While continuing to disagree with the legality of the county excise board’s move earlier this year, Kingfisher Public Schools is also continuing to move forward to fall in line with that amended budget.

The next step in that process will see several KPS staff members lose their jobs this week.

That was the grim reality facing Interim Superintendent Andy Evans Monday night after the board of education voted to approve giving Evans permission to reduce payroll encumbrances by about $2 million.

The move was made after an hour in executive session during the board’s December regular meeting.

Evans and all five board members - Charles Walker, Carly Franks, Dana Golbek, Terry Payne and Brad Wittrock - were joined by Andrew Fugitt of The Center for Education Law, P.C., a firm with which the board voted earlier in the meeting to hire for legal services.

The reduction in payroll - which needs to hit $1.997 million from the beginning of the year to the end of the year - does mean an immediate reduction in force (RIF), Evans said.

Exactly who that RIF will include can’t be released yet. Evans said, by law, not even the board members are allowed to know the names of the teachers/staff or even the positions that are to be affected.

Instead, Evans, who had to make the personnel decisions on his own, said he’ll begin letting those staff members know this week, as early as Tuesday, but most likely Wednesday.

Evans told the Times & Free Press that in order to protect those staff members’ due process rights, he was unable to provide the number affected.

Those affected by the RIF will be provided the opportunity to appeal Evans’ decision and are allowed 20 days to do so.

Those who appeal will do so before the KPS board members. They will remain in their current positions until their appeal is acted upon, Evans said.

Evans also said those affected can resign without appealing.

He said the staff members will be eligible for unemployment benefits and COBRA benefits. The latter allows employees and their family members to temporarily maintain health insurance.

“It’s going to be tough… really tough,” Evans said. “And it means we are going to lose some really good people.”

Evans alerted staff members of the impending RIF in an email Monday afternoon.

“I will personally be in contact with those who occupy positions that will be reduced,” Evans wrote in the email. “There won’t be a surprise letter in the mailbox.”

Evans also wrote the reduction in force “will be focused on temporary contract teachers, non-career teachers, administrative positions and some support positions.”

The RIF will also include some staff members taking on more or different duties, Evans said.

Why a reduction in force?

As is required annually, the KPS board approved, by a 4-1 vote, and submitted its 2024-25 estimate of needs earlier this year to the Kingfi sher County Excise Board for approval.

The district’s $16.2 million estimate of needs was the maximum 36 mills allowed by state law. Those millages were voted in permanently by Kingfisher taxpayers in 2002.

Leading up to the school board approving the estimate of needs, some, including Wittrock, sought a way for the school district to absorb this year’s portion of a lawsuit settlement agreement between KPS and Mason Mecklenburg.

Mecklenburg had filed the civil suit in 2021 alleging a culture of abuse and hazing within the Kingfi sher High School football program.

The district agreed to a $5 million settlement last December. That called for KPS to pay $1.25 million within 90 days and then $1.25 million per year plus interest from the sinking fund.

That fund comes from ad valorem taxes, meaning a tax increase for property owners within the school district for each of those three years.

The school district seemingly exhausted all legal means to not put the burden of the remainder of the settlement on taxpayers and the estimate of needs was approved by the school board with Wittrock voting against it.

Several citizens voiced displeasure both at school board meetings as well as at a meeting of the excise board in September.

The excise board eventually voted to amend the school district’s estimate of needs by nearly $2 million.

Through that move, it would be the district and not taxpayers carrying the burden of the portion of the settlement, which is about $1.75 million when interest is added.

The excise board’s move was made well after the school district had encumbered funds for the year. Salary and benefit encumbrances were set at $13.6 million for the year.

That would constitute about 96 percent of the allowed budget, whereas salaries and benefits generally account for about 81 percent of it.

Evans called that situation “untenable.”

The school district has contended the excise board acted outside of its authority in reducing the estimate of needs (technically, the excise board reduced the millage, which the district contends was voted permanent by citizens in that 2002 vote).

KPS filed a petition to assume original jurisdiction with the Oklahoma Supreme Court, asking the court to hear its case and compel the excise board to reverse its decision.

However, the Supreme Court would not hear the case.

The disagreement has also caused a delay in the county sending out annual tax bills, which are normally released around the first of November and due by the end of the year.

Since the tax rolls have yet to be completed, the tax bills have not yet been sent out, therefore the county hasn’t yet been collecting ad valorem taxes.

Although the school district may have other legal options, Evans said there are others to consider.

“The district does not agree that the excise board has legal authority to complete their actions, but the reality is we were holding back the ability of Kingfisher County, Kingfisher County schools and other entities such as rural fire departments to receive ad valorem funds,” he wrote in his letter to staff.

The school district, therefore, presented the excise board with a budget that balanced the altered estimate of needs. The excise board approved that during a special meeting in late November.

Even if the excise board had not amended the district’s estimate of needs, Evans said there would still have to be some correction in payroll this year.

The original estimate of needs reflected about $12.84 million in new revenue with the current salary and benefit encumbrances of $13.6 million.

That would still leave the district about $759,000 short.

“The salary structure would still have been more than new revenue, but more easily absorbed into the carryover,” Evans said.

But, the $14.2 million appropriation leads to new revenue of just over $10.84 in new revenue, which means a much larger divide.

“And the only place for that to happen in the amount possible to narrow the encumbrance gap is payroll,” said Evans.

As the school year progresses, Evans said he will continue to work to close the gap between expenditures and revenue.

“You can’t have a healthy school if you’re over-spending,” he said. “You have to get spending in line with your revenues.”