HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson Public Schools Board of Education Monday approved moving 
the local option budget to its maximum amount without triggering a special election.
The Board approved a motion that expresses the district’s intent to raise the local option budget to 30 percent. Districts can go above the 30 percent only if they already have scheduled an election to do so. The increase will generate about $508 thousand for the supplemental general fund each year.
The Board also voted to move forward on the elementary reconfiguration proposal that will remove a track of classes from McCandless Elementary School in 2016-17. The reconfiguration proposal received the most support from the Community Budget Committee after it had met seven times over the winter and spring, researching several options. The options, including the one selected, were designed to save $350,000. Flat or falling state funding will require additional cuts in future years.
The motion also included the next step in the process, which is to begin an elementary school boundary study. The last major adjustment of the boundaries occurred in 2010 with significant population shifts since that time. Those shifts have placed additional enrollment stress on schools farther north in the community.