School Changes

[Sarah]

The reason we are doing this because the district can't keep paying its bills at this level of expenses. 

You either lower your costs, increase your revenue, or close the doors. 

We can't seem to attract enough students to increase revenue. 

So we have two choices lower the costs or close the doors. 

I don't think anyone wants to close the doors.

OK Thanks

[sixdogsmom]

I think that a teacher said in a meeting a couple of years ago that she had seen the long range plans for the state and that this district was destined to become part of a district based in Eureka. Rural education has become more expensive as populations shrink and migrate to the larger cities and towns. The state is going to go for more bang for the buck, and of course the largest constituency. I suspect that federal money goes where the denser population is for the same reason, and that it is easier to satisfy federal guidelines when there are more taxpayers to sweeten the pot. We need to prepare for that time, as it is coming.

BTW, I certainly never advocated 'building onto' the highschool. There was room enough for nearly 500 students in that building in the early 90s' and I am not quite certain why 345 could not fit there now? A classroom is a classrom, is a classroom. It needs to be warm in the winter, have a window for spring and fall, and a floor and ceiling. Desks are optional. The world is a classroom, and the LIBRARY is a window to this world. The library should be used extensively! We have people here who cannot make a comprehensive sentence and claim to be college graduates. Computers are not the answer folks, they are a tool only. Give a basic education in the arts, sciences and literature with a little philosophy and critical thinking thrown in and you have it made. Math is a great start, for it is the language of science and music. Without it, those subjects have no value. But math is a meter only and must be combined with other subjects for an educated student. The rest is bangles and beads.

[Sarah]

I think that a teacher said in a meeting a couple of years ago that she had seen the long range plans for the state and that this district was destined to become part of a district based in Eureka. Rural education has become more expensive as populations shrink and migrate to the larger cities and towns. The state is going to go for more bang for the buck, and of course the largest constituency. I suspect that federal money goes where the denser population is for the same reason, and that it is easier to satisfy federal guidelines when there are more taxpayers to sweeten the pot. We need to prepare for that time, as it is coming.

BTW, I certainly never advocated 'building onto' the highschool. There was room enough for nearly 500 students in that building in the early 90s' and I am not quite certain why 345 could not fit there now? A classroom is a classrom, is a classroom. It needs to be warm in the winter, have a window for spring and fall, and a floor and ceiling. Desks are optional. The world is a classroom, and the LIBRARY is a window to this world. The library should be used extensively! We have people here who cannot make a comprehensive sentence and claim to be college graduates. Computers are not the answer folks, they are a tool only. Give a basic education in the arts, sciences and literature with a little philosophy and critical thinking thrown in and you have it made. Math is a great start, for it is the language of science and music. Without it, those subjects have no value. But math is a meter only and must be combined with other subjects for an educated student. The rest is bangles and beads.

I actually agree on a lot.  A lot of the things we think we need, aren't really necessary. 

Are there only 345 students in all of the Elk County district?  Or only in the highschool?  What is the total student count of the Elk county schools? 

[flintauqua]

Sarah,

The county has absolutely nothing to do with this.  The Elk County government has absolutely no control over the school district whatsoever.  

School Districts in Kansas are distinct and seperate taxing entities, completely unrelated to, or regulated by, county governments.  There are some school districts that are named so and so county USD xxx.  There are even some districts whose boundaries conform to the county lines.  These are flukes; they have absolutely no official connection with the actual county government.

Schools are funded in a very complicated manner.  On the income side, there is a statewide mill levy for education.  Neither the local district nor the local county government has any say in the collection of this statewide mill levy, except that the county is responsible for assessment of property within state mandated guidelines, and for collection of the tax due.  That tax money goes to the state.

Then there is the Local Option Budget.  This part of school funding is determined by the local school board within guidelines established by the state.  A mill levy is then set that will collect this amount from within the school district.  This amount is collected by the county government and distributed to the school district.

Thirdly, there can be a mill levy established to support a bond issue for construction.  This levy is applied to and collected from the property within the school district.  Again, it is collected by the county government and distributed to the school district.

Nowhere in all of the collection and distribution of these three different tax levies does the county government have any control over how much is collected and where it goes to.

In Elk County, not everyone pays at the same rate, because depending on which school district you live in, the LOB and/or bond levy can be different than if you lived in Elk County, but in a different school district.

I'll let someone else try and explain the even more Byzantine method the state has come up with to distribute the statewide mill levy back out to the individual school districts.

Charles

[Sarah]

Thanks!!  Property tax is not something I understand a lot about as I'm not generally the one that messes with it.  My husband does all that.  

[Sarah]

According to our tax bill from last year we pay 13 mils.  Now, correct me if I'm wrong as I'm trying to figure this out, but if it raises it 17.5 mils, isn't that more than doubling our property tax bill?   

[Sarah]

Or would it just go from 13 mils to 17.5 mils?  Help! 

[Rudy Taylor]

Nobody in Kansas pays 13 mills for their school taxes. There is a statewide levy of 20 mills --- everybody pays it. In addition to that basic levy, there is a Local Option Budget which allows local school boards to raise additional funds, and the LOB has also maxed out in USD 282. I don't recall what the LOB amount is right now.

Flintauqua is right about our Byzantine method of local distribution. "Weighted" formulas enable the State Department of Education to add phantom students to rural, poor and under-served schools, and West Elk certainly pulls its share of state weighting. Overall, the school district gets back more money than taxpayers pay in. Sounds strange, I know.

Additionally, there are various formulas for the state matching or paying a portion of capital improvements, and that plays into the mix of returning funds to local coffers from the state.

We Kansans chose a complicated method of collecting taxes to pay for schools. To add more confusion, the KSBE is currently following the guidelines of a court order to keep statewide funding of schools "equalized," and that opens an entirely separate box of worms.

The Kansas Legislature has to wrestle with all these terminologies, formulas, and rural vs. urban attitudes so it's no wonder that we can't discuss a local bond issue without getting bleary-eyed.

Chee.

[sixdogsmom]

Sarah, there are 345 students in the district, that includes highschool, middle school, and gradeschool.

[Sarah]

Nobody in Kansas pays 13 mills for their school taxes. There is a statewide levy of 20 mills --- everybody pays it. In addition to that basic levy, there is a Local Option Budget which allows local school boards to raise additional funds, and the LOB has also maxed out in USD 282. I don't recall what the LOB amount is right now.

Flintauqua is right about our Byzantine method of local distribution. "Weighted" formulas enable the State Department of Education to add phantom students to rural, poor and under-served schools, and West Elk certainly pulls its share of state weighting. Overall, the school district gets back more money than taxpayers pay in. Sounds strange, I know.

Additionally, there are various formulas for the state matching or paying a portion of capital improvements, and that plays into the mix of returning funds to local coffers from the state.

We Kansans chose a complicated method of collecting taxes to pay for schools. To add more confusion, the KSBE is currently following the guidelines of a court order to keep statewide funding of schools "equalized," and that opens an entirely separate box of worms.

The Kansas Legislature has to wrestle with all these terminologies, formulas, and rural vs. urban attitudes so it's no wonder that we can't discuss a local bond issue without getting bleary-eyed.

Chee.

Thank you.  That explains a lot. 

Sarah, there are 345 students in the district, that includes highschool, middle school, and gradeschool.

Thank you.