By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post
As state legislators decide how to respond to a Supreme Court decision that ruled the state must correct funding disparities between school districts, several fee increases proposed by USD 489’s Board of Education and a proposed 1 percent increase in the local option budget have been tabled.
The Kansas House Appropriations Committee is holding a series of hearings this week in response to the recent Supreme Court decision, which ruled the states funding for education was unconstitutional and unfair to poor school districts.
In the meantime, USD 489 is facing a $1.3 million shortfall for the 2014-15 school year and are considering several options to reduce the funding gap.
However, Superintendent Dean Katt said the district “will not know where we stand until the legislative session ends.”
According to Katt, the Kansas Senate plans to produce a proposed budget by Friday that could go into effect for the 2014-15 school year.
“If the Senate plan passes, or any variation, does pass, they are looking at major cuts and trying to make the difference up with the local option budget,” Katt said.
Katt said the LOB is currently at 30 percent and an increase of 1 percent would need to go to a community-wide vote. Katt said the one percent increase would generate about $198,000 in revenue.
Fee increases were also discussed as areas to increase funds for USD 489.
One of the proposed fee increases include raising the workbook/materials fee form $100 per student to $130 per student, a move that would generate “roughly $53,000,” Katt said.
The proposed fee increase would exempt students who qualify for the federal free lunch program.
Another proposal calls for $150 transportation fee for students who use the bus , but live within a 2.5 mile-radius — also exempting students who qualify for the federal lunch subsidy.
According to Transportation Director Russ Henningson, currently 1,083 students ride the bus to and from school — 664 of those students live within the 2.5-mile radius, 301 students live outside the 2.5 mile radius and 188 students qualify for transportation due to special needs accomodations.
Board president Greg Schwartz said the figures means more than 40 percent of the population is using the bus as transportation to and from school.
“To me, it is foolish,” Schwartz said. “If we had all kinds of cash, that might be one thing we wanted to do. I know there are a lot of people who don’t have a lot of money in this community, but there are a lot of people who aren’t in that position (who utilize the bus).”
Schwarz discussed possibly cutting bus routes and and imposing school boundaries as ways to cut down on the number of students bused to school:
The board also went into executive session twice to discuss “staff negotiations. No details on those discussions were given.
The proposed fee increases and the possible LOB vote will be on the agenda again at upcoming board meetings.