Bill gives district a funding boost

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News

April 9, 2014 - 12:00 AM

MORAN — Marmaton Valley USD 256 will have nearly $77,000 more to spend on education next school year through provisions of the new school finance bill.
The only catch is that the district’s enrollment stays the same.
“We’ve been trending down the past several years,” lamented Superintendent David Hardage.
The $14 increase in base state aid per pupil will mean an additional $7,846, although that will be tempered by a $2,696 loss in cuts to non-proficient aid, leaving a net gain of $5,150. That is based on this year’s full-time equivalent enrollment of 295.5, plus various weighting factors that pushes it higher.
The non-proficient aid went to help students who struggle with math and reading.
The district will gain $71,611 in local option budget funding, putting overall increase at $77,000.
Hardage said the district had exercised LOB authority at 21 percent of the general fund, with no intention of seeking a higher percentage. At 100 percent funding, a provision of the bill, state aid will account for about 56 percent of LOB revenue.
As for termination of tenure protection for teachers, Hardage said if he were still a teacher — he was in the classroom for 15 years —  he wouldn’t be pleased.
“It leaves them with no protection, which I don’t think is a good thing,” he said. “It caught me off guard,” when it became a prominent consideration of whether the bill would pass out of the Legislature.
Looking at loss of tenure from a pragmatic perspective, Hardage said as an administrator he could see advantages.
“Every school has a teacher who has been teaching for a long time and gets burned out, and you can’t make a change,” he said, which will become more doable with repeal of tenure.
Hardage said the new bill treated Marmaton Valley much better than either House or Senate bills that were being considered last week.
That would have been particularly true with significant cuts to state aid for transportation. Then, Marmaton Valley was looking at transportation funding losses of as much as $24,000 in the Senate bill and more than $7,000 with the one floating in the House.
Being a rural district, many Marmaton Valley students, including those from the Elsmore-Savonburg area, ride buses to school each day.
Tracking the school finance bill as it wove its way through the two legislative chambers was a little more difficult for Hardage than some other area lead administrators. In his fourth year at Moran, his contract calls for him to be in house 60 percent of the time, normally Monday through Wednesday each week.
“I retired as superintendent at Greenfield, Mo., (where he lives full time) in 2008, and had kind of muddled around for a couple years when this job came up,” Hardage said.
“I have a little house rented in Moran and stay over if the weather is bad, or if I’m needed for something,” he said, but usually drives back to Greenfield Wednesday evening, a journey of about 100 miles.

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