By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board approved a $47 million budget for publication at its meeting Thursday morning.
This figure does include the special education cooperative budget, which is $8.6 million for 2017-18.
The final budget will be approved after a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24. Once a taxing entity publishes a budget, it cannot spend more than the budgeted amount without republishing the budget. The district can less than the published amount.
The assessed valuation for the district increased by $14 million to $314.7 million for 2017-18, which means the district was able to reduce its local option budget mill levy by 0.11 mills for the coming year from 43.673 mills to 43.563 mills.
The district must publish a supplemental public document this year that will show the total tax collected increasing by 4.17 percent, but that is because of the increased valuation. The mill levy has not increased. The mill levy has actually decreased by 2 mills in the last two years, Tracy Kaiser, executive director of finance, said.
The capital mill levy remains at 8 mills with a total of $955,527 in the capital outlay fund, which includes carryover from last year. Not all of those funds are budgeted to spent in 2017-18.
About $520,000 has been budgeted to start repairs on the Hays High School HVAC system next summer. District officials estimate the entire project will cost $4 million to $5 million. The district hopes to start with the gym, wrestling area, lecture hall, library and offices, which are not parts of a proposed $78.5 million bond issue to go to voters in November.
The district will be paying less on debt this year. The district owes $2.2 million, which is down from $3.6 million in 2016-17.
The district will receive about $1.9 million in additional funding in state aid this school year, thanks to additional funding approved by the Kansas Legislature this spring. Once the district accounts for losses in funding from other sources, the district will have about $1.4 million in additional funds to allocate.
The district plans to dedicate $743,275 to wage increases for teachers and staff. District officials said wages for both certified and classified staff have been lagging in recent years because of a lack of funding from the state. Negotiations are nearing completion for teachers and the district is using a Fort Hays State University wage study completed in 2014 to adjust classified staff wages.
The study showed wages for classifieds staff were between 44 percent and 123 percent of their peers.
The district is starting the year with $661,829 in reserves. However, Superintendent John Thissen said the district should have much more in reserve based on its size and budget.
Although the district is making strides financially this year, Thissen said the district still has a long way to go to catch up from years of underfunding.
Lance Bickle, board president, said by phone he was pleased with the district’s budget.
“It is good to see,” he said. “I think we are heading in the right direction. I think the fruits of our labors are finally starting to pay off. I think we are headed in right direction and hope the next couple of years we can continue to see gains.”
Commissioner Josh Waddell also said he thought the budget had greatly improved.
Thissen said the budget review and hearing are normally done during regular board meetings. However, the Legislature was late in approving its funding bill this year. This forced the school district to set special meetings for the budget reviews in order to meet the state deadline for filing the budget.
The board had to cancel a meeting on Monday due to lack of a quorum. A few items were addressed in a short meeting Thursday morning, including approval of a copier bid, bills and personnel transactions. The rest of the items, including discussion of the appointment of someone to fill a vacant board seat will be moved to the district’s next regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 21.