Morrisville Schools Cancel Laptops, Consider Furloughs

MORRISVILLE, PA — Facing a $1.5 million budget shortfall, officials with the Morrisville Borough School District have canceled the purchase of laptops meant for home-schooling and are pondering furloughs and steep program cuts in the district.

All kindergarten programming, all athletics and arts, music and other elective courses would be cut and assistant principals, media specialists, pupil-support positions and other support staff would be furloughed under a non-binding resolution already approved by the Morrisville school board.

"It is my sincere hope that thee cuts will not be enacted," Superintendent Jason Harris wrote in a letter to the school community on Sunday.

In the letter, Harris said officials are "hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst."

Meanwhile, the district has canceled an order for Chromebooks intended for home schooling during the coronavirus shutdown, after being denied federal and state grants that were expected to pay for them.

The money was to come through the federal CARES Act and a state equity grant, Harris said.

"Unfortunately, we do not have an indication when the CARES Act dollars might arrive and, doubly unfortunate, our district has not been awarded the equity grant," he wrote. "This information was received before Wednesday’s board meeting and was not well received by anyone on our team."

Instead, Harris said, the district will distribute the Chromebooks it already has to students who have said they do not have access to a home computer. Households with more than one student will be asked to share the computers, he said.

The school board has until June 30 to approve a balanced budget for the 2020-21 school year. The current $1.5 million shortfall has come as the district's budget was stressed by costs including pension contributions, charter school tuition and special education expenses, Harris said.

"This triad of mandated costs also stresses larger districts, but in a place like Morrisville, even the slightest variation above the budgeted amount can have drastic effects on our planning and implementation of programs and services," he said in the letter.

Last year, the board had to pass a 6.3 percent tax increase to close its budget gap.

"This year, the board does not have the same option," Harris said.

He said the proposed cuts and furloughs would be balanced and touch every area of the three-school district.

"The proposed cuts are painful, tragic and would impact programming in a very negative way," he said.

On Friday, Harris and school board President Damon Miller met with State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, state Rep. Perry Warren, state Rep. Joe Galloway and Morrisville Borough representatives about the budget situation.

He said an appeal to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf for more funding is also being considered.