When Delaware County’s Chester Upland School District raised taxes last summer for the fourth year in a row, it was just the latest move in a long-running attempt to bring a chronically deficit-ridden district back to financial health.

“We keep asking the state to give us more,” said Chester Upland’s school board president, Anthony Johnson. “And the board’s mindset is, we’ve got to stand up and do for self, too.”

The district is pinning its hopes on an unusual strategy: bringing special education students back to district schools from charters — a move that could cut the district’s $7 million dollar deficit by almost a third.