By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Where does a school district’s money come from?
Great Bend Assistant Superintendent John Popp presented informational details to the USD 428 Board of Education last week breaking down the district’s revenue. The school district receives money from Kansas tax dollars, local tax dollars, federal funds, fees, meal money, interest and donations.
Popp highlighted the concern of the district’s capital outlay, where approximately half of the funding comes from local tax assessments.
"When the Lincoln school roof got hit with severe hail a couple of summers ago, it was almost three quarters of a million dollars to replace that roof," said Popp. "That's just one roof. We generate about $1.6 million in our capital outlay each year. Just replacing that one roof blew half of our capital outlay."
Based on the 2023-2024 school year, 57% of USD 428’s revenue came from state funding, 17% federal, 11% from special education coop payments and health care reserve fund, 8% from local taxes and 7% from fees and donations.
"This district has spent very wisely for many years, but it's going to take all of our efforts in capital outlay to keep up on those basic maintenance things going forward," said Popp. "The kind of projects we have been able to do are really nice, but I'm seeing a diminishing ability for us to be able to do anything more with our capital outlay other than just meet the needs of our buildings."
In 2023-2024, the Great Bend school district garnered just over $58.3 million. Of that amount, $33.5 million came from state funding and $4.5 million from local taxes.