No homecoming dance, no extracurriculars: Funding crisis disrupts William Penn School District

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Pennsylvania’s budget impasse has paused crucial dollars from reaching the cash-strapped William Penn School District in Delaware County just as contract negotiations between the district and its teachers union stalled.

With neither adequate state funding nor a new contract, William Penn, which already had pre-existing fiscal issues, has discontinued all non-athletic afterschool extracurriculars, including the homecoming dance.

The district’s money problems and activity cancellations caused unhappy students at Penn Wood High School to stage a walkout in late September. Similar frustrations came to the forefront Monday evening at a packed, three-hour-long school board meeting. A lack of laptops and seats was top of mind.

“We don’t have enough seats in most of our classes, like in one of my classes, not even all of us can sit down,” said Rikaya Clark, a senior at Penn Wood, during public comment.

Students also raised concerns that the district has yet to resolve classroom temperature spikes.

“It’s hard for me to breathe,” said Caira Nelson, a junior at Penn Wood. “I’m asthmatic, so it’s hard for me to breathe in class. I can’t do my work. It’s making me drop my grades and I’ve always been an A-student since day one.”

For seniors, the absence of after-school clubs and activities has them worried for college application season.

“If we don’t have clubs and we don’t have our societies, then we won’t be the best applicants we can be for college,” said Morgan Askew Green, a Penn Wood senior.

Students wanted answers from the “adults in charge.”

“Something must be done about it to address these concerns,” said Ismael Torres, a Penn Wood sophomore.

The William Penn School District Board of School Directors and Superintendent Eric Becoats attempted to calm students, parents and teachers in attendance, but the conversation ultimately boiled down to dollars and cents.

“We are dependent upon local taxpayers, the state government and the federal government to provide us with funding,” Becoats said. “That’s the reality, and we’re still not where we need to be.”

William Penn ‘under an unbelievable amount of stress’

William Penn serves more than 4,500 students from the boroughs of Aldan, Colwyn, Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne and Yeadon. A majority of the district’s students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

The district joined five others in successfully suing the state in 2014, claiming the school funding model was discriminatory. About half of William Penn’s funding comes from state sources.

In the years since the landmark 2023 ruling, William Penn has found itself facing a major budget deficit due to rising benefits and salaries, charter school tuition costs, debt service payments and special education expenditures. District officials also uncovered a number of bookkeeping issues that further complicated William Penn’s fiscal future.

In order to make ends meet, the district initiated a number of cost-saving measures, slashed positions and levied a property tax increase. William Penn passed a $134 million budget on June 30 with the hope that state lawmakers would quickly pass their budget, release adequate funding and come to a consensus on charter school reform.

None of that has happened yet.

“The state knows that it’s putting districts like ours under an unbelievable amount of stress,” said Jennifer Hoff, a school board member, at the meeting.

Many in attendance understood the messaging but expressed frustration over whether the district was doing enough to fill the gaps and prioritizing the right things.

“I get it,” said parent Marie-Luise Faber. “We’re waiting on millions from Harrisburg. Of course, we can’t do without that. But what is this district doing?”

Teachers continue working without new contract

Stalled negotiations loomed large over Monday’s meeting.

“Every day we do not have an agreement, it erodes morale. Every day without a contract chips away at the respect our educators deserve,” said Andrea Fink, president of the William Penn Education Association.

Teachers have been working without a contract for a month. School board officials said the district is relatively close to coming to a new agreement, but a few sticking points remain.

“Both sides have been working hard to get a deal,” school board president Monique Boykins told meeting attendees. “Most of these issues have been resolved, including salary and health care. Right now, we have a good faith disagreement about how to handle supplements, including coaching.”

Boykins said the district’s position is that teachers should not have priority over other candidates when coaching positions open up. There was confusion about why supplemental contracts tied to extracurricular activities are on hold, but the union believes the schools can continue to post those positions.

“Our contract not being signed and finished has nothing to do with the decision of the district not to post supplemental contracts,” Fink said.

According to the district, some supplemental positions were posted internally on Sept. 27 in response to students’ concerns.

With no end in sight for Pennsylvania’s budget impasse, Hoff tried to break the tension in the room by placing the blame on elected officials in Harrisburg.

“This is what it causes. And it is not by mistake that we are arguing amongst ourselves and the legislators are doing nothing. That is not a mistake — that is a planned tactic,” Hoff said.