Royal Valley board discusses proposed funding cuts

Proposed cuts and changes to education at the state and federal levels were outlined during the Royal Valley Board of Education meeting Monday evening.

Superintendent Aaric Davis shared of list of proposed state bills being tracked by the Kansas State Department of Education that could impact the district’s budget.

Davis said that the state is expected to have a $2.1 billion surplus at the end of the fiscal year.

“In both the Senate and the House budget committees, they’ve proposed cutting some smaller items from this year’s education budget,” Davis said. 

Some of those proposed items (and that amount of funds the district receives or is reimbursed for those services) include transportation for Career Tech Education/Washburn Tech ($5,000 to $6,000 a year), mentor teacher program (the district received $3,784 last year), professional development ($4,000 to $5,000 a year) and Safe and Secure Schools Grant (the district received $8,075 this year).

“I wrote a grant application for some lock devices and AEDs for the bus barn, district office and the concession stand at the high school,” he said. “And the state is talking about making us pay that money back this year that we already received and spent. In all, it amounts to about $20,000 to $25,000 worth of funding out of this year’s budget.”

At the federal level, Davis said that President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the federal department of education. 

“It’s really hard to explain what that’s actually going to mean and the impact that is going to have,” Davis said. “According to the administration, it’s not supposed to have an impact on funding, but it’s going to reassign whose responsibility it is to take of certain tasks.”

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