About 400 people attended a Board Night Out at Wichita’s West High School Monday evening. A similar number attended another forum at Wichita’s Southeast High School.

USD259 Wichita Board of Education President Barbara Fuller, board member Lanora Nolan and Superintendent John Allison attended the West High gathering and offered their assessments of the decisions facing the district because of the ongoing state budget crisis.

Allison said he expects the district to face $25-$30 million in cuts for fiscal year 2011.

The West High crowd was mostly supportive of maintaining funding but several expressed frustration at the meeting’s approach to the budget process.

“You’re here asking parents and staff what programs can we let go of,” one audience member asked during the question and answer session. “Has anybody even bothered to take a look at those people who are on staff in the downtown office and combine jobs? Find ways to cut the fat in the downtown office and make it very publicly accessible.” Allison responded that they were not at the point of looking at any specific cuts before the questioner cut him off and said, “Looking at that should come before asking parents and teachers and kids, what can you do without?”

In FY 2009, USD 259 spent just 51% of its total budget on Instructional costs, well below the state average of 55%.  Non-instructional costs totaled $282 million, including $63.2 million on administration and central services.

Allison said the district is not considering participating in the voluntary efficiency audits offered by Legislative Post Audit which have found more than $1.5 million in potential savings in the Derby and Ellinwood districts. “We’re a part of the Council of Great City Schools and we’re able to benchmark ourselves against other urban school districts. There really isn’t a comparable measure for us in Kansas.”

District employees appeared to outnumber parents of district students by a small margin in a show of hands called for by Nolan.

The meeting was billed as an opportunity to discuss the budget for the 2010-11 school year. Meeting organizers provided handouts with contact information for area legislators near the entrance to the school auditoriums. Nolan and Fuller repeatedly urged the West High audience to contact their legislators with personal stories of what budget cuts would mean to them.

Nolan coached the audience on how to write to their legislators. “I just encourage you, when you embark on this particular kind of assignment, just to make it as personal as you can,” Nolan said. “It’s just a story, your story, from your heart to your elected representative so that they understand that their choices have consequences and what those consequences look like when they impact your student and your student’s classroom or your community.”

Allison and Fuller acknowledged several times that the Legislature was likely to make another round of cuts to meet the ever-widening budget gap and those cuts would force uncomfortable decisions.

Summer hopes for an economic recovery in Kansas have dissipated as state revenues continue to fall short of expectations. February tax revenues were $71.2 million short. The state is now $340 million below original revenue expectations with four months remaining in a fiscal year likely to produce more bad news.  The ‘official’ shortfall according to the state is $105 million but that does not include a $235 million shortfall through October; the state resets variances to zero after each Consensus Revenue Estimate is released.

Fuller’s budget presentation showed USD 259 receives $328 million, or 57.1 percent, of its $574 million total revenues from the state. That amount includes base state aid per pupil (BSAPP) and supplemental state aid. Later in the presentation a line chart titled “Impact Of Another Cut” showed cuts in per pupil funding that represented only BSAPP. Fuller did not point out the difference between total state aid and BSAPP in the two charts or that other funding sources have increased.

No comparisons to prior years’ total spending were provided, but $574 million is 36% more that the district spent in FY 2005, and the same amount spent in FY 2009 according to the Kansas Department of Education.

Fuller stated that 59.5 percent of the district’s expenditures are restricted funds, which she likened to an employee’s paycheck deductions and thus beyond the employee’s — or the district’s — control. “Our gross pay is $621 million dollars, however our required expenses are special education, bond and interest payments, capital outlay, KPERS.”

That comparison is not accurate. Unlike employee payroll taxes, districts do receive the money and have control over how it is spent.  They are required to provide special education services but they do have discretion to decide what to spend in providing the services.  They also have discretion to delay or reduce the cost of certain capital projects.  A complete breakdown of expenditures deemed to be ‘restricted’ was not provided.

The $621 million Fuller called “gross pay” is what the district budgeted for FY2011, a figure that is routinely inflated beyond what districts intend to actually spend. For FY 2010 schools statewide budgeted a 10 percent increase knowing they would receive less than last year. Total funding, from state, federal and local sources, for FY 2010 was down 2% statewide.

Fuller showed that 80.9 percent of the remaining unrestricted funds are for salaries and benefits. According to an expanded district budget presentation made available to school site councils, 73 percent of the total budget covers payroll and benefits for about 7,600 district employees, one employee for every 6.6 students.

By slicing away pieces of the budget pie Fuller arrived at the conclusion, “So you can see, our budget is pretty well consumed.”

The audience separated into smaller groups to make lists of the education experience they valued. During the question and answer session that followed several audience members asked that funding not be cut for various programs.

One audience member who claimed to be a former teacher asked if the district was looking at the number of teachers in non-teaching positions, more than 200 by her count in 2008. Fuller responded that most of those positions were funded by Title One money for at-risk students and thus were part of the restricted funds beyond the district’s control.

Another questioned how the district would prioritize the groups’ lists. “You might have a list of 50 top items that we all agree that we really value, but how are you going to get the feedback from us that the top 10 are this?”

In an interview with KansasWatchdog Allison said the exercise was not aimed at making a cut list but rather a list of priorities of what to protect first from additional anticipated budget cuts.

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Related:

School funding data

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