Category: Education

School districts and some local governments to hold budget hearings in September

Although it’s September, local residents still don’t know whether their property taxes will be going up next year.

The annual budget exercise for local governments and school districts has been extended into September this year, with hearings being held throughout Wyandotte County on local budgets and exceeding the revenue neutral rate.

Proposed budgets have been published, and while the mill levies can be lowered before the final vote, the budgets cannot be raised above the amount published.

Taxpayers turned out to the Unified Government’s budget hearing on Aug. 22 and let commissioners know they wanted lower taxes. Some UG commissioners urged the residents also to turn out to budget hearings being held by school districts and other local governments.

Valuations generally increased throughout the county, meaning if local governments keep the same mill levy rate as last year, property tax bills will go up.

The proposed mill levy for Kansas City, Kansas, was 38.48 and the proposed mill levy for Wyandotte County was 39.33.

The UG Commission is not set to vote on its $431 million budget until Sept. 15, according to information from a recent UG meeting.

At recent budget meetings, there was some UG Commission support to lower the county mill levy by 2 mills. According to the UG, reducing the mill levy by 1 mill would save a resident $17.25 per year on a $150,000 residence. There were also presentations about urgent needs in the community. The “revenue neutral” rate, to get the expenditures to about the same amount as last year, would have been a 9-mill decrease from the proposed mill rate.

KCKCC budget

Three taxpayers took the commissioners’ advice and appeared at the Kansas City Kansas Community College budget hearing on Aug. 23.

Dr. Greg Mosier, KCKCC president, who recommended that the KCKCC board approve the proposed budget, said at the meeting that the college has been keeping the mill levy flat for six years in a row, even though there were additional expenses. The proposed college mill levy rate was 27.318.

According to the KCKCC budget, published in the Wyandotte Echo on Aug. 18, the proposed budgeted expenditures are $93.37 million for 2022-2023, compared to $85.09 million for 2021-2022 and $80.52 million for 2020-2021.

Beverly Watkins, a taxpayer, asked why the college was not meeting with the UG commissioners about tax rates. The commissioners have been talking about having a joint meeting.

According to Dr. Greg Mosier, KCKCC president, the UG, or combined city and county, made up 46 percent of the property tax bill, while there were five other entities that also had mill levies. The college was 16 percent of the tax bill.

Another taxpayer said he didn’t understand why the college was educating more people to get higher-paying jobs in Wyandotte County, when the people would just move out of Wyandotte County when they got the jobs.

Dr. Mosier said 60 percent of the students who graduate from community college stay in the local community. About 30 percent go on to four-year programs.

“Our goal is to educate them so they can stay in their homes,” he said. That would provide them with extra money, better vehicles, home improvement, the ability to purchase a better house and send their kids to school. Construction, automation and manufacturing programs offered by the college can help people make a career and stay in Wyandotte County, he said.

“The way to decrease tax rates is to create more taxpayers,” Dr. Mosier said at the budget hearing. Education will create more taxpayers and lessen the burden on others.

KCKCC is trying to make an investment downtown with a new campus, and that will result in other businesses wanting to come downtown, according to Dr. Mosier.

Linda Hoskins Sutton, a KCKCC board member, said she wanted people to realize the college is keeping the mill levy flat, not raising it. The reason taxes are going up is because appraisals of property went up, she said, but the college is not raising it.

Karl Schottler, a Shawnee, Kansas, resident who owns a business in Kansas City, Kansas, said that at the UG’s public hearing on the budget, people said they were losing their homes because they were being taxed out of them. He said if the college is not reducing the mill levy, then it is increasing people’s taxes.

During the hearing on Aug. 23, Dr. Mosier said Wyandotte County now has the second highest wages in the state, of all counties. The average wage in advanced manufacturing is $75,000 a year and in construction, $67,000 a year.

Those are two of several programs KCKCC wants to launch at its new downtown campus, he said.

Currently, about 70 percent of the high-paying jobs here are going to residents of other counties, he said.

“If we provide education and training to our residents, they can get jobs and keep it in the county,” he said. Even a slight increase in the number of jobs held by local residents would increase the income here by millions of dollars per year.

“As a community college we need to do everything we can to provide training for residents of Wyandotte County,” he said. “It really is an investment in our community.”

The college has already raised a substantial portion of the funds necessary, more than $30 million, for the downtown campus, and still needs additional investment, he said.

“Education is really an economic development tool,” he said.

A survey in 2017 found the college supported 2,800 jobs with a $182.3 million impact on the community, he said.

If they reduced the mill levy a half-mill, it would decrease funding $875,000, he said. If they decreased it 1 mill, it would decrease funding $1.749 million, he said.

If, for example, that meant they could not start a new high-voltage linemen training program, where graduates could make $60,000 a year, that $1.7 million would be quite a tradeoff for not being able to develop the program, he said.

