If the Kansas Supreme Court orders a shutdown of schools on July 1, Lawrence school district leaders say they could only ensure the district continues to operate for another month.

“If they allow us to write checks, and they allow us to pool the reserves that we have, we can get through the summer, which means June and July for us,” said Lawrence schools Superintendent Rick Doll. “We would not have the funds to start school (in August), and that’s the bottom line.”

The Supreme Court ruling on the school finance case says it would not allow money to be “raised, distributed or spent” under a school funding system that is inequitable. It is not yet clear whether districts will be allowed to use reserve or other funds to keep their districts operating, even on an interim basis, should the court order a shutdown.

Lawrence school board President Vanessa Sanburn said that keeping the district operating at full capacity regardless of when a funding solution is reached is important to ensuring schools open in August.

“We have a lot of staff that work through the summer to make schools ready to open and accept students,” Sanburn said. “…There’s a lot of things and a lot of people that work behind the scenes that need to be paid.”

If Kansas lawmakers do not come up with a funding plan that satisfies the Supreme Court and schools are ordered to shut down, exactly what that will look like is not yet known. Whether the court order allows districts to make payments and from what sources will be key, Doll said.

“We do not think that the Supreme Court is going to come out and chain all of our doors shut,” Doll said. “What’ll happen is we either won’t have the authority to write checks — we just can’t do business — or we won’t have any money in any accounts.”

The district’s summer operations include summer school classes, teacher training and school construction projects. The district also has ongoing expenses such as utilities, insurance and payroll. Doll said the district’s payroll for its 1,700 teachers, administrators and staff is more than $4.5 million per month.

There are also five construction projects currently in progress at the elementary level, and Doll said any delay in construction caused by an inability to make payments would mean some schools might not be ready to open in August.

“If we can’t write checks, whether we have money or not, then those projects would have to stop,” Doll said. “If they stop, we’re on a pretty tight time frame, so then there’s going to be some schools that are not ready for the beginning of school even if we are allowed to open.”

If the district were to use reserve funds in event of a shutdown, the school board would have to approve those actions. Sanburn said those decisions would be difficult given the ongoing school funding issues in the state.

“How much do we want to dip into that with all the uncertainly about whether or not we’ll get it back?” Sanburn said.

The Lawrence school board will discuss the district’s funding options at its meeting on June 13. Sanburn said she hopes, however, that lawmakers will resolve the school funding issues and ensure money is evenly distributed throughout Kansas.

“There are significant reasons why the action that the Legislature took is not constitutional,” Sanburn said. “It’s very important that no matter what a student’s ZIP code is that they get a suitable education in our state.”