By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson USD 308 is going to have to deal with a drop in enrollment and the ensuing drop in funding in the 2020-2021 school year.
"About 2.5% to 3% a year," said superintendent Mike Folks. "For next year, I don't want to get into the weeds of the budget formula, but you can use last year's enrollment or two years prior enrollment, so for us, the highest would be two years prior. We're still looking at a reduced head count as far as funding of about 120 students."
That will result in a reduction of around $600,000.
"You can't just look at head count per building as a true indication of what you need as far as administrative configuration," Folks said. "The board has already taken action to reduce an assistant principal at McCandless Elementary School because of enrollment. Going into next year, our plan would be only to have an assistant principal at Morgan Elementary, because that building's enrollment's up around 400, where McCandless has dropped to maybe 225 or 235."
The general trend may once again require a reshuffling of building boundaries, but that's not an immediate change to be made.
"You look at the programs you need to offer and you want to offer to prepare kids," Folks said. "You look at the number of electives. You also look at some of the at-risk dollars that we get, some of the federal dollars, the title dollars. It's a lot more complicated than just a simple equation of student head count to teacher head count."
Building shuffling and even potential building closure will likely be on the table in coming years if enrollment continues to shrink.