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Mifflin County board says state budget windfall trims deficit as charter changes loom
Summary
Board finance staff told the Mifflin County School Board that the recently signed state budget and related reforms added roughly $2.5 million in adequacy funding and modest increases to basic and special education subsidies, improving the district's 2025-26 outlook but leaving structural questions for future years.
Mifflin County School District officials told the school board that the recently enacted state budget materially improved the district's 2025-26 finances.
Mrs. Knecht, the district business manager, said the state fully funded the second installment of adequacy payments under the Ready to Learn block grant and "the district received an additional $2,500,000 in adequacy," and that the district also gained roughly $57,000 in basic-education subsidy and $7,000 in special-education subsidy as a result of the budget signed by Governor Shapiro.
The funding reduced a projected shortfall the district had previously estimated. Knecht said the district had initially budgeted for a roughly $4.7 million deficit for 2025-26 and that the state payments, together with other adjustments, had substantially narrowed that gap.
Knecht also reported an un-audited surplus at the Midland County Academy for fiscal 2024-25 of $642,603; the academy's financial statements were not yet final with auditors, she said. She warned that county assessment appeals will reduce district revenues next year by about $53,000, down from roughly $73,000 the prior year, and noted the district remains constrained by the timing of statewide reassessments and local staffing for valuations.
Board members and staff discussed the state's Act 1 index and related timelines; Knecht said the district's adjusted Act 1 index for 2026-27 is 4.8 percent and recommended scheduling a special building meeting for May 21 to comply with statutory timelines.
Knecht also outlined planned PDE (Pennsylvania Department of Education) changes to the charter-school funding form (PDE-363) that will change how cyber-charter costs are treated, and she recounted an advocacy group's report alleging unusually high travel and hospitality spending by a charter school as one driver of the recent funding reforms.
Next steps: the board will proceed with required Act 1 calendar steps and follow up once audited statements and the finalized PDE forms are available. The district also flagged the assessment-appeal revenue loss for follow-up in future budget work.
