Jackson schools building budget amid uncertainties

As the Jackson School District begins to build its 2011-2012 budget, administrators and school board members are weighing a state budget in flux and counting blessings for what appears to be an improved funding picture.

But for a district that lags well behind in state per-student spending, the future holds another year of making do with less, officials say.

The Jackson School Board held a retreat Saturday morning, and the budget was a major point of business.

Gov. Jay Nixon has promised to hold funding for kindergarten through 12th-grade schools flat for the next school year, applying federal stimulus money to fill an expected $112 million gap in state aid to schools.

State funding accounts for about 37 percent of the Jackson School District's $41.28 million budget, according to Wade Bartels, the district's chief financial officer. Bartels said it's hard to call flat funding a fiscal victory, but it is a significant improvement from the state budget projections late last year.

"When you say revenues are going to be flat, our costs aren't," he said. "We would consider ourselves better off than other states, like our neighbors across the river, and we count our blessings for that.

"But the cost of health care, retirement, general employee costs, food, fuel, energy, none of that stuff is going down."

For now, district officials don't foresee job cuts or wage freezes.

But there are plenty of questions and no guarantees for Missouri school districts as they construct their budgets. Just what happens to the state's school funding formula and how much of the old formula will be factored into the new remain a matter of political debate. There are scores of possible budget scenarios, Bartels said, some trimming state aid to the district by as much as $200,000.

"It's hard to really start making any hard decisions when the pool of funds is changing," he said.

If history is any indicator, Jackson will receive significantly fewer state dollars than the state average. Longtime Jackson School Board member Dr. T. Wayne Lewis said that when it comes to aid, Jackson is one of the poorest districts in the state.

In 2010, the Jackson School District received $7,219 in state funding per student, or average daily attendance, about $2,500 less than the state average, according to a review of data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Jackson ranks 45th lowest in state funding among Missouri's 522 school districts, Bartels said.

By comparison, the Cape Girardeau School District received $9,751 in state aid per average daily attendance in 2010.

Lewis said the district has learned to live leaner over the years.

"Money hasn't bought it," he said of the district's academic success despite the lower levels of state aid. "The lucky thing is we're in a community that encourages education."

The district has seen continued growth on the local front, however. Total assessed valuation last year was about $385 million, growing by about 1.2 percent from the previous year, Bartels said. Local dollars make up about 52 percent of the district's funding.

There are other bright spots. Thanks to an improving state revenue picture, Missouri's school districts have seen the return of some $17 million in transportation aid. The Jackson School District, which operates its own bus system covering about 285 square miles, lost about half of the $700,000 in state transportation aid for the current school year. The recent infusion of state cash brought back about $70,000 to the district's transportation budget, Bartels said.

And there are encouraging signs that Nixon may announce more cash disbursements ahead, Bartels said.

"Our hope is for next year maybe some of that money could be restored," he said.

mkittle@semissourian.com

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614 E. Adams St., Jackson, MO