USD 383 Board of Education

April 2, 2014
Kathy Dzewaltowski, observer

Lew Faust, Director of Business Services, updated the board on state school finance, in light of the recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling.  Bills have been introduced in the House and the Senate to fully fund equity requirements, but the bills also include ways to offset the additional funding through reductions.  The House bill would fund transportation at 95% of current levels, would cap at-risk funding for students age 19 (i.e. would not fund older students), and would provide funding for virtual students at 90%.  The net affect on the district would be a loss of $312,383 in budget authority.  The Senate bill would reduce transportation funding by 15%, would provide funding for full-time virtual students at 90% and part-time students at 70%, and would use the same formula for at-risk as the House bill.  The net impact on the district would be a loss of $434,000 in budget authority.  The Legislature also plans to increase the base per pupil funding by $14, from the current $3,838 to $3,852.

Carol Adams, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, reported that students and teachers are still experiencing problems with the online Kansas assessments.  The decision was made to cease assessment for the remainder of the week in hopes that problems can be corrected, and testing will resume on April 7th.

The board approved the creation of two pathways in the Career and Technical Education program at MHS.  The students enrolled in the courses are counted for extra weighting, which generates additional revenue that will be applied to hiring an additional agricultural science teacher and will eliminate the overload expense currently occurring in ag science.

The board also approved creating the position of Director of Early Education Programs to meet requirements established by the Kansas Dept. of Education.