Reeling from federal fund freezes, Upper Adams School District expects to scrounge together enough money to cover vital programs for the next school year, but officials say the future is uncertain.
“I learned over the past month never say, ‘seen at all,’ because I’ve been doing this for 20 years now, specifically federal programs for 20 years, entering my 20th year, and this has been quite unusual for federal programs,” Assistant Superintendent Joe Albin said at Tuesday’s school board meeting.
Last month, the Trump administration announced it would withhold more than $6 billion in previously approved federal education grants to schools across the nation, according to numerous national news outlets.
The news came out just as Albin prepared to submit for Upper Adams’ grants. Typically, the grant submission process is “low key” and simple, he said. But this year, when he tried to click “submit,” he could not.
Albin reached out to colleagues for answers. They ran into the same issue.
“Everyone in the county was having the same panic attack,” Albin said. “We’re trying to figure out what’s going on. We had no communication from the Pennsylvania Department of Education at that time.”
Since then, Albin learned the federal government “paused” funding that affects UASD’s Title II, III and IV funding, cutting the district off from just over $95,000.
According to Albin, the district uses these funds to:
- Reduce class size by hiring an additional kindergarten teacher.
- Provide translation services and supplies for students learning English as a second language (ESL).
- Send ESL teachers to educational conferences.
- Pay for career readiness software used by school counselors from kindergarten to 12th grade, to meet a state mandate.
- Pay for school safety technology.
Albin does not know when or if the funding will thaw. He and Shelley Hobbs, director of business operations, are working to fill the gaps.
“We think we can maintain these programs, not to say that we do this because we have excess,” Albin said. “It’s not that we have the extra funds, but we’re being creative in how we’re managing and some things that were planned for may have to wait until next year until we can get some more funding.”
On Tuesday, Albin could not speak to what specific programs may be affected by the shifting of funds. He “thinks we’ll be OK” for this year but is unsure beyond that.
School board members did not comment on Albin’s update. Marya Djalal, Kay Hollabaugh and Jim Lady were absent.
Gov. Josh Shapiro joined a multistate lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s actions, according to a July 14 news release from the governor’s office. The statement reads, in part:
“On Monday, June 30, 2025, with no advance notice or warning, the US Department of Education (USDE) abruptly and arbitrarily reversed the normal course of this grant funding and notified the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) that USDE would delay delivering about $230 million in federal funds owed to Pennsylvania schools that support critical education programs throughout the Commonwealth. These are funds that are typically available for states to begin accessing on July 1 of each year, in order to permit state and local educational agencies to plan their budgets for the academic year ahead. On June 30th – one day before states can normally begin accessing these funds – Secretary McMahon and USDE suddenly froze this critical funding.”
Handbook holdup
Proposed changes to the middle and high school student handbooks are temporarily on hold after board member Tricia Plank raised concerns.
Plank asked why a section on “racism and hate speech” was added to the high school handbook.
“I feel like we already have this covered in our bullying and harassment policies,” she said. “I’m not sure why it’s needed here.”
Superintendent Todd Dishong said he spoke with high school Principal Beth Graham about the matter.
“An OCR [Office for Civil Rights] situation had occurred with one of the sports teams,” Dishong said. “That’s why it was put in there.”
Plank asked board solicitor Gareth Pahowka to weigh in from a First Amendment perspective.
“I was not involved in the additions to the handbook,” Pahowka said. “I do recall there was a prior matter with the Office for Civil Rights some time ago. I can’t at the moment speak to the connection between that and adding this language.”
Pahowka agreed that the district does have existing policy to prohibit discriminatory behavior. He said he would need to speak with the administration to understand the reason behind the change.
The proposed high school handbook reads, in part: “Biglerville High School is committed to maintaining an inclusive and respectful learning environment. Racism, hate speech, or any behavior that demeans, targets, or marginalizes individuals or groups based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability will not be tolerated.”
Plank drew comparisons to the middle school handbook, which categorizes “racial slurs” as a Category 2 violation whereas the high school handbook labels them as Category 3.
Pahowka said terminology should be “as consistent as possible.”
Plank suggested the board table the approval of the middle and high school handbooks to allow for further discussion or remove the language from the handbooks. The board unanimously voted to table the matter. Dishong said he would look into Plank’s concerns.
Tuesday marked Dishong’s first school board meeting as superintendent. He said he participated in the last day of school, began meeting faculty and staff, planning with the admin team, and meeting community members. Dishong even joined the cross country team on a practice run.
The school board curriculum and extra-curricular committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 5, followed by the business and operations committee meeting. The policy committee will meet at 9 a.m. on Aug. 7. The next regular board meeting is set for 7 p.m. on Aug. 19.
Mary Grace Kauffman, freelance reporter, worked six years as a full-time reporter for newspapers in Pennsylvania and Maryland. She has covered topics including business, crime, education, government and features. Mary Grace has a bachelor's degree in communication/journalism from Shippensburg University. She resides in Adams County.
Can someone teach me how cutting public school funding “makes America great again”? If we’re seeing massive amounts withheld from the education sector – less than a month from the start of the next school year, mind – how are we to expect our schools to best prepare our children for their future?
Elections have results!