several major budgetary hurdles
Norwin School District will face as
it looks to approve a budget for the
2020-2021 school year in June. Other
budgetary challenges will include
increases in mandated pension costs,
special education costs, and capital
project needs.
This brings me to my second topic:
Budgeting for fiscal integrity in the
2020-2021 school year.
To me, budgeting for fiscal integrity
means that Norwin School District’s
budgeting process will align finances
to District goals, such as providing
(1) a safe and secure environment,
(2) a world-class education where
graduates are college and career
ready, (3) an environment that
supports growth, and (4) fiscal
integrity.
As required by law, school districts
must pass a budget by June 30 each
year. This requires a lot of planning
and even some estimation since the
deadline coincides with the state
budget deadline – school districts do
not typically know their allocation
from the state when they are required
to pass a budget.