The impact of a global pandemic continues to be felt on many different levels, including financially. Most recently, the Warren County R-III School District made adjustments to its services in …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you are a digital subscriber with an active subscription, or you are a print subscriber who had access to our previous wesbite, then you already have an account here. Just reset your password if you have not yet logged in to your account on this new site.
If you are a current print subscriber and did not have a user account on our previous website, you can set up a free website account by clicking here.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
Please log in to continue |
The impact of a global pandemic continues to be felt on many different levels, including financially. Most recently, the Warren County R-III School District made adjustments to its services in response to decreased revenue from the state of Missouri.
“Our payment for July was 54 percent of what it should have been,” said Superintendent Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith. “That’s considerably less than we originally anticipated.”
Klinginsmith explained that the governor can withhold funds at any time, and this cutback was the first round in light of an unstable economic period. It caused the R-III School Board to make a critical decision in eliminating services, and transportation was most dramatically impacted. Bus routes have been shifted from previously providing free pick-up service to students living 1 mile or farther from school buildings, to now a cutoff distance of 2.5 miles or more, in order to compensate for the financial deficits.
“Districts are at the mercy of the state government on funding,” said Klinginsmith. “Whatever the governor decides is what we get. Right now it’s just a guessing game what happens in the months ahead, so we have to adjust accordingly.”
The transportation changes will impact around 400 families in the district, meaning caregivers will have to either bring students to school or they would forced to make a longer walk or bike commute. The adjustment in routes is expected to save the district around $160,000 across its fleet of 46 buses and 26 regular daily routes.
Klinginsmith said the district is working to accommodate any inconveniences this may cause families who are used to relying on bus service.
“We plan on adjusting our Latchkey program to allow for more families to use that before or after school,” said Klinginsmith. “We’re working through the details of that to help parents who may need to keep kids in school longer until they can be picked up.”
Traditionally, Latchkey has been held at Rebecca Boone Elementary to provide supervision for students outside of school hours. More information concerning that service will be available as the scheduled first day of school on Aug. 25 approaches.
“The board will continue to analyze, but we haven’t made any further decisions,” said Klinginsmith. “Depending on what happens, we’ll have to reduce expenditures next year to get our fund balances back up to operate with a surplus. We need to be getting ahead.”
