Letter to the Editor: No good options for Cumberland Valley School District

No good options for CV

Cumberland Valley’s School District shared their projected budget Monday night during their finance meeting. Their presentation revealed the high probability that by the 2027-2028 school year, their fund balance will be -$788,000. Even with some planned drastic cuts this year and next, the outlook is not good. If you ask administration or the majority of the board how the district got to this point in five short years, they will say it’s no fault through their own but blame the state for not providing adequate funding. While that may be a factor to deal with, there is no excuse for the dire situation the district now faces. CVSD had a balanced budget up until 2020. If the issue was addressed three years ago, adjustments could have been made. There is also the issue of the current large construction projects that were approved last year. Three board members voted against the projects stating a modified version should be considered in light of the deficit spending and budget projections. They were ignored.

Kelly Potteiger, Andrew Clancy, and Matt Barrick ran for school board because they saw how serious this problem would become in a very short period of time. They projected the school district would be out of money within five years. They were called divisive and fear mongers, but it turns out that they were correct in their projections. It seems like anybody that did their research would have come up with their same conclusion. You just can’t keep spending money you don’t have and not end up in a bad situation. The administration and majority of the board still does not believe this is their fault, and continues to blame the state for not giving them more money.

Good leadership does not make excuses, but comes up with a plan to adjust to problems. Why did administration and a majority of the board not once in the past three years do their due diligence and come up with a financial plan so CV wouldn’t be in the dire position the district is now in.

During the finance meeting on Monday, Kelly Potteiger asked if we can’t raise taxes above the index, and we can’t petition the PA Dept of Ed, what happens to us in two years? The administration said there were two options:

1) the district could use bonds to borrow money for future year revenue to use each year (unsustainable and horrible for taxpayers)

2) Cumberland Valley school district would go into receivership of the state

This seems almost impossible to comprehend. CVSD doesn’t seem to have any good options left. Taxpayers deserve answers from administrators and board members on why there has been no fiscal accountability for the past four years.

Concerned Citizen of Cumberland Valley