Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010
Despite education bill, no new teachers in district
Emily Jarrett, Journal Staff
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Despite the recent signing of the $26 billion Education Jobs and Medicare Assistance Act, which included $10 billion for school districts around the country, Blue Springs School District officials are slow to celebrate.
“Right now, the $64,000 question is if we will receive any of that money,” said BSSD superintendent Paul Kinder. “We have no plans to do anything without first seeing that money in hand.”
The bill, which was signed by President Barack Obama Aug. 10, gives state governors the right to allocate the money however they see fit. Missouri will receive approximately $189 million.
“There are a lot of different scenarios that could be played out,” Kinder said. “Yes, there’s $189 million earmarked, but the governor could use that money to offset revenue losses already built into the funding.”
Kinder said even if the money does come through, the district will not use it this year.
“We’ll use whatever money we receive to lesson the cuts over the next 18 months,” he said. “Next year will be worse for revenue, especially in education, there’s no doubt about it. The state is about $1.2 billion short for next year in revenue. The state has control over about $6 billion and $3 billion of that is education. We’re going to see more major cuts in the future.”
Kinder said the BSSD Board of Education began planning for the cuts more than a year ago, trimming $14.2 million from the budget so far.
“We’ve had a major drop in not only state funding, but also our reassessment values lost us almost $6 million,” he said. “Times are very bleak right now.”
Kinder added that he was cautious about counting on federal money to come through.
“Again, even if we get that money in the next 60 to 90 days, which is what the feds are telling us, we’re going to wait and use it next year,” he said. “Right now we have all our staff in place and now isn’t the time to be adding staff. We would rather have that money ready for next year.”
Despite the admittedly bleak times, Kinder said he was still optimistic about the future of the district. “We’ve got great staff who are doing quality jobs right now,” he said. “Our MAP scores are up again and we’re again one of the leaders in the state on our scores.
“Unfortunately we have this black cloud hanging over us. We hope the governor releases the money to us but right now we’ll have to sit back and wait.”
To reach Journal reporter Emily Jarrett, call 816-282-7018 or e-mail ejarrett@ bluespringsjournal.com.
