School Finance Continued

Schools bracing for cuts
From Advocate Staff Reports
Published: Wednesday, November 25, 2009 1:06 PM CST

TOPEKA — Sweeping cuts required to balance the Kansas State budget announced by Gov. Mark Parkinson will impact Cherokee County schools in a powerful way.Baxter Springs, Columbus, Galena and Riverton school districts are all facing thousands of dollars in budget cuts — in some cases hundreds of thousands.Parkinson announced $258.9 million in budget cuts Monday, citing falling state revenues — K-12 education by $36 million and university funding by $2 million, leaving both at 2006 spending levels, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

“Unfortunately, we are now to the point of potentially making crippling cuts to state services. This latest round of budget reductions will mean that class sizes will again increase in Kansas schools. Some districts will be forced to lay off teachers and close schools. These cuts mean that our universities will have fewer professors, offer fewer classes and critical investments in our future are in jeopardy. These budget cuts will force us to reduce supervision of released prisoners, increase the number of disabled citizens waiting for services and reduce road maintenance across the state,” Parkinson said in the release.Columbus USD 493 superintendent David Carriger said that the spending cuts announced by Governor Mark Parkinson Tuesday afternoon will result in a loss of $350,000 to $375,000 to the district budget that has seen two previous cuts this year since the budget was set in February.Carriger said that the budget cuts will be a main topic at the December school board meeting and an announcement of what cuts in programs and personnel will be made in mid-December. Cariger said the budget in Feburary was set at $4,492 per pupil. It was cut to $4,218 in July and more recently to $4,068 before the announcement Monday which dropped it to $4,012.“A loss of $480 per pupil is a tremendous loss,” said Carriger.Baxter Springs was in some ways fortunate, only taking a little over $40,000 in cuts. Baxter was slated to lose over $349,000 in cuts but increased enrollment dropped that cut to the lower figure.“We were initially down $349,000,” Baxter Springs Superintendant Dennis Burke said. “But we’re going to gain a lot of that money back because of increased enrollment.”The district is up by 57 students this year and that was not figured into the projected budget published this summer.Burke said districts typically publish projected budgets during the summer and then republish after an audit is done mid-school year.According to Burke the state then sends any additional monies the district may be entitled to.“We planned on some contingencies last year,” he said. “We can handle ... (the budget cut).“Knowing last year we were going to face some budget cuts we put some money back for this.”Galena, alone of Cherokee County districts, is looking at more money than what was projected in their budget this summer, an increase of $99,000 because of an increased weighted enrollment of 80 students, but Superintendent Brian Smith stresses Galena is still down $265,000 over last year’s budget — and that the $99,000 was less than what the district would have been entitled to under the old funding scheme.Smith said Galena is still facing a tough year.“We’re part way through the budget year, and now you’re going to say ‘you don’t have this money you thought you were going to have?’” he said.Riverton is facing much worse — $223,000 in cuts.“Certainly these cuts are a little deeper than we’d hoped,” Superintendent Todd Berry said, adding the district anticipated these cuts last year and started to prepare for them.“We didn’t fill 3 1/2 positions this year,” he said. “To date we’ve been able to insulate students from the impact (of the cuts).“Inevitably it’s going to increase class size which is going to impact students. Ultimately we’ll do our best to keep it as far from the class room as we can.”Berry said the district would be initially looking at programs where the budget could be tightened and will try to avoid laying off staff, preferring to simply not fill vacant positions.Berry was particularly upset about the cuts which will impact special education.“All the districts in the area have made tremendous impact due to the increased funding over the last couple years,” he said. “The students we’ve been able to impact are the students who need the most assistance and require the most resources.”