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WRIGHT TWP. — The Crestwood School Board voted Monday to approve a proposed final budget with no tax increase, but the plan also nearly wipes out a modest fund balance to cover a revenue shortfall. According to the budget information posted on the district website, the plan would turn an estimate reserve of $852,428 into a scant $59,708.
The budget projects total spending of $41.1 million and total income from all sources of $40.3 million. Exhausting the fund balance makes up the difference.
Under state law, the board must vote one more time on a final budget before June 30.
Superintendent Robert Mehalick offered a sort of good news, bad news report. On the plus side, he noted an agenda item — unanimously approved — that will allow the district to continue providing free breakfasts and lunches to any student through the summer. The meals will be distributed at the secondary campus in Wright Township, the White Haven Library, and the Slocum Township fire hall.
He also noted the district is receiving six radios from Luzerne County that will provide administrators in each school direct communications with the county 911 center.
On the bad news side, Mehalick repeated a frequent lament among area school district superintendents: That a lack of any guidance from the state is making planning for the start of the 2020-21 school year very difficult. The district, he said, is preparing for a possible continuation of school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Teachers are going through intensive training for a fully online curriculum program,” Mehalick said. “We’re hoping we do not need to consider it, but it is a possibility.” He also said a hybrid program — some classes in person, some online — is another option, but conceded that could be more difficult to figure out logistically than a remote-only start of the school year.
“They may cap the number of kids in a space, how many kids allowed on a bus. There are a lot more questions than answers,” he said. “It is a lot more feasible for us to prepare for going completely online than to prepare for all the possibilities that might come with social distancing.”
The district is also considering the option of in-person classes for most while arranging home lessons for students with health conditions or who live with adults with health conditions that put them at high risk if they contract the new virus.
Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish