BonnerSprings.com

In what are still uncertain times for school districts, the financial fate of Bonner Springs-Edwardsville USD 204 hinges on the state of the district’s contingency reserve, says Tami Koppang, director of business and finance services.

“There’s still that very big possibility that something else will have to be done, that we’ll get cut again,” Koppang said in a recent interview regarding how the 2010 Kansas State Legislative Session, which ended earlier this month, will affect USD 204. “And that’s why we’re all concerned about where our contingency funds are. Because if that happens, the only place we have left to go is our contingency fund reserve.”

Instead of slashing public education funds like last year, lawmakers this time around opted to maintain the $4,012 base state aid per pupil schools were receiving as of November of last year.

“That’ll help us definitely, where we won’t have to cut as many programs, staff positions basically,” Koppang said.

Though numerous positions have had to be cut since the 2008-2009 school year, including several in the custodial and maintenance departments, an administrator at Bonner Springs High School and the school resource officer at BSHS, Koppang said the district ended up being lucky when it came to tenured teacher positions.

“We were very fortunate that we had enough retirements and resignations that we did not have to go through the (reduction in force) format, (which is where we) reduce staff that were tenured,” Koppang said.

But though teacher positions and many programs are safe for the time being, Koppang said the future was a tenuous one at best, especially with the expectation that stimulus and Title One funding, which is funding that goes to those schools with a high percentage of poor students, will be down this coming school year.

This is why, Koppang said, it’s so important to build up the contingency reserve or, as she said, “at least maintain it.” By law, districts are required to have no more than 10 percent of their total general fund expenditures in their contingency reserves. Koppang said the USD 204 reserve currently was about $1 million less than where it should be.

“We only have about half a million,” she said.

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