Area school districts are looking at their budgets in the wake of proposed education cuts they heard about on Wednesday.
Last month, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon said the state cannot afford to provide a $43 million mid-year funding boost called for under the school financing formula.
But the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education says many schools had counted on that money. The department released a memo Wednesday informing schools the funding shortfall could result in a 2 percent reduction in what they otherwise would receive.
“What is expected will not come in,” said Dr. Richard Page, superintendent of Neosho R-5 School District. “For us, it is around $300,000 to $400,000. We have about a $15.3 or $15.4 million state formula money coming in, it is going to drop it down to $15.1 million, is what I looked at the other day. It is a 2 percent reduction for every school in the state of Missouri, so that is how they are able to make that cut. Is everybody is going to feel that same effect? To a certain degree.”
East Newton R-6 School District Superintendent Tanya Vest stated, “Our original amount the estimated basic formula was $7,329,724. If they did the 2 percent cut, we would receive $7,183,130, which we would lose $146,594. That is money that we already have budgeted. We put basic formula money into teacher salaries, (fund 2). Seventy-five percent of your basic formula money has to go into teacher salaries.”
“There is not a lot that you can do with some of the big expenditures that you have in the operations in the middle of the year,” Page said. “But we are going to have to look at some of the projects that we normally try to get done in the summer and probably cut back on some things and maybe some of the services through some of the other residual programs, not affecting the classrooms, but some of the other programs, that are just areas of support or areas on the fringe. I can’t really specify what those programs are.”
The state’s budget has to be approved by May 7 – or it has to be turned in by that day.
“Which then gives approval after that, but the session is over on May 15,” Vest said. “Which that decrease would then come out of the June payment.”
As far as how the news makes Vest feel, “it is always upsetting to know that after we obligated funds, they take those away. You just have to go back and revisit the issue and see where you are going to take away from.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this story.
