Topeka ? A preliminary report from Standard & Poor analysts gave 16 Kansas school districts a top rating when it came to using taxpayer money to reach academic goals.

The list of top ranking schools, which included the Baldwin district, was released Tuesday by S&P and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

The governor called the information key to ensuring the state’s 300 school districts are getting the most from tax dollars. Kansas school finance has been the subject of years of litigation and political rancor.

The other 15 school districts rated “highly resource effective” were Arkansas City, Geary County, Halstead, Hays, Hesston, Lincoln, Macksville, Nickerson, Renwick, Rock Creek, Scott County, Spearville, Stafford, Vermillion and Wamego.

The study looked at districts with more than 200 students, or 264 of the state’s 300 districts.

“It reinforces what we here in Baldwin City already knew,” said Tom Mundinger, principal of Baldwin Elementary School Intermediate Center. “We work at every level … Everybody has a stake in being good stewards of those tax dollars.”

Mundinger said it may be easier to be efficient in the small district of about 1,400 students because communication is easier and people know one another by first name.

“We don’t have some of the levels of bureaucracy that a bigger district may have,” Mundinger said.

He said there is a culture of efficiency in the district.

“We’re not saying the other districts are inefficient,” Sebelius said. “Even these districts can do more. Everybody can do better with what they have.”

Maximum returns

Sebelius said it was important to protect taxpayers and maximize return on the state’s $3 billion spent annually in public schools. Legislators increased state spending by $290 million for the current school year.

“Our new investments in schools require increased accountability,” Sebelius said.

The S&P audit, funded by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, Mo., also considered local and federal education spending. Factors such as student demographics and poverty were assigned ratios, so that districts could be equally compared.

The audit suggested spending a higher percentage of money on instruction isn’t a more effective use of resources. Seven of the 16 districts spend more than the state average of 70 percent on instruction, but the remaining nine were at or below the state average.

Only six of the 16 districts spent less than the state average of 12 percent of funds on administration, the audit said.

Identifying strategies

The governor said the S&P audit would identify what school districts were doing to get positive academic results. Those strategies will then be shared, with the goal of improving the overall quality of education.

S&P will next do a closer review of four of the 16 districts to determine what they are doing right. A final report will be released later this year.

Ron Walker, superintendent of Geary County’s schools, which have more than 6,300 students, said he was surprised by the audit.

“The only secret we have is extremely hard-working staff who pay attention to the small details,” he said. “I don’t know what else we can attribute it to.”

The district’s offices are in Junction City and it provides education to the children of soldiers at Fort Riley. Almost 55 percent of the students are economically disadvantaged, compared with the state average of 36.5 percent. Nearly half the students are minorities.

Walker said the district emphasizes staff training and stringent hiring.

Sebelius said the S&P study wasn’t determining how much money schools need.

The Legislative Post Audit Division is conducting its own school spending audit, to identify what it costs to provide a suitable education. The audit was ordered by the Kansas Supreme Court when it ruled on a 1999 lawsuit that claimed the Legislature spent too little on schools.

Under pressure from the Supreme Court, legislators increased spending by more than 10 percent. The court said absent better cost estimates, it would order legislators to increase funding by an additional $580 million during the 2006 session.

That figure is based on a study conducted in 2001 that legislators have rejected, but that the court said was the only estimate available.