If the college reduced the mill levy by around a half mill, it would save a homeowner of a $200,000 home about $14 a year or $1.18 a month, he said. That amount is not significant, but it makes a difference in the overall college budget, according to Dr. Mosier. If the college reduced the mill levy by a mill it would be a savings of about $28 a year, or $2.36 a month to the homeowner of a $200,000 home.

The KCKCC Board of Trustees voted to approve the budget as presented, after the budget hearing.

School districts and other local governments

Several budget hearings are scheduled in September for school districts and other local governments.

KCK schools

The Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools’ budget proposes a mill levy of 49.650 for 2022-2023, compared to 49.656 for 2021-2022 and 49.650 for 2020-2021.

It is about a $98 million increase in the proposed expenditures from this year. The proposed expenditures for 2022-2023 are $577,902,471, compared to $479,700,548 in 2021-2022 and $418,823,424 in 2020-2021, according to the budget, presented at a recent meeting.

The KCKPS budget hearing is scheduled at 5:10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 13, at the Central Office, 2010 N. 59th St., Kansas City, Kansas. There will be a public hearing on exceeding the revenue neutral tax rate for the 2022-2023 year at 5 p.m. Sept. 13 at 2010 N. 59th St., Kansas City, Kansas.

Turner Public Schools

The Turner Public Schools will hold a public hearing on exceeding the revenue neutral tax rate at 6:10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 800 S. 55th St., Kansas City, Kansas. The Turner schools budget hearing will be at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 800 S. 55th St., Kansas City, Kansas.

The Turner proposed budget for 2022-2023 is a mill levy of 55.143, compared to 54.318 for 2021-2022 and 53.908 for 2020-2021, according to the budget published in the Record News.

Proposed expenditures are $110.04 million for 2022-2023, as compared to $81.75 million for 2021-2022 and $75.95 million for 2020-2021.

Piper Public Schools

The Piper Public Schools will hold a public hearing on exceeding the revenue neutral tax rate at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, at 4410 N. 107th St., Kansas City, Kansas. There will be a budget hearing at 6:05 p.m. Sept 12 at 4410 N. 107th.

The proposed 2022-2023 Piper schools budget has a 63.657 mill levy, compared to 57.795 in 2021-2022 and 57.208 in 2020-2021, according to the Piper budget, published in the Wyandotte Echo.

The total proposed expenditures for 2022-2023 for the Piper schools budget are $47.39 million, compared to $40.86 million in 2021-2022 and $38.73 million in 2020-2021.


Bonner Springs Public Schools

The Bonner Springs Public Schools will hold a budget hearing at 7:15 p.m. Sept. 6 at 2200 S. 138th St., Bonner Springs. A public hearing on exceeding the revenue neutral rate will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 6 at 2200 S. 138th St., Bonner Springs.

The proposed 2022-2023 mill levy rate is 52.254, compared to 57.137 for 2021-2022 and 60.911 for 2020-2021, according to the budget, published in the Wyandotte Echo.

The total proposed expenditures for 2022-2023 are $54.49 million, compared to $48.97 million for 2021-2022 and $50.26 million for 2020-2021.

Bonner Springs city

A budget hearing for the city of Bonner Springs will be held at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 12 at City Hall, 200 E. 3rd St., Bonner Springs.

The proposed mill levy for 2022-2023 is 42.892 mills, compared to 42.892 mills in 2021-2022 and 38.328 mills in 2020-2021, according to the budget, published in the Wyandotte Echo.

The proposed expenditures were $30.03 million for 2022-2023, as compared to $22.23 million in 2021-2022 and $25.62 million in 2020-2021.

Edwardsville city

A public hearing on the budget for Edwardsville city will be held at 6 p.m. Sept. 12 at Edwardsville City Hall, 690 S. 4th St., Edwardsville.

The proposed mill levy for 2022-2023 is 42.844, compared to 42.298 for 20221-2022 and 43.298 for 2020-2021, according to the budget, published in the Wyandotte Echo.

The proposed expenditures for 2022-2023 are $12.28 million, as compared to $9.2 million in 2021-2022 and $9.36 million in 2020-2021.

See earlier story at https://wyandotteonline.com/ug-commission-overrides-mayors-veto-on-revenue-neutral-resolution-as-wyandotte-county-residents-plead-for-lower-taxes/.

More UG budget information is at https://www.wycokck.org/files/assets/public/finance/documents/budget/unified-government-2022-amended-2023-proposed-budget-document.pdf

Research shows social-emotional learning in schools pays off, but conservatives see a liberal agenda

by Suzanne Perez, KMUW and Kansas News Service

Educators tout social-emotional learning as a way to make children into better students and more empathetic people. Critics see it as a way to push social justice issues.

Wichita — On the first day of school at Enterprise Elementary, Kasey Curmode gathered her second-graders on the carpet and posed a question: “What makes a good classmate?”

