The Winfield USD 465 School Board has voted to end its contract with the South Central Kansas Education Service Center for a diploma completion program. The district says it can’t afford the cost of the program to help students 18 and older complete a high school diploma. Under the old school funding formula, the district paid the Service Center the base state aid per pupil for each student in the program. If the student qualified the district for extra money from the state, such as for bilingual education, etc, that money stayed with the district. The Service Center offered a proposal that would have reduced the cost of the program already in place, but the district was reluctant to commit to that lesser cost while still unsure if future budget cuts might be coming. The district is also trying to figure out all the implications of the block grant funding for the next couple of years.
