Funding a key concern for Hays USD 489

By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

Hays Daily News

Enrollment in Hays USD 489 has decreased by about 100 students each of the last three years, which also means a decrease in money for that year's budget.

Nonetheless, quality still has remained high, Superintendent Fred Kaufman said, thanks in large part to teachers and other district personnel.

“I think the biggest factor has really been the dedication and the understanding of school district employees,” Kaufman said. “They are obviously motivated by factors much larger than money.”

Last year, students at Hays High School taking core curriculum subjects averaged 22.7 on the ACT test, compared to 22.5 for the state and 21.9 across the nation last year. And every school in the district but one made the Standard of Excellence for the Kansas assessment tests in at least one of the three categories

“Our teachers have been able to continue to do a better job each year of teaching,” Kaufman said, “even though we are not able to keep up with salary.”

That, though, has got to change, Kaufman said.

“To be able to attract quality teaches and maintain the excellent staff that we already have, we're going to need money to do that,” he said. “To continue to find a way to finance those things most important to education, we're going to have more money.”

Kaufman had hopes of that changing for the coming school year after the Kansas Supreme Court in January ruled the state school finance system was inequitable and gave the Kansas Legislature until April 12 to fix the problem.

However, bills proposed in the Senate and the House of Representatives during this legislative session come nowhere near solving the problem, Kaufman said.

“We expect to lose about half a million dollars because of decreasing enrollment, and most of the increase in (the legislative) proposals would be an increase in the (local option budget),” he said. “That's putting the burden on the local boards of education and the local taxpayers. That's not fixing the problem.”

Despite budgetary concerns, Hays still has continued to make advancements in several areas, especially in technology, throughout the district the past several years.

The entire district went to wireless networking several years ago, and last fall, Hays High started a laptop initiative that put Apple iBooks in the hands of every student and every teacher.

Administrators from the largest school to the smallest in the district said they think the group effort, in good times and in bad, makes the Hays district a strong one.

Dale Koerner is the head teacher and acting principal at Munjor Elementary, the smallest school in the district with an enrollment of about 30.

“I think we are extremely strong because we have a united strength among faculty, teachers and administration,” Koerner said. “We work very well together to do what's in the best interest of the students.”

Koerner said that having small class sizes gives his students more one-on-one with the teachers, something all the teachers want more of, Kaufman said.

“If I was to ask elementary schools if there's one thing they think is the most important, they would say, ‘Keep the class sizes down,' ” he said. “That's why finance becomes so vitally important.”

Mike Hester, principal at Hays High, which has an enrollment of about 920 — the largest in USD 489 — said that the school is getting the first-year bugs worked out with the laptops.

In addition to classwork, Hays High has used the laptops for numerous other programs this year, including keeping attendance and checking grades. The HHS Web team maintains the school's Internet Web site, which includes calendars and schedules, information about staff, athletics, academics, organizations and even a link for the school's alumni.

In fact, the district has its own Web site, www.usd489.com, featuring a link to each school and its own individual Web site.

“If you would have asked me at the beginning of the year how our school culture would change because of these, I don't know what I would have said,” Hester said. “The way we think about linking sites and the efficiency of linking sites now is amazing.”

Kaufman said that after another drop of about 100 students next year, enrollment projection shows more stability than it has in some time.

“The thing that I watch with considerable interest is what will happen at Hays High in the coming years,” Kaufman said. “Those enrollment drops started in kindergarten and went through the system and soon will be starting to hit the high school.”

Hays High, the lone high school in the district, fell below 1,000 students three years ago but this year remained at about 920. The district has two middle schools, Felten and Kennedy, and six elementary schools — Lincoln, Munjor, O'Loughlin, Roosevelt, Washington and Wilson.

The two middle schools have a combined enrollment of about 700 students, and Roosevelt is the largest elementary school with about 380, and Munjor the smallest.

Westside Alternative School, an interagency program for at-risk youth of Ellis County, has an enrollment of 24. The district, which also is progressive in early childhood development programs, runs 11 Head Start preschool sessions in six different classrooms classrooms. The program, which serves 160 children this year, has plans to add another classroom next year.

The Learning Center of Ellis County, an alternative high school diploma program, is run out of the Rockwell Administration Center and has a 96.9 full-time equivalent students. It provides educational courses through a computer-based curriculum to earn a diploma at the student's own pace.

Reporter Diane Gasper-O'Brien can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 126, or by e-mail at

dobrien@dailynews.net.