The Lawrence school board will hear an update this week on recent actions in the Kansas Legislature dealing with school finance, teacher tenure and other education policy issues.

Assistant superintendent Kyle Hayden and finance director Kathy Johnson will update the board on the impact to the Lawrence school district from the various changes included in a school finance bill that lawmakers passed late Sunday.

The main purpose of the bill was to add about $129 million in “equalization” aid that helps lower-wealth school districts fund their capital outlay and local option budgets. That’s meant to satisfy a recent Kansas Supreme Court ruling in the school finance lawsuit, Gannon vs. Kansas.

But it also enacts a number of policy measures, including repeal of tenure rights for teachers, which protects them from summary dismissal without sufficient cause.

David Reber, lead contract negotiator for the Lawrence Education Association, the local bargaining unit for teachers, has said if that provision becomes law, teachers will try to negotiate those rights back into the master contract with the Lawrence district.

Estimates from earlier versions of the bill indicated Lawrence would receive about $1 million of the new equalization aid. But that would not give the district any new spending authority. Rather, the money would replace funds the district is currently raising through local property taxes, enabling the district to lower its tax rate by about 1 mill, or $17.25 in tax on a home valued at $150,000.

That bill retains a scheduled $14 increase in the “base state aid per pupil” formula that lawmakers approved last year, which is expected to bring $200,836 in new spending authority for the Lawrence district.

But it also changes the formula used to calculate each district’s local option budget authority – additional money districts are allowed to raise through local property taxes. One of those changes says districts may no longer count virtual school students when calculating their LOB’s.

Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis said because of that provision, Lawrence will lose between $1.7 million and $1.8 million in LOB authority.

But Lawrence could make up some of that loss if it takes advantage of another provision that raises the limit on LOB authority for districts like Lawrence that already levy the maximum LOB allowed.

The final version of the bill did not include at least two items that had been in previous versions, and which would have cost the Lawrence district millions of dollars in state aid. Those included deep cuts in transportation aid, direct funding for virtual schools and elimination of a funding streams that helps districts furnish and equip new facilities.

The so-called “new facilities weighting” will be eliminated for projects that are approved after July 1, 2014.

In a memo to the board, Johnson and Hayden said the impact estimates are subject to change, especially if lawmakers amend the budget further when they return for their final wrap-up session April 30.

The school board meets at 7 p.m. Monday at the administration building, 110 McDonald Dr. Before the meeting, the board will meet in executive session for 30 minutes to discuss the status of contract negotiations with the teachers union.

In other business, the board will review and approve bids for construction projects at Langston Hughes School that are being funded with bond proceeds.