By Roger McKinney and Andra Bryan Stefanoni

news@joplinglobe.com

The latest round of Kansas budget cuts will hit hard in the school districts of Pittsburg, Columbus and Riverton.

Statewide, cuts to school districts now total nearly $83 million, based on what the districts budgeted, according to figures provided by the Kansas Department of Education.

The base state aid per pupil was reduced from $4,218 to $4,012, the 2006 level. The cuts announced Monday by Gov. Mark Parkinson — a total of $259 million in statewide spending, including $36 million for public schools — follow two earlier rounds of cuts to school districts in the 2008-09 school year.

The Columbus School District will take a $351,558 hit from the budget cuts. The district’s enrollment declined this school year.

“With the reduced enrollment, it’s kind of a double whammy,” said David Carriger, Columbus superintendent, about the budget cuts. “Those kinds of cuts, it’s going to affect everyone across the district.”

Carriger declined to say what actions are being considered. He said the school board will make some of those decisions at its December meeting.

“We’ll have to make some tough, tough decisions in the next few weeks,” he said. “We’ve been discussing possible scenarios.”

In Riverton, where enrollment also declined, the cuts total $223,364.

“So far, we’ve been able to insulate students from the cuts, but I don’t know how much longer that can happen,” said Superintendent Todd Berry.

Berry said some positions have been eliminated by leaving vacancies unfilled, but continuing to do that or taking the further step of eliminating employees would affect students’ education.

“We’ll start looking at those programs we offer year to year that don’t impact the classroom a great deal, but those don’t add up to significant dollars,” he said.

Berry said the district has delayed buying needed uniforms, and a bus purchase also has been delayed, but he said those cannot be put off indefinitely.

“We either pay now or we pay later,” he said.

‘Never saw a dime’

In Pittsburg, the school district lost money it never had, plus funds it will have to cut from its current budget.

“We were supposed to get $530,000 for increased enrollment, but we never saw a dime of that, and on top of that, they’re cutting what we already had another $273,000,” said Superintendent Destry Brown.

The district this year had an enrollment increase of the equivalent of 162 students, for which it had not budgeted.

But the enrollment increase came after the Sept. 20 counting date, so the district never received the funding, and this week’s cuts were based on the new increased count, Brown said.

The district has attempted to deal with previous rounds of cuts by eliminating the after-school enrichment program at four elementary schools — a program that was popular with students and “shouldn’t have been considered an ‘extra,’” Brown said.

In addition, he has not filled two positions in his office that opened when a staff member retired and another was married, instead dividing the work among the existing staff.

Outside of the office, eight positions that were open have not been filled, he said.

Ways to deal with the most recent round of cuts have yet to be determined.

“As for teachers … not yet,” Brown said. “We want to keep staff in place. We’ve hired for next year, and we don’t want to fire anyone in the middle of the year.”

What could help is the number of staff members, including teachers, who might retire in upcoming years. A total of 75 are eligible, Brown said. Whether the district could offer incentives to those who choose retirement is questionable.

“If a district offers $10,000 to that many teachers, then I have to ask myself, ‘What if they all took it?’” he said. “That’s $750,000.”

Teachers currently are eligible for 15 percent of their salary for five years, something Brown said is a “pretty good incentive.”

“Everything will be on the table right now,” he said. “We’ll be working pretty hard putting together ideas on what are things we can live without. We’ll be putting a price tag on everything, asking, ‘Is that worth that buck?’”

Rainy day

Enrollment increased this year in the Baxter Springs School District. Superintendent Dennis Burke said that prevented the cuts from being worse than they would have been. The cuts total $40,516 in Baxter Springs. Had the funding not changed, the district would have received an additional $268,484 in state funding instead of the $40,516 cut.

Burke said the cuts make planning difficult.

“We’ve saved for a rainy day, but our umbrellas are all out,” he said.

An enrollment increase in the Galena School District was enough to overcome the state cuts.

The district will receive an additional $99,586. Without the funding reduction, the district would have received an additional $364,647, based on its enrollment.

“We’re still well down from last year, but we were prepared for that,” said Superintendent Brian Smith. He said he is worried that more cuts could come.

“The unknown is very difficult,” he said.

Smith and other superintendents said they hope this will be the last cutback for schools this year.

“We just hope that the economic turnaround comes quickly and the state revenue starts to grow,” said Carriger, the Columbus superintendent.