photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Lawrence school board met on Monday, August 26, 2024 at the Lawrence school district offices, 110 McDonald Drive.

Updated at 11:10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 27

On Monday, the Lawrence school board approved a maximum budget authority and property tax rates that included a largely unchanged maximum mill levy. While board members discussed the possibility of reducing mill levies, there was little appetite for it given prior commitments to raise salaries for administrative and classified staffs.

Executive Director of Finance Cynde Frick gave an overview of the proposed budget, which suggested rate of 52.252 mills for 2025. This represents an increase of 0.042 mills from last year. At such a rate, property taxes for a $300,000 home would rise by just $1.45.

The school board discussed the potential consequences of reducing the mill levies, with board past president Shannon Kimball noting that such a change could affect their recently approved agreements with teachers and staff unions.

Earlier this month, the school board approved a 4.077% increase to the certified salary pool, totaling $1.9 million. This increases the salaries of all certified staff by $1,400 and includes additional payments for continuing education and years of service, covering both horizontal and vertical advancements. Additionally, as the Journal-World reported, the board approved a labor contract that includes a 99-cent-per-hour raise for classified employees, which includes a large number of positions such as administrative professionals, food service employees, custodians, paraprofessionals and other such positions.”

“Those commitments require that we follow your recommendation or we are not able to keep out commitments to our staff as it relates to their compensation, which is already not where we want to be as a community, right?” School board president Kelly Jones asked to confirm.

Frick said that the budget she was proposing would make sure the district would follow with the expectations of existing agreements. While the board members will revisit the mill levies in a couple of weeks, Frick said that decreasing the mill levy is not a route the district usually takes, and advises against it.

The school board did not give an approval of the budget at the Monday meeting. Rather, the board will hold a budget hearing at 6 p.m. on Sept. 9 to consider approval of the budget. As part of that approval process, the board could change the budget, but won’t be able to raise the property tax mill levy beyond the maximum amount.

Other funding

The overview of the budget also included a 5.7% increase in state Base Aid for Student Excellence, or BASE. That program generally pays a district $5,378 for each student enrolled in the district, and covers a large amount of a district’s general operating expenses.

In response to the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling in the Gannon school finance lawsuit, which found state funding at the time to be both inadequate and inequitable, BASE funding increases are now based on the three-year average of the Consumer Price Index for the Midwest. To address declining enrollment, the state will allow the district to use an average of enrollment numbers from the past two years. Moving forward, however, the district must use the September 20 enrollment figures from either the current or the previous year. This policy means that if enrollment continues to drop in the Lawrence district, it will face reductions in future state funding.

The Lawrence school district will receive approximately $2 million in additional special education funding from the state. Additionally, the state has increased the funding for part-time students enrolled in virtual education to a prorated rate of $5,600, up from the previous prorated rate of $2,800.

In other business, school board members:

* Reviewed a report on the district’s needs assessment and state assessment review, which evaluates the district’s specific needs, strengths, and areas for improvement.

The school board will review state assessment results, identify obstacles to meeting grade-level expectations, discuss budget-related actions, and estimate the time needed for all students to achieve proficiency if the proposed budget measures are adopted.

Board member Anne Costello highlighted several concerns at the secondary level, including chronic absenteeism and tardiness. She also noted rising levels of social-emotional challenges, stating that addressing these students’ needs has become one of the district’s biggest obstacles.

Kimball said that the district’s needs assessment indicates that additional state funding is crucial to overcoming the barriers to student success identified by the schools.

“The top eight things that our staff said would address the barriers they identified are all things that come from more money from the Kansas Legislature,” said Kimball. “I would like for us to make the finding that without more money for things like special education and teacher salaries, which has to come from Topeka because we are doing everything we can to maximize our resources here, it is unrealistic to expect us to move the deck chairs in our budget in a meaningful way to address those barriers without more help from our legislative leaders.”

This report provides an update on the draft needs assessment that was presented to the school board on June 10. The final version will be published on the district website following the board’s review.

* Approved additional funding for wearable panic button systems at 16 more locations, as the Journal-World previously reported. The Centegix CrisisAlert badges, which are triggered by pressing a button, send detailed alerts with precise location information to administrators and first responders during emergencies.

The approval includes an initial expenditure of $265,600 for the first year, covering installation, setup, and training. For the subsequent years, from year two through five, the annual cost will be $131,200. Funding will be divided equally between a grant that covers 50% of safety-related purchases and the Facilities and Operations Safety and Security Capital Outlay Fund. This results in a district cost of $132,800 for the first year.

The board also met for an executive session during the meeting to discuss personnel matters. The board took action following the session by approving a resolution to terminate a certified employee for breach of contract and failure to report to work.