CARBONDALE -- A school district in Lackawanna County is looking to borrow more money in an effort to stay afloat.
Carbondale Area officials say the lack of a state budget has them just barely keeping up with their bills.
While one option could have been to close schools to save money, at a board meeting Monday night, members opted to borrow another roughly $2 million.
“I totally understand if you said we're closing the doors tomorrow because we can't afford anymore I understand.”
Parents and students came out to the Carbondale Area School Board meeting to find just how bad the district's finances are and if this means schools would have to close.
“What's going to go on, the seniors, how's this going to affect them with graduation, the teachers, the staff, their payroll, everything else? They deserve to be paid just like anybody else for doing their job,” said parent Tina McDonald.
With the state budget now months overdue, school districts across the state are going without state funding.
Carbondale Area says it's just barely paying its bills, which includes payroll, health insurance, and utilities.
Carbondale has already borrowed more than $900,000.
At Monday's meeting, the board was looking for input from the public on its next step going forward.
“Right now we're at about $10,000 in interest in the first 900 and some thousand dollars we've already borrowed and going forward we'll see what those interest payments will go up to,” said board president Dr. Gary Smedley.
The board overwhelming agreed closing schools was not a good option, opting instead to borrow another roughly $2 million.
“I think we're better off borrowing the money moving forward, keep our kids in school, keep our teachers working and face it as we go along,” said one board member.
“We authorized the seeking of proposals of a $2.3 million either line of credit or tax anticipation note. We'll weigh the options of which is better. Line of credit you would only pay on what you use,” said David Cerra, the district’s business manager.