Cueball

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow â€” Wellingtonâ€™s Eisenhower Elementary is having a fundraiser. It is selling candy bars to help raise money to pay for new supplies at the school which the USD 353 school district could not afford to replace. But one Wellington mother decided to take her fund raising efforts a step further and directly ask Governor Sam Brownback and her two representatives to put their money where their mouth is and purchase some chocolate bars going toward her daughter’s education.

Republican representative Kyle Hoffman, of the 116th District, decided to make a donation for the price of three of those chocolate bars. But he isnâ€™t buying her argument.

Jessica Seeliger, a mother of a kindergartener in Wellington, had a novel approach to the school’s fall fundraiser. Instead of just selling the candy bars, perhaps the governor, Hoffman, and 32nd District State Senator Steve Abrams could assist with the fundraiser since she reasoned they were part of the implementation of the current state budget that has created a shortfall in public schools. She sent out three e-mails to the three individuals that read as follows:

Gov. Brownback, My daughter has been asked to help raise money to pay for short falls in her school’s budget by selling candy bars. We would be honored if you would help her by making a purchase. You can choose from milk chocolate, dark chocolate, crispy, almond or caramel. They are $1Â each. Please let us know what you prefer and we would be happy to deliver them to Topeka. On a related note, I learned at my first meeting that the PTA has been making technology purchases for the school over the past several years because there is no room in the budget for new computers. The school library is in dire need of new computers this year as the current computers have been crashing while students are trying to complete state testing. One of the ways the PTA raises this money is through Boxtops for Education. Would you be so kind as to save your Boxtops for my daughter? They can be mailed to: … Thank you so much for your time,

Seelinger said she wasnâ€™t expecting any response. But she was pleasantly surprised when Hoffman, a Republican from Coldwater who represents the western half of the Wellington school district, responded. So far she has heard nothing from Brownback and Abrams.

Hoffman wrote back:

Jessica, Thank you for the email. I would be happy to buy three chocolate bars. I will send the money. I will not be back in Topeka until the session starts at the beginning of the year, so she can keep them and enjoy. It does bother me though that the school has the kids do fundraisers for things that I would consider necessary to teaching. Since the message has been the sky is falling from the schools and the media for months and even years, I doubt I will have much of an impact in this short email, but I ask that you indulge me for a few minutes. The Wellington school spends over $12,000 per student, your daughter probably has at least 20 kids in her class. That means she is in at least a $240,000 classroom. Since 2010, the school has lost around 100 students. In the same time period, Wellingtons’ State Aid per Pupil has went up $751 from $7,480 to $8,231. I am not going to say that the schools have no funding problems, but I would contend it is not as bad as they would like everyone to think. Budgets are always a challenge and require constant evaluation. But I would suggest, if they need money for computers then maybe they should use some of the additional $180,413 they started receiving yearly for Capital Outlay last year as part of the 2014 Education Bill to buy them. I will get the money in the mail and thanks for contacting me. Please do so anytime, Rep. Kyle Hoffman

Kansas House of Representatives

District 116

â€œI was shocked to see the e-mail,â€ Seeliger said on Facebook. â€œI just told (Wellington Elementary Principal Kelly) Adams yesterday that I wasnâ€™t holding my breath for a response. Now, if I hear from Brownback, I might fall over.â€

Seeliger, a former news publisher of the Wellington Daily News, was just happy for the three chocolate bar donation by Hoffman. And she was glad for the response. She understands the process that $180,000 will go toward technology, building maintenance, and other capital expenditures. But she still worries it will not be enough to offset losses in the general fund that goes toward teacher salaries, field trips, etc.

When Wellington USD 353 Superintendent Rick Weiss, a known critic of the Brownback administration, saw Hoffmanâ€™s e-mail he was quick to respond.

â€œBy reading Rep. Hoffmanâ€™s response, it appears he is getting a big testy on these school finance questions,â€ Weiss said. â€œIf they would have kept the school finance formula that came into play in 1992 instead of scrapping it, we would have $1 million more in the our General Fund than we have now. That $180,000 doesnâ€™t seem to go as far as the $1 million loss.â€

Weiss said with a state base state aid per pupil of $4,490 is inadequate and that has come from studies from the governorâ€™s office itself.

â€œWe hope to do good things out of our Capital Outlay budget and have spent around $450,000 out of there on technology upgrades so we are very appreciative of that,â€ Weiss said. â€œBut had the funding been the same as previous years, we would have many more items already in the budget that we can only dream about now.â€

Wellington USD 353, like 292 other school districts, are facing budget cuts amid revenue shortfalls in the state of Kansas due to the income tax cuts. School districts are facing financial pressures after losing $51 million they expect to receive for the current school year after Gov. Sam Brownback signed a school funding overhaul bill last spring.

The new school funding plan scrapped the previous formula for determining state aid and replaced it with block grants, which will give districts such as Wellington a fixed amount of money for the next two years while the Legislature develops a new formula. Currently, that state formula is under appeal and is being considered by the Kansas State Supreme Court.

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