Budget Issues

There are many comments being made pertaining to the decrease in school funding. With these hard economic times we are now in the State of Kansas is running short of revenue. This was obvious in November when school districts were only allotted half of their state aid. We are now hoping that December brings a full month of revenue. The Governor is also getting ready to make public his thoughts on budget savings and cuts to governmental agencies. It is forecasted that we will see a decrease in funding of $210 per pupil. This will lower our General fund per pupil cost from $4,128 to $4,008. Through the weighted factor per pupil state aid our General Budget will lose $250,000.
We need to look at what we do and how we can continue the positive educational process we have. We are told to save money by eliminating staff. We have remedial reading and math assistance that is really helping all students. This is proven by our assessment scores. With reaching 14 areas of standard of excellence including reading, math, and science, we cannot just stop what we are doing. We are benefiting our students in positive ways and finding success in with all subgroups of learners. We are under strict state and federal mandates such as No Child Left Behind and Kansas’ Adequate Yearly Process. I agree that these mandates have helped to guide schools to better quality. We have improved our educational strategies, technology to assist student learning and continue to improve teacher quality through teacher training. We are now seeing funds being stripped away from teacher quality training and funds to continue our improvement. Does this tell us that what we have accomplished is good, but not important? Is student success and learning not important?
The post audit committee established by the state of Kansas legislators noted in their report (January 2006) that they found a strong association between the amounts districts spend and the outcomes they achieve. In the cost function results, a 1.0% increase in district performance outcomes was associated with a 0.83% increase in spending – almost a one-to-one relationship. This means that, all other things being equal, districts that spent more had better student performance. The results were statistically significant beyond the 0.01 level, which means we can be more than 99% confident there is a relationship between spending and outcomes.
Even though we are in tough economical times, we must continue our positive educational strategies to assist all students in becoming life-long learners in the 21st Century. I believe that a strong state is established through a continued strong education. Let us work together, in a by-partisan way, to continue the focus of educational excellence. Contact your legislators to back educational funding. Adequate school funding is a State Constitutional mandate.

Meeting

Building for the future

This evening (Wednesday, November 4, 2009) we will be hosting a meeting with the Building Committee. The committee is made up of community partners, students, staff and administration. Mr. Kenton Cox, our architect, will be here to explain the needs of the district along with plans and strategies to move forward with these important projects.

The first project on the order is updating and renovating the Elementary Building. This building is in need of replacing the heating and air conditioning system, upgrading the plumbing, electrical updates, and replace the old windows for energy efficiency.

The second possible project is to build a new eight lane track facility with the football stadium.

This committee was established during the 2008-2009 school year. With the change in district leadership the committee was put on hold. We are now ready to start the process of building projects in our district. USD 420 is looking forward to working with the community in developing a project we are all comfortable with.

If, at any time, you have questions or concerns pertaining to this project please contact Superintendent Bill Orth at the district office.