Heim says legislature passed 2 percent floor
School district gets one-year reprieve on budget
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Superintendent John Heim announced Wednesday evening that the Kansas legislature had passed a bill that will, for one year, buffer the budget for the local school district.
"It did pass. Don called me about 5 o'clock," Heim said, referring to a telephone call from state Rep. Don Hill.
The board had waited throughout the Legislature's regular session for the bill to pass. The bill is intended to help the district cope with a potentially large drop in enrollment caused by Tyson Foods' closing of its slaughter operation here and its second-shift processing operation. The district will not know the ultimate effect of Tyson's downsizing until students enroll next year. State aid to Kansas school districts is based on enrollment, and the local school board has been hampered in planning its staffing and budget needs because headcount enrollment will not be known until mid-September.
The legislation will limit the district's loss of state funds due to enrollment drops to $266,000 for the coming budget year.
The district received another bit of good news that additional monies will be available from the state for special education. The board unanimously voted to add a public hearing on the budget to its agenda Wednesday evening, and voted to approve republishing the district's budget. The republishing will allow the district to accept the additional funds.
In other budget-related matters, the board also dealt with a portion of the recommendations from the Performance Based Budget committee, and approved raising the costs of school lunches and drivers' education.
The committee, made up of educators, district staff, and members of the community, recommended the board approve 3 enhancements -- maintaining the District Improvement Plan, a step increase for all staff, and a salary increase for all staff. The DIP provision was approved during the meeting, and the salary issues will be addressed through negotiations.
Several reductions also were approved to help finance the enhancements.
Assistant Superintendent Susan Hernandez said the PBB committee recommended approving Tier I, which were items the committee believed needed to be implemented immediately.
Those items, and the corresponding savings anticipated, are: move the central office to Mary Herbert, $45,000; make drivers' education classes self-supporting, $40,000; leave 10 teaching positions untilled, $580,000; leave an additional 1.5 teaching positions unfilled, $87,000; and reduce the transfer to the capital outlay, $273,000, for a total estimate savings of $1,025,000.
Hernandez said that the estimated savings for the office move to Mary Herbert may vary this first year, but the $45,000 should be a good estimate for fiscal year 2010 and forward.
A memorandum from Heim and Hernandez to the board stated that after the 2 percent floor legislation is signed into law, they expect the largest impact to the district's budget to come in FY 2010 and 2011.
The board voted 6-1 to increase the cost of lunches for the next school year. The increase was primarily the result of the high cost of fuel and the subsequent changes that have erupted among suppliers.
"Some of our grocery companies are going out of business, not delivering, or shorting our orders," Vincent said. "We need to remain self-supporting."
The Emporia district is one of 51 of the total 296 districts that do not subsidize the food-service program; however, some of those 51 districts do supply "in-kind" support, such as custodial service, use of district vehicles to transport food, paper products and cleaning supplies.
The cost of student meals will rise 10 cents, adult meals will rise 30 cents, and extra milk will rise 20 cents.
Prices will be:
-- Kindergarten through grade 4, $2.10
-- Grades 5 and 6, $2.20
-- Grades 7 through 12, $2.30
-- Adults, $3.05
The board unanimously approved raising the cost of drivers' education to $400, which will approximately cover the district's cost for the elective class.
Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Curriculum George Abel talked to the board about textbooks that the curriculum council has recommended for purchase.
Again, because enrollment totals cannot be forecast, he recommended ordering half of the books initially, and remainders after enrollment figures are in. The total cost for all of the textbooks is $129,900.
EHS Assistant Principal Amy McAnarney and Timmerman principal Kim Kirk presented information about summer school.
McAnarney said that the EHS classes will remain similar to those in the past.
Three classes -- government, consumer education and driver's education -- each will have two sessions.
"All of our other classes that we offer ... are for credit recovery, which simply means they didn't pass that" during the regular semester, she said.
Those classes are: world history, biology, physical science, pre-algebra, core algebra A and B, algebra I, geometry, and algebra II.
The district will use computer-based software to work at their own paces to complete those classes, and will give students the option of coming in during the morning or the afternoon for the 3-hour sessions.
Other credit-recovery classes will be offered through traditional instructions. Those are: earth science, required English and required communications.
The ELA Summer Academy will offer reading, writing, math, and an American history survey class.
The board congratulated several people in the district who have received state or national recognition for their achievements. All were introduced to the audience during the meeting. They are:
• Nishat Yasmin, Emporia Middle School eighth-grader, who will represent Kansas at the Scripps National Spelling Bee this month in Washington, D.C. Nishat won the right when she finished first in the Topeka Capital-Journal Regional Spelling Bee in March in Topeka.
• Aldo Sandoval, EHS senior, who won Best Teen Chef in America in Dallas last month. He received a plaque, a gold medal and a $10,000 scholarship to the Arts Institute Culinary Arts school in Dallas. He will compete in another national contest for teen chefs in Las Vegas on May 18. Sandoval also is a student of Marie Malone in the Culinary Arts Program at Flint Hills Technical College and takes general education courses for college in the evenings.
• John Harclerode, for being one of 7 educators who will be inducted into the Kansas Teachers Hall of Fame in June in Dodge City. Marclerode has taught at EHS for his entire 34-year career and is head of the science department.
In other action, the board:
• reappointed Angie Schreiber to serve another term as the board's representative to the Flint Hills Technical College board.
• approved a low bid of $70,089 from C & C Group to purchase a new fire alarm system at EMS. All three bids came in below the engineer's estimate of $117,804.
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