Shawnee Mission schools to propose budget cuts

Shawnee Mission School District officials are considering teacher layoffs, fee increases and a reduction in support staff to help deal with a budget crisis, Superintendent Gene Johnson said Tuesday.
At the first in a series of community meetings, Johnson said officials are working to cut between $9 million and $11 million from the district budget.
“About 50 percent of our budget reductions will go to teaching staff,” Johnson said. “That is something that is unacceptable for us. We don’t want that to happen, but at this point and time that is where we are.”
A reduction proposal will be announced at the March 8 board of education meeting.
“We’re looking at every avenue of the school district and saying is there a way we can make this work without this person, or without these people, that’s where we are,” Johnson said. “We’re going to have some class sizes that are higher.”
The pending reductions follow about $10 million in cuts made last year, including about 50 teaching positions made mostly through attrition.
The district has sustained a loss of $14.6 million since the budget crisis began. With federal stimulus funds scheduled to sunset in 2012 and continued losses in state funding, the district could face a budget hole of $38 million, Johnson said.
District officials also are concerned about the drawing down of contingency reserves. Shawnee Mission started the 2009-10 school year with $31.2 million in reserves; reserves are expected to be at about $15.6 million at the end of the year.
This could compound cash flow problems for the school district, Johnson said. The district relies on reserves to help fulfill payroll responsibilities when the district receives delayed or partial reimbursement from the state, a pattern seen in the last year, he said. Payroll is a $20 million expense in the Shawnee Mission School District each month, he said.
“When we’re deficit spending our reserves and we don’t get the full amount of money from the state eventually that catches up to us,” Johnson said. “… Next year that is going to be a real issue for us.”
To help cope with the crisis, the district wants the Legislature to increase local option budget authority, allowing the district to increase its property tax mill levy. A proposal from Gov. Mark Parkinson that would increase state tobacco and sales taxes would only provide $1.7 million to Shawnee Mission, Johnson said.
“An increase of 1 mill locally equals roughly $3.2 million for us,” Johnson said. “Local authority is huge for us.”
Johnson asked community members to continue to be informed about the situation and contact their legislators in support of Shawnee Mission.
“We are in crisis and it is going to take action for us to move out of this,” Johnson said.
At the end of the meeting, attendees asked questions of district officials and board members.
One patron asked if school closures were being considered. Board member Donna Bysfield said she was not aware of any discussion regarding closing schools.
The next fiscal year for Shawnee Mission begins in July. The final budget, including all proposed reductions, will be approved in August.
District officials and board members will hold four more community forums to share information about the budget situation and answer questions.

Other sessions are:

Feb. 17 at Westridge Middle School, 9300 Nieman Road, multipurpose room;

Feb. 18 at Indian Woods Middle School, 9700 Woodson, multipurpose room;

Feb. 23 at Shawnee Mission North, 7401 Johnson Drive, auditorium; and

Feb. 24 at Shawnee Mission Northwest, 12701 W. 67th St., auditorium.

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