SHENANDOAH — A Shenandoah Valley school board member responded to a published comment made in the Thunder/Enlightning column about the possibility of the school closing due to the state budget.
Board member Richard C. Zimmerman read a prepared statement at the Jan. 27 meeting about the comment in The Republican-Herald call-in feature published on the same day. The comment made by a person from Shenandoah took Zimmerman to task on his comments that it may become necessary to lay off people, cut service or close the schools at some point if funding is not received.
Shenandoah Valley and other districts have had financial problems with no education funding from the state due to the lack of a state budget that normally is adopted by June 30. The Shenandoah Valley school board approved the line of credit for up to $2.5 million at its Dec. 28, 2015, special meeting to be used if necessary. Five school board members approved the loan, with Zimmerman and Margaret Shustack voting against, though the other board member expressed their displeasure in having to take the action.
In the Jan. 27 edition, the following comment was published:
“This comment is directed to Mr. Zimmerman, who attended the board meeting at Shenandoah Valley about closing the school. I understand what he’s saying, but let me put it to you this way. I work there. No job means no income. No income means no bills are paid. Does that mean that I can send all my bills for you to pay because I’ll gladly do that and everyone else will, too. Go to Gov. Wolf and complain to him about it. Don’t take it out on us. Like I said, you can pay my bills.”
Zimmerman told the board about the comment at the beginning of the Jan. 27 meeting and then read the following reply:
“To the employee of the school district, I feel your pain. Not getting a paycheck is not a good thing, but borrowing money to pay that bill is also bad because that loan still has to be paid, only this time with interest.
“The school has to be run like a business, not a government employment agency. You have no money, you must cut expenses wherever you can. The people in this school district cannot afford tax increases every year, and this is the reason for my vote not to borrow money. The reason we did not have money was the state did not come through with their money allocation.
“During that meeting, I said that the problem was with the legislative branch. I failed to include the governor, who was just as much at fault as the rest as he vetoed the bill to give the schools the money, and the legislature could not come up with the two-thirds vote to override the veto. As a result, no budget and no money for the schools, and now the schools would have to borrow millions of dollars to run the operations until the state decides to pass a budget. The district will have to pay interest and all the other money that go along with trying to borrow money they can’t afford.
“I know you have a good reason to be upset, but the best place to (complain) is not in Thunder/Enlightning. Send that complaint to the people who caused the problem, starting with the governor, then your state senator and your local representative. Two of the three are up for election this year. I’m sure they will listen. All we can do is react to the problem and try to fix it the least painful way.
“Thank you for your interest in our problem and working for our district.”
Zimmerman concluded his prepared statement with no further comment.