Tech School Budget Meeting Delayed

From the BCCT

Cost meeting delayed
By JOAN HELLYER

A review of how much it costs the Bucks County Technical High School to educate each of its estimated 1,500 students won’t take place until at least September, a school official said.

Members of the school’s joint board committee had agreed before the summer break to meet with business managers from the six sending districts during July to look at all student-related costs.

But tech school officials were unable to arrange the meeting this month because of summer scheduling conflicts, said Sharon Rendeiro, the tech school’s business administrator.

The joint board committee, made up of Bensalem, Bristol, Bristol Township, Morrisville, Neshaminy and Pennsbury school board members, initially asked the business managers in 2007 to examine the comprehensive technical high school’s operating expenses.

They suggested special education costs be paid based on the services each district’s students receive. Special education costs, which vary depending on a student’s disability, are now split among the six sending districts.

If districts had been required to pay for the special education services their own students used in the 2007-08 school year, Bristol Township would have paid about $500,000 less to the tech school and Neshaminy would have paid about $450,000 more, officials said.

Neshaminy representatives protested the proposed changes, asking that the joint board consider actual costs for all students before revising the funding formula.

Rendeiro said she’s trying to set up a meeting with the joint board members and business managers once the new academic year begins at the tech school on Wistar Road in Bristol Township.