School district may have extra $1.5M

The Lawrence school board could have some additional budget funds to allocate for the 2012-13 school year after some new changes go into effect, including one that increases the amount of money paid per pupil by the state by $58, district officials said Monday.

Kyle Hayden, chief operations officer for the district, projected a few other sources of new income, including an enrollment growth of 73 students to the district. The district also outlined for its Board of Education on Monday about $1.5 million in funds that could be reallocated elsewhere, including some under-spending in the current budget.

In all, the district outlined about $4.2 million in new and existing redirected funds to allocate for the upcoming school year. Of that, about $2.7 million of the funds had already been allocated to previously identified board priorities like all-day kindergarten and smaller class sizes. That left just under $1.5 million, district officials said.

“We’re using those dollars to talk about salaries for next year,” Hayden said. “And we’re right in the middle of negotiations for that.”

But Kathy Johnson, the district’s division director for finance, cautioned school board members that, moving beyond the 2012-13 school year, changes to the tax code could result in the loss of $4.5 billion in the state’s general fund over the next six years, a measure that would likely have an impact on the availability of funding for K-12 education, which represents more than half of the state’s budget.

The board took no action after the district’s presentation.

Budget figures for the upcoming year won’t be finalized until the Board of Education hears its first formal presentation on the 2012-13 budget — scheduled for July 23 — and approves it in August.