SHARON School district seeks to borrow $750,000

SHARON, Pa. -- Sharon City school officials have scheduled a school board meeting for 4 p.m. Thursday to authorize borrowing $750,000 to cover unanticipated employee health-care costs.
The school district was to be in Mercer County Common Pleas Court at 1 p.m. today to hear a formal review of a court-ordered report on its financial status. School officials said they expect a favorable ruling from the court, necessary before they could borrow the money.
The school district asked the court last month for permission to borrow $900,000 to cover the heath-care expense, but President Judge Francis J. Fornelli delayed giving that approval, instead directing the district to hire Keystone Research Inc. of Greenville to do an assessment of its budget to determine whether the borrowing is truly necessary.
Indicated in reports
James Wolf, district business manager, said the report shows that Sharon should be allowed to borrow $750,000 needed to meet unanticipated health-care costs because it doesn't have sufficient funds to cover the expense.
Sharon is a member of a 12-school health-care consortium that is experiencing cash flow problems. The consortium recently told members that it will need an infusion of $4.6 million in additional cash to pay its bills. That amounts to $2,063 additional for each employee covered under the plan.
Sharon has been asked to come up with about $700,000 as its share through June 30 but wants to borrow more than that in case the consortium wants more later.