Bevier C-4 is looking at a formula shortfall of about $70,000, Superintendent Chad Hall said Thursday. The state’s move from counting students by attendance toward counting them by enrollment will not change much in Bevier, he said, because the district already had a high attendance rate.
The comment landed the same week Macon County boards set levies, and the same week the state is lining up about $300 million more for the foundation formula against a projected shortfall of more than $500 million.
Hall wrote in an email to the Bevier Bulletin that the attendance-to-enrollment shift “affects our district minimally because we already had a high attendance rate.” The change “affects schools with poor attendance rates the most by generating more money for them.”
If the Legislature “doesn’t allocate new dollars in FY 28, the impact will be greater,” he said. The $70,000 shortfall is his figure. It is not a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education payment table.
Comments were also requested Thursday from Dr. Bryan Thomsen of Macon R-1, Dr. Lucas McKinnis of La Plata R-II, Stacie McVey of Atlanta C-3 and Mike Tipton of Callao C-8. A response from those four had not been received by the noon Friday deadline.
Macon R-1’s board voted 7-0 on Tuesday to approve the 2026-27 tax rate as presented, according to unapproved open-session minutes posted Thursday afternoon. The minutes do not print a cents-per-$100 figure. The hearing notice still posted with those minutes lists $3.4515 per $100 of assessed valuation, up from $3.3757, on $158,354,464. If collected in full, that notice said the district would take in $5,465,604. This story is not reporting an auditor-certified rate.
Bevier C-4’s posted workbook for Wednesday’s hearing proposed $3.8508, all in the incidental fund, up from $3.7971, on $19,565,914. The file is marked informal and preliminary. Adopted minutes were not posted as of Friday morning.
Annelise Hanshaw of the Missouri Independent reported Wednesday that DESE’s preliminary report says 2024 law changes add about $110 million to the formula in fiscal year 2028. That sits on about $190 million the formula called for this year that lawmakers did not fully fund with general revenue. They covered about $100 million from other pots, including the blind pension fund. A full-formula general-revenue ask next year could approach $400 million.
The 2024 omnibus bill is shifting the student count from attendance toward enrollment, 10 percent a year. That phase-in has added about $40 million a year since FY 2026.
Board member Mike Matousek of Kansas City told the State Board of Education on Tuesday it is hard to ask again for money lawmakers refused last year. “This board and the department have a credibility issue with state lawmakers on the budget stuff,” he said, as quoted by the Independent. “It is hard for me to support a $400 million increase that not a single person in this room thinks we are going to get.”
Kyle Kruse, DESE’s deputy commissioner for finance, told the board the department knows it is a large request. “But there is also the viewpoint that the legislature has spoken in terms of how they choose to fund schools.”
The Office of Administration’s budget letter this month projects a general-revenue shortfall of more than $500 million in FY 2028. Departments were told to request only “mandatory” items. The State Board plans another meeting this month on the request.
Credit: Annelise Hanshaw, Missouri Independent, Aug. 19, 2026, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.