Dennis Covington, chief finance and operating officer, showed this slide about raising the local option budget authority to 33 percent. The chart showed the total mill rate staying the same at 49.650 mills. (From Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education meeting)
The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education on Tuesday night refinanced bonds and raised its local option budget authority to 33 percent.
The action to raise the LOB authority from 30 to 33 percent will not cause the total district mill levy to increase, according to district officials.
While the two actions were independent of each other, they both aligned with the overall objective of improving the district’s financial picture, according to Dennis Covington, chief finance and operating officer.
Refinancing the bonds would save the district about $4 million in interest, according to Covington. The district plans to refinance $82.4 million in general obligation improvement bonds from 2016. The underwriter is Piper, Sandler and Company of Leawood, Kansas, and the bond attorneys are Gilmore and Bell.
Covington said the district has refinanced bonds on about seven different occasions, and about two years ago, it saved the district about $30 million.
Board member Valdenia Winn asked several questions about the refinancing and the increase in the LOB authority.
The district underwent a major building campaign over the past several years, with a bond issue of $235 million. Answering a question from Dr. Winn, Covington said there will also be future opportunities to refinance until they pay off the rest of the bonds.
Refinancing passed on a 4-3 vote with Yolanda Clark, Janey Humphries, Randy Lopez and Dr. Stacy Yeager voting yes, and Maxine Drew, Wanda Brownlee Paige and Dr. Winn voting no.
On increasing the LOB authority from 30 to 33 percent, Covington said the board would have the discretion of how much of that taxing authority it would choose to use. The board will decide at the time it passes the budget how much the LOB rate will be. If the final decision is 33 percent, it could generate an additional $4 million in state aid for operations, according to Covington.
Covington said although the LOB authority was increasing, it would not increase the district’s total mill rate. He said the bond and interest fund would be reduced by 1.16 mills and the supplemental general fund would increase by 1.16 mills.
Dr. Winn asked why wouldn’t taxes increase in 2022-2023, with the LOB going up to 33 percent.
Covington said taxes would not increase because of this action. The overall school district mill rate would stay at 49.650 mills, not changing, he said.
Dr. Winn said that didn’t appear logical to her.
The vote to raise the LOB authority to 33 percent was 5-2, with Yolanda Clark, Maxine Drew, Janey Humphries, Randy Lopez and Dr. Stacy Yeager voting yes.
Dr. Winn and Wanda Brownlee Paige voted no, and Paige said, “because I find this hard to believe.”
The school board has not yet approved a budget for fiscal year 2022.
Several other items also were discussed at the 5.5-hour meeting Tuesday night. The meeting is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3x6wQyeKls.
The Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education adopted a revised school calendar on Tuesday night, with the start of school on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Earlier, the school board decided to hold the first nine weeks of school as remote learning only, starting after Labor Day. The late start followed the suggestion by the governor to delay the start of school because of the risk of COVID-19.
School will end on May 27 for students, and on May 28 for teachers, under the revised calendar, according to Matthew Andersen, interim assistant superintendent. The calendar was adopted during a Zoom meeting on Tuesday night.
The calendar committee shortened Thanksgiving break, originally a full week, to get two more days for student instruction, he said. Also, winter break, originally two full weeks off, was shortened by two days, he said.
Students will come back from winter break on Jan. 4 instead of Jan. 5.
Early release days on Wednesdays, where teachers may do planning, have been postponed for this academic year, according to Andersen.
Andersen said while there are some inclement weather days in the calendar, if in-person school is canceled that day, the district can have remote learning as an option, so as not to have to make up snow days later.
Family advocacy week was left in the revised calendar.
According to Dom DeRosa, president of the KCK-National Education Association, the calendar committee membership was half from the NEA. A survey was sent to members, and members responded they wanted to have time at the beginning of the school year for planning and learning how to teach remotely, he said.
The school calendar is generally in line with other area school districts, except for spring break, according to Andersen. Spring break is in line with Kansas City Kansas Community College’s spring break, in order that students who attend dual classes there may have the same time off, according to Andersen.
The school board also approved a measure that would allow food service and transportation workers to continue to get a normal paycheck for the first nine weeks of the school year. Their pay would come from CARES Act funding, according to administrators. It would cost an estimated $361,000.
Dennis Covington, the district’s chief financial officer, told the board members that the district’s CARES Act funding was $8.5 million, and there was still some funding left that could be spent on the transportation and service workers.
If the school district stays with remote learning longer than nine weeks, the board could reconsider whether to extend the payments for service and transportation workers, according to district officials.
Board members including Dr. Valdenia Winn and Wanda Brownlee Paige asked about other employees. Some other district positions are not being filled right now, according to district officials. Those whose positions were funded by grants are likely to be continued. If requested by the principal, some positions may be considered by the district’s hiring manager, according to officials.
