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How Davenport Community School District leaders plan to make up $2.7 million in overspending

The Davenport Community School District was forced to set a plan in place to pay back more than $2.7 million in overspending; this comes after a state committee...

DAVENPORT, Iowa -- The Davenport Community School District was forced to set a plan in place to pay back more than $2.7 million in overspending; this comes after a state committee forgave an additional $9 million in overspending.

In mid-January, the district sent a forgiveness request for about $12 million that was overspent  from its general fund. 

Iowa's School Budget Review Committee voted on Tuesday, January 28 to forgive $9,275,489 of that amount.  Under state law, school districts have to follow set budget limits. When a district spends more than it's allowed to, the district is expected to provide a corrective action plan.

An additional $2.7 million that was not forgiven has to be made up; that's because the committee determined that amount was overspent as a result of deliberate decisions made by the school board in the past.  Thus, the state decided it would not be appropriate to offer forgiveness for that amount.

As of Wednesday, the district was working on a plan, according to Superintendent Dr. Robert Kobylski.

Dr. Kobylski said the district would likely have to lay off about 20 employees and district leaders were working on specifics before presenting the plan to the state.  If the $9 million hadn't been forgiven, the district was looking at potentially laying off about 150 staff members, between teachers, administration, and staff members.

The district already thinned their staff ahead of the 2019-2020 school year, cutting about 130 positions.

"The comment I used at the SBRC was we'd have school building but it would be a hollow building," Dr. Kobylski said Wednesday. "The instructional programming would certainly suffer, and I think that perhaps is the piece that resonated with the SBRC, knowing that students would suffer."

Dr. Kobylski says the district is also planning on resizing, given declining student enrollment in recent years.

"I want the community, and our parents and our students, to know that there are adults out there that are making decisions with the best interest of students in mind," Dr. Kobylski says. "And if they know that, hopefully they'll take some comfort and confidence, not only from the work done at the state level, but the responsibility and opportunity we have here as a school district."

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