July Message From the Superintendent: School Budget News
by Brian Pekarek
I have often heard it said that: “Tough times often bring out
the best in people.” That can definitely be said of the July 2009
Kansas School District Finance situation.
July Budget
Message: Many of you may have undoubtedly heard about the
state budget cuts for school districts in the spring and summer of
this year. You may have also heard about the cuts that school
districts in Kansas are making in order to meet these challenges.
For this reason, I wanted to take some time in order to elaborate
on these for the public.
Drop in State Funding: When I took the position as
Superintendent of USD 224 on July 1st, I knew that our drop in
state funding (our BSAPP) had been significantly reduced from the
previous year. At the beginning of last year, we started the year
receiving $4,433 per FTE (full time equivalent) for the students
that we served. As the year continued, the state legislature
dropped our state funding to $4,280 through a series of cuts. I
also knew that with the drop in BSAPP was the fact that our
district has significant declining enrollment. From this
information, (and the recent estimations from negotiations) we
estimated that we would need to cut at least $168,000 from next
year's budget.
July 2nd Bad News: On July 2nd, Governor Parkinson announced
that an additional $62 had to be cut from next year's BSAPP. This
took our BSAPP down to $4,218 and it added an additional $33,000 to
our $168,000 cut in the budget. Since we had to balance our budget,
this meant that we now needed to cut at least $201,000 from our
2009-2010 budget. This was more than 7% of the general fund that we
operated from last year.
KASB Goal Setting Session: In order to proactively deal with
these cuts, the USD 224 School Board and I have been in close
communication with Kansas State Department of Education, the Kansas
Association of School Boards, and the staff of USD 224. In addition
to this, the USD 224 School Board and I had a KASB Goal-Setting
Session with a representative of Kansas Association of School
Boards in order to address our goals and vision for the district.
This allowed us to see how we could make better use of the money we
use in the district, and it gave us a clear vision of the future so
that we could see the “forest through the trees.”
USD 224 Budget Workshops: Following the goal-setting
session, we conducted two days of budget workshops in order to
address our goals, our visions for the future, and how we are going
to use our public money for the best interests of educating our
students. At the workshops, we discussed the cuts in BSAPP,
identified areas where we could cut spending, and proposed
proactive steps we needed to take in order to allow our students
the best education possible within the USD 224 School District.
Better Fund Management: One of the major steps towards
recovery was a proactive vote of the USD 224 School Board that
allowed our 4 Capital Outlay Fund Mills to be transferred over to
our Supplemental General (LOB) Fund. This allowed us $114,000 of
usable money in the district that would normally be locked into
building construction. In addition to this, we increased 1-Mill
Levy in our Supplemental General Fund.
Clifton-Clyde High
School Athletics Fee Waiver: Another creative funding aspect
of our budget deals with providing an athletic fee/ and an athletic
fee waiver for all Clifton-Clyde High School Students if they are
out for a particular sport. In order to receive the athletic fee
waiver, the parents of the high school students must complete all
of the needed enrollment forms (parents can get these forms during
enrollment on Monday, August 10th). If parents/students return the
forms to the school district before the first day of school, they
will be exempt from paying these athletic fee. If they do not
complete these forms, they will be assessed a $20 fee per
student/sport for athletics. Completing the forms is an easy way
for the district to generate additional revenue from the state
without costing the district any more money.
“Tough Times Bring Out the Best in People”: Through our goal
setting workshop and two budget workshops, the USD 224 School Board
and I feel that we have accomplished a great task for the district.
Although the $201,000 cut in funding from the state was high this
year, we rose to the occasion and got a chance to focus on our true
mission: reaching each student in our district and assuring them a
high quality education.
Feel Free to Contact me: Contact me anytime if you have any
questions or concerns regarding this process and I would be happy
to talk to you further.
It is an honor serving the Clifton-Clyde Community as your superintendent.
Mr. Brian Pekarek
Superintendent
Clifton-Clyde USD 224
785-455-3313
bpekarek@usd224.com
