Jefferson City Public Schools prepared for school transportation funding cuts

The Jefferson City Public School district will not have to adjust its budget for the upcoming school year after Gov. Eric Greitens made a large cut to K-12 transportation funding.

The governor’s newly signed budget for the 2018 fiscal year gives public schools across the state about $90.3 million for K-12 transportation.

That is $15 million less than the state Senate recommended for the budget and $15 million less than what was allocated to K-12 schools at the start of the 2017 fiscal year.

That will mean about $150,000 less for Jefferson City Public Schools. But JCPS Chief Financial Officer Jason Hoffman said the district was prepared for the smaller allocation from the state when preparing the budget for the upcoming school year.

“Last year there was just a roller coaster,” Hoffman said. “They appropriated up here, then they restricted, then they released, then they restricted again. … And so, not really knowing that the budget might have some issues, we actually didn’t– our district budget didn’t show an increase in that revenue.”

JCPS should get about $600,000 from the state for transportation, according to Hoffman.

That only amounts to about 16 percent of the district’s approximate $3.8 transportation budget for school year.

Hoffman said he did not expect further restrictions from the state since the governor made a steep cut early on.

“Hopefullly it won’t go as it did last year,” Hoffman said. “It’d be nice if we had a stable path this year. But we’ll just have to watch it month by month.”