Emporia school district administrators have seen enough budget cuts the past year to last a lifetime.
Gov. Mark Parkinson’s announcement of the latest cuts to the overall state budget included a $36 million lop in additional funds from the current school year.
Monday’s cuts followed a series of money-savings measures from the state that have caused per-pupil state aid to plunge incrementally since a $4,433 per-pupil allotment that theoretically was to be available at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year.
In February 2009, the Legislature lowered aid by $33 per-pupil, retroactively, then followed with a series of additional cuts that had dropped the current school year’s per-pupil state aid to $4,218.
With the latest cuts announced Monday, school districts per-pupil allotment of state aid now stands at $4,012, $206 less per-pupil than when the official full-time equivalency enrollment figures were calculated as of Sept. 20. Then, the district enrollment was greater than anticipated, with 7,377.2 FTE students and school board was able to budget within the $4,218 per-pupil allotment.
The Emporia district’s FTE was about 100 more than administrators had estimated, which increased the budget’s anticipated revenue totals.
“We always said that we were going to get by with our contingency reserve this year, and that’ll still be our plan,” Superintendent John Heim said this morning, “but it reduces it so much more quickly than what we had anticipated. Up until October, we thought we were going to lose $80 a student, and now ...”
The district has slightly more than $3 million in its contingency fund.
“But we have a million that’s set aside for our retirement plan, so we have about $2.2 million that’s extra,” Heim said.
Assistant Superintendent for Finance Rob Scheib has calculated that the overall loss to the local school district will be $1,371,816, using the higher enrollment figure.
The state has estimated Emporia will lose $995,000.
“For some reason, they held special ed out of the calculation, so that’s why when you go to the state Web site and you look at comparing numbers, what they are using as weighted count is not the same weighted count that (the Emporia district) uses,” Scheib said. “... But the total loss is $1,371,816.”
Heim said the 2010-11 school year budget will be more difficult to fund, unless state revenues suddenly surge upward.
Classrooms with larger numbers of children, as well as reductions in staff numbers may become necessary, depending upon the economic climate.
“Next year, I think that’s a possibility,” Heim said.
Heim said that the governor’s cuts Monday had been relatively small, compared to the potential maximum cuts that had been estimated.
The smaller reduction apparently came because larger cuts would have interfered with terms for federal stimulus money. Larger cuts would have required that Kansas apply for a waiver to allow the state to reduce its per-pupil aid below the baseline 2006 minimum level.
“We showed that worst-case scenario as $180, in addition to the $150,” Heim said, which would have brought the total November cuts to $330 instead of $206 per-pupil. “That still could happen. In the governor’s statement ... he said they weren’t going to apply for a waiver, so that’s a good sign. But I guess the Legislature could come in and tell him to do it.”
The state aid reductions and their affects on the district will be on the agenda for the Dec. 9 meeting of the Emporia board of education.
gg (anonymous) says...
Again, how much is that artificial turf at the high school going to cost?
November 24, 2009 at 6:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
It's going to end up costing teachers jobs and worse, do nothing to enrich education.
November 24, 2009 at 6:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
methusla (anonymous) says...
But, people, you are forgetting the fact that the artificial turf is a needed and wanted thing, needed and wanted by a certain few ! And the artificial turf field will be paid for by a free, taxpayer funded, stimulus grant, that is supposed to be used for energy savings and you must remember that all these , bailouts, golden tarps, stimulus grants, money, are all " FREE MONEY ", and if you believe that all this money being given away is acually not going to cost anyone anything, I have some prime bottom land I would like to sell, " Cheap ", it is located at the bottom of John Redmond Resevoir, hence the term bottom land !
November 24, 2009 at 9:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
methusla (anonymous) says...
P.S.
My whole point is, There is no such thing as a free ride or nothing is " FREE " and eventually everything that is supposed to be or touted as being free will end up costing someone or everyone something in the long run !
November 24, 2009 at 9:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
reddog (K. B. Thomas Jr.) says...
The Emporia School Board will pay anything for economy, no matter what it costs. It time to tighten the belt. Go to The Decline: The Geography of a Reccssion. This is profound.
November 24, 2009 at 10:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Beo_Saoirse (anonymous) says...
Red, be a good puppy and post a link. Makes it so much easier to follow what you are saying.
November 24, 2009 at 11:45 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )