State Government – Pay Listings
State employee payroll data is shown on a calendar year basis as provided by the Department of Administration. The agency reported for each employee reflects the last agency or agency the employee is/was employed with as of the end of the pay calendar year and is not necessarily the agency the employee worked for during the entire year. Employees may hold multiple positions during the year or at a single time. The amounts listed in Total Pay include ALL types of earnings including but not limited to overtime, bonuses, and shift differential from all revenue sources, which may include non-state funds. Items not included in Gross Wage are fringe benefit income, taxable group life, KPERS, deferred comp, TSA and VTSA, Dependent Care and Health Care, before-tax health insurance (medical, dental, drug, and vision), before-tax parking, 1042 treaty exempt income, federal foster grandparent pay, and federal employee Thrift Savings Plan. Gross Wage and Overtime columns are the total dollar amounts earned per year per employee and are not divided if an employee has multiple jobs. Overtime is broken out because it is a significant portion of total pay for many employees. Some state university athletic coaches are not listed because they are paid through privately raised funds and that information is not discoverable under the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA).
State Government – Agency Spending
Kansas state agency spending is monitored in two different manners – through the General Fund and through the All Funds Budget (which includes General Fund spending). All data reflects actual spending and is collected from the Kansas Division of the Budget.
School Districts – Aid Per-Pupil
Per-Pupil aid is obtained from the Kansas Department of Education (KSDE). KSDE computes local revenue by subtracting state revenue and federal revenue from total expenditures as reported by each district. However, the actual amount of local revenue could be higher or lower depending on whether districts spent all of the aid received each year. Most school districts have carryover cash balances that represent revenue received in prior years but not spent. The KSDE computation assumes that revenues equal expenditures, but actual revenue would be higher for districts that added to their cash reserves (i.e., they spent less than they took in and used the difference to increase cash reserves); districts that spent down some of their cash reserves would have lower than computed local revenue for that year. The Carryover Cash section of this site lists the ending balances by fund and district for the last several years.
School Districts – Spending Per-Pupil
Spending attributed to individual districts is derived from total spending and student enrollment as contained in the KSDE online database. However, a small amount of spending is excluded from that database, so per-pupil spending attributed to individual districts and shown on the chart below may be very slightly less than the average spending reported by KSDE. District and statewide totals do not include any capital spending related to voter-approved bond issues in Capital Outlay. By KSDE accounting procedures, those expenditures are reported as Bond Payments over the life of the bonds (typically 20 years).
School districts report total spending each year to KSDE, categorized by cost center (Instruction, General Administration, etc.) within each of about thirty different funds. The data was downloaded from the Comparative Performance and Fiscal System (CPFS) on the KSDE website, cross-tabulated by the fund, and converted to per-pupil amounts using Full Time Equivalent (FTE) enrollment data as provided by KSDE. Some districts allocate portions of their Capital Outlay spending to various current operating costs, but for this purpose, all Capital Outlay spending is reflected as Capital spending.
Expenditures are charged to the various cost centers by each school district by the Department of Education Accounting Manual. The section dealing with expense recording begins on page 13 of the manual.
A few small funds are not included in the CPFS system so the per-pupil amounts reported for individual districts could be slightly higher. The amounts by which KSDE reported spending exceed the totals in the CPFS system and the percentage of total spending represented by each variance are:
- 2005 school year: $18.5 million; 0.4% of reported total spending
- 2006 school year: $22.5 million; 0.5% of reported total spending
- 2007 school year: $32.1 million; 0.6% of reported total spending
- 2008 school year: $25.4 million: 0.5% of reported total spending
- 2009 school year: $13.0 million; 0.2% of reported total spending
- 2010 school year: $17.3 million; 0.3% of reported total spending
- 2011 school year: $22.8 million; 0.4% of reported total spending
- 2012 school year: $27.7 million; 0.5% of reported total spending
- 2013 school year: $2.5 million; 0.04% of reported total spending
- 2014 school year: $4.5 million; 0.08% of reported total spending
- 2015 school year: $16.6 million; 0.27% of reported total spending
School Districts – Carryover Cash
School districts don’t always spend all of their aid in the year received, setting some money aside to increase their cash reserves. With a few exceptions such as money set aside for bond payments, restricted grants, and federal aid, districts can use cash reserves for purposes other than the name of the fund in which the cash resides.
KSDE officials also say districts can effectively access the balances in many funds by putting less into the fund than is needed to operate and using some of the carryover balance to make up the difference.
