Dr. Benjamin Henry, Dr. Lori Suski and Dr. Carrie Rowe, acting secretary of the PA Department of Education, formalize the receivership exit. Photo courtesy of Shawn Oliveira, Harrisburg School District.

Dozens of Harrisburg School District graduates moved tassels from right to left during a ceremony in June.

Photos from the day show student after student holding diplomas, dressed in gowns signifying their exit from high school. Each smiling face represents a 12-year educational journey.

For half of the class of 2025’s dozen years of schooling, behind the scenes, district administrators have been working to clean up what was once a district in turmoil. While these students navigated a daunting move from middle school to high school, officials uncovered missing financial records. While students took tests and turned in homework, administrators found teachers lacking certifications. While students navigated pandemic remote learning, the district did too.

Six classes of teens graduated while the school district was under state control, with the district spending as long attempting to right a ship gone very, very wrong.

So much has changed since June 2019, when the then-spiraling district was ordered by a Dauphin County judge to enter state receivership, and when this year’s graduates had just finished sixth grade. The two fates have always been linked—the district’s and the students’—administrators know that. That’s what office staff say their work has been for, when it comes down to it—the students.

So, when district officials smiled for the cameras at a press conference this past June and shared that Harrisburg would exit receivership six years after entering, the impact ultimately would be on the following generations of students.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) ruled that the district had cleaned things up enough to return to local control, making it the first district in the commonwealth to exit receivership. The power would now shift from the court-appointed receiver, who had the final say on nearly all matters, back to the elected board and district staff.

Officials and stakeholders largely feel hopeful about where Harrisburg is now and where it’s headed, but, of course, recognize that significant challenges still lie ahead. Harrisburg has historically been underfunded and still underperforms academically.

“This is a book that we’ve been writing, and this is just another chapter in this book. I’m so excited about this new chapter,” Superintendent Dr. Benjamin Henry said. “We have a theme for this year: our students are waiting. Our kids are waiting on us, and it’s time for the adults to do right by our kids.”

Fire Alar

Rewind to 2019, just as state receivership began.

The district had already been in financial recovery since 2012 but failed to comply with PDE requirements. Money wasn’t accounted for. The FBI was investigating missing district computers. The first receiver at the time, Dr. Janet Samuels, wasted no time firing most of the district’s top officials, including the superintendent. A new slate of administrators was brought in through a contract with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit No. 23, which provides support to local districts

Chris Celmer was one of those from MCIU who became the acting superintendent in December 2019.

“Fires would be minute to minute early on, not even day to day,” Celmer said

Early on, Celmer’s time was mainly spent attempting to stop the bleeding of the hemorrhaging district, like making sure payroll was processed, and addressing a thick stack of neglected union grievances—basic operations

Originally, Celmer’s goal was to get the district out of receivership in three years, when it would be due for re-evaluation. But ultimately, complications like superintendent turnover and, of course, the pandemic, made that unfeasible.

“That wasn’t in the gameplan, when we went in in 2019, to have a one-in-a-hundred-year pandemic right in our laps and having to navigate that,” he said.

Because of all the chaos and complication, the district wasn’t even able to complete a recovery plan until 2021. The plan, which outlines specific goals for a school district working to regain financial footing, is typically finalized months after entering state-control, not years.

Dr. Lori Suski remembers those days, as she served as the chief recovery officer, starting in 2021, and would take the position of receiver from 2022 through the end of receivership.

“Usually, the plan should be done in like 90 days, but there were extensions granted because there was so much they uncovered when MCIU got here that they were just putting out fire after fire,” Suski said. “It took longer to get that plan developed because of the fact that they were everyday reacting to the crisis of the day.”

When the first receiver resigned and Suski stepped up to fill her position, significant work had been done, but still so much remained and the recovery plan had only just begun.

“I’m thinking, oh my gosh, what did I sign up for here?” Suski said. “It was overwhelming.” 

Second Semester

Shortly after Suski’s appointment, the court would decide to leave the district in receivership for another three years.

“So, at that point, I thought, OK, we’ve got three years now to really make something happen here,” she said.

When Dr. Marcia Stokes joined the school district as chief financial officer in January 2022, just before the second receivership term began, she quickly found herself working 15-hour days, seven days a week.

Almost three years into receivership and still, the business office was in shambles.

