Morrisville Borough SD board weighs budget fixes, superintendent urges preserving athletics

The Morrisville Borough SD Board of Education discussed options to close an approximately $290,000 shortfall for the 2025'26 school year, including the possibility of suspending PIAA athletics, but the superintendent urged the board to pursue top-line budget adjustments that would preserve athletics.

The superintendent summarized a set of budget adjustments "about $290,000" that could cover the district's deficit and said the board must decide whether to cut the PIAA athletic program for 2025'26. "So the decision for the board, moving forward, is going to be do we cut the PIAA athletic program as a whole for the 25 to 26 year," the superintendent said, adding that restoring programs later would require reapplying to PIAA.

"I'm not interested in cutting athletics," a committee member said during the discussion. The superintendent noted that cutting athletics could avoid a proposed 4.8% tax increase but warned Title IX limits flexibility and that a single high-cost special-education placement could erase planned savings.

On special education the superintendent said the proposed legal-fees budget line is $70,000 for 2025'26, down from this year's actual spending of about $52,000. The superintendent emphasized the sensitivity of the line item: "for 1 student the cost for us on an annual basis is $120,000," citing an example placement at Samuel Everett School through DIU, and added that a new high-needs student placement could "completely shake the balance of the budget."

District staff also reviewed the G5 curriculum grant, with a staff member noting the G5 program has been used this fiscal year and "will be closed out" so it will not be an expense in 2025'26; the program or funding is expected to return for the 2026'7 school year. The superintendent reported collection rates were 95% last year and about 93% year-to-date this year.

Board members directed staff to prepare motions based on the agreed top-line options for the next meeting. Chair said finance-related motions and a long list of consent and action items'including approval of the 2025'26 general fund budget and a tax-rate resolution'would be placed on next week's agenda for formal consideration. A committee member flagged an apparent typo in the draft tax-rate resolution number and the chair said staff would review it.

The meeting closed after a motion to adjourn that the chair declared carried, 7'0'00. No votes on the 2025'26 budget, tax rate or athletics program were taken at this meeting; those items were scheduled for formal action at a subsequent meeting.