USD 257 board members can expect to cut $145,000 over the next six months and up to three times that much for 2011-12 if cuts in state aid proposed by Gov. Sam Brownback materialize.
That was the somber news presented by Dr. Craig Neuenswander, superintendent of schools, at Monday night’s board meeting.
The recommended cuts would reduce base state aid per pupil from $4,012 to $3,780.
“It hasn’t been that low since the 1999-2000 school year,” Neuenswander noted.
He also pointed out that the district had lost slightly more than $2 million in state aid since September 2008, in part because of an enrollment decrease of 113 students.
While the Legislature has the power to decide state aid, Neuenswander said legislators “usually end up with what the governor recommends.”
Neuenswander had no proposals for how to deal with the pending cuts, but said he would by the board’s next meeting on Feb. 14.
The district has $500,000 in a contingency fund, which Neuenswander recommended be carefully guarded. He said some transfers from funds such as food service might be made to general operations, although that wouldn’t be substantial.
The only local sources of tax money not tapped are in the local option budget and capital outlay fund.
The LOB currently is at 30 percent of its maximum 31 percent level. Another 1 percent would raise about $100,000. To raise the level would require a vote by school district voters.
The capital outlay fund — money that may be used for equipment purchases and building improvements — is at 41⁄2 mills and has a cap of 8 mills. Another 31⁄2 mills would generate about $175,000. That decision may be made in-house but is subject to petition.
BOARD members agreed to make up a day lost to winter weather, Jan. 11, on April 22, one of two snow days built into the district’s calendar.
The district still has two houses for sale built by building trades students. One is in Gas; the other in the Cedarbrook Addition. The Gas house is being rented.
Students are about halfway through construction of another house in Cedarbrook.
Don Snavely, board member on the Building Trades Committee, said discussion was moving toward students doing projects within the district next school year, rather than building another house.
Phil Jarred, an accountant with Jarred, Gilmore & Phillips, PA, presented a review of an audit performed on the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. The accounting firm found no problems with the Center’s books.
