Supt. Randy Weseman rejected Monday the idea of launching a private fund drive to save the jobs of 65 Lawrence teachers, counselors and nurses holding pink slips.

“It’s fraught with all kinds of problems,” he said. “That’s not an initiative that I’m interested in pursuing.”

The idea came from the Shawnee Mission School District, which got the ball rolling by notifying principals and Parent Teacher Assn. presidents in March they could seek donations to pay salaries and benefits of teachers slated for layoffs. Parents at one elementary school in that district have raised more than $30,000.

Weseman said such a school-by-school campaign could turn into a competitive quest for cash that exacerbates “equity” issues in Kansas school districts. Schools in wealthy neighborhoods outstrip the capacity of schools in poorer areas of town to raise money for special projects related to computers, playground equipment and other supplemental activities.

Shifting that inequity to placement of classroom teachers in schools is unacceptable, said Scott Morgan, vice president of the Lawrence school board.

“If you get into personnel and teachers, you have crossed a threshold,” Morgan said.

‘A university model’

Weseman said private fund raising for teachers would improperly relieve the Kansas Legislature of its constitutional responsibility to finance public education.

“This is just getting into areas that move us beyond being educators to almost a university model in trying to fund our operations,” he said.

The district welcomes private donations to the Lawrence Schools Foundation for programs and activities, Weseman said, but written policy to guide fund raising tied to wages and benefits of specific teachers at specific schools don’t exist. For example, who would arbitrate disputes about how donations are spent? And who would manage the money?

Wayne Kruse, a Lawrence teacher and president of Lawrence Education Assn., which represents the district’s 900 certified staff, questioned whether such fund raising is legal in Kansas. He shared administrators’ concerns that it pitted one school against another.

“It’s sad we have to have these types of discussions,” Kruse said.

The idea of a private fund drive surfaced last week at a Lawrence school board meeting in which formal action was taken to dismiss 65 certified educators before the 2002-2003 academic year. The layoffs anticipated a reduction of state funding to public school districts.

The Shawnee Mission district took similar action, issuing 59 “reduction in force” letters to teachers in that district.

Statehouse focus

Lawrence board member Jack Davidson said raising “soft” money for salaries of educators was bad public policy. Any district that goes down that road is asking for problems in the future, he said.

“That’s a bad, bad idea,” Davidson said. “What needs to be done is they (legislators) need to seriously work on the school finance funding program.”

The 2002 Legislature is scheduled to reconvene Wednesday to wrap up business for the year. Lawmakers must eliminate a projected $700 million budget shortfall, and Gov. Bill Graves has said he doesn’t think legislators are ready to pass tax increases necessary to finance more funding for public education.

Morgan said the focus of debate at the Statehouse should be about the state’s responsibility to appropriately fund school districts not this fall’s re-election campaigns that make legislators wary of voting for tax hikes.

“If we start subsidizing the mistakes of the Legislature … I think we’re doing a great disservice,” he said.

In anticipation of a tight budget, the Lawrence school board earlier adopted a priority list of about $4.5 million in spending cuts and fee increases. The 65 educators to be sent termination notices by Wednesday are on that list.