The hypothetical cost of implementing a Kansas House bill enabling local school districts to pay elected board members $20 per hour for a commitment of less than two hours a week would cost taxpayers $2.8 million annually. Adopting the change would break a 50-year precedent in Kansas law that made local school board members volunteers without a salary… Jim Karleskint, a former state legislator and Holton school superintendent … did raise with the committee a series of concerns. “In many school districts,” he said, “the superintendent is selected as the chief negotiator for the board. In years of limited fiscal resources, the board and the teacher’s association would be even more at odds when board members are receiving pay for serving on the board. We would envision board members would receive pay for days they are on board business. It is our concern this could be taken advantage of and resented by the community.”
Source: Atchison Globe Now
