Budget uncertainty still looms for schools

With the 2016 school year drawing to a close, the Shawnee Mission School Board spent much of its meeting Monday applauding the school district’s athletes and academic superstars.

For example, the members of the Shawnee Mission North High School’s Navy Junior ROTC unit ran through the routine of rifle flips and precision drill steps that won them the national championship last month in Pensacola, Fla.

But the district is still anxious about what next fall brings as school officials await a decision by the Kansas Supreme Court on whether the state’s system for funding public education is fair to poor school districts.

“We’re six weeks away from a new budget year and there’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty of what might happen with our budget,” District Superintendent Jim Hinson said after the meeting.

The court heard arguments May 10 from attorneys for the state of Kansas who claimed that HB 2655, a series of technical changes made by the state Legislature earlier this year, made state funding more equitable between districts. Justices had given the state until June 30 to remedy the problems or they would force the schools to close.

The legislators left most school district funding unchanged. Those amounts were included in the annual state budget approved by lawmakers and signed into law by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback earlier this month.

Attorneys for four school districts suing the state told the court that the lack of increase in dollars for poor districts shows that lawmakers aren’t meeting the court order.

Hinson said the district can work under the current budget, even though the lack of new revenue means he will have to make cuts elsewhere to accommodate annual increases in employee salaries, utilities and other costs. But if the court rules that the Legislature’s changes didn’t go far enough, and lawmakers choose to shift more money from richer districts like his to the poorer districts, it could have a profound effect.

“If the court says all or a certain portion of HB 2655 would be unconstitutional, would that take money from us, how would that impact us? We don’t know the answer to that question,” Hinson said. “I think over the next couple weeks there will be a much clearer picture.”

The school board also approved extending to January 2018 the terms of office for the three board members whose terms currently are scheduled to end next year. The Kansas Legislature last year approved legislation to move local elections from the spring of the election year to the fall.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 10:44 AM with the headline "Budget uncertainty still looms for schools."