Lee's Summit Has Less Students And Spends More Money

So LSR-7 has 17,000 students and an annual budget of $200 million but Blue Valley has 21,000 students and next year’s budget is $143 million. Very interesting!




http://www.kmbc.com/education/22778902/detail.html



Blue Valley Schools List $9M In Cuts

School District Facing Decreased Revenue

POSTED: 4:50 pm CST March 8, 2010

UPDATED: 5:19 pm CST March 8, 2010

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -- The Blue Valley School District on Monday unveiled a list of cuts that total $9 million.

It's the list the board will work from when trying to trim the school budget.

Rarely has the affluent Johnson County school district had to make these kinds of cuts, KMBC's Micheal Mahoney reported.

The problem is the same as in many other school districts -- the recession has dropped property values, which is the main source of tax revenue for schools, and the state government doesn't have any money to spare.

Blue Valley has to play by the same rules as other school districts, and the problem is, we're capped," Blue Valley Superintendent Dr. Tom Trigg said.

In the past, Blue Valley could grow its way to prosperity, but school enrollment is flattening out. Currently, the district has about 21,000 students.

On Monday, the district revealed a series of cutbacks and revenue increases that would save the district $9 million.

The goal is to cut less than that -- about $6.25 million -- but administrators met Monday to draw up a bigger cut list in case they need to cut more later, Mahoney reported.

In all, the Blue Valley Schools have cut more than $11 million in the last two years.

"We're trying to keep the cuts away from the classroom, but no doubt that's going to impact the operation in a negative way," Trigg said.

The school district budget is $143 million for this year.

To see a list of the district's budget cuts, visit bluevalleyk12.org.