Andy Evans says he’s empathetic to those who have expressed a range of emotions regarding the current financial state of Kingfisher Public Schools, most notably the prospect of ad valorem taxes increasing the next three years to cover a civil lawsuit settlement.

“I understand their frustration,” said the school district’s interim superintendent. “I’m a taxpayer here, too. I really do get it.”

However, he added that the cut to the estimate of needs goes beyond the nearly $2 million in the general fund and could have far-reaching effects.

Evans who has spent the better part of the last decade dealing with school budgets as the financial services director for the Oklahoma Public School Resource Center, is referencing the Kingfisher County Excise Board’s recent decision to amend the school district’s estimate of needs.

Such a move will make for an “untenable” situation, the district argued in a filing with the Supreme Court of Oklahoma last week.

In its emergency application to assume original jurisdiction and petition for writ of mandamus, KPS is asking the state’s highest court to require the excise board to approve the school district’s original estimate of needs.

The school district made its filing last Thursday.

The following day, the court set a deadline of this Friday, Oct. 18, for the respondent - the excise board in this case - to respond.

The excise board is represented by District Attorney Tommy Humphries.

A writ of mandamus is an order from a court to a lower court, official or entity ordering it to properly fulfill its official duties.

KPS filed the emergency application in hopes of getting a ruling prior to Nov. 1.

The Kingfisher Board of Education last month approved an estimate of needs of just over $16.2 million. That estimate of needs was prepared by Britton, Kuykendall & Miller, the school district’s CPA firm.

However, the excise board voted to amend the estimate of needs, instead approving just $14.2 million, a difference in $1,996, 564.64 than was requested.

The move was made in an effort to have the school district effectively absorb this year’s portion of a $5 million settlement it agreed to with Mason Mecklenburg. Otherwise, landowners and property owners in the school district will see their ad valorem taxes increase to cover this year’s portion, which is $1.25 million plus about $500,000 in interest.

The school district’s attorney - Eric Janzen - argued the excised board “exis ercised arbitrary, capricious and unlawful authority in striking and revising (Kingfi sher Public School’s) Estimate of Needs for the 202425 school year.” That was included in the emergency application and petition.

Part of the district’s submission in the filing was a declaration signed by Evans.

The declaration says the alteration of the estimate of needs leaves KPS “with an untenable balance for available appropriations to complete the year after salaries and benefits are encumbered in the general fund.”

The excise board’s move took place after KPS had completed its hiring for the 2024-25 school year, according to the declaration, and the district’s “ability to make reductions in personnel is limited by state law.”

At the same time, according to the declaration, the district also is not allowed to exceed the appropriated amount of $14.2 million in the general fund. As it stands, the district would have just 7 percent of its total budget remaining for expenses such as utilities, fuel and instructional items.

Further, the cuts to the school district’s millage “jeopardize the school district’s state aid, which would be further cut after the excise board’s millage decrease.”

It’s a tough cycle, said Evans, compounded further by the fact it’s not known how it will all be interpreted by the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

“There are people who have been up there for 30 years who have never seen anything like this,” Evans said. “The last time anything like this happened was in 1931.”

In the application and petition, Janzen argued the excise board’s “actions are in direct violation of its statutory authority. The only statutory authority that Respondent has that permits it to strike and disregard an item in Petitioner’s budget is if the item is ‘not authorized by law’ or ‘contrary to law, or in excess of needs.’” It went on to say the excise board “struck and disregarded” the school’s general fund budget “without finding that any item was contrary to the law or in excess of Respondent’s needs.”

Janzen also wrote the excise board “acted outside the scope of its power” in revising the school’s budget.

It later states the move to cut the school’s budget “places the Kingfisher Public School’s Board of Education at risk of personal liability.”

Janzen concluded “irreparable harm will result” to KPS if the writ of mandamus is not issued immediately.

In his declaration, Evans said the millage cuts “threaten the school district’s ability to provide programs, to honor employment contracts and risks disruption of the school environment.”

Once Humphries submits the response to the application and petition, the court will then decide a date for oral arguments.

No matter the outcome, Evans said the school district will push forward.

“The only thing we can do from the standpoint of the school is bring things under control and work through the budget the best we can,” he said.

“But this is debilitating. On the other side of it, we will make it work.”