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KCKPS board reviews building needs assessments; staff to disaggregate data and firm up budget timeline
Summary
Kansas City Kansas Public Schools officials explained this year’s written guidance and data sources for building needs assessments, answered board questions about how assessments were completed, and agreed to provide disaggregated elementary/middle/high summaries and an updated budget timeline before June.
Kansas City Kansas Public Schools’ board and central staff spent much of a May 1 special meeting reviewing how this year’s building needs assessments were completed and how those assessments will feed the district budget process.
Board members asked for greater clarity and more disaggregated reporting; district staff said they will provide updated reports and a budget timeline. The discussion centered on the guidance principals received, the data sources used, and the schedule for forthcoming budget decisions.
Why it matters: The needs assessments inform principals’ budget decisions and the district’s allocation of classroom staff, Title and general funds. Board members said the way assessment responses were presented this year made it hard to see differences between elementary, middle and high schools and asked for separate summaries aligned to each level so the board can compare the principals’ stated priorities to budget requests.
District staff described the process and materials given to principals. Dr. Stubblefield (Superintendent) and Miss Walker (Executive Director of Schools) said principals received a written guidance document in November and were asked to use building leadership teams, site councils or guiding coalitions and to bring stakeholder input, including parent and student surveys, into the needs assessments. Walker said the guidance “is not an individual assignment; it is a shared leadership assignment.”
Staff said the district provided the same survey response options it has used previously—choices developed several years ago by the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE)—and also this year supplied each principal’s individual responses in addition to a summary that highlights systemwide patterns. Walker said the district pulled enrollment and allocation data from Infinite Campus and from the district’s FTE count as of Sept. 20 to calculate staffing and Title budgets.
Board members asked for clearer presentation of attendance and chronic absenteeism data used in assessments; staff recommended principals rely on KSDE’s Data Central for final, cleaned attendance figures but acknowledged some principals use in-district dashboards for midyear decisions. Dr. Stubblefield agreed to follow up with principals when specific school-level questions arise.
On timing, Stubblefield told the board the district will post updated department budgets when they are finalized and that department staff will be available at the next budget meeting for questions. He said the district is tentatively holding May 27 for additional budget work and reminded the board that a decision on whether to exceed the revenue-neutral rate must be completed by late June; the district will publish an updated budget timeline and add meetings as needed.
The board also voted at the start of the session to approve the special-meeting agenda; the vote was recorded as unanimous.
Looking ahead, staff agreed to: provide elementary/middle/high disaggregated summaries of the needs-assessment results within about a week, respond to specific school follow-up questions on request, and post updated department budgets when available.
Ending: Board members were asked to submit any additional, school-specific follow-up questions to Dr. Stubblefield; the district committed to provide updated reporting and a revised budget timeline ahead of the next budget meeting so the board can finalize levy and revenue decisions in time for statutory deadlines.
