With the state budget stalemate now in its ninth month, school districts around the state are feeling the crunch.

And some Panther Valley School officials are starting to take a closer look at their expenses in light of the fact that the district still hasn’t received the amount of state funding it did in 2014-15.At the board’s meeting on Thursday, two school board members spoke out and said that until the impasse is over, the district should stop paying out of pocket for faculty to attend off-site training sessions.The board was voting to approve off-site faculty training, a routine part of the meeting, when board member John Williams raised the issue.The motion still passed 7-2, but Williams made clear his frustration about the state budget impasse.“My contention is without a budget right now, everything is tight, all conferences should be put on the back burner until we have a budget and we know how much we can spend,” he said.Irene Genther, who also voted against the motion, said she agreed, as long as the conference wasn’t required, or funded by a grant.But administrators said there are varied opinions on which of the conferences are “required.”“For instance on tonight’s agenda, the K’nex challenge — it’s for the kids. Is it required? No. But it’s for the kids. It’s a competition,” business manager Ken Marx said.Marx and Superintendent Dennis Kergick said that they do their best to limit the amount of off-site training done by faculty and staff.“We’ll be as stingy as we can,” Marx said.“We are rather parsimonious sometimes,” Kergick added.Kergick also spoke out about the lack of a state budget in his annual report.“It’s disconcerting that many of the requests, appeals and expressions of concern have fallen upon deaf ears. Panther Valley School District is not alone in the need for adequate funding. There seems to be some opinion that this will not be addressed until after the primary elections in Pennsylvania,” he said.