“There was a complete lack of systems, a complete lack of structure in the business office,” she said. “My very first week on the job, the audit had to stop for the 2021 school year because the transactions weren’t recorded and there was a lack of independence from the auditor.”

There had been a constant churn of top officials in the office before her. Financial documentation was missing. Tax revenue wasn’t recorded. There was never a cash flow issue, Stokes said, but rather, the budget and other records weren’t trustworthy. Long story short, the math wasn’t mathing.

If that’s where things were at almost three years into receivership, Stokes couldn’t imagine where they stood before the district was even under the state’s microscope.

Along with Stokes, the district hired a superhero team of new top administrators as many of the temporary MCIU team members transitioned out. As Stokes worked on finances, others addressed gaping holes in maintenance needs, attended to HR dysfunction and began planning to address dismal academic stats.

Once the second three-year receivership period neared its end, the state decided that Harrisburg had made enough financial progress to exit, while citing that improvement was still needed academically.

“Ultimately, the goal was to get to where I see Harrisburg today,” Celmer said. “They know where their finances are. They’re in a much more stable place than they were six years ago. And, if you’re like that financially, then you can truly focus on what is the most important piece of the school district and why we’re all there—it’s the kids.”

Right Direction

For all the improvements that have been made over the six years, academics have lagged.

As Celmer explained, for much of the early receivership days, district officials couldn’t fully focus on student outcomes because they were focused on, frankly, keeping the lights on.

Graduation rates at Harrisburg High School-John Harris Campus are still only at about 63%, as of the 2024-25 year, and math and literacy skills district-wide are still lacking. The pandemic didn’t help either, only widening the learning gap and worsening behavioral issues.

“Once I saw the data, it spoke to me,” Superintendent Henry said. “That’s one of the main reasons why I applied and why I’m here.”

Henry, who was hired in the fall of 2024, has plans in the works to bolster Harrisburg’s educational programming. The district has already started a new corrective reading program at the elementary level and is looking to add more post-secondary preparation for high schoolers, along with other initiatives.

According to Suski, the new approach is to “laser focus” on just a few evidence-based educational initiatives, rather than “throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.”

Enhanced extracurricular activities have also been added, such as the first student musical in years and additional sports teams and clubs.

Longtime district teacher Jody Barksdale has seen supports and training for teachers improve as well, which ultimately makes the learning experience better for students. New curriculum was introduced during receivership, more counseling services for students were initiated, and educators were trained on research-based practices. Henry has also worked to make sure all teachers understand state education standards, especially the many teachers who work using emergency certifications, allowed for districts with staffing issues.

With updated programming, Barksdale has already started to see the changes in her students.

“I think we are definitely moving in the right direction academically,” said Barksdale, a fifth-grade teacher at Melrose Elementary School and the president of the Harrisburg Education Association teachers’ union.

Suski explained that work to improve the culture in the schools has already started paying off, as they’ve worked to make sure students and teachers feel safe and able to learn. Attendance levels even rose by around 2% last year, a small but significant number, she said.

The physical school buildings in the district are undergoing changes as well, both during receivership and ongoing. The long-shuttered Steele Elementary School in Uptown Harrisburg was renovated and reopened, several other buildings are being updated, and some aging school buildings, such as Scott Elementary School, are being phased out and repurposed.

With all the changes and a new sense of stability in the district, officials are feeling hopeful about the future.

“I’m optimistic,” Suski said. “This is a new day for the district.”

Finance Fears

Stokes’ office has come a long way since her first grueling year on the job.

“I would put our practices, from a financial position, up against any other district across the commonwealth, and know that we are doing what is right for our community when it comes to our business office practices and procedures. We even have some that are probably state-of-the-art now compared to other districts,” she said. “It’s like night and day.”

Stokes explained that, while everything within her office’s control is running smoothly, she does have concerns about balancing budgets in the coming years.

In June, the Harrisburg School Board approved a 2025-26 budget of $213.1 million with a 2% property tax hike. It was a tough decision for board members who found themselves weighing differing advice from Stokes and Suski, now serving again as chief recovery officer, who suggested that the tax increase may need to be even higher.

Stokes explained that the district needed to begin raising taxes incrementally over the next several years to keep up with decreasing revenue, inflation and, this year, to counteract the federal COVID funding cliff.

But the district was ultimately left guessing how much of a potential budget hole they would need to plug.

