DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — An order issued Monday by a Commonwealth Court panel could lead to the dismemberment of the Steelton-Highspire School District.
In an opinion written by President Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt, the Court ordered Dauphin County Judge Andrew H. Dowling to create an independent school district made up of the 276 Highspire borough students who currently attend the Steel-High school district.
That order is the first step in a plan endorsed by the Highspire Education Coalition to transfer the Highspire students to the Middletown Area School District. The ruling overturns a January 2019 decision by Dowling rejecting the coalition's petition for separation.
Dowling's decision was based on a finding by Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera that determined a dissolution of the Highspire students would create a financial crisis for the Steelton-Highspire School District -- which is already on a state watch list for fiscally distressed school districts.
In her opinion, Leavitt said Rivera should not have put such an emphasis on the financial impact, since he also found that the Highspire students would get a better education if they joined the Middletown school district.
Rivera's latter determination justifies allowing the proposed dissolution to go forward, Leavitt wrote.
Furthermore, it was not Rivera's job to weigh the financial impact of the split, Leavitt said.
Instead, Leavitt wrote, it was up to Rivera's department to determine whether the proposed secession plan had any educational merit. Since Rivera did reach that conclusion, finding that Highspire students would get a better education in Middletown, that educational merit requirement was met, Leavitt said.
If the split goes through, the new Steelton school district would be left with fewer than 1,000 students. It would lose 30 percent of its property tax revenue and 40 percent of its earned income tax revenue.
The newly created Highspire district would have just 276 students.
Leavitt's ruling won’t automatically dissolve the Steel-High district; opponents of the dissolution can appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Opponents of the dismemberment can appeal Leavitt’s decision to the state Supreme Court.
