Follow Us 
Related News
Current Poll
| District Weathers Budget Storm |
 |
 |
 |
| News - Osawatomie | |||
| Written by Travis Perry | |||
| Wednesday, 17 March 2010 09:00 | |||
|
While schools across Kansas scramble to make due in the midst of crumbling state funding, the news coming from Osawatomie USD 367 administrators is encouraging, considering the overall plight of the statewide education funding dilemma. “We’re in fine shape; we’re OK,” Superintendent Gary French told the Board of Education on Thursday morning. Overall, he noted, the district has managed to curb spending and expenses significantly since the 2008-2009 school year. While the district saw an unprecedented drop in state funding this year, officials have managed to spend a lower percentage of overall funds than last year. At this point, French said, the district should be able to make it into the next school year without dipping into cash reserves, which officials are attempting to save in case the state is forced to make further cuts or doesn’t deliver on funding promises. Still, the district is far from out of the woods. At this point, French is concerned about ironing out final details for this year before even considering a glance ahead. “We can’t talk about next year, because I honestly don’t think anyone knows,” he said. Until then, however, USD 367 administrators will keep a close eye on the debate in Topeka. French touched on several proposals that would affect the district, specifically voicing a concern about a trend he sees in legislation pushing districts to gather funding from local property taxes. French said the district simply would not be able to fully fund itself on local property taxes, and requiring that would favor larger school districts, who would have a vested interested in such funding. “The fact that it’s out there is concerning to me,” French said. The second batch of legislative bills the superintendent is keeping an eye on would affect the level of so-called catastrophic aid the district would receive for high-cost, special-needs students. French said Senate bills 358 and 359 would eliminate the ability of districts to double-dip by claiming certain costs in multiple categories, thus artificially boosting reimbursement, would raise the catastrophic aid threshold from $25,000 to $36,000 per student. While French said he is in favor of eliminating the reimbursement loophole, the possibility of increasing the district’s liability for such students would create an unexpected expense practically overnight, blind-siding already wavering district budgets. At this point, though, not much more damage can come to districts like Osawatomie, he said. All the cuts that could be made have been made. “There’s not a bill out there that cuts us anymore, but there’s not a bill that helps us, either,” he added. Wrapping up their final order of business, board members on Thursday discussed a resolution giving them the authority to raise the mill levy to bolster the district’s capital outlay fund. While no action was taken on the issue, board members will vote on the resolution at their next meeting April 14. French clarified that the resolution in no way constitutes a district decision to raise the levy. Rather, the board is required to renew the resolution once every five years; failure to do so would create a window of time in which officials would be unable to utilize the authority. French said the move is simply a matter of making sure the district has the option available, even if it is not choosing to use it.
Set as favorite
Bookmark
Email This
Hits: 352 Trackback(0)
Comments (0)
 Write comment
You must be logged in to post a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
