Budget impasse, shutdown pushing limits of schools

 

10/29/2025

By Lauren Royce, Editor
SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY — The Pennsylvania state budget is over 110 days overdue and the government shutdown has been going on since Oct. 1 since congress failed to pass appropriations legislation for the 2026 fiscal year. The pressure on local schools to continue operating is reaching a fever pitch as local superintendents hope that relief is somewhere in the near future.

John Rushefski, Superintendent of Susquehanna Community School District, said the impasse is costing his district revenue that they normally would be earning. 

“The big thing we’re looking at right now is, our board has been fiscally responsible over the years and we’ve maintained a fund balance of over $7 million,” Rushefski said. “So what we’ve essentially had to do is dip into the fund balance of that. We did of course get local taxes and that coming our way in August through September, so we’re basically operating on the local funds and our budget surplus. And the consequence really is that it’s probably about $4,000-$5,000 that we are losing probably per month in interest, from our budget surplus.”

So far, the school has not had to seek loans or tax anticipation notes because of this, but it is a finite amount of money being spent. The state will eventually pass the budget, but Rushefski hopes the state will give the district back its lost interest.

“That would be the right thing to do from the state— I’m not sure if they’re about to do that, but our hope would be that they do the right thing,” he said. “Instead we’re using it (money that would gain interest) to recoup what Pennsylvania hasn’t given us.”

Doing some mental math figuring Susquehanna’s budget sits around $19.5 million, with about $12 million coming in, Rushekski said he speculated the bottom would fall out sometime after the new year.

About 800 students attend the K-12 district. Rushefski began his role as superintendent with Susquehanna in 2023, and has been in administration for 30 years. This year marks his 11th total as a superintendent. He recalled a similar impasse situation in one December around or prior to 2020.

“It was hard. There’s no doubt about it, everything about this is very difficult,” he said. “Thats my hope is that this thing’s going to be wrapping up in either November or December.”

The school still has projects on deck and bills to pay, such as a new roof being needed and transportation, custodial and support staff costs.  Currently, teachers at Susquehanna are still being paid. With cyber charter schools also factoring into the mix, Rushefski said he hopes the needs of brick and mortar schools will be fairly considered next to the needs of cyber schools. “I think there has to be realistic kinds of, in terms of funding, to say hey here’s a public school district, there’s physical kinds of demands to recognize going forward,” he said. Buildings still need to be clean, safe and fully operational, whereas cyber schools do not have to worry about those elements.

As Nov. 1 looms and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said “the well has run dry” on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), questions about food assistance have come up. 

“There’s a buzz right now around my district, with SNAP benefits potentially going away, you know, are kids going to lose free breakfasts and free lunches?” Rushefski said, but he wants to reassure the Susquehanna community that those free breakfasts and lunches to students will not be affected in any way for the 2025-2026 school year.

“We already have that program underway, and that will not be affected in any way going forward,” Rushefski said. He also said he had received state correspondence that those meals would remain unaffected. The Susquehanna School District also does monthly pantry giveaways the first Monday of each month, where those in need can receive a free bag of pantry food no questions asked. There is also a backpack program that sends home food with kids in need, which will also remain unaffected, Rushefski said. 

“We have an expectation as a school district to pass a preliminary budget in May and then a final budget in June. June 30 is the final date of that, and we have to adhere to that. I think there should be some sort of ‘have to’ moment for the state legislature as well.”

Susquehanna District, among others, is a member of the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools (PARSS). The executive director of PARSS, Edward Albert, vehemently agreed with Rushefski’s point of holding state legislature to standard. 

“What I find appalling is this: that the state, the districts, it’s mandatory that each district has to have their budget completed, signed, sealed and delivered by June 30,” Albert said. “It’s the law. The legislators are in that same law. But they don’t have to do it.”

Albert said PARSS has been exhausting all possible avenues to make sure the voices of small schools are being heard in Harrisburg.

“We’ve been advocating, we’ve been sending letters, we’ve been doing press conferences,” Albert said. “We’ve been to the capital, we’re reaching out separately to various senators— We sent out letters to parents to advocate for us, we’ve been advocating out the wazoo. All since the governor gave his speech back in February.” 

The speech that Gov. Josh Shapiro gave on Feb. 4 which said as prepared, “We invested $11 billion in public education for the first time ever and targeted those dollars to the schools that need them most. We’re starting to meet the needs of our students, including serving nearly 92 million free breakfasts to school kids last year. Pennsylvania is on the rise.”

“What’s truly more difficult is, we have to start doing that budget back in February, so we’re guessing that number that we’re going to get,” Albert said. “So you have some school districts that have a highway running through their district so they get lots of tax money and they can make things go a lot better than perhaps, a school district way up in your neck of the woods.” Such as Galeton with a $9 million budget, and $1 million going to cyber schools, with no one to tax besides taxpayers and having to rely on the state funds.

“So when people say, ‘how is it?’ I’ll give you a great example: don’t get paid in your household for over a hundred days now. And then tell me how that is. It’s pathetic.”

Fingers can be pointed in all directions, but at the end of the day, the impasse is hurting districts and in turn, children too because more teachers cannot get hired and paid. But placing the blame in different directions won’t help, acknowledging there is a job to do will, Albert said.

To be a member of PARSS costs $975, $15 less than what it was 20 years ago. A few districts have been telling Albert they are unable to pay the fee because of rising conference costs. 

Albert said he had seen a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article that said the state made $40 million in interest on the money it has not released. “If they made $40 in interest, they should certainly give that to us for pain and suffering,” Albert said. “I know about two or three school districts that combined, their budgets don’t make $40 million.”

