State Passes Budget, Losses Projected for School Funding (MO)

May 5, 2010

The passage of the $23.3 billion state budget by the Missouri General Assembly last week will mean more cost cutting measures for the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District.

“In the state budget, there was flat funding for the foundation formula,” said R-7 superintendent David McGehee. “We were projecting about an 8 percent reduction in the formula but what ended up passing is a little more than that. Now we’re going to have to regroup and see what else we can look at to contain costs.” According to McGehee, the district was projecting $4.3 million in losses but because of the reduction, that number will be closer to $5 million.

“In our long-range budget, we’re projecting cuts of about $700,000, which means we’re going to have to find more cost containment measures,” he said.

McGehee said the district is primarily looking at cutting addi tional staffing positions and combining classrooms at the elementary level, which will cut 14 staff positions.

“If you have 35 kids in a fifth grade class and only 20 in a fourth grade class, we’re going to look at combining some of those students,” McGehee said. “Teachers will identify the students who could benefit from a little review and the students who could take advantage of a more difficult curriculum. The district has had combined classes in years past, particularly when we were going through our large growth period.”

The state budget did include funding for elementary summer school, a question that had been unanswered for the district.

“(In the state budget) summer school is funded for core summer school, which is what we offer,” McGehee said. “We have about 1,500 kids who qualify for the invitation-only program but we’ve only had about 50 percent response so far. I think that’s because it’s been so much in the air, we’ve had a slower turnaround.”

Transportation will not be available for students, McGehee said.

So far, the district has cost contained approximately $9.1 million during the 2009-2010 school year. Based on the state budget, another $16.6 million will be cut from the 2010-2011 school year budget, which is just over 10 percent of the district’s operating expenditure budget.

“These budget cuts will directly affect our students in class size,” McGehee said. “But we haven’t had to completely eliminate programs yet. I think we’re one school year away from being in a position where we will have to make those decisions.”

McGehee said depending on state budget projections for next year, and if Lee’s Summit residents vote not to set a levy, sports, fine arts and International Baccalaureate programs, among others, will be looked at for cost containment.

“If that happens, it will be devastating for a lot of students,” he said. “We’ll have to consider everything. In the meantime though, we’ll continue to tighten our belts for as long as we can and look for ways to trim the budget.”