COTTONWOOD FALLS — More than 40 people in a crowd of about 175 took advantage of an opportunity Monday night to make suggestions for eliminating a $305,398 shortfall in the Chase County school district’s current budget.
The comments came during a special meeting of the board of education at Chase County High School in Cottonwood Falls, after a tour of the district’s three buildings between 5 and 7 p.m. Patrons also were comfortable in letting the board know what they did not want the district to do to compensate for the drastic reduction in per-pupil state aid.
Aid for the previous school year was set at $4,433 per-pupil, and a series of cuts by the legislature and the governor have dropped the current year’s aid to $4,012 per-pupil.
The district in March had eliminated some teaching positions, deferred textbook purchases, reduced activities, eliminated the afternoon kindergarten bus route, and switched library and nursing services from district employees to contract labor. The cuts were not enough to see the district through the final round of state aid reductions.
The district now is considering an assortment of options, including closing one school, cutting bus routes and perhaps staff, and going to a four-day school week. The latter possibility is estimated to save more than $105,000.
Reducing wages of all district staff could be another source for savings, although that would require agreement from the teachers’ union.
None of the options under consideration brought a broad show of support from the public.
The board had set parameters for the comment session. Time was limited and comments were confined to issues. Patrons were cautioned not to refer to identifiable personalities and, with only a few exceptions, they honored the board’s guidelines.
The meeting went smoothly and efficiently, with most patrons remembering to set a kitchen timer to five minutes before speaking, but not using their full allotted time.
Many of them were long-time residents, with up to four generations of family members who had attended Chase County schools.
Both long-term patrons and those relatively new to the district praised the students’ high test scores and academic successes, and the low dropout rate at Chase County High School.
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kseyetie (anonymous) says...
Don't pound on the Chase County board. They may eventually have to close one school, but the legislature is trying to starve them out of existence. People who are not happy with USD 284 need to call or write their house and senate representatives and demand a tax increase. Declining enrollment doesn't help either.
January 26, 2010 at 11:10 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Joe_Strummer (anonymous) says...
Take your tax increase and shove it where the sun don't shine kseyetie!
January 26, 2010 at 2:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )