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City of Smithville snow removal found its way into a Smithville R-II School District Board of Education meeting.

School board member Russell Fries compared the school district’s need to make the community aware of potential budget cuts to the city’s need to make its snow removal policy known.

Some residents were upset when the city hadn’t plowed their streets, Fries said, in part because they didn’t know about the city’s street plowing priority system.

“There was that level of expectation,” he said during the Jan. 20 board meeting. “We need to get the word out and say, ‘Here is what might happen.’”

During the meeting, school administrators laid out how possible cuts in the state’s K-12 education funding could affect the district.

Gov. Jay Nixon has indicated he wants to protect funding for what’s known as the state foundation formula. The funding, which is heavily based on student enrollment, helps cover districts’ general expenses.

However, the Smithville administrators think cuts in other areas are inevitable. Significant state cuts must be made, they pointed out, and K-12 education accounts for one-third of the state budget.

Wayne Krueger, the district’s assistant superintendent for support services, said programs that could take funding hits include transportation (busing), career ladder (extra teacher pay for before and after school duties), Parents as Teachers (educating parents of young children) and summer school.

“When they cut, it’s gonna hurt,” Smithville Superintendent Dr. George Curry said. “We will do everything in our power to protect our classroom teachers.”

It could be late spring before state cuts are final, Curry said. So the fate of summer school might not be known until April or May. Summer school is set to begin Tuesday, June 1.

The state has already cut about $30,000 of the district’s $400,000 transportation budget. The district used reserves to cover the hit.

State funding covers about 34 percent of the Smithville district’s budget. Local funding accounts for a majority of the district’s revenue.

Krueger said factors including declining sales tax revenue, higher unemployment and lower than expected Proposition A (gambling tax) revenue have negatively affected the state budget.

If the foundation formula is unharmed, the district likely wouldn’t have to look at cutting teachers, Krueger said.

Previous budget planning and increases in the district’s assessed valuation and student enrollment — two major school budget factors — have put the district in a position to weather cuts in state aid better than some districts, Krueger said.

Smithville Editor Nancy Hull Rigdon can be reached at 532-4444 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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