Penn Hills to expand residency investigation
In the wake of questions raised about the residency of U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum and his children, Penn Hills school officials are planning to file objections to cyber charter school tuition bills for some students whose residencies they question.
Without mentioning the senator by name, district Solicitor Al Maiello said the administration will file objections through the Department of Education on the residencies of children from several families who have been cyber charter school students in the past two years. The Penn Hills School District is responsible for paying the tuition of cyber charter school students who live in the district.
Maiello declined comment on the number of families involved.
The announcement came during a fiery school board meeting Tuesday at which Santorum's mother-in-law and sister-in-law spoke in his defense.
"We should feel honored and privileged to have Karen (Santorum's wife) and Rick living in Penn Hills," said Maureen Thornburg, of Penn Hills, Rick Santorum's sister-in-law.
The couple bought their home at 111 Stephens Lane in Penn Hills, next door to Karen Santorum's parents, for $87,000 in 1997, three years after the Republican first was elected to the Senate. Karen Santorum's niece, Alyssa DeLuca, and her husband, Bart, both 25, live at the Stephens lane home, now assessed at $106,000.
The Santorum family spends much of the year in a $757,000 home in Leesburg, Va., a Washington, D.C., suburb.
"The main thing that we're upset about is the intrusion. At our age, we don't need the intrusion," said Karen Santorum's mother, Betty Lee Garver. Garver said the questions raised about Santorum's residency resulted in reporters and photographers pestering her family.
A Penn Hills resident, however, questioned why the district should pay for the tuition of students who live elsewhere.
"We are paying for (Santorum's) kids so he can travel the nation. I don't understand that," Richard Grove said.
School board members did not respond to speakers' comments.
Later, school board member Margie Krogh said it was a good thing that the issue of the Santorum family's residency came up because, now, school officials can examine the issue of residency as it relates to cyber schools in general.
A spokesman for the senator said Santorum would release a statement, but it was not available at press time.
The No. 3 Republican in the Senate, Santorum withdrew his children from the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, based in Midland, Beaver County, earlier this fall after Penn Hills Superintendent Patricia Gennari telephoned him to discuss his residency. Santorum has insisted that because he pays taxes in Penn Hills, is registered to vote there and has a Pennsylvania driver's license, he is a resident entitled to have tuition paid for his children by the district. State law requires traditional public schools pay tuition equal to about 80 percent of their per-pupil costs for cyber charter school students living within district boundaries. Penn Hills' per-pupil cost is $7,550. In mid-November, 66 students from the Penn Hills School District were enrolled in cyber charter schools, according to school officials.
Attorney General Jerry Pappert conducted an informal review of Santorum's case and determined that the senator is a Penn Hills resident, said Sean Connolly, a spokesman for Pappert. A Republican appointed by Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, Pappert looked at the case because it involved the state's charter school law, Connolly said. Former Attorney General Mike Fisher defended the law when it was passed by the Legislature in 1997.
Traditional public schools, under the law, are notified when students who live within the district enroll in a cyber charter school. Districts seeking to challenge students' residency must respond within seven days of receiving the notification from charter schools, according to the law.
"The time for challenging the residency of Sen. Santorum and his children has long passed," Connolly said.
