LPS to get $64.5 million in state aid

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By MARGARET REIST / Lincoln Journal Star

The Lincoln Board of Education will start its budget discussions in earnest now that it knows exactly how much state aid is coming the district’s way.

And the $64.5 million Lincoln Public Schools will get — while less than the $73 million the state originally certified before senators revamped the state aid formula — is the second-largest increase of all districts in the state.

Omaha Public Schools will see the biggest increase: $20.8 million more than last year. LPS will get $13.1 million more than last year.

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The amounts of state aid each school district will receive in the 2008-09 school year compared to this year....

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LB988, which Gov. Dave Heineman signed into law in April, will save the state about $60 million in state aid.

State officials recertified state aid on April 30, letting districts know for sure how much state aid they’d get.

The law made numerous changes to the complex state aid formula, changes that left 106 school districts across the state with less state aid than the previous year. 

North Platte Public Schools will lose the most: $1.04 million less than last year.

Stuart Simpson, business manager of the North Platte district, said the loss of state aid will mean reducing the number of hours para educators spend in the  schools and no increase in the technology budget.

The latter is a big hit to the operation of the schools, he said, because there can be no upgrades or changes in technology to help kids in the classroom.

“We’re just trying to live through this year,” Simpson said.

For next year, he said, district officials will take another look at their poverty plan.

This was the first year districts had to submit a poverty plan to the state, and because North Platte doesn’t have as many low-income or English Language Learners as some districts, its “needs” portion of the state aid formula didn’t increase as much as some.

 A bill passed last year required districts to submit poverty plans detailing how they plan to deal with poverty issues.

Next year, North Platte officials will take another look at its poverty plan to make sure it has accounted for all the ways the district deals with those issues, Simpson said.

The poverty plan may have affected total state aid, but so did several other changes to the formula, Simpson said.

Closer to Lincoln, Seward Public Schools will get $318,046 less than last year, the third biggest loss in the state.

Superintendent Greg Barnes said lower enrollment contributed to the loss.

Last year, the district saw a significant increase in state aid, which will help it deal with the loss this year.

Another factor that helped, he said, is that the Legislature added a “stablization factor” to avoid districts having huge losses.

And even though LPS will get more state aid — like 146 other school districts — it will be less than district officials originally expected, which is sure to play into the upcoming budget discussions.

The tentative budget numbers district officials are looking at include no staff increases, despite the 500-plus new students, and no   increase to account for inflation in utility costs, said Dennis Van Horn, associate superintendent of business affairs.

A board committee will begin discussing the budget this week. Administrators hope to be able to present a proposed budget to the full board in June.

Reach Margaret Reist at 473-7226 or mreist@journalstar.com