Someone who shares, one student said.

Someone who says, ‘You’re really nice,’ said another child, or ‘You can do it!’

Someone who doesn’t lie, or say mean words, or take other people’s stuff.

Curmode’s first lesson of the day — and of the school year — focused on feelings.

“It really helps these students … get into a positive mindset,” she said. “Some of them don’t know how to regulate their emotions. So even 20 minutes a day is going to help them tremendously.”

Social-emotional learning — often referred to by its acronym, SEL — existed in Kansas classrooms ever since the one-room schoolhouse. Teachers have long encouraged children to try hard, set goals, control their anger and treat others with respect.

But now it’s an explicit thing for teachers to teach. Social-emotional growth is one of five priorities for the Kansas Department of Education and included as part of the standards the state uses to measure students and schools.

It’s also the latest flash point in the classroom culture wars. Schools — their teachers, their administrators, the companies that sell them pre-made lesson plans — see SEL as a smart and nurturing way to make kids more empathetic and resilient. The same curriculum strikes conservatives as a back-door way for secularists to promote gay rights, racial guilt and something that blurs fundamental differences between boys and girls.

Conservatives took control of two seats on the Kansas Board of Education in August, in part by saying schools should focus on basic academics and leave the social and emotional upbringing to parents.

“A lot of people are concerned about indoctrination instead of education,” said Dennis Hershberger, who ousted incumbent Ben Jones in the Republican primary and is unchallenged in November. “Teachers … deal with things in the classroom that are much more about creating a society that most parents don’t agree with.”

Cathy Hopkins, who beat incumbent Jean Clifford in western Kansas, said on her campaign website that she wants to “protect our children from liberal education standards handed down to our schools by Washington, D.C., liberals” and to “return our local schools back to academics.”

Hershberger and Hopkins say social-emotional learning in public schools should be opt-in, meaning it would be taught only to students whose parents specifically OK it. They also oppose surveys, for instance, that ask students about their personal relationships or mental health.

During a recent Kansas Board of Education meeting, board member Michelle Dombrowsky voiced concerns about some SEL materials and reminded parents that they have the right to opt their children out of any activity that goes against their personal beliefs.

“Whether it be suicide awareness — I may take them for ice cream that day. They’re not going to be involved in that,” Dombrowsky said. “If it’s somebody coming in from the outside and discussing that. … Sometimes, if they’re young enough, it’s putting things in their mind.”

Earlier this year in the Kansas Legislature, some supporters of a proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights said classroom lessons are being “weaponized” and that social-emotional and diversity programs are training young children to become activists.

Child psychologists and experts in social and emotional learning say it’s being misunderstood.

“If you ask a parent, ‘Would you like your child to work well with others? Would you like them to develop strong communication skills? Have employability skills?’ … The answer, unequivocally, is yes,” said Jessica Lane, a specialist in education counseling at Kansas State University. “It’s just that the terminology has, for whatever reason, sparked a lot of controversy.”

Wichita, the state’s largest school district, spends about $100,000 a year for a program called Second Step for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Rianne Richard, a third grade teacher at Enterprise Elementary School in Wichita, leads a lesson on honesty. Students read a book together, “Carmela Full of Wishes,” and discussed the character’s actions.

Lessons for young students feature posters, songs, and hand-puppets like Slow-Down Snail, who encourages children to pause and take a breath if they feel angry or upset. Older students learn to recognize symptoms of depression and how to deal with test-related anxiety.

A school district in Utah suspended its Second Step program last fall, following pushback from parents who said schools were teaching objectionable material about sex.

The parents said Second Step had pointed middle-schoolers to a website, loveisrespect.org, which offers information about dating and sex. Pop-up windows on the website tell visitors how to quickly exit the site and clear their browsing histories, which opponents said was an affront to parental oversight.

Counselors and social workers say lessons on consent and domestic abuse are important for older adolescents. But the bulk of social-emotional programs focus on basic character building that has nothing to do with sex.

Erin Yosai, director of the Center of Psychoeducational Services at the University of Kansas, says more than 20 years of research shows that students who feel safe and learn self-control not only behave better in the classroom — they also get higher grades and test scores.

“Our reading, our writing, our arithmetic, all of our other subjects are impacted and interrelated with our ability to have positive social experiences, knowing how to regulate ourselves in different areas,” she said.

A study published in 2015 showed that boosting social skills in kindergarten can predict a child’s success more than 20 years later. Children with more developed social and emotional skills had better attendance and were more likely to graduate from high school on time and to earn a college degree.

“The fact that people are saying you can extricate (social-emotional learning) from academics – really, we wouldn’t want to,” Yosai said. “These two things go hand in hand.”

Suzanne Perez reports on education for KMUW in Wichita and the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @SuzPerezICT.

The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.

Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-08-30/research-shows-social-emotional-learning-in-schools-pays-off-but-conservatives-see-a-liberal-agenda

Schmidt condemns Kelly’s disruption of in-person instruction early in COVID-19 pandemic

GOP nominee for governor says mandate may let children fall through cracks

by Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Republican governor candidate Derek Schmidt toured a Wichita high school degree completion program to place emphasis on ramifications of Gov. Laura Kelly’s decision in March 2020 to close Kansas public school buildings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schmidt, who also met with parents Monday during the campaign swing, said it was “damaging” for the Democratic governor to have become the nation’s first chief executive to shift instruction to an online format in early stages of a pandemic. COVID-19 has contributed to the death of 8,958 Kansans.

“It was an unnecessarily overaggressive approach,” Schmidt said. “In hindsight, it was not justified at the time and yet here we are all this time later trying to figure out how to remedy the damage.”

Schmidt said enrollment in Kansas public schools was down about 14,000 students more than two years after COVID-19 swept the nation. He raised concern some of those students slipped through cracks in the education system. He said a portion were unaccounted for, but offered no insight into how private schools, homeschooling or movement to other states might explain absence of students from public schools.

Kansas public schools have returned to normal operations under direction of the Kansas Board of Education. The state Department of Education reported 518,800 students attended public schools in Kansas during 2019-2020. That dropped to 502,400 in 2020-2021, due to the pandemic. In 2021-2022, enrollment was 12,400 below the pre-pandemic level. The 2022-2023 enrollment reports have yet to be compiled by the state.

“As governor,” Schmidt said, “I pledge I will never again lock our children out of their schools, and I hope that Governor Kelly will take that same pledge. I think our families and our kids deserve to know they don’t need to worry about a repeat of this terrible error.”

‘World-class education’

Kelly was elected governor in 2018 based in part on her advocacy for K-12 public education, including the effort to restore full state funding of school districts.

During her term, the Legislature and Kelly increased the state’s financial investment in education to comply with constitutional requirements affirmed through protracted litigation. Supporters of Kelly’s reelection have expressed fear a Republican governor could jeopardize financial gains by public schools.

“I ran for governor in 2018 because I knew that properly funding our schools was the first step to ensuring our kids receive the world-class education they deserve,” Kelly said.

Kelly issued an executive order March 17, 2020, that recognized the public health emergency of COVID-19. That followed by several days President Donald Trump’s declaration the pandemic was of “sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant” emergency action by all states, tribes, territories and the District of Columbia.

“Kansas’ K-12 schools are the backbone of our communities,” Kelly said at that time. “But they are also opportunities to significantly further the spread of COVID-19. Many schools have already temporarily closed, either voluntarily or as a result of local health departent orders or state-level recommendations.”

She said her executive order outlined a statewide approach offering students, parents, teachers, staff and administrators greater certainty and opportunity for the state and districts to implement alternative instructional programs that didn’t center on in-person teaching.

During the pandemic, Kelly and state lawmakers allocated $15 million for “remote learning” grants used to address needs of students not able to be part of in-person instruction. The state also approved $50 million for “learning recovery” grants, which supplemented other aid to students.

Kelly said during the campaign that Kansas’ world-class education system was part of what has propelled the state’s growing economy.

“I’m looking forward to continuing to uplift Kansas’ public education with the support of our world-class educators,” she said.

Wichita perspectives

In Wichita, Schmidt said he appreciated work of the Acceleration Academy, which formed a partnership with Wichita public schools to provide one-on-one instruction to individuals 14 to 21 years of age who wanted to earn a high school diploma.

Schmidt, the state’s attorney general, also repeated a claim Kelly was to some degree responsible for rising mental health issues of Kansas youth and the exit of Kansas educators from the profession. Both are national trends.

Patty Bledsoe, a family practice physician in Wichita, said during a meeting with Schmidt the closure of school buildings and the disruption of classroom instruction had a negative impact on some students.

“I have seen in my patient population significant increase in anxiety and depression in very, very young students that I don’t think we’ll see the end results on for years to come,” Bledsoe said. “So, are we back to normal? We’re back to what appears to be normal. But I think it’s going to be 10 years before we see the truth of what happened.”

Natalie Ellis, who also spoke to Schmidt about repercussions of the governor’s response to COVID-19, said movement away from regular school classes was detrimental academically, socially and emotionally to students.

“As parents we spoke out for two years about the issues at hand in our school district, but no one listened,” she said. “The data is now proving that lockdowns did way more harm than good. Tests scores are down. Proficiency levels have tanked. And anxiety and depression are through the roof. Kansans need a governor who will listen to and protect parental rights. That’s why I’m voting for Derek Schmidt.”

Kansas Reflector stories, www.kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2022/08/30/schmidt-challenges-kellys-disruption-of-in-person-instruction-early-in-covid-19-pandemic/.