During Gateway School Board’s study session Nov. 17, the board discussed the impact the state budget finally passing will have on the district.
The district anticipates receiving a net increase of $612,021 in state revenue for the 2025-26 school year. Superintendent Guy Rossi stressed the amount still needs to be approved at the state level.
Business manager Mike Zourelias said basic education funding is expected to increase by approximately $100,000 and special education funding by $98,000. Gateway is anticipating an additional $50,000 for the Ready to Learn Block Grant, which is intended to help with educational programming in Pennsylvania.
“But the biggest win for us is for the charter school reform,” Zourelias said, adding the cost per special-needs student enrolled in charter schools will decrease from $42,000 to about $29,000.
“Right now, we have 31 kids in charter schools, which is like $382,000. But this is going to be going forward, too.”
Director Donna Burns asked for confirmation that these new figures will affect the current school year budget, which was passed by Gateway seven months ago; Zourelias and Rossi confirmed that it would.
“I’ve been on three meetings around this since they passed (the budget). … What we’re giving you is the estimates, the spreadsheets that we’ve received,” Rossi said.
“But they also cautioned us today, it’s still gotta go through the comptroller’s office. There’s still some numbers to be crunched, and they’re working diligently to do that,” Rossi added. “Last I heard, we’ll probably get our money in four to six weeks.”
New clubs
Next week, the board will vote to approve two new club/co-curricular proposals: a culture cooking club and badminton club. If the clubs are approved, there will be no cost to the district.
Retirement
Gateway recognizes the retirement of school police Officer Michele Terry, who worked in the district for just under eight years; five of those years were at Evergreen Elementary School. Terry retired once before, after serving as an Allegheny County sheriff for 27 years.
“She’s been imbedded in the school culture. The kids love her, the staff really looks up to her. And we just wanted to acknowledge her retiring from the district,” Assistant Superintendent Dennis Chakey said. “Excellent job by her. She will definitely be missed.”
In other news
There are no more committee meetings scheduled for the rest of the year. There will be a regular board meeting on Nov. 24 and a combined reorganizational and regular meeting on Dec. 1 for the newly appointed board members.
Information on food distribution and resources can be found on the district’s home page under the Latest News section and clicking on “Sharing food resources throughout the general Pittsburgh area.”