Year after year, the commonwealth has passed its budget late, forcing school districts to adopt their budgets before knowing how much state grant money they will get. Districts like Harrisburg, in lower income communities and historically underfunded, rely on that money. Stokes factored into the district’s budget a conservative guess that the district would get half of the funding that the governor has proposed, about $110 million. That amount alone would make up over half of Harrisburg’s budget.

“If we could rely on that Harrisburg is going to get its fair share of what it deserves, we could plan and really implement some wonderful things for our students,” Stokes said. “But if we can’t rely on something that’s supposed to be in place for July 1, 2025, how can we plan for July of 2026 and 2027 and so forth?”

To grow programming for students, the district needs to know how much money it has to do the job.

And with several revenue source concerns, that money becomes even more crucial.

For one, the city tax base is shrinking, and more and more properties pay less and less. Stokes explained that, for this year alone, their tax revenue plummeted by over 7% as more properties qualify for tax exemptions and large, often office, buildings appeal their tax assessments, claiming that their assessed value is too high in a post-COVID, work-from-home world.

“Even with small, incremental [tax] increases, if we continue to see drops like we did this year in taxable assessed value, we will never be able to keep up. My hope is that this year was a one-time occurrence,” Stokes said. “That definitely would be, in the long-term, a devastating impact to the district.”

Stokes said that her office actually plans to explain the dilemma and solicit donations from tax-exempt properties.

Another challenge: the federal government spending cuts and changes. Recently, the government cut Title II and III funding, which provided over $900,000 to Harrisburg to support training for teachers and support for English language learners.

Add onto that over $30 million in payments to charter schools for the coming year, a number that may steadily continue to rise for the district without state-level reforms.

The financial challenges also impact things like teacher shortages, a nationwide struggle that Harrisburg feels as well. Without the money to fund higher wages, recruitment may suffer, and without sufficient faculty, programs may be cut.

Barksdale said she believes that challenges with recruiting and retaining teachers are some of the most pressing issues currently, as salaries and opportunities for raises lag.

Those who have stuck with the district for years, she said, are there because they find purpose in their career and care about the students.

“It’s been a rollercoaster,” she said. “But it’s the kids—100% the kids have kept me.”

Turned Around

Autumn Anderson ran for the volunteer school board about a year ago, when she realized that no one else was running for an open seat.

“I felt like Harrisburg deserved a full board,” she said.

Like Barksdale, Anderson saw the opportunity as a way to positively impact her community.

However, when she was sworn in, the district was still in receivership and the board’s power extremely limited. But now, the board is once again tasked with governance and has begun to feel the weight of making decisions and ensuring accountability.

One of the top issues that the board is tasked with examining is the district’s historic William Penn High School property, which has sat vacant and deteriorating for years. The district’s conversation on what to do with the property has stretched for years as they’ve pondered selling, demoing, renting out and even rehabbing the massive building, all with mixed opinions from concerned community members. As a decision has yet to be made, that will now fall into the board’s lap.

“William Penn is definitely a big decision that the board is going to have to make,” Anderson said.

The board dynamic of pre-receivership was often divisive, with some board members loyal to the then-superintendent and others critical. Suski viewed that board as a big part of the dysfunction that forced the district into receivership in the first place.

Today’s board dynamic remains to be seen, as most directors have sat together for some time, but have yet to be tried by the fire that comes with power and tough decisions. But Anderson is hopeful. She’s also seen how hard they’ve worked to train and prepare for their post-receivership role.

“The board as a whole has been working really hard,” she said. “We are still working on developing a board dynamic, but I think we share a respect for each other.”

While Harrisburg is out of receivership, the district has headed into a monitoring period where they will continue following the recovery plan and Suski will be making sure they follow state requirements. Most district officials see this milestone as the beginning of a new era for a district that has been through the wringer. Still, the work must continue.

“Every time I hear the story of our history, I’m like, someone’s going to do a movie one day about the Harrisburg School District,” Henry said. “But at the conclusion, I want there to be something written into the movie that, this district had a lot of challenges, but look how they turned it around.”

Each district official shared that their guidepost remains doing what’s best for the students and community that have persevered through the lowest-lows and the growing pains.

“We saw that at graduation […] when we saw the football field filled with the class of 2025, and despite all the turmoil and everything else, these kids made it,” Suski said. “That’s a testament to them, to the staff, to the parents, to the community. Everybody has stuck by the district through all of this. And I’m optimistic.”

For more information on the Harrisburg School District, visit www.hbgsd.us.

If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!