Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has submitted a revised amended financial recovery plan for the teetering Chester Upland School District.
The Department of Education and district receiver Francis Barnes filed the plan Oct. 2 with the Delaware Court of Common Pleas in Media, Pa.
Wolf, along with three brick-and-mortar charter schools, have worked out an agreement for the district to pay those schools a reduced special education tuition rate. The three charters have agreed to accept $27,028 per student rather than the current $40,000 per student.
County Judge Chad Kenney in August rejected Chester Upland's original plan, filed in August with an offer to pay $16,000 per special education student.
According to court documents, the district could end fiscal 2016 with a negative fund balance of about $51 million, up sharply from the $23.8 million reported in 2015.
The plan seeks to eliminate the district's annual structural deficit by modifying the district's special education charter tuition rate — for those charter schools who were not part of the agreement — and request a permanent increase to the district's basic education funding from the General Assembly.
It also looks to eliminate the district's negative fund balance through several means, including extraordinary funding or refinancing, and to plan and fund capital improvements to district schools.
