By John BrasierRecord Staff WriterThe Wright City Board of Education wants local lawmakers to know it isn’t happy with a bill passed last year that could cost the district a lot of money.The board approved a resolution opposing House Bill 1689 that will cost the district an estimated $78,000 in the 2015-16 school year.The bill, passed last session, exempts “hold harmless” school districts, mostly small, rural districts, from funding cuts when state education funding goals are not fully reached.As a result, home harmless districts will receive a 3.2 percent funding increase in the next school year while other districts, including Wright City R-II and Warren County R-III, would face cuts in state funding.The resolution, approved at the Feb. 19 school board meeting, will be sent to State House of Representatives members Bryan Spencer and Bart Korman and State Sen. Jeannie Riddle.Previously, when cuts in the education budget were made, each district lost an equal percentage of state funding. This fall, 225 of Missouri’s 572 school districts will be designated as hold harmless.For all state school districts to receive equal funding, the state General Assembly would need to appropriate an additional $125 million to the funding pool. “What we want is for the Legislature to either fully fund it, or fix it,” said R-II superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines.School Board President Alice Klem said she hopes the Legislature will make changes before the bill goes into effect for the 2015-16 school year.The bill has received widespread criticism because the change in the funding formula was added with little pre-vote discussion. When introduced, the bill’s purpose was to reimburse schools for free and reduced-price lunches for pre-kindergarten students.“We didn’t even expect that shift to happen,” Klem said. “We were surprised we were going to lose this big chunk of money.”Wright City school board adopts resolution opposing funding cuts