Topeka ? A special task force established by the 2014 Kansas Legislature plans to finalize a report next month suggesting ways public schools could be more efficient with the money they receive from the state.

But while members of that group engaged in sharp debate Friday over issues affecting relatively small sums of money, many officials are anxiously awaiting a court ruling that could order the Legislature to add hundreds of millions of dollars in education spending.

The case still pending before a three-judge panel is the second — and possibly the largest — part of a school finance lawsuit the Kansas Supreme Court only partially decided earlier this year when it ordered additional money for so-called “equalization” aid to level out the funding between rich and poor school districts.

But it remanded back to the three-judge trial court the part of the case challenging the overall adequacy of school funding, with instructions to reconsider that issue using a different standard.

In its original verdict in 2012, the panel had said the state needed to increase the base state aid formula to $4,492 per pupil. According to the Kansas Department of Education, that would cost an additional $439 million per year.

Following the Supreme Court’s order, the trial judges held a new hearing on the adequacy question in August, and people familiar with the litigation said this week that they had expected a decision in late August. They now believe a decision will likely come within a matter of days.

Lawmakers meanwhile responded to the Supreme Court’s first decision by adding the money the court had ordered, along with many new education policy changes, such as repeal of teacher tenure rights and a tax incentive for corporations to donate to private school scholarship funds.

In addition, anticipating the next decision on adequacy, they established the K-12 Student Performance and Efficiency Commission, which has been meeting since the Legislature adjourned to study ways schools can be more efficient with the funding they receive.

That group met again Friday in the Statehouse, and the members plan to finalize their recommendations by Dec. 15.

A draft list of recommendations released in September called for, among other things, further study of ways school districts could combine and regionalize their administrative structures and conducting an efficiency audit of the Kansas Department of Education.

But during discussion Friday, there was heated debate over a survey that was sent out recently to school superintendents, as well as teachers and staff, asking about their local budget policies and ideas they might have for making their own local districts more efficient.

Dave Trabert, head of the conservative think tank Kansas Policy Institute, said he was frustrated that not all superintendents responded to the survey. He also criticized policies reported by some districts of allowing the presidents of local teachers unions to receive full pay for the time spent away from class attending to union business.

But other panel members were critical of the survey itself, saying it had never been authorized, or even talked about, by the full commission. It was authorized by the chairman, Wichita businessman Sam Williams, at Trabert’s personal request.

Bev Mortimer, superintendent of the Concordia school district who also serves on the panel, said her district was one of those that did not complete the survey.

“I wanted an explanation about why the information was being collected,” she said.