Montoursville Area SD board reviews budget plan to use fund balance; physics teacher position highlighted as a cost-saving option

The Montoursville Area School District board heard a detailed budget presentation April 8 and discussed a proposal to stop budgeting a separate budgetary reserve and instead use general fund balance for one-time costs and emergencies.

Business Manager (speaker 9) told the board the proposed budget shows an overall increase of $235,085 driven by higher wages and benefits, including a 6.5% insurance increase, and higher contracted services. "Worst case scenario, I think we will have about 3,200,000 at the June," she said when outlining the district's fund-balance projection. She explained the change in practice: "We have moved things back out into the budget, where they actually are being expended. And our budgetary reserve has become a true budgetary reserve again where it is used for one-time costs, emergencies."

The business manager said line items with notable increases include a $186,630 rise in IU services (including an audit increase), a $132,853 increase in property services (utilities, repairs), a roughly $206,578 increase in other purchased services for online courses, a $32,000 increase in transportation costs, and about $130,314 more for supplies driven largely by a six-year software renewal.

Board members asked how to handle an apparent student-activities overspend of about $65,000 that shows up late in the fiscal year. The business manager acknowledged the timing of costs and offered to provide more detail; she also said some events and district activities generate irregular costs that surface later in the year.

Budgetary trade-offs and staffing

As part of balancing options, the board discussed a funded physics teaching position. "There are 35 students signed up between honors physics and AP physics next year," said Mister Tee (speaker 6), who described staffing and certification challenges. He said the district had one certified applicant interviewed but did not expect to fill a full-time certified physics teacher easily. "If you roll that back in, you're looking at, what, a $700,000 deficit," another board member warned, describing the financial exposure if reserves return to prior practice.

Board members and administrators discussed alternatives to hiring a full-time physics teacher, including online coursework, dual-enrollment partnerships (Lycoming County offerings were mentioned), busing students to neighboring districts that run in-person physics classes, or sharing students so neighboring districts can support the load. No final decision on the physics position was made at the meeting; board members asked staff to explore partnerships and other creative staffing approaches.

Why this matters

Changing how the district treats its budgetary reserve affects transparency and future tax and spending decisions: proponents said the approach clarifies recurring costs in the base budget, while skeptics cautioned it could conceal structural deficits and invite pressure to raise taxes later. The board did not adopt a final budget at the meeting; the business manager said she will rework numbers for the May work session and the board is scheduled to adopt the proposed final budget in May.

Next steps

The business manager will provide further breakdowns on student-activities spending and circulate updated fund-balance estimates at the May work session. The board directed staff to continue exploring staffing options for physics and possible inter-district arrangements.