A month after approving its proposed 2019-20 budget, Carbon Career and Technical Institute’s Joint Operating Committee is hearing from at least two local school districts hoping for a reduction in their financial contribution.

Each year, the budget is sent to the sending districts, Palmerton, Lehighton, Panther Valley, Jim Thorpe and Weatherly, for approval.

Lehighton Area School District, for example, currently contributes around $1.7 million to the CCTI budget, but Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver asked the JOC on Thursday night for a smaller allotment.

Cleaver requested a reduction of 10 percent in light of what he called “an excessive fund balance” in the CCTI budget. Cleaver referred to information that is available on the Future Ready PA website (https://futurereadypa.org). He specifically cited the CCTI general fund balance of $5,036,790.

At the latest Lehighton finance meeting, school district officials mentioned that CCTI’s fund balance is 85 percent of its expenditures.

“We feel it is too much when all the sending districts are struggling and decreasing fund balances,” Lehighton Business Manager Brian Feick said.

At the finance meeting, Feick said there has also been talk that technical schools will be receiving 10 to 15 percent in state funding.

“I know the Weatherly school board rejected the CCTI budget and I am recommending we do the same,” Feick added.

Jeffry Deutsch, CCTI business administrator and treasurer, cited that the fund balance was divided into two categories — committed and noncommitted.

Deutsch explained that the largest portion of the fund balance is directed toward commitments such as contracted salary increases and associated benefits. The smaller portion is directed toward such things as capital improvements. Deutsch also asked that the committee examine the budget document the districts received and noted the trend of decreasing revenue in comparison to the increasing expenditures.

According to the FutureReady PA website, revenue totals increased $79,802 between the years 2015-16 and 2016-17, while expenditures increased $229,860 between those same years.

David Reinbold, administrative director, noted that the increase in the general fund balance can be attributed to cost-saving efforts by faculty and staff. Reinbold suggested that the districts accept the budget as proposed and all parties would re-examine the budget at the end of the year to determine if adjustments could be made. Several CCTI board members including Kathy Fallow, William Mansberry and Raniero Marciante suggested that this idea might be better than reducing the districts’ contributions this year, then increasing them the next.