Garden City and Holcomb are feeling the cuts, too. ”
“Garden City USD 457 Superintendent Rick Atha said that it isn’t just the loss of revenue that is potentially harmful to the district, but the timing of that loss.
“’The additional (cuts) being imposed by Governor Brownback of 1.5 percent for K-12 will reduce Garden City Public Schools’ revenue for this current budget year by $470,000. This loss of funding will pose financial challenges to the district,’ Atha said in an email to The Telegram. ‘Any future reductions in the budget, this year or next year, will have a significant impact on staffing and the educational services provided to the children of our community.’
“Holcomb USD 363 Superintendent Jean Rush also reacted to Brownback’s announcement in an email to The Telegram, first reiterating previous comments made in a separate interview, in which she said she was waiting to see if Brownback would keep his campaign promise not to cut school funding.
“’Well, today I got the answer to that question, and it is no. We received notice that the governor is cutting the current school state aid by 1.5 percent,’ Rush said. ‘Actions do speak louder than words.’
“USD 363 is expected to lose $63,761 for the current fiscal year, but at Monday night’s USD 363 Board of Education meeting, Rush assured the board that the district had planned for the possibility of cuts in developing this year’s budget.
“’We planned and prepared for this up front. People didn’t like me a whole lot in August with budgets, but I’m fortunate to say, at the moment, right now, we’re not going to have to do anything else because we planned and prepared for it,’ Rush told the board.
“Rush told The Telegram that actions taken by the board in preparing this year’s budget included reducing department instructional supply budgets and athletic equipment budgets by as much as 50 percent; reassigning elementary teachers to cover all of the teaching positions, following a teacher’s resignation in July; reassigning a current employee to take on duties of a vacant classified position; and by not filling a vacant high school English position.”