Albert has 48 years in education under his belt, and through that time, one thing has remained true: when it comes down to negotiating, hashing out a budget must be done.

“I’m saying for pete’s sake, get your keisters into Harrisburg, sit down, order a pizza, don’t leave the room until something’s done. And anybody who knows anything about this, it’s called, ‘give and take.’” 

Blue Ridge Superintendent Matthew Button said while all programs and services were still operating, funds were getting slim. Button is one of the board members with PARSS.

“We are down to, I would say, we’re looking at maybe three to four more payrolls that we’re able to meet before we go into a borrowing process,” Button said. “We’re obviously able to pay payroll and any contractual commitments that we have with reserves that we’ve had in place. One of the biggest negatives to that is those dollars would be used to secure interest over the course of the year, and they’re obviously being used as cash flow right now.”

Button’s concerns echoed Rushefski’s. Button gave a similar timeline estimate, adding that if the impasse didn’t get settled by early December, borrowing would have to be considered.

“If we based it on last year’s numbers, we should have received just under $5.3 million by the beginning of October. Button said, giving a rough guess. “And we received about $1 million. So we’re at about $4.3 million of a loss in state subsidy up to the beginning of October.”

Button, who has been superintendent at Blue Ridge for 11 years and in administration there for 19 years, said he had seen an impasse episode such as this one twice in his career. Previously, stop-gap funding was employed to keep schools afloat. That has not happened yet this time. Button said About 56% of the budget is state-based, with around $13-14 million coming from the state out of around $25 million. The other 44% is federal and local tax dollars.

“I think the biggest thing is advocating with your local legislators, I’ve been in contact with Representative Fritz,” Button said. On the house side, Senate bill 160, a bill meant to pay public debt and schools for the 25-26 fiscal year and bills incurred since June 30.

But, it seems to be stalling in the process.  “I did talk to Senator (Lisa) Baker, and said, it was before they went back on Oct. 6, she really wasn’t able to give me a timeline when she thought it would get done,” Button said. According to the PA General Assembly website at palegis.us, the bill has yet to pass the final stage of executive action.

Forest City School District Superintendent Daniel Gilroy said his district was in the same boat, having to look at the possibility of borrowing money on the horizon.

“That affects us because we’d be borrowing from our fund balance,” Gilroy said, “which we’re also anticipating that fund balance making us some money this year on interest that we wouldn’t get, so it’s like a ripple effect that we go through.”

While Forest City has a fund balance, the budget passing wouldn’t solve all of the district’s problems. “When the budget comes through we’re still fighting for every dollar, with the last couple of years, cyber costs— it’s digging into that fund balance and we’re trying to work on that.” Taxes had been raised to the index this year to cover cyber charter costs. Gilroy estimated about $1.3 million was spent last year on cyber school costs. 

Bleachers need repairing but now, the district has to hold off on that. A new floor sweeper would cost $10,000, leaving one functioning sweeper to clean the district’s buildings. 

“We certainly hope we get a resolution sooner rather than later,” Gilroy said. 

Gilroy is in his third year as superintendent of Forest City. He has worked in public education for 22 years and 15 years in administration. His district serves about 765 students.

“The biggest issue we face is certainly I’m a believer in school choice, I think parents should be able to have the choice,” Gilroy said. “It’s just that the cyber schools are charging us an amount of money that our own home cyber school that we offer, is $4,000 to $8,000 a kid. They’re (outside cyber schools) charging us $16,000 to over $24,000 a kid depending on their situation.”

“We’re very worried after going into the new year,” said Elk Lake School District Superintendent Bob Galella. “What I’ve noticed more than ever— we’re feeling the pinch just because of the lack of funding, we just don’t get the funding even when the budget is passed, like the valley schools,” Galella said. 

Between fixed costs of salaries and benefits, cyber charter tuition and medical insurance costs soaring, “I’m handcuffed,” he said. The deficit is at $1.9 million for Elk Lake School District. A new roof project for the 2027-28 school year was quoted at $1.1 million, he said. A proper maintenance shop which has been on the wishlist for two years is on hold too until the impasse ends, leaving maintenance staff to work out of a crowded makeshift area in a spare classroom. Through strategizing and brainstorming, Galella is looking for ways to keep things going. 

“The last thing I want to have to do is have to do furloughs,” he said. “I would have to exhaust every measure possible before I entertained furloughs and made that recommendation to the board.” A few teachers have announced retirement, meaning at least a few hundred thousand dollars may be up for grabs. That aside, positions are being reshuffled to keep things going.

Galella has been superintendent of Elk Lake for three years. He has worked in public education for 27 years, 21 of which have been in school administration. He taught as an elementary public school teacher for six years before entering the administration world.

“We are still required, with everything going on, no extension, to meet act one legislation; we have to have our budgets up and ready to go,” he said. 

“My business manager asked me two weeks ago, she goes, Bobby what do you want me to do, are we paying out cyber charter bills? I said absolutely not,” Galella said, because tuition is over $15,000 per kid in Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA). 

Galella would have to furlough 18 teachers at the masters’ 30 (education credits) plus max level to be at budget. Elk Lake serves 1,047 students.

Aside from building and facilities costs, there are curriculum costs. Galella said two weeks ago he advised staff that he will not be approving any further curriculum material. No requests can be approved with non-budgeted funds. The reason being that if boilers or power goes down, as Elk Lake school is an older facility, Galella has to be able to pay to repair those things.

Superintendents for Montrose and Mountain View school districts did not immediately respond to phone messages requesting interviews.