Newton school board votes to sue state

The Newton school board voted 6-1 Monday night in favor of a resolution that supports legal action against the state to increase funding for schools.

The board approved the resolution with no discussion.

Board president Carol Sue Stayrook Hobbs commented on why she supported the lawsuit after the meeting.

“Based on No Child Left Behind, we can be severely penalized if we do not make progress,” she said. “The only reason we are making those gains and are at or above No Child standards is because we are investing the time and money and personnel into intervening with students who have needs.

“With this funding we are not going to be able to do it.”

Stayrook Hobbs cited concerns the state would further cut the school budget as one of the reasons she supported the lawsuit resolution.

Schools for Fair Funding, an organization of Kansas school districts of which Newton is a part, filed the Montoy vs. Kansas lawsuit in 2005 in attempts to get the state to increase school funding.

The lawsuit was successful, and the state implemented a three-year plan to increase school funding to satisfy the lawsuit.

However, the recession resulted in revenue shortfalls for the state.

The state cut school funding by 22 percent from the levels implemented under the three-year plan.

The Newton district cut almost $1.4 million from the current school year’s budget because of state funding shortfalls.

Because of a decline in state property valuations and an increase in the funds needed to meet the state’s obligations for funding at-risk students, the district could face cuts of an additional $425,183 for the current school year.

The state is facing a $96.4 million budget shortfall for this school year. If the state makes up half of that deficit from school budgets, Newton will face an additional cut of $384,689 for this budget year.

Next year, the state is estimating further shortfalls in state funding, which could mean as much as $2.1 million in additional cuts for Newton.

In 2012, stimulus funds dry up, which could mean budget cuts of as much as $670 per student for a budget shortfall of almost $3.4 million for Newton.

If these scenarios prove true, Newton could face cuts of more than $6.3 million in the next three years. That equals about 34.6 percent of the district’s general fund budget.

With budget cuts that deep, Stayrook Hobbs said many of the program that make students successful and enhance education, such as art, music and athletics, would be lost.

“We will not have the programs that that make school exciting and enhance and enrich school for students,” she said. “We will not have the things that the state gave us when we were in school.”

Stayrook Hobbs added the cuts will result in the loss of an important economic development tool.

“We need to develop creative, thinking entrepreneurs,” she said. “Without that, we will not be able to attract businesses to our community. ... We can not do this to our kids.”

The resolution says the “massive tax cuts” implemented by the state prior to the recession deprived the state of needed revenue to meet the state’s constitutional obligations to provide adequate education to its children.

“... it appears that the Legislature is continuing on a course for additional school funding cuts, while allowing previously adopted tax cuts to become effective, all in the face of inadequate state revenues to meet the Constitutional obligations to schools.”

Stayrook Hobbs expressed frustration the state has continued to remove property from the tax rolls in the wake of funding shortfalls for schools.

The resolution authorizes the district to spend $5 per full-time student in 2010 to Schools for Fair Funding to support the reopening of the Montoy lawsuit or the opening a new case against the state.

Board member Renee Erickson was the sole dissenting vote on the resolution.

“I don’t think we should be taking money out of the classroom to sue the state to raise taxes,” she said. “I don’t think it is our best choice. I think we need to work with the Legislature to come up with long-term solutions for education funding.”

Board member Darrell Conrade participated in the meeting by telephone.

In other business, the board:

• Approved credit card limits of $500 to $5,000 on district credit cards.

• Approved the district technology budget for 2010-11 for $1,492,358. This is $218,000 less than the previous year’s budget.

• Approved a gift request of $699.50 to Northridge Elementary School from the Northridge PTO for the purchase of 10 licenses for Reading A-Z and a gift of $1,750 for two flip video cameras, a laser printer and software.

• Approved a gift for Walton 21st Century Rural Life Center for $300 from a haunted house fund-raiser.