photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

Robert Schwarz, of RSP & Associates, addresses the Futures Planning Committee at its meeting at district offices on Oct. 5, 2022.

A committee tasked with coming up with budget recommendations for the Lawrence school district has begun its work, which includes sketching out some financial goals for the district.

The Futures Planning Committee met for the third time Wednesday evening at district offices, and one task as part of the consultant-led meeting was drafting financial goals ahead of the district’s budget process for next school year.

“This is a challenging conundrum that we have, with trying to do more with potentially less,” said Robert Schwarz, of RSP & Associates, the consultant hired to facilitate the process. “And how does that work? How do we make that where it fits within all our goals?”

As part of the process, the district has identified three financial priorities, the anticipated cost of addressing each priority and the time frame for making those investments, according to RSP presentation materials. The first priority is to provide competitive wages for staff, which the district estimates will require $9 million over a one- to two-year time frame. More specifically, the goal is for pay for teachers and other certified staff to be competitive with districts in the area, and for classified staff, which include paraeducators, food service workers, custodians and other non-certified staff, to have a minimum pay of $15 per hour.

The district’s second financial priority is to allocate funds for annual cost increases, such as property and liability insurance premiums, health insurance premiums and utilities, which the district estimates will require about $1 million annually. The third is to increase the district’s cash reserve balances, which the district estimates will require about $6.2 million over a 10-year time frame.

Votes from the committee, collected as part of its last meeting, indicated that 100% of the committee members supported the first priority, 94% supported the second priority and 55% supported the third priority. As part of its meeting Wednesday, the approximately 40-member committee — which includes district staff, administrators, students, parents and community members — was tasked with developing statements about the district’s financial goals with specific and measurable actions.

The committee’s seven groups each came up with a statement, and then all committee members voted for the two statements they liked best. The two statements with the most votes were:

• “In order to ensure educational equity and excellence through the recruitment and retention of highly-qualified staff, USD 497 will develop a sustainable and balanced budget with an emphasis on increasing salaries 5% within one to two years.” (25 votes)

• “The district will be proactive in prioritizing a budget that is aimed at retaining and recruiting staff in a way that ensures all students receive the highest quality education that is equitable to all and that makes sure in a decade the budget is secure.” (15 votes)

Schwarz said that the committee would continue to work on the goals as part of its next meeting. As part of Wednesday’s meeting, district administrators also discussed the district’s educational requirements and goals, as well as how certain federal and state funds are allocated. The committee’s next meeting, the date of which is not yet determined, will include a discussion of district school buildings and facilities.

The district initially proposed closing multiple schools for the 2022-2023 school year to help address a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall driven largely by enrollment declines and the board’s desire to set aside funding for staff raises. While the board took school closures off the table for this school year, it was expected closures could again be a consideration for the 2023-2024 school year.

In August, the school board hired RSP to use enrollment projections, housing analyses, school boundaries and other data to help plan how the district uses its school buildings. The district’s $120,000 contract with RSP & Associates includes an enrollment analysis and a facility master plan process for the district. RSP will also guide the committee in using enrollment, facility information and other data to create budget recommendations for the school board.

The school board ultimately approved $6.4 million in program and staff cuts for this school year. That included $4.27 million to cover a projected shortfall due to enrollment declines; $1.72 million to increase pay for district employees; $218,654 to cover increases in insurance benefits; and $200,000 for the district’s contingency fund, according to a previous presentation to the committee. The exact shortfall will not be known until this year’s enrollment numbers are audited, but preliminary head counts indicate that the district’s enrollment held steady from last school year to this school year, dropping by only one student, as the Journal-World reported.

The committee’s meetings began in September and are scheduled to conclude in February.