STACY GOSS
Hutchinson USD 308
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Superintendent Dr. Dawn Johnson addressed the USD 308 Board of Education during their regularly scheduled meeting, Monday, January 13th. During her remarks, she outlined processes that she and the bond council have engaged in since the board’s approval of the $109.5 million bond resolution in late 2024.
The District submitted its application for consideration at the January State Board of Education meeting. However, the total applications for consideration exceeded the state board’s authority for approval. On December 20th, Hutchinson Public Schools presented their bond application and supplemental information during a bond cap committee hearing.
The committee considered each application submitted as well as information gathered during the hearings. The committee discussed best practices and applications of the statute to determine which bond applications to approve.
The District was made aware of the committee’s intention in early January, just ahead of the State Board of Education meeting to be held on January 14th and 15th.
In an email to staff immediately following the USD 308 Board of Education meeting, Dr. Johnson broke the news and remained optimistic, “Everyone I have talked to is not concerned by this date change. We still have a vision for progress in USD 308. We will move forward with planning and preparation. We have a LOT of people who are ready to be a part of this moment. I know that what we risk losing in current momentum, we make up for with enthusiasm on our future date.”
USD 308 will move forward with a bond vote in 2025, at a date yet to be determined. The board heard costs and information about potential dates and will select a new election date at a future board meeting.
In an email to Dr. Johnson, Frank Harwood, Deputy Commissioner of Fiscal and Administrative Services at the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE), stated, “The committee is aware of how much work each district put into your bond planning and applications. We certainly did not want to be in the position to do anything but recommend full approval for all projects. However, given the circumstances, we tried to implement the language of the statute as fairly and accurately as possible.”
Calculating the Bond Cap
During the 2023-2024 school year, districts retired $446,211,953 in bond principal. The 5-Year Producer Price Index was 33.1% resulting in a FY25 Bond Cap of $593,908,109.
Between July 1 and December 11, 2024, the state board approved bond applications for a total of $859,290,000, but only $330,484,258 were applied against the bond cap.
$ 593,908,109 – FY25 Bond Cap authority (July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025)- 330,484,258 – Portion of bond applications approved that count against bond cap$ 263,423,851 – Remaining Bond Cap authority after December 11, 2024.
K.S.A. 72-5461 outlines the priorities the state board is to consider when applications exceed the statutory authority.
If the bond cap is met, the state board of education will prioritize applications with the following criteria in order of highest to lowest priority.
- Safety of the current facility and disability access to such facility as demonstrated by a state fire marshal report, an inspection under the Americans with disabilities act, 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., or other similar evaluation;
- enrollment growth and imminent overcrowding as demonstrated by successive increases in enrollment of the school district in the immediately preceding three school years;
- impact on the delivery of educational services as demonstrated by restrictive inflexible design or limitations on installation of technology; and
- energy usage and other operational inefficiencies as demonstrated by a district-wide energy usage analysis, district-wide architectural analysis or other similar evaluation.
Statute Application
Bond hearings were held on December 20 to prioritize criteria and provide recommendations for the State Board’s January meeting. The committee considered each application submitted and the information gathered during the hearings. For item 1, no districts were determined to meet this criterion. For item 2, Goddard USD 265 was determined to meet this criterion. For items 3 and 4, all four districts were determined to meet these criteria.
To maximize the State Board’s authority to approve bond issues, the committee decided to recommend Augusta for full approval along with Goddard and Galena since there was not enough authority to approve Hutchinson. The recommendation to the State Board will be to give Hutchinson tentative approval which means they will be able to hold their bond election when authority is available. That will be on or after July 1, 2025, unless other bond issues fail.