NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — According to Sheila Meggers with Hutchinson USD 308, because of declining enrollment and a change in how student population is calculated for school funding purposes in the latest bill from the Kansas Legislature, money will remain tight for the 2023-2024 school year.
"The base aid that we receive per student for next year is $5088, which is about a 5% increase from where we are currently," Meggers said. "If we weren't declining in enrollment and we were keeping those 220 kids in our count, that would be a difference of almost $1.2 million. We will not see that increase in our funding."
In fact, the best estimate now has them up only about $180,000 total, but they won't have the final number to figure from until next June, all the way after the school year. This is the way it normally works.
"About $77,000 of that is what the state is projecting will be an increase in special education," Meggers said. "If you take that out, because we will use that for special education, that leaves about $103,000 of increase to our general fund. That's not even one percent for increased utilities and insurance and things like that. We're fighting the same thing that most households are. Your income is staying flat, or maybe a slight increase, but the cost of groceries and utilities and all of that is increasing quicker. We're struggling."
This doesn't really leave much money to increase teacher salaries to get more and better applicants, either.
"We met last week to just kind of maybe talk about how do we do that," Johnson said. "Our base salary is $42,000. It is the highest among the Reno County schools. Also, most of the schools are getting a declining enrollment, so they will kind of be facing the same challenges we are. We don't want to get behind on that salary. We already are struggling for people to go into the profession, so we have to figure that out. We're just going to have to look at some things. You can only cut so much. Most of your operating funds in a school district are toward salaries, so that doesn't leave much room for cutting other things. The lights have to stay on."
Hutchinson USD 308 is already closing one elementary school due to a shortage of applicants at that level. They are continuing work with a facilities committee with the goal of seeing if there are other buildings that could be used differently to better manage district resources.
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