School districts across the state took a harsh financial hit last week, after state legislators decided to lop $116 per pupil in state aid for the coming year.
Districts, already with tightened budgets, had hoped that the financial hit would be about $66 per pupil.
Base state aid for the 2008-09 school year originally was set at $4,433 per pupil, and school districts budgets were developed accordingly.
After abysmally low tax collections, however, the Legislature in January began a recision process — reducing budgeted amounts from the current year before it could begin considering the Fiscal Year 2010 budget.
The legislature trimmed out $33 of the $4,433 per-pupil state aid that had been set for the 2008-09 school year.
Then, with state aid reduced to $4,400 per pupil, the legislature began working on cuts for the upcoming year.
At the end of the session on Friday, the per-pupil state aid had been cut another $116, down to $4,280, for the 2009-10 school year.
For many districts, the loss of funds will exacerbate an already-difficult financial situation. In the Emporia school district, a potential financial disaster has turned into a one-year boon.
At an Eggs & Issues forum on Saturday, assistant superintendent for finance Rob Scheib reported on the outlook for financing Emporia schools for the 2009-10 term.
The Emporia district was in better financial condition than expected going into the budget sessions for the 2008-09 school year. Tyson’s downsizing, announced Jan. 25, 2008, and the potential loss of several hundred children of Tyson workers, prompted the Legislature eventually to pass a bill that limited the Emporia district’s budget loss to 98 percent of the previous year’s total.
The school board, however, needing to have a safe budget in place and published. It already had made budget cuts in preparation for a fiscally tight year that did not materialize. The loss of students was considerably smaller than feared, which brought about $2 million in additional and unanticipated funds to the Emporia district’s budget for 2008-09.
The district then voted to distribute an additional $400,000 in funds as the second phase of negotiated wage increases for teachers and staff. Funds remaining from the $2 million should help finance the district budget in the coming year.
“That’s if all those other weightings hold,” Scheib said of the extra state funds expected to be sent for at-risk, English as a Second Language, special education and other categories that provide monies in addition to the base per-pupil state aid.
The actual financial loss from the cut by Friday’s legislation will depend on student numbers. Administrators estimate that, in a best-case scenario, the district still would have a $363,257 cushion; in a worst-case scenario, the surplus would be $55,354.
“We were just running some numbers this morning and, I think, it’s still going to be dependent upon our enrollment,” Superintendent John Heim said this morning. “But we will still be in the black. Even worst-case scenario puts us about $50,000 ahead. I think we’ll be able to get by this year and next year.”
Heim said the board would look closely at recommendations of the Performance Based Budgeting team that has prioritized classes and services in the district and recommended those that need to be retained and those that may have to be cut.
The Emporia school board will discuss the 2009-10 budget at its meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the district office.
North Lyon County
Steve Mollach, superintendent of North Lyon County School District, said this morning that the district will lose $153 per pupil.
“Obviously we took a sizable cut...” Mollach said. “We’re taking well over a quarter of a million dollars that our budget is going to be down this year with the cuts and the decline in enrollment.”
Mollach said the district will make cuts through attrition in staff.
“We’ve made up for staff numbers at this point,” he said. “Then we’re just going to have to make some accounting changes and trim a little bit of the budget.”
An aspect of the bill passed, however, will be positive for the district — the bill also loosens limits on local option budgets, which is extra spending districts finance with property taxes levies.
“It’s a terrific piece of legislation,” Mollach said. “Because it’s certainly going to help our district.”
That aspect of the bill will allow the district to figure out its local options budget on the current year’s financial numbers, Mollach added.
Southern Lyon County
Mike Argabright, superintendent at Southern Lyon County, was optimistic this morning that the district will deal with the financial blow and will get through it.
“The bottom line is you just do the best you can and try to stay as positive as we can because the end result is kids,” Argabright said. “And we’re trying to be as positive as we can and get through it. And we will get through it. But not without a few casualities.”
Those casualties likely will come in a reduction of budget and a reduction of staff. The district already has cut up to five staff positions because of declining enrollment.
“That’s our challenge is whatever the state cuts are we have to add 5 percent because of our declining enrollment,” Argabright said. “We’ve had to reduce our budget significantly already and now we’ll have to do it again to get where we need to be.”
Argabright said he hasn’t had a chance to digest numbers yet but will when the school board votes.
“We’ll get through it,” he said. “Not sure how yet, but we’re going to work on it.”
Chase County
The Chase County school district already has consolidated its schools county-wide and this spring eliminated staff positions and activities to stay within budget and not raise property taxes to support the district.
In addition to several jobs lost and duties combined for other employees, the district eliminated funding for summer Camp United program, driver’s education for this summer, Monday through Wednesday after-school activities transportation, uniform replacement, towel service for high school and middle school and C-team competition dates. The district also reduced athletic competition dates and delayed district textbook replacement for one year.
The total savings anticipated from the earlier cuts is $317,693.
Chase County holds a unique position among school districts state-wide. The combination of low enrollment and vast acres of bluestem pastureland causes the district to be considered “wealthy” by state standards; it has few students per square mile.
There is, however, little industry or business in the county to pay taxes that would bring the school district additional money to operate and because of the wealth designation and the lack of significant monies from weighted funds, state aid is minimal, compared to other districts.
According to information from Superintendent Greg Markowitz, the school board is looking at no budget carryover and uncertain revenue projections. The district could ill afford to lose another $116 per student in state aid.
Federal stimulus money may help for a limited time, but the budget will continue to be a problem when the money is no longer available, Markowitz said.
He listed several budget debits for the 2009-10 school year, including $106,913 in state assistance and $168,592 in fixed cost increases. The total cost to the district is $275,505, and those projections do not include wage increase projections of any kind, Markowitz said.
The school board this week will consider possible options beyond those already announced earlier.