The Keokuk School Board continued to engage in work to reaffirm the Keokuk Community School District’s commitment to financial responsibility to the community specifically through a Budget Reduction Plan that was reviewed and approved at the regularly scheduled board meeting on Feb. 2.
“We continue to be focused on carefully adjusting the district’s spending to be financially responsible while maintaining and expanding on student opportunities and curriculum improvements,” Dr. Kathy Dinger, KCSD Superintendent, explained. “With all this in mind, we are also highly aware of the tax burden that our school community continues to face.”
The increased need stems from continued rising operational costs, a special education budget deficit in the district due to increased needs, local and state-wide population decline, private school voucher program expansion, a state-wide school funding formula that does not match inflation rates and overall inability by the state to fully fund public school districts. To create the Budget Reduction Plan, Dinger stated that district admin “completed a wall-to-wall audit on how to reduce costs,” from hardware to software to facilities to staff, but ultimately the main issue lies with funding from the state. Dinger explained “the state is stealing from Peter to pay Paul, and unfortunately, we are Peter.”
In the presentation to the board, Dinger referenced that there are 40,000 students in Iowa enrolled in private schools and 98% of those have used private school vouchers, which has resulted in a loss of more than $300 million to the public school system. Currently, efforts to publicly fund charter schools have also gained traction in Iowa. KCSD also stands to lose more than $4 million over the next 10 years if the state is successful in “seizing SAVE dollars,” meaning the State Secure an Advanced Vision for Education Fund, from public school districts, according to Dinger. The district states that this imbalance will force public school districts to ultimately seek additional revenue from property owners through taxation, which is why the district has created this plan for spending adjustments that stemmed from discussions started during the 2023-24 school year.
The projected timeline for the execution of the plan is 2026 to 2028, which includes reassignments and reductions to better align with district and community needs. Reduction strategies include leveraging planned retirements and any resignations before considering reductions in force (RIF) to minimize disruption and lessen impact to staff, as well as there are plans to increase shared staff among buildings and adjust class sections. The immediate staffing impact out of 175 licensed positions in the district will be three full-time positions for the 2026-27 school year and by 2028 there will be seven more full-time posiions affected, making it a total of 10 positions, but largely those will come from retirements and/or attrition.
By 2028, there will be a discontinuation of stipends for five individual student clubs/activities, as well as two programs that will no longer be offered at the high school level, and one program each at the middle school, elementary and district level. The district will reassign two high school teaching positions and two secretarial positions in the district, as well as reduce a high school support position. Also, five assistant coaching positions will be reduced. Following the population decline metric, there will be a reduction of three elementary classrooms, along with one elementary support position. District-wide administrative support will be restructured and reduced, one district support position and two secretarial positions will be reduced, along with additional contract hours. With these adjustments, Dr. Dinger stressed the importance of the district minimizing any negative impact from the reductions, while prioritizing pathways that create opportunities for students, which is made evident in the plan with the intention to add a middle school agricultural teaching position and a district attendance secretary. Additionally, Dinger said technology and other expenses will be further reviewed to save on expenses.
The need to reduce expenses to remain operationally sound has impacted public school districts across the state. Board member Bonnie Peevler referenced that unfortunately “we are not the only district that is looking at major budget cuts in Iowa.”
In an effort to work with district staff and remain transparent, an email was sent out on Jan. 27 sharing the continued financial concerns that date back to the 2024-2025 school year. This email, sent to all district staff, explained the need to adjust spending to align programs with student needs and financial resources. Concerns related to the continuation of some programs and/or positions were identified by administration through an analysis of class sizes, participation, and program success. Specific positions and staff that will be affected cannot currently be identified publicly until the specific changes are approved by the board. The email was used to signal a desire to work with staff well ahead of statutory deadlines for actions related to staffing.
“We will keep everyone updated as the process continues to unfold,” Dr. Dinger added.
Board members proposed and scheduled a new meeting format to add additional time for the community to more casually interact with the members and will call it a Community Conversation. The first Community Conversation is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. on Monday, March 2, prior to the regularly scheduled board meeting. The next regularly scheduled Keokuk School Board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17 (due to President’s Day on Monday, Feb. 16), at the Collaboration Center at 500 N. 20th Street.
Note: To clarify, previous district spending was approved after a Athletic Facility Public Hearing and Financing Public Hearing were held in September 2023 to approve the use of the school infrastructure sales, services and use tax revenues for phase one of the athletic facility infrastructure project. The funds were in the State Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) Fund and were distributed to the School District pursuant to Section 423F.2 of the Iowa Code. The use of SAVE Funds did not increase the District’s tax rate. The need for track and field renovations were identified by the school community as a priority from a survey conducted in the spring of 2023. Klingner and Associates PC completed phase one of the project and has provided drawings of the original phase one project.
