The Kansas Legislature “did its job” last week when it met in a special session, Jack Koehn, USD 257 Superintendent of Schools, told board members at their meeting Monday night.
They “passed a clean and constitutional school finance bill,” Koehn said, reverting back to a tried-and-true funding formula that legislators had used since the early 1990s to ensure schools are funded as equally as possible.
For Iola, it means an additional $90,418 in funds that can be used in the classroom, and about $70,000 in property tax relief to area taxpayers. The district also saw a loss of $15,000 that was budgeted for its virtual aid program, leaving it almost $133,000 for that purpose.
The funds are only for this fiscal year. When the Legislature reconvenes the first of 2017, they will be expected to draft a new state budget that will include the issue of whether schools are adequately funded.
Humboldt schools, which enjoyed a considerable bump in their property valuations because of the construction of the Enbridge pipeline, had to pay for that luxury. They took a hit of $305,507 in their local options budget funds as well as a decrease of $44,400 in virtual aid funding. Those cuts were offset by an additional $60,240 for capital outlay.
The Iola school district is ending the budget year, which begins anew July 1, with about $143,000 in “disposable” income.
What may be confusing to patrons is that some of the funds in the district’s budget are out of reach, including those for special education, food service and transportation.
To date, school officials have saved $500,000 in a contingency fund, which “is small compared to other districts our size,” Koehn said. The reserves are for a “rainy day,” which happens with increasing frequency in Kansas.
“I’m scared of what June revenues will be,” Koehn said, referring to state revenues, which are about $74 million shy of expectations for the current fiscal year.
“The likelihood that mid-year we will be told to cut our budgets, again, is high,” he said.
Over the past several years, school officials have also been saving up money in their capital outlay fund primarily to repair facilities. To date, the fund has $650,000 for such purposes.
The funds are currently targeted for a new roof on Iola Middle School slated for next summer, busses, restrooms that meet the Americans with Disabilities Act in Jefferson, repairs to the track at Riverside Park and computer equipment.
Capital outlay is a restricted fund, which means it can only be spent on things such as building maintenance, repairs, equipment, and, in the district’s case, use of the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
THE CAREER Tech program that will be based outside of LaHarpe has attracted the attention of Goppert State Savings Bank, which has nearby branches, including Colony, Garnett and St. Paul.
Koehn said the Goppert Foundation has expressed interest in funding a program at the new tech center, most likely production welding.
The foundation, a non-profit, would direct its gift through the Allen County Community Foundation.
