HUMBOLDT — Humboldt USD 258 Board of Education Tuesday night briefly discussed a long-awaited legislative report written by Rep. Dave Heinmann, received locally May 21.
Lawmakers had been in one of the longest “veto” sessions in legislative history, according to the report. On May 19, the conference committee reached an agreement after “two dozen offers and counter-offers,” the report said.
One of the bigger issues in the report, board members said, was that the budget conference committee agreed to include $40 million from the state general fund to increase base state aid per pupil by $60, from $3,780 to $3,840.
“This wasn’t near what we thought we would get,” Criss said. “But it is what they decided.”
The committee also agreed to take $3.7 million from the Children’s Initiatives Fund and give $2.2 million of the money to the Parents and Teachers program and $1.5 million to the Kansas Pre-School program, the report said. They also provided the state board with $500,000 for continued work on the Kansas Educator Evaluation Protocol [KEEP] and $50,000 for the Uniform Financial Accounting System.
Also discussed was the passage of House Bill 2430, which allows school districts to keep up to 10 percent of the district’s general fund budget in a contingency reserve fund.
The last issue discussed was the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System [KPERS] debate, which was settled with the adoption of the conference committee’s decision. Though the report did not go into extensive detail about the debate and the results, it does state that there is “one issue contained in this bill that you should be aware of. The working after retirement provision of Senate Bill 259 was added to the bill.”
The provision is that it”extends the sunset date from July 1, 2012 to July 1, 2015 for certain retired teachers and other licensed school professionals who retire with KPERS benefits to return to work and not be subject to the $20,000 earnings limitation.”
Board members recognized Megan Anderson, school nurse, for saving a child’s life. An unnamed student was suffering from a ruptured appendix and had to be airlifted by helicopter to a children’s hospital for treatment. Anderson was instrumental in caring for the child before the transfer.
Following a 15-minute executive session, board members approved a certified contract for Jessica Greenfield and a classified contract for Sandy Mintz.
