GROVE CITY — How do you take the entire state Legislature and wake it up to the severity of its own state budget impasse?

That’s the question more than 50 school administrators and board members sought to answer this week at the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV, which provides educational services to schools in Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties.

With the state budget 241 days overdue, school districts statewide are facing an “unprecedented disaster,” according to Wayde Killmeyer, executive director of the MIU IV.

Nathan Mains, executive director of Pennsylvania School Boards Association, spoke to the educators about how they could talk to their legislators about the immediate need to pass a state budget.

PSBA sent out a survey to the 500 school districts in the state and received 200 replies. According to that survey, 21 percent of the districts already have cut back on programs, and 27 percent are pushing back future projects such as building maintenance or technology investments because of the state’s financial uncertainty.

At least 29 percent of the schools surveyed have missed some of their payments to charter schools, pension funds or vendors.

So far, the state budget impasse has cost districts an average of $13,000 through loans and interest payments, Mains said. Some schools already have reached an additional $65,000 in costs. Out of the 200 districts, 168 will need to raise taxes to handle the current financial crisis, he said.

This despite the fact that in December, Gov. Tom Wolf released 45 percent of normal school funding when he approved parts of a spending plan while using a line-item veto.

Administrators asked: What can be done to make legislators understand how severely the impasse is impacting public education?

“(This impasse) means kids could very well be sent home,” Mains said. “This means that phone call could be coming out ... Imagine calling all the parents in the district to say ‘We simply have run out of money. We’re trying to give you as much time and warning as possible. This district won’t be open this fall at all, please find alternative places for your kids to go. We’ll let you know when the state passes a budget.’”

“Imagine that scenario,” he said. “It’s scary, and I don’t think that enough people have realized that it’s a real possibility. ... We forget about how serious the crisis has become. It really is a crisis.

Mains said, “The stakes have never been higher. We’re talking about kids not finishing the school year, kids not graduating. It boggles the mind.”

Mains stressed that the budget impasse’s effect on public schools is no longer a matter of Republicans versus Democrats. In fact, for him, it’s important that any action a district takes does not politicize the children, he said.

John Sarandrea, superintendent of the New Castle School District, said that niceties will no longer get the job done, calling the impasse “borderline immoral.”

“Drastic times require drastic measures,” Sarandrea said. “I think we play within the rules, but I think we make a heck of a lot noise. ... I’m ready to take the gloves off. What are they going to do? Not give us any money? They’re already doing that.”

Mains stressed that districts still must be cautious with any action. This includes taking strike days or having students attend rallies or protests in Harrisburg, which may result in public backlash, he said.

Michelle Miller, superintendent at the Wilmington School District in Lawrence and Mercer counties, questioned what would be other useful strategies.

She said, “The question is what can we do, without closing school, which is not in the best interest of the children and youth?

“I can’t, as a superintendent, say I’m going to use my kids as a pawn to put pressure on them — even though I know it would work.”

Mains said perhaps a school closing because it has run out of funds is the wake-up call that legislators need, though he advises against such a closure.

“It’s going to take a dramatic change in Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts to grab all the players in Harrisburg by the shirt collar and shake them into reality,” Mains said.

“That may require a school shutdown. I would caution against anybody shutting down the schools to send that message to Harrisburg, but if it becomes a reality that the district cannot sustain itself and keep the doors open, that would get attention. That would finally wake people up to the crisis that everyone is feeling.”

Other ideas discussed at the meeting included having children write letters to legislators as a way to teach them good citizenship and communication skills or buying advertising in newspapers showing the true costs of the budget impasse for districts.

Many of the ideas were met with some reservations by Mains, who believes such options will only bring criticism to the districts.

“We’re in uncharted territory here,” Mains said, directing school administrators and directors to speak with their district solicitors.

Despite this, Miller called for more support from PSBA.

“We don’t have the skill, the training, the money, the backing,” she said to Mains. “We need you. If not you, then who?”

In Mains’ opinion, the Legislature is not near to passing a budget.

In fact, Mains said there is talk in Harrisburg of the Legislature waiting until after the November election to act on the budget.

“That very well may be when we see a budget completed, ” Mains said. “That, to me, would be a terrible situation. I don’t know if districts can make it to November without a budget passing.”

Districts that do remain open that long may have significant problems in creating a budget for the 2016-17 school year since many budgets are based off previous year’s state funding, he said.

Without a state budget by June 15, districts would not be obligated by law to have their budgets complete, but that comes at the criticism of taxpayers, Mains said. Districts are required to have their budgets adopted by June 30.

Bill Halle, Butler School Board member who attended the meeting, said the biggest obstacle for the Butler district is planning for the future, especially with the district preparing to start next year’s budget without a current one.

“We’re going to go through the budget process as best we can,” he said. “We’re lucky to be a larger district that has been managed in a fiscal way over the past years.”

The Butler district has arranged for a $16 million line of credit, but has not had to use it yet, Halle said.

Mains is unsure of if district solicitors will advise districts to start again in the fall if the district cannot come up with a 2016-17 operating budget, he said.

For now, MIU IV plans to work with school districts to determine how to best campaign on a local level, stressing to legislators that children may be out of an education if a budget is not passed soon. This could potentially include letter-writing or phone call campaigns districtwide, Killmeyer said.

While more drastic measures, such as districts refusing to pass budgets, would be effective, they would be better done on a large, state- or regionwide scale, but Killmeyer is uncertain about how many districts would band together in such an act.

“The fact that school districts are still open now doesn’t mean there’s not a problem,” he said. “We’re only trying to advocate for what should be coming to us.”