Steel+Valley+Teachers+are+Worried+About+Feb.+Payroll

=By StacyLee= =//Published by the McKeesport Daily News//= =//12/10/11//= = = = = =Some Steel Valley School District employees are concerned the district might not be able to make payroll in a couple months.= = = =Earlier this week, Munhall resident and Steel Valley teacher Kevin Tomasic asked the school board if the district will be able to make payroll in February.= = = ="I want it put on record that we were told that there's a possibility in February that we will not make payroll," he said. "I don't know if the board was told about that."= = = =Tomasic, who is Steel Valley teachers union president, said district employees were told that at an Oct. 21 staff meeting by district director of operational services Mark Cherpak.= = = = Neither the board nor administration answered Tomasic on Tuesday night. Later, district business manager Mark Cherpak declined comment on Tomasic's remarks. = = = =Tomasic said staff was told that if the Tax Increment Financing money didn't come in on time like last year, there is a possibility the district won't make payroll.= = = =State Department of Education press secretary Tim Eller said "if salaries of any any teachers or other employees have remained unpaid for a period of 90 days," the Pennsylvania School Code said there could be a takeover of the governance of a school district. He said the state secretary of education could make a declaration of financial distress resulting in the transfer of governance from an elected board of school directors to a special board of control.= = = = = =News= =home=