Blue Valley families fear music class cut. District says it needs more state money

Residents of all ages filled the Blue Valley Board of Education room on Monday night, wearing neon yellow T-shirts with black lettering that said, “Save the music, Blue Valley.”

Families came to the school board meeting in droves as part of an effort to save the fifth grade strings program — a course students can take before they join orchestra in middle and high school — which some fear may be on the chopping block as the district eyes potential cuts.

The Blue Valley School District is facing budget shortfalls that district officials say could mean cuts to programs, depending on how Kansas legislators decide to calculate and allocate public school funding across the state.

“Fifth grade strings was a great time for me. I got to meet other kids with similar interests, connect better with my classmates,” said Ella Ballek, an eighth grader at Prairie Star Middle School who participated in the strings program. “It helped me build confidence and feel ready for middle school.”

She said the supportive environment gave her a way to express herself through music, which found its way into other aspects of her life.

“I would never have been brave enough to speak to you without my strings experience,” Ballek said.

Despite broad funding concerns, district spokesperson Kaci Brutto said no decisions have been made regarding the fifth grade strings program specifically.

“This item is not currently on a Board of Education agenda, and no formal recommendation has been presented,” she said. “Any estimated savings would primarily be related to staffing adjustments and associated operational costs.”

Gaps and shortfalls

The Blue Valley School District is facing a $10 million funding gap for next school year, in large part because of declining local enrollment. On top of that, the district needs to redirect $18 million from its general fund to help pay for its special education programs.

Making up those costs is causing district families to fear potential cuts to beloved programs.

The district is required by federal law to pay for and provide special education service. A lot of that money comes from the federal government and the state of Kansas, but for the past 15 years, the Kansas Legislature hasn’t allocated enough state money to cover all the costs of administering special education.

That means that individual school districts like Blue Valley need to make up the difference from their own budgets to fill the gap, which can eat into money meant for other things — like the fifth grade strings program.

“This reality requires us to carefully review a range of programs and staffing allocations across the district,” Brutto said. “Absent legislative action to fund special education at the required amount by law, these decisions will continue.”

Kansas lawmakers must finalize a new school finance formula before the existing formula expires in July 2027. The deadline for the task force working on the new formula to submit its plan is Jan. 11.

Leaders of districts across Johnson County have been encouraging lawmakers to allocate more funding for special education services.

‘Chronically underfunded’

They echo the calls of public education advocates who for years have sought a massive increase in state special education funding.

“The truth of the matter is the school district has been chronically underfunded in special education since 2011, and every year those numbers go up,” Chapman said.

Kansas statute says the state “shall” reimburse districts for 92% of the excess costs subject to appropriations, meaning the Legislature can fund special education at its discretion and leave the districts to manage the shortfall, Kansas Representative Mari-Lynn Poskin, a Democrat whose district includes the Blue Valley North area, said during public comment in Monday’s meeting.

“The appropriators are your state representatives and senators, who left to their own devices have chosen not to fund at 92% since 2011 when supermajorities were achieved in both chambers,” she said.

This year, state funding leaves an $180 million shortfall in special education statewide — a gap the districts across Kansas have to make up.

For Blue Valley, the $18 million gap for special education has to be filled from its general fund — forcing the district to divert dollars from other programs.

“We don’t even have that amount in our reserves, we have to do something,” Chapman said.

As Blue Valley sees a larger gap to fill, it has also seen a 14% growth in students needing special education services and an overall enrollment decrease by 3.5%, Chapman said.

During Monday’s board meeting, the district called for parents and families to contact their legislators to push for more special education funding.

“I love seeing you here, but to be frank this is an issue for our Legislature,” Blue Valley Schools Superintendent Gillian Chapman said during the meeting. “We have already made the reductions we can and everything we do involves kids in this district. There’s not one program or one thing we do that I can say, ‘Yeah, we don’t need that.’”

“Every single position in this district impacts these kids.”

This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 6:11 AM.