In light of dwindling enrollment, USD 253 Emporia has officially started cost containment conversations.
The district’s Cost Containment Team had its first meeting Tuesday, reviewing data and starting to explore potential strategies to balance quality education, resource optimization and declining funds connected to lower enrollment. Superintendent David McGehee tells KVOE News it was a good first meeting, given the weight of the matter at hand.
In late August, McGehee said total enrollment has dipped from the September 2024 headcount of 4,050 students to 3,811, a drop of almost 240 students. The non-weighted full-time-equivalent student number, 4,019, is down from nearly 4,200 students last year — and that category is significant because it’s the one used to calculate state financial aid for the current academic year ending June 2026. Director of Community Relations Lyndel Landgren has told KVOE News the district will be ready to report its final headcount data in early November.
Enrollment dipped between 2024-25 and again between 2023-24, but enrollment has generally been declining since being over 4,800 in 2000. Interim Assistant Superintendent for Teaching, Learning and Student Services Sheryl Leeds highlighted several key events potentially leading to lower enrollment, mostly due to partial or business closures like Modine, IBP’s end of slaughter operations, the shutdown of Dolly Madison before new ownership and — of course — Tyson.
Interim Assistant Superintendent for Business and Operations Joshua Swartz is suggesting around $3 million in cost containment through the 2028-29 academic year, half of which may well be realized during the 2026-27 academic year. McGehee says the district has a lot of work ahead to find savings.
The Cost Containment Team’s next meeting is Oct. 21, but discussions about costs were plentiful at the board’s regular meeting Wednesday because of increased costs linked to the district’s health insurance plan.
Board members unanimously approved a move from full pay to partial self-pay through the district’s current provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas. The plan keeps the district contribution flat, but it also increases employee premiums by 12 percent.
Full-pay means an external insurance company handles everything with the plan. Partial self-pay, meanwhile, still has excess carryover handled by the insurance company, while the district assumes some risk of premium pool money drying up due to large claims or high numbers of claims. Total self-pay means the district assumes more risk than partial self-pay.
