VIRGINA- The St. Louis County School District has seen a downturn in the amount of state aid it receives as a result of student losses during the COVID pandemic, and it isn’t clear if funding changes during this year’s legislative session will help the district turn the corner. That’s according to District Finance Director Kim Johnson.
“The one we’re really hopeful about is that they will be increasing the funding formula,” Johnson said. “We don’t know how much yet.”
An increase in the formula would mean the district would receive more money per pupil from the state.
Another increase could come in the area of special education funding, a mandated service, that typically isn’t fully reimbursed by federal or state sources. The gap between what they pay out and what they receive for special education is referred to as the special education “cross-subsidy.” A proposal still alive in the Legislature would have the state pick up more of the slack.
“They’re talking about funding 50 percent of the special education cross-subsidy, which would be good,” Johnson said.
The district had hoped to see a big boost in the transportation aid they received, but while the hoped for amount is off the table, an increase is still in the works.
“That’s still alive,” Johnson said. “They originally started at 71 percent, but even 40 percent is better than the 18 percent where it is now. I’ll take anything over 18 percent,” Johnson said.
Johnson also welcomed the news last week that Rep. Dave Lislegard and Sen. Grant Hauschild have included allocations in respective finance bills to fund necessary wastewater processing renovation projects at North Woods and South Ridge, as well as funding for lighting for the baseball and softball fields at Cherry. Those are projects that fall outside the restricted scope of the district’s long-term facilities maintenance financing.
But one item in the omnibus education finance bills in both the House and Senate could bring havoc down on the district’s budget, Johnson said.
“The bad news is a potentially unfunded mandate that would allow hourly employees to obtain unemployment in the summer,” Johnson said. “That would bankrupt us along with every other school district in the state. I say unfunded because they won’t allow us to levy for it like we can levy currently for unemployment.”
A huge number of hourly positions in the district would be eligible for summer unemployment if the measure passes.
“Just for our bus drivers alone we have 33 bus drivers and 13 van drivers who would be eligible,” Johnson said. “All of our food service personnel, all of our Indian ed personnel, all of our paraprofessionals, aides and secretaries – it would be devastating to the school district.”
The House version also includes a provision that class sizes, student testing, and student-to-personnel ratios would become negotiable items for contracted education staff. Johnson said adding those to the bargaining list could drive up the cost of negotiated agreements and present significant challenges for the district to accommodate under its current classroom configurations.