Schools scramble after budgets cut

Hiring freezes and increased class sizes in area school districts could be the result of the latest round of budget reductions announced by Gov. Mark Parkinson – the fourth round of cuts to Kansas schools since March.

On Nov. 23, Parkinson announced that public school funding would be cut by $36 million. In addition, the state will not fund $155 million for increased school costs created by higher enrollment and more students on free and reduced-price lunches throughout the state.

State aid per pupil is now $4,012, which is $206 less than on July 1.

This latest round of cuts will mean the loss of about $7.2 million for the Shawnee Mission School District, about $6.6 million for Olathe District Schools and about $4.75 million for the Blue Valley School District.

With the cuts coming mid-school year, the Blue Valley School District will begin to look at implementing a hiring freeze, restriction of overtime pay and reliance on reserves to help balance the budget. Superintendent Tom Trigg said he expected the district to make an announcement to staff members about a plan not long after Thanksgiving break.

“I think we’re going to have to look at every line item in the budget that is not contractually obligated,” Trigg said.

Olathe Superintendent Patricia All said the district will also consider hiring freezes and possibly rely on reserves to help balance the budget. Implementing early retirement incentives is on the table for action at the next board meeting, she said. Last year, the district saved $8 million through an early retirement incentive plan, she said.

“Significant contracts are in place with teachers,” All said. “Kids are in school and we had more kids than fewer and 87 percent of our budget is in salaries and benefits so it is going to be hard to reduce $6.6 million during the year totally. We are going to take whatever steps we can right now to minimize whatever expenditures we can at the same time protecting our student experiences in the classroom … that can’t be deferred.”

Shawnee Mission School District Superintendent Gene Johnson said in the statement the district would be “reviewing the latest reductions and developing a plan to address these drastic cuts without using fund balances as well as identifying areas of the budget where cost savings can be realized this year and in the future.”

The latest round of cuts puts more even more

pressure on the school district as it plans for upcoming budgets, Robert DiPierro, Shawnee Mission deputy superintendent of operations, said at the Nov. 23 school board meeting.

Understanding there would likely be this mid-year cut and planning for next year, the Olathe Board of Education held a special meeting on Nov. 19 to discuss how to deal with budget shortfalls, All said. Each board member and staff member has been asked to come up with ideas for savings and how to communicate with the public about the “depth” of funding cuts.

“With millions like this being reduced it is going to have an impact on services,” All said. “We’re looking at continuing to examine every way possible we might have to reduce going forward… If it is paid for out of reserves it has to be reduced in expenditures next year. We have to reduce expenditures or get more revenue. It is a pretty simple equation.”

There is also concern that there might be more cuts this year, Trigg said.

As part of the requirements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the state is required to keep funding at the level provided in 2006 in order to keep federal stimulus money.

Parkinson’s recent cuts brought funding to the level provided by the state in 2006, Trigg said.

“The other school of thought we’re hearing out of some legislators is we don’t think the federal government is going to hold us to that,” Trigg said. “If that is the case it compounds the problem.”

When considering next year’s budget, the district will have to “look very seriously at things like increased class size and programmatic reductions or changes,” Trigg said.

“We don’t have any choice,” he said. “For the current school year we have teachers hired and are contractually obligated to that and we won’t tend to see any class size increases during the 2009-2010 school year but it is certainly a possibility for 2010-2011.”

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment