Topeka ? While most school districts in Kansas were on spring break, Republicans were toiling away in the Statehouse, proposing one-year, stopgap measures to fund schools.

But as students head back to their books and legislators approach their annual April recess, many superintendents have concluded that the 2004 session is a lost cause if they were hoping for help with tight budgets.

Chapman Superintendent Tony Frieze called a $92 million plan from House Republicans that relies heavily on property taxes unfair.

“I am really, really frustrated,” said Frieze, who was heading to Kansas City for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, hoping the change in surroundings 130 miles east would take his mind off the Legislature.

It’s hard to stay positive, he said, when he sees little leadership and little hope that student needs will be addressed.

“School finance is a function of the state, not a function of the locals,” Frieze said. “The youth of the state of Kansas are the most important asset of the state.”

Legislators plan to recess on April 2 and return April 28 to finish their work. Before they re-cess, two school-funding proposals that emerged in recent days will occupy their time.

Republicans said the proposals were short-term fixes for what Shawnee County District Judge Terry Bullock ruled in December were constitutional flaws in the state’s school-finance formula. He gave legislators until July 1 to make repairs, but his preliminary order has been appealed to the Kansas Supreme Court.

As they announced their proposals, GOP leaders said the heavy lifting of fixing the state’s school-finance formula once and for all would come in 2005, after the Supreme Court speaks.

Under the House GOP plan, school districts would be allowed to increase spending on special-education programs by $40.5 million, but districts would have to reduce or eliminate a property tax break for homeowners to get some of the money.

Kansas currently exempts the first $2,300 of a residential property’s assessed value from the state’s school levy, saving owners $46 a year. The levy is $20 for every $1,000 of a residential property’s assessed value.

In DeSoto in western Johnson County, Sharon Zoellner said those property taxes would be hard to take. She also takes no solace in being one of 16 districts that could raise additional taxes to pay cost-of-living expenses to teachers.

The district is growing, with 4,300 students and 340 teachers, and its property taxes are among the highest in the state. With homes averaging nearly $194,000 in value, owners pay an average of nearly $1,500 in taxes annually.

Zoellner said of the House GOP plan, “I believe it’s a continued attempt to hide the problem.”

House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, said the plan relies on property taxes because they are the traditional source of money for schools.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans propose raising $65.1 million through increased liquor taxes and revisions in the state’s payments of tax refunds, its use of business tax credits and access to unclaimed private property.

Senate Education Chairman Dwayne Umbarger, R-Thayer, said the Senate plan purposely lacked a property tax component because its drafters thought it offensive to shift the state’s responsibility to local districts.

Umbarger also said legislators should avoid pitting rural districts against urban in the quest for adequate funding.