Rural PA Schools Make Big Changes to Address Declining Enrollment But Not NE

A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette details the situation across northern PA where rural and small school districts are facing declining student enrollment and smaller budgets. The schools have taken several actions to deal with the issues, among them sharing services and merging districts, even sharing a superintendent. The North East School District is facing the same problems, as we’ve reported here on multiple occasions, but they seem oblivious. With multi-million dollar projects one after the other followed by annual tax increases to pay for everything, you would think North East is awash in cash.

I wrote previously:

You can look across the street from the NE School District campus and see what used to be the Mercyhurst North East campus until they consolidated their students in Erie. In Erie, multiple elementary schools have closed, are for sale or have been converted to apartments or some other use. In nearby New York, schools even merge student athletes so there are enough to make up a team. North East isn’t immune. The Pennsylvania college system, which includes Edinboro, has had dramatic cutbacks, there simply aren’t enough students to fill the classrooms.

Warren County, PA district has shut buildings and merged schools.

Then I noted a few days ago how NE doesn’t have enough student athletes to field a JV football team, something which has evidently been going on for a couple of years, and yet, they went ahead with a $4 million football field and track renovation. Right now they’re doing another $4 million project upgrading HVAC and lighting.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

Many K-12 districts nationwide have struggled since the pandemic with staffing shortages and population declines. But those challenges have hit rural and smaller schools at higher rates, forcing them to get creative in sustaining services.

… we’re getting to a point now where the resources are incredibly scarce, and pooling resources and redistributing them has become an essential piece

When businesses face fewer customers buying their products and services, they cut unnecessary spending, change their product lineup, increase quality, get rid of unnecessary personnel and focus on attracting new customers. They reevaluate what they’re doing from every angle and do whatever it takes to fix the problem. If they don’t, they go bankrupt.

When our school district faces declining enrollment, they keep doing what they’ve always done, spend money on big projects and raise taxes.

Maybe, it’s time to try something different.