Like a muscle car without brakes, city and county spending on services at Lawrence schools would be easy to get rolling but difficult to stop.

That’s what members of the Lawrence school board, Douglas County Commission and Lawrence City Commission heard Wednesday during a sometimes-emotional “budget summit” to address the public school district’s financial woes.

Officials with the Lawrence school district, city of Lawrence and Douglas County are talking about whether the city and county can pick up some of the services being cut in Lawrence schools. Supt. Randy Weseman, left, laid out the district's financial problems Wednesday to city and county commissioners and school board members. Listening, from Weseman's left, are County Administrator Craig Weinaug, City Commissioners Jim Henry and Marty Kennedy, County Commissioner Bob Johnson and City Manager Mike Wildgen.

“I think once you start down that road, it will never come to an end,” said school board member Jack Davidson. “You have to decide whether you want to carry it on forever.”

But school officials said the city and county eventually might pay more for health, mental health and law enforcement services if they don’t pony up for the schools now.

“You pay now or you pay later,” said school board member Austin Turney.

The Kansas Legislature slightly increased aid to schools for the coming school year. But because declining enrollment will mean fewer state dollars, the Lawrence school board has ordered budget cuts and fee increases totaling $4.7 million.

School officials say they hope the city and county will restore cuts to school nursing and intramural programs and pick up the cost of the Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities, or WRAP, program, which puts mental-health professionals in public schools to help students manage during trying times.

Together, those programs could cost more than $400,000 a year to continue.

Only one member of the three boards was openly skeptical of the proposal.

“It’s very hard for me to understand why one taxing body should step forward to take up the slack for another body that chooses not to tax for those things,” County Commissioner Bob Johnson said.

He acknowledged that the school district has no authority to further raise taxes.

There may be room for the city and county to help without raising the overall tax rate, County Commissioner Charles Jones said. Because of the budget cuts, the school levy may drop five or six mills from the current overall 110-mill rate in Lawrence. That could give the city and county the ability to raise their own taxes to support schools without increasing the total burden on property owners.

A mill is $1 of tax levied on every $1,000 of a property’s assessed valuation.

School Board President Sue Morgan said schools aren’t asking for the city and county to pay for textbooks and other educational items. Instead, the schools want help addressing broader community concerns, she said.

High school nurses, Morgan said, address problems of sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancy and substance abuse that might appropriately be handled by the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department.

And Supt. Randy Weseman said after-school intramurals keep students “engaged” and out of trouble.

“If those kids aren’t in intramurals, I don’t know what they’ll do,” Weseman said.

“They’ll end up on Massachusetts Street,” Turney said.

Lawrence Mayor Sue Hack said the cuts and fee increases would disproportionately affect poor students.

“I don’t know what kids you sacrifice,” she said. “Which of next year’s seniors do you decide will drop out?”

Johnson left the door open to possible funding of some services, “if it can be couched in the issue of community needs.”

The three boards asked their administrators to provide specific program costs. The city and county commissions will consider the issues at future meetings.