Central Cambria to hear options

Decision regarding elementary schools would determine potential tax hike

The Central Cambria School Board will soon find out what their options are regarding the elementary feasibility study the district authorized Eckles Construction Service and Draw Collective to conduct in November.

According to Superintendent Jason Moore, representatives from Draw Collective will present their recommendations of short-term and long-term options for the board to consider during the April 8 board meeting.

Moore said it is "extremely unlikely" that Jackson Elementary School would close before the 2024-25 school year begins if the architects recommend the consolidation of schools as a long-term possibility. For the short-term, he said their focus will be to determine whether integrating all students in the third through fifth grades is possible.

If the architects are certain the grade reconfiguration is a probable solution, he said the school board will likely vote on the recommendation at its May 13 meeting, before passing the annual budget in June.

"At some point, the board has to make a decision, and they just want to make sure that it's an informed decision," he said.

Moore said the district's business manager will present two separate proposed budgets for the board to consider before the reconfiguration vote takes place.

The first option, he said, is a status quo budget in which both Jackson Elementary and Cambria Elementary schools would continue to educate students separately and all retiring teachers would be replaced with new hires.

He said because of the increase in cyber charter school tuition costs -- for which the district budget allocates $900,000 -- and the loss of revenue from the commercial tax appeal of a power plant in Jackson Township, the status quo budget would likely necessitate tax increases up to the Act 1 Index for several years.

The budget would contain a large deficit, risking depletion of the reserve fund, he said.

A second option would include the cost reductions from integrating the students in third through fifth grades -- saving the district over $500,000 annually -- and additional reductions in administrative and clerical personnel costs through attrition.

With the potential for nearly $1 million in reduced expenditures, the second option would only require a small one-time inflationary increase of taxes to immediately balance the budget, he said.

"The board has to look at the benefits and drawbacks of either of those options," Moore said, adding he thinks the county's bad assessment of CPV Fairview in Jackson Township delayed the district's need to right size and scale back its budget.

"Obviously with the reassessment we're going to have to find ways to get the budget balanced relatively quickly," he said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.