ShawneeDispatch.com

After a three-year absence from the organization, Shawnee Mission USD 512 is rejoining the Kansas Association of School Boards so it can have a say on controversial education issues like local option budgets.

The Shawnee Mission Board of Education at its meeting Monday unanimously approved paying the membership dues of $18,547 to the organization after hearing requests from KASB executive director John Koepke that the school district come back to the table.

“We would urge you to join the 295 other school boards that are members,” Koepke said. “I think the challenges we face in public education today are greater than they have ever been.”

Of the 296 school districts in the state, all but Shawnee Mission were members of the organization.

In 2005, Shawnee Mission parted ways with KASB, mostly due to the cost of membership, board member Donna Bysfield said.

“At that point we had made lots of budget cuts, and the budget was very tight then,” she said.

There were also concerns that Shawnee Mission wasn’t getting enough bang for its buck, board member Cindy Neighbor said.

“When the board left there was also some feeling that Shawnee Mission is unique to a lot of districts because of declining enrollment,” she said.

She asked Pam Robinson, KASB president-elect from the Blue Valley school district, if districts have been more willing to come to the table to talk.

Robinson said in her three years on the board of directors, she has seen a difference in attitudes from school districts across the state.

“People realize we all have our challenges and our struggles, and we are beginning to see we have more things in common with each other rather than differences,” she said.

Board member Larry Winn III said his biggest reservation about rejoining the KASB was the organization’s stance on local option budgets, which is the authority to increase a district’s mill levy with all the revenue going to the district.

Shawnee Mission, which has a large residential and commercial property tax base, supports the use of local option budget, while some smaller districts with a mostly residential tax base would prefer to have more state funding, as raising the mill levy would be harder on its homeowners. The 2008 KASB stance is to reduce reliance on local option budget.

“Your board’s position on local option budget had been very troubling to me,” Winn said. “I don’t think it reflects the unanimous views with the districts in your association.”

Koepke pointed out that if Shawnee Mission joined the KASB this year, it would automatically receive a seat on the board of directors as the second largest district in the state. Having a seat at the table would make the district’s voices heard, he said.

“We need you,” Koepke pleaded with the board. “We want you back.”

In other business, the board:

• Accepted a bid from Piper Jaffrey to purchase the Series 2008-A General Obligation School Refunding Bonds with 3.9 percent interest. The bonds were issued in 1999 for $19.7 million as part of the $139.7 million series of bonds authorized by voters in 1994. The amount refinanced was about $16.4 million. The refunding will save the district about $575,000 or about $50,000 per year, said David Arteberry with George K. Baum, the district’s bond counsel.

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