February 2009 District Update

Kansas State Assessment Schedule

The Spring 2009 Kansas State Assessment Schedule has been released by the Kansas State Department of Education. The following are the subject areas and grades that will be tested during the months of February and March:

Math Grades 3-8 and 10 Reading Grades 3-8 and 11
Writing Grades 5, 8 and 11 Science Grades 4, 7 and 11

Weather Information

Whenever weather conditions are such that classes or activities may not be held or busses might not run, students and parents should listen to the following media outlets:
WIBW TV Channel 13, WIBW 580 AM Radio, KTKA TV Channel 49, KSNT TV Channel 27, 94 Country Radio and 106.9 FM Radio.

Update Contacts

Many times throughout the school year, teachers, principals, building secretaries and our school nurse need to make contact with parents during the school day. Please update phone numbers that you can be reached at if you have changed home or work numbers since the beginning of school.

In-Service Day

On Monday, February 16, there will be no school in USD 420. This will be our second semester teacher in-service day.

School Finance

On Tuesday, January 13, Governor Kathleen Sebelius released a budget plan for 2008-09 and 2009-10 that holds state aid for public education at the same level originally approved for the current year and stays the same for next year, despite an unprecedented state budget shortfall.

That plan would still result in a $22 cut in the base budget per pupil in the current year and a further $66 cut next year under the most recent projections. Special education aid would also fall from 92 percent of excess cost under current law to 84.5 percent next year. Those cuts occur because the Governor's budget does not add additional funding this year for higher student enrollment than expected and because the increasing costs of local option budget aid, KPERS retirement contributions and capital outlay aid next year are offset by reductions in base state aid. Although special education aid is not reduced, school district special education costs are projected to rise, which lowers the percent of excess cost covered.

The budget proposal for FY 2010 also eliminates all funding for professional development ($1.75 million this year) and driver's education aid ($1.8 million last year, already cut to $600,000 this year). It does maintain funding for the pre-K pilot program ($5 million), the new early childhood block grant ($11 million) and parent education grants ($7.5 million). Those three programs are funded by the Children's Initiative's Fund (tobacco settlement receipts).

The Governor's proposal is likely to be the highest level of possible funding for K-12 education. Legislative leaders have already criticized the plan for failing to cut state spending enough and many legislators say education should share in further reductions. The Governor's budget projects an ending balance of $58.3 million in the current year based on official revenue estimates from November. However, state general fund receipts are already $44.5 million below those estimates over the past two months. The budget also shows an ending balance of essentially zero in FY 2010, which means any shortfall in revenue over the next 18 months, would result in an unconstitutional deficit in FY 2010.

Please keep in mind that this is only the Governor’s recommendations. There will be additional proposals by the Kansas Legislature that will be much higher.

This is a very serious time in regards to school funding and especially for small and rural schools. USD 420 continues to be hurt financially due to declining enrollment. We will lose another significant amount of students next year which will further impact a reduction in state funds.

The recommendation from KSDE is for districts to cut all unnecessary spending until further decisions are reached in Topeka. We will try our very best to look at all budget areas as we try to reduce expenditures for this current year as well as for the 2009-10 school year. We will keep the community informed of any school finance updates.