Connecting the Dollars to Our Classrooms
Summer is officially underway in Morris County, and while our school hallways are quiet, our district office is in the middle of our busiest planning season. June is the heart of budget season. It is the time of year when we look closely at our financial resources as we close out one funding year and plan for a new budget year.
In last month’s article, we pulled back the curtain on how the State of Kansas funds public education. We looked at how the state uses a student-based funding model—starting with a Base Aid for Student Excellence (BASE) of $5,615 per student for the 2025-2026 school year and applies weightings based on student needs. We also discussed the reality of local property taxes and the severe impact of the state’s special education funding gap, which required USD 417 to transfer more than $1.1 million out of our General Fund last year just to fulfill our legal obligations.
This month, we are taking that financial conversation a step further. To give our board and our community complete transparency, I presented a detailed report to the Board of Education in June titled “USD 417 Building Cost Analysis”. Because our revenue is tied so closely to our enrollment numbers, our current reality of sustained enrollment decline means we must have a clear, factual picture of what it costs to operate each of our three buildings.
Our Buildings at a Glance: FY 2025-26
To understand the district’s overall budget, we have to look at the individual operational costs of our schools. Below is a high-level summary of the enrollment, total expenditures, and per-pupil costs across our three facilities for the current fiscal year:
Why Do Per-Pupil Costs Differ?
When reviewing these numbers, it is natural to ask why it costs $13,134 to educate a student at Prairie Heights Elementary compared to $8,171 at the Jr/Sr High School.
In public education, fixed operational costs—like building maintenance, utilities, and leadership—remain relatively constant whether a building holds 70 students or 300. When enrollment drops, those fixed overhead costs are divided among fewer students, driving the per-pupil cost upward.
The upside to this structure is incredibly small class sizes. For example:
• Prairie Heights Elementary operates with an average class size of approximately 12.8 students and a student-to-licensed-staff ratio of 7.7:1.
• Council Grove Jr/Sr High School maintains average core academic class sizes (English, Math, Science, and Social Studies) ranging between just 10.3 and 12.4 students.
While these small ratios create a deeply personalized, supportive learning environment that rural communities rightfully pride themselves on, they require careful, deliberate balancing within a limited district budget.
The True Cost of Education: It’s About People
When people think about the costs of running a school, they often think about physical infrastructure—things like keeping the lights on or fixing a roof. Our data shows that while utility costs are a real factor (ranging from a total of $68,253 at PHES to $220,227 at the high school), they represent only a tiny fraction of our budget.
The Core of Our Budget: Across all three of our buildings, between 92.5% and 93.5% of all operating expenditures go directly to personnel costs.
Our budget is not primarily made of bricks, mortar, electricity, or gas. It is made of people. It represents our classroom teachers, specialized educators, paraprofessionals, custodians, cooks, and support staff who dedicate their professional lives to our kids. When we talk about school finance, we are ultimately talking about investing in the people who teach and protect USD 417 children.
Where Do We Go From Here?
I want to emphasize that the “USD 417 Building Cost Analysis” is not a decision-making document; it is a foundational roadmap. It was designed to give our Board of Education and our community a shared, factual baseline as we plan for the future. The board is currently reviewing this information and determining if there are additional building-level data points we need to explore in future meetings.
As the State of Kansas heads toward a June 2027 deadline of either renewing the school funding formula or making changes to it, having a firm grasp on our local numbers ensures that USD 417 is proactive, prepared, and fiscally responsible.
An informed community is our greatest asset. Whether you live down the street from one of our buildings or read this from afar as a proud alumnus, thank you for your continued support of our schools, our staff, and our students.
As always, my door is open.