By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Although the school district may receive more state funding this year, it won’t likely be a big windfall for the district.
A school funding package that would increase funding to the state’s school districts by $284 million during the next two years has been passed by the Legislature but is setting on the governor’s desk waiting for a signature.
He has until Monday to sign the legislation, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature.
The legislation then must go to the Kansas Supreme Court for review. The court ruled state funding is inadequate after a number of school districts sued the state.
The Supreme Court had given the state until June 30 to come up with an alternate funding plan or it would stop school funding.
District staff told the school board Monday that it is already down $90,000 due to additional expenses and cuts to federal funding. Those cuts have come in the form of federal Title funding and Medicaid.
The district has been able to save money on other line items, including insurance costs.
Superintendent John Thissen said any additional funding this year will likely fill gaps that have been created by years of underfunding.
“Individuals may view this as new dollars,” Thissen said, “We are not looking at this as new dollars, but this is money we have done without. Individuals may look at this and say, ‘What are you going to do with all these new dollars?’ We are going to pay raises that haven’t been given in some time.We are going cut some of the fees. We raised fees tremendously a number of years ago.”
Tracy Kaiser, finance director, said there may be some restrictions on where additional funding might go, including technical education or at-risk funding.
The district is ending its year in positive financial shape. It froze spending in anticipation that the Legislature might come back for more cuts for the 2016-2017 school year. It did not. That means staff is recommending transferring $330,000 into reserve, leaving the total in reserve at $661,000.
Kaiser said this is a very low amount for a district Hays’ size.
Thissen said the district has a budget plan but will have to wait and see what happens with the legislation in Topeka before it can bring concrete numbers on its 2017-18 budget to the board.