State budget could impact school funding

Missouri's budget cuts will likely have a large impact on the Nevada R-5 School District for the 2011-'12 school year.

Dr. David Stephens, R-5 superintendent, told the Nevada School Board Wednesday night that the state has a $43 million shortfall in the amount of money needed to fully fund the school foundation formula and he has been advised to expect a 4-percent cut in state funding for the upcoming school year which starts July 1.

He told the board that the 2010-'11 budget had absorbed a two percent cut in state funding.

Stephens said that with the expected 4-percent cut in state funding his $24 million projected budget for next year will come up about $500,000 short in funding.

He said that the state has proposed four options to deal with their cut in funding including increasing the amount of local money for summer school, reducing support for the career ladder, cutting additional state aid for transportation or returning to pro-ration cuts for each of the state's 523 school districts.

"I expect to see it slipping," Larry Forkner, R-5 board member, said.

"The cuts won't stop at 4 percent," Steve Cubbage, school board president, said.

With more than 500 school districts in the state and less than 300 of them using the career ladder, Stephens told the board that could be an easy area to cut funding, since it will not effect all of the state's districts.

Stephens said that he would bring a preliminary budget for the board to vote on at the March meeting and the final budget at the May meeting.

Assistant Superintendent Tyson Beshore told the board that the district will have a visit from the AdvancED accreditation team March 7-10, who will tour the district's facilities, meet with the administration, staff, students and community members.

"They want to see what we're doing right," Beshore said.

He said the district is in good shape for the visit, since the district's Standard Assessment Report has already been accepted.

"I'm excited about it and will be relieved on March 10," Beshore said.

The board also heard an update on the district's band program for grades six through 12 and a character education program at the Nevada Middle School.

In addition to these items the board voted 6-0 to approve a one-year extension for the career ladder and to approve a revised comprehensive school improvement plan.

The also voted to accept the resignation of Devin White as an assistant football coach, and recommended hiring Luke Clark as an assistant track coach and moving Ann Whiteaker from an elementary paraprofessional at Truman Elementary to an elementary teacher at Truman Elementary for the remainder of the current school year.