School personnel across the state breathed a sigh of relief Sunday after House Bill 2506 was passed. The bill affects each school district differently. For USD 257, it is a sign of equalization. THE NEW school finance bill also puts the state’s school districts up against the wall when it comes to building new facilities.
“We came out OK,” superintendent of schools Jack Koehn said. “I appreciate our legislators. The equalizations on the LOB will really help the taxpayers.”
Increases in base state aid per pupil used for local option budget will go from $4,4333 to $4,490 for the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years. Base state aid per pupil was increased by $14. There are 1,347 students currently enrolled in the district.
“Enrollment is always a wild card for us,” Koehn said. “We never know what we’ll get.”
Capital outlay aid for the district will now be $109,496 which Koehn said is a little bit more. This aid helps fix and repair capital equipment and facilities. It comes from the local mill levy.
Some programs were sacrificed to enable more funding for basic needs. Nonproficient at-risk weighting was eliminated. This was $13,482 for USD 257 and helped students who did not make the proficiency level on the state assessments in reading and math.
The one policy in the bill that is on every teacher’s radar is tenure. Legislators tacked this portion onto the bill at the last minute. Koehn wasn’t very happy to see this, and is reassuring his faculty.
“It’s not something I would have done,” he said. “It’s put more pressure on administration. We have a lot of good teachers here.”
Koehn said there are still a lot of questions to be answered about the tenure issue. Currently, teachers who have taught three years or more have tenure and are evaluated every three years. Koehn isn’t quite sure how evaluations will work in the future.
“The school board, teachers and administrators need to collaborate and work together now more than ever,” Koehn said. “We all want the same results and that’s for the kids to learn.”
Under previous law, the state would help finance the construction of new facilities according to their needs. For USD 257, it could expect to receive 49 percent funding from the state.
That additional funding expires for any new building projects approved after July 1.
The USD 257 school board recently proposed a bond issue for $35 million. The vote is scheduled for June 24, just six days shy of the cutoff mark.
If passed, the funds would be used to construct a new elementary facility in the district and make significant improvements to the high school and middle schools.
Funds, tenure affect schools
