No More Pencils, Books?

The school district mulls its worst-case scenario.

While the state legislature continues wrangling over the state budget, which has yet to pass, many agencies and organizations directly affected by the outcome are sitting on pins and needles. Hoping beyond hope that their money holds out until an agreement is reached in Harrisburg, the School District of Philadelphia is one of those entities, but they’re not waiting around for the other shoe to drop.

According to district officials, they're already coming up with a contingency plan to keep schools open if the money runs out. The district and its $1.7 billion operating budget -- along with every other school district in the state -- are in jeopardy as long as the standoff continues. In his weekly e-mail to the staff dated Nov. 26, School District CEO Paul Vallas expressed cautious optimism.

"We are at a critical juncture in the governor’s fight to provide more funding for school districts throughout the commonwealth," Vallas wrote. "The Philadelphia School District has taken steps to ensure that classrooms will stay open and that payroll will be met as the negotiations drag on, but it has been a difficult process and it has not come without cost." Vallas encouraged district employees to call state senators and implore them to at least support the compromise measure passed by the House in October. That compromise package, hammered out by Gov. Ed Rendell and House Speaker John Perzel, would provide for less of a funding increase than Rendell had originally requested, but according to Vallas, "represents a reasonable compromise that would significantly expand " the many reforms we have introduced this year."

"The governor originally wanted $10 billion," says Perzel. "and now it’s down to just over $1 billion. I believe that a compromise will be reached before the Christmas break."

But what if the Senate doesn’t pass even the compromised package? District spokesperson Cameron Kline lays out the district’s plan for keeping 214,000 students in class and 21,580 employees working.

"When the budget didn’t pass at the beginning of the fiscal year, we started working on a contingency plan right away," Kline says. "We started working with the mayor’s people and began drawing up worst-case scenarios."

Kline says the district has already made preliminary contact with banks for possible loans and may even be able to float a couple of bond issues. Either way, he says, it’s way too early to panic.

"We have high hopes that the legislature will be able to work with the governor to get this all straightened out by mid-December," says Kline. "As you know, very often these things go right down to the wire."

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