Economics Affecting USD #223
April 29, 2009
I realize that everyone has heard about the economic situation
of our state and the union. We sometimes remain shielded here in
the middle of the country in our small towns, but that is simply
not the case anymore with the current plight we find ourselves in.
The latest consensus estimates came out last Friday with more
drastic news that will impact us in some fashion or another. We can
expect tax increases, more cuts or a combination of the two.
Our district has been working to deal with this for several months
now and it seems that every time we feel like we have it managed,
we get hit with more bad news. Currently we are dealing with
declining enrollment and the budget cuts in the same year which is
making it a very difficult process.
Our district was preparing to take a hit on our budget because of a
big decline in our enrollment that would come about in the upcoming
year due to the way the formula works. We knew that was occurring
and were working to deal with that, and then the economic downturn
initially hit. We again had to make adjustments to deal with
this.
As more states began to have problems, the union became involved
through the so-called stimulus. I realize that there is a
tremendous amount of dollars being shipped out to states to help
them out, but you need to understand that, in Kansas, these are
being used as stabilization dollars rather than a stimulus. The
legislature has chosen to use those dollars to replace a decrease
in the state aid funds. Basically to this point, they are trying to
use those funds to hold schools at a level rate.
Now I would like to put this in perspective for our district. We
are currently preparing for next year with the idea that we will
have about $220,000 less to work with. This is approximately a 5%
decrease. We are doing this through supply cuts, cutting
activities, staffing cuts (by not replacing some positions through
retirements) reductions in transfers, and also through the use of
our contingency reserve dollars. We are looking at the entire
picture while still trying to provide the best education possible
for our students.
Please understand that this plan has been looked at for the
situation we were dealing with prior to the last consensus
estimate. Now the state is another 328 million dollars down for
next fiscal and that computes to about another 6.9 percent drop
that will have to come from somewhere. These are serious economic
times and I feel that you should all be aware of how it is
impacting your local school district. If you have any questions
about this, please do not hesitate to contact me.
