By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays school board members Lance Bickle and James Leiker were disappointed — but not surprised — by the nearly 2-to-1 defeat of the USD 489 LOB question Friday.
With a turnout of 38.27 percent for the mail-in ballot, voters turned down the opportunity to increase the local option budget by one percent.
The unofficial results were YES-1,794; NO-3,425 , or 65.60 percent against the measure which would have raised the LOB from 30 percent to 31 percent and generate nearly $200,000 for the cash-strapped school district.
The board already had indicated it would use the authority granted by the Legislature to hike the LOB up to 2 additional percentage points for a year. Both Bickle and Leiker said they talked to voters who were “concerned” about that extra increase.
“It’s unfortunate,” Bickle said. “Obviously the results weren’t what we had hoped for. We’ll have to find new ways to find efficiencies and things like that to raise funds for being able to hire teachers back and reduce class sizes.
“We’re trying to look through every department, every area we can to try to make things more efficient, whether it’s principals, supervisors, or coordinators and get them more involved in saving money in their positions. The ultimate result we want is to provide the best education possible for our students with what we have,” Bickle added.
Leiker said parents are going to have to get more involved.
“There will be a little bit more put on the parents — helping out their children with nightly homework — and helping us look for those efficiencies. We’ve gotten some great feedback the past six months. We want them to let us know any new ideas they have for saving money or what they’ve heard other school districts are doing,” he said.
Approximately 86 percent of the school district’s budget is used for teachers’ salaries and benefits.
“We’ve got a better feeling on what the state’s going to do next year with funding projections,” Leiker said. “We should know within a couple weeks of how we finished up the year and how much money we’ll have to move into next year. That’ll give us a really good idea on how much we still need to cut.”
The district’s 2014-15 budget is nearly $1.4 million in the red.
A number of factors have led to the district’s budget shortfall, according to superintendent Dean Katt, including state funding cuts beginning in 2009 in which the district’s general operating funds declined from $24.6 million in 2008-09 to $23.3 million in 2013-2014. He has also said enrollment figures were predicted incorrectly and figures for wage increases for teachers were budgeted incorrectly.
The district recently cut 16 teaching positions and added several new fees to begin closing the gap.
“It’s going to be an ever-going process as we continue to look for ways to raise funds and find any efficiencies we can to save money,” Bickle said. “I think the board knows we’re probably not going to have a windfall of money coming from the state any time soon.”
The ballot results are unofficial until canvassed by the Ellis County Commission Monday morning at 10 a.m.