Randy Lopez, board president, said the district is working on an analysis of each department and hopes to have a report on Friday of the open positions, what is needed, the number of positions and options.
At a candidate forum Wednesday evening, candidates for the KCK school board spoke. From left, Maria Ysaac, Rep. Val Winn, incumbent Brenda Jones, moderator Murrel Bland, incumbent Gloria Willis, Irene Caudillo and Janey Humphries. To the right are Linda Pendleton, who asked questions, and incumbent George Breidenthal. (Staff photo) by Mary Rupert
There was no disagreement Wednesday evening among the seven Kansas City, Kan., school board candidates on the school block grant bill passed within this past week by the Kansas Legislature. The candidates roundly criticized it.
The block grant is designed to give school districts the same amount of money as they receive now for the next two years. The bill passed the House and Senate and went to the governor for a signature.
The seven KCK school board candidates made their remarks at an election forum at Kansas City Kansas Community College, sponsored by Business West, Downtown Shareholders, Historic Northeast Midtown Association, Armourdale Renewal Association, and the community college. About 100 persons attended. Asking questions of the school board candidates was Linda Pendleton, former KCK school board member who is the Armourdale Renewal Association executive director.
“The problem is, the Kansas City, Kan., district is a growing district,” said George Breidenthal, a school board incumbent. The board members fear that if their district adds students, which requires more teachers and other funding, it will not receive enough money for the additional students.
Some expect the new block grant funding bill to be challenged in court if it becomes law. On Tuesday, March 17, the Kansas attorney general filed an appeal to the a judicial panel’s finding that school funding in Kansas is inadequate in the Gannon case.
Breidenthal said the last he heard, the KCK district could lose up to $9 million under the new legislation. Right now the board is trying to figure out the school district’s budget, and has no idea of what to expect. The KCK district may get the same amount of funding that it received in 2003, he said. It was like trying to live on the same amount of funds that you had in 2003, he added.
Janey Humphries, a candidate for the school board, said the district is now expected to do more with less. Block grants will hurt the district because it is a growing district, she said. The district receives more funding for low-income, non-English speaking students, but that may change under the new legislation. There are about 9,000 non-English speaking students in the district, who are expected to perform well on tests in only one year, she added.
“What you’re seeing at the Capitol is definitely an attack on public education,” said Irene Caudillo, a school board candidate. The block grant was not good for the district, and legislators are trying to balance the budget on the backs of the children, she said.
“What we need to do is to make sure we continue to advocate,” she said. “We need to make sure that this does not happen.”
Gloria Willis, a member of the school board for 20 years, said the block grant reminds her of being put in a box. The box closes the district in, she said.
“I’m an advocate of public education,” she said. “We need to do things that will benefit the children in Kansas City, Kan.”
Brenda Jones, incumbent board member, pointed out that costs have gone up over the years as enrollment increases. The consumer price index was up 22.9 percent, enrollment increased 11.4 percent, the at-risk count is 23.2 percent and the bilingual number is 62.7 percent, she said.
“Our at-risk kids will be at risk even more,” Jones said. “They will be forgotten.”
Rep. Val Winn, D-34th Dist., a KCKCC professor who is running for the school board and plans to also serve at the same time in the Legislature, said the amount of funding to KCK will be reduced in the block grant. The funding amount on paper looks like more money, but it includes pension funding, not money that can be used in the classroom, she said.
“The block grant was a coup,” she said, and it will last as long as those who passed it are in power. There is still a last bastion of protecting the constitutionality of adequacy of funding, she added.
The Wyandotte County legislators who are Democrats voted against the block grant bill.
Maria Cecilia Ysaac, also a candidate for the school board, said, “It is sad and it makes my stomach turn that the legislators that said they were going to protect our education and that wanted the best for Kansas are doing this to our students, the most vulnerable, the ones that can’t defend ourselves. We are here to defend them. This school board, I believe, has an obligation to fight back any way it can, by encouraging our children to be civically active, to speak out, to march, to make phone calls, and to demand that their representatives represent their interests.
“Shame on them, but shame on us if we don’t do something about this and vote these people out,” Ysaac said.
Janet Waugh, State Board of Education member, 1st District, who attended the meeting, said afterward that she had “tweeted” this message right after the vote: “Today I say shame on you to the House members who voted yes” on the block grant bill.
Waugh said that the school districts in Wyandotte County, and most school districts in the state, were not in favor of the block funding bill. It did have some support from the Blue Valley and Shawnee Mission school districts in Johnson County, she added. One elementary school to the north of Easton may have to close because of the funding.
The candidate forum, with more comments from the KCK school board candidates and other candidates for office, will be shown on the KCKCC cable television channel. The election is April 7.
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