The Tamaqua Area School Board met on Tuesday night, and the group was informed of a potential funding issue in regard to the Schuylkill County IU.

Another district’s potential decision could impact the rest of the districts across the county.

According to Tamaqua Superintendent Ray Kinder, a letter was sent from personnel of the Blue Mountain School District to each superintendent in the IU stating that it doesn’t believe the IU funding is a fair formula — a formula that has been used for many years to fund the IU.

“It’s not like you take the total cost and break it up between the 12 districts,” Kinder explained during the meeting on how the funding is portioned. “It’s based upon figures, depending on what it is; one of them is market value. Different districts pay higher. We have the second-highest market value for homes in the county, so percentagewise, we pay the second-most (to the IU). Blue Mountain pays the most: 21 percent.”

Kinder said Blue Mountain believes that in certain areas in which it’s not utilizing an IU service, it shouldn’t have to pay for it.

Blue Mountain’s interpretation is that the agreement from many years ago is finally null and void.

The letter, which was sent a few weeks ago, indicated that Blue Mountain is still willing to negotiate, but if a different solution isn’t provided by the 2021 school year, it isn’t paying.

Blue Mountain wouldn’t pull out of the IU, but could say it’s not sending money to a specific fund.

Hypothetically, if Tamaqua and the other 10 districts are in agreement for an IU-related fund, Tamaqua’s costs would rise.

Tamaqua has about four or five students who attend the IU, Kinder said during the meeting.

“We would be in the situation then, with the amount that we would be paying, we could probably hire staff here and bring those students back here,” Kinder said. “If that domino falls, we could be put in the situation where financially it’s not going to be in our best interest to continue, and if it’s not a valid agreement, everyone’s going to start to tumble.”

Tamaqua School Board President Larry Wittig also commented on the situation.

“The system was designed so that the bigger districts take care of the little districts,” Wittig said. “I can tell you that a suggestion by one director was to close it (the IU). That hasn’t gotten any conversation yet, but it wouldn’t impact us as much as other schools. … Who’s going to suffer? The students of the districts who really can’t afford this (and those services) have to be provided by law.”

Presentations

The board heard from The Nutrition Group, which is the district’s food service provider. The group recapped 2018-19, and noted that the district was successful with programs such as Breakfast In the Classroom at the elementary schools, and setting up breakfast kiosks at the high school.

The Tamaqua Drama Club also stopped by and showed the board a clip from its recent performance, “Les Miserables.”

Director Adriane Drum said the production generated the most revenue and had had the highest attendance of any production. There were 69 participants.

She noted that auditions for the club’s next performance are underway, and 96 students are signed up. She thanked the board for its support.