Known as Casa, the school is entirely dependent on tuition paid by participating school districts or students' families to meet operational costs, Principal Cheryl Giles-Rudawski said. School districts can choose what amount, if any, of tuition to pay for students from their districts attending Casa, she said.

The school was opened in 2001 as a joint effort between the Capital Area Intermediate Unit and Open Stage of Harrisburg. It offers students the opportunity to attend a half-day program focused in arts education, while receiving traditional academic instruction from their home school districts.

Local school district leadership liked the model of paying tuition for students who wanted to attend Casa, Giles-Rudawski said. The arrangement keeps those students as a part of the home districts but gives them an opportunity to pursue their talents, she said.

Tuition for the 2011-12 school year was set at $5,500 per student.

In 2010, the funding model began to falter as school district budgets across the state were drastically cut, she said.

Enrollment is about 90 students, down from about 150 in recent years, Giles-Rudawski said. Fourteen of the 24 participating school districts have reduced the amount of tuition paid, some to zero, according to a presentation Casa provided to area superintendents before the school year began. Parents are left with the burden of providing tuition money if they can, Giles-Rudawski said.

Consequently, Casa has trimmed budgets, she said.

Other school options in consideration for next year include becoming a comprehensive full-day charter school, transitioning to a joint-school model or restructuring the long-term funding sources, director of curriculum Brian Griffith said.

As a charter school, Casa would need approval from the Harrisburg School District, and would be run by a board of trustees as a public nonprofit corporation. Tuition would be determined based on the state's charter school funding formula, which provides a percentage of funds from each student's home school district.

Under a joint-school operation, students would attend Casa full-time but receive a diploma from their home district. The majority of supporting districts and the Pennsylvania Department of Education must approve a joint-school agreement. Involved school districts can develop their own funding model for the joint school. Supporting school districts' board of directors would govern Casa, similar to a vocational-technical program.

Casa has been meeting regularly with local superintendents throughout the fall to discuss which plan to follow, Griffith said.

"It appears it would be their preference that we would continue to operate Casa in its current half-day model," he said. "Everyone understands that we need a better way of funding it."

There's a concern that some of the attending students wouldn't be interested if Casa became a full-day program and they had to leave their home district, said Sherri Smith, superintendent of Lower Dauphin School District.

One of the ideas to revamp the school's funding is to remove some or all administrative costs from tuition charged, she said. Those administrative costs could be paid by the participating school districts, she said.

Casa explored the option of becoming a vocational-technical school, where consortium school districts and the state provide funding, Griffith said. However, the state's music or arts education do not qualify as vocational school curricula according to the state.

There aren't any other charter or arts-focused schools in the Harrisburg, Lancaster or York areas. The Pennsylvania Academy of Music in Lancaster was closed in March because not enough money was available to maintain the $32 million facility it had built, said Jacques Geisenberger Jr., the former academy's attorney.

Most art-focused high schools in Pennsylvania operate as a charter or district school providing both academic and arts curriculums, according to school district and art school leaders.

In Beaver County, the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School was formed in 2005 because of interest in a performing arts school, spokesman Fred Miller said.

About 70 percent of the school's funding comes from the participating districts and other money is received from grants, he said.

The school originally considered a half-day model similar to Casa's, said Stephen Catanzarite, director of the adjacent Liberty Park Performing Arts Center.

"Some of the school districts said they weren't interested and there wouldn't be a demand for a half-day program," he said.

The charter school option chosen instead has been highly successful, with 500 students attending from 58 surrounding school districts, he said.

In Hartford, Conn., the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts functioned from 1985 until 2007 with a half-day, tuition-paid model like Casa's, director of development Herb Sheppard said. The school received funding from the state as well, he said.

The school had strong attendance and funding until the early 1990s, when school districts' money got tight and families had to pay tuition, he said.

"We went to a full-day program because it's very expensive to run a half-day program exclusively, especially at arts academies where class sizes are smaller," he said.

The full-day school model has met the rising need for arts programs in the Hartford area, he said. About 400 students attend the full-day program and 300 attend the half-day program. The school automatically receives tuition from sending school districts as well as funding from state and federal money, he said.

Casa will spend the next few months discussing funding options, Griffith said.

South Middleton School District in Cumberland County has always been a big supporter of Casa, Superintendent Patricia Sanker said.

"The students that attend Casa have a need that can't be met in the local school districts," Sanker said.