Union Co. Public School losing SEEK funding due to state shortfall

Union County Public Schools learned this week that the district will be losing nearly 35-thousand dollars in SEEK funding for the mid-year budget due to a state SEEK shortfall.

UCPS Public Relations Coordinator Malinda Beauchamp says superintendents across the Commonwealth received news via an email Monday afternoon from the Kentucky Department of Education that due to a state SEEK shortfall an estimated 10-million dollars is being cut statewide, impacting all school districts in Kentucky. KDE says the primary factor driving the shortfall is a higher-than-projected number of special needs students in the “exceptional child count”, a factor on which the SEEK budgeting is based.

According to state projects, local school officials say Union County Schools will be cut over 34-thousand dollars in funding which will be reflected in the district’s April, May and June SEEK payments.

Superintendent Patricia Sheffer tells WMSK News she is concerned about how this reduction will impact the district.

UCPS officials are already facing some tough decisions after announcing earlier this year the district is facing about a 1 million dollar budget deficit for the 2015-16 school year, and after Union County residents voted against a .5% (half of one percent) school occupational tax in the November General Election.

Superintendent Sheffer and members of the Board of Education will be discussing what programs and extra-curriculum activities may have to be cut due to the budget deficit.

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