By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Kansas Supreme Court Monday said it would allow the legislature’s school funding bill to become law July 1 pending a review.
Gov. Brownback signed the school funding measure on Friday.
Local districts are still awaiting the Supreme Court’s final review but have started to form priorities for how they might spend the $293 million increase in funding the bill promises during the next two years.
The Hays school district could receive as much as $1 million as a result of the funding increase. Hays USD 489’s annual budget is more than $50 million.
Tracy Kaiser, USD 489 director of finance, noted the bill at this point does restrict some of the new funds to specific uses, such as at-risk students and transportation.
The Kansas legislature was sued by a group of Kansas districts in 2010 claiming funding for schools is constitutionally inadequate.
The Hays district has prioritized nine areas funding would likely go if the Supreme Court gives its blessing to the bill, Kaiser said. Chief among these are pay raises, reductions of fees and hiring staff.
In addition, the district is seeking to increase its reserve funds. The school board is expected to approve a measure Monday to transfer $330,000 to its reserve, making the reserve total about $660,000. However, auditors would recommend a district of Hays’ size have at least two months worth of salary in reserve, which is $4.2 million.
Kaiser said the district is not approaching the money as new funds, but rather a means of catching up after years of being underfunded.
Since the recession of 2008, the district has had to cut teacher and counselors positions and decrease supplies to teachers and athletics. Kaiser said the district has not even had enough money to purchase funds for balls for some sports. Parents groups have raised funds for essentials, such as copiers and water fountains.
Class sizes have also become larger.
Smaller districts are looking at similar objectives if the Supreme Court approves the funding bill.
Bob Young, Ellis superintendent, said his district expects it would receive about $350,000 under the new funding formula.
His district is considering wage increases that have been deferred during the last couple of years. The district would also like to invest in deferred maintenance, such as the purchase of textbooks.
All district in the state are under new college and career readiness standards, and Young said he would like the district to be able to provide more offerings at the high school to meet those new requirements.
David Ottley, Victoria superintendent, said he expects his district will receive about $57,000 in additional funding under the new formula.
“We are a small district,” he said. “That money will not go far.”
Once the district pays for increases in insurance premiums for its staff and provides cost of living raises, not much money will be left, Ottley said.
In the era of funding cuts, Victoria has had to do more with less. It closed its junior high, moved sixth graders to the grade school and combined the junior high and high school into one building.
When Ottley became superintendent, he retained his post as grade school principal as well as taking on many other duties that are assigned to other staff members at larger districts.
Victoria also would like to add more offerings to comply with the new career ready requirements from the state.
Local district officials as well as those across the state believe the funding offered by the legislature is still inadequate.
To bring schools back to pre-recession funding levels, the state would have to come up with more than $800 million.
The Supreme Court is fast tracking review of the funding bill. It will hear arguments on July 18.
All Kansas districts have until Aug. 25 to have their final budgets to county clerks, but the delays in Topeka have put the districts far behind in their budgeting processes.
“There is so much that is uncertain,” Kaiser said, “but I hope this will allow us to focus on the kids more.”