School Districts – Student Achievement
NAEP and State Assessments:
Student achievement is measured annually by the Kansas Department of Education (KSDE) and periodically by the U.S. Department of Education. State assessments tests are taken by students in grades 3 through 8 and the 11th grade in each district and reported at the Kansas Dept. of Education State Report Card. National testing designed by the U.S. Department of Education is given to students randomly selected from districts in grades 4, 8, and 12 and reported as The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) scores on The Nation’s Report Card. The state scores are available at the state and district level but NAEP scores are only available at the State level. The results listed on KansasOpenGov are for Reading and Math; both tests include additional subjects and demographic breakdowns. State scores and NAEP scores cannot be compared because they have different standards, methodologies, and test questions. NAEP has higher standards than KSDE, as shown by their definitions of Proficient for Reading and Math:
NAEP Reading and Math: solid academic performance for each grade assessed. Students reaching this level have demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter, including subject-matter knowledge, application of such knowledge to real-world situations, and analytical skills appropriate to the subject matter.
KSDE Reading: When independently reading grade-appropriate narrative, expository, technical, and persuasive text, a proficient student has satisfactory comprehension. Kansas calls full comprehension ‘Exceeds Standard’.
KSDE Meets Standard (Math): The proficient student uses some problem-solving techniques and explains the process he/she uses when solving mathematical problems. A student scoring at the proficient level is likely to perform at all cognitive levels on many elements of the four areas of emphasis. The student demonstrates sufficient content knowledge and application skills.
KSDE Exceeds Standard (Math): The advanced student uses multiple problem-solving techniques and explains the process he/she uses when solving mathematical problems. A student scoring at the advanced level is likely to perform accurately at all cognitive levels on most elements of the four areas of emphasis. The student demonstrates effective content knowledge and application skills.
Demographics:
Student demographics are measured annually by the Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. The percentages were calculated by KansasOpenGov staff, original data can be found in the Common Core of Data on the NCES website.
Postsecondary Remedial Definitions:
The following definitions are verbatim from the Kansas Department of Education.
Previous Definition:
Information regarding the extent to which students transition successfully from secondary school to postsecondary education, including whether students enroll in remedial coursework as described in section 6401(e)(2)(D) of the America COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871) included in the State’s statewide longitudinal data system.
Previous Remedial Rate:
Numerator: Number of students from the high school graduating class cohort (denominator) who enrolled in a remedial course, in the subjects of Math, Reading, or English at any point in time in postsecondary.
Denominator:
All students from the high school graduating class cohort who at any point in time were found to have entered a Kansas public postsecondary IHE, notwithstanding whether the student enrolled in postsecondary after high school.
Current Definition:
Information regarding the extent to which students transition successfully from secondary school to postsecondary education, including whether students enroll in remedial coursework as described in section 6401(e)(2)(D) of the America COMPETES Act (20 U.S.C. 9871) included in the State’s statewide longitudinal data system.
Current Remedial Rate:
Numerator: Number of students from denominator who enrolled in a Math, Reading, or English developmental course before or during their first academic year of attendance in a Kansas public postsecondary IHE following high school graduation.
Denominator:
The number of students from the high school graduating class cohort entering postsecondary in the academic year following high school graduation and reported as degree or certificate-seeking in postsecondary.
School Districts – Payroll Listings
This section contains the payroll listings for a sampling of the 289 school districts in Kansas. The listed districts were selected to provide geographic and enrollment variety; more districts will be added as funding permits. The data was collected from each district through an Open Records request. Payroll listings are organized on a school-year basis beginning in 2008 (2008 is July 2007 through June 2008). The amounts reflect total pay, including base wages or salaries, overtime, bonuses, pay for not using sick leave, teaching an extra class, working in an after-school program, coaching, car allowance, cell phone allowance, and other reasons that vary by district. The cost of benefits (health care, pension, Social Security, life insurance, car allowance, cell phone allowance, etc.) are not included in the total are substantial and typically range from 20% to 35% of total pay.
School Districts – Contracts
The districts that were asked to submit their checkbooks and payroll listings were also asked for their superintendent’s employment agreement and any union agreements.
School Districts – Checkbooks
This section contains the checkbooks for a sampling of the 289 school districts in Kansas. The listed districts were selected to provide geographic and enrollment variety; more districts will be added as funding permits. The data was collected from each district through an Open Records request. Checkbooks are organized on a school year basis beginning in 2008 (2008 is July 2007 through June 2008). Total payments included in each checkbook are less than total spending, however, because checks aren’t written for all expenditures; for example, pension contributions are remitted by electronic wire transfer.
Retirees
Retiree information was obtained from the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS) and includes state and local government retirees from multiple retirement plans. Privacy laws prohibit the release of retiree and beneficiary names, so each recipient is identified by a unique ID number provided by KPERS for comparative purposes. The government entity listed is the one that last employed the individual. Retirees have the option of receiving regular monthly payments or taking a one-time lump sum distribution and reduced monthly payments. They may also elect to take reduced monthly payments so that a surviving spouse can continue to receive payments beyond the retiree’s death.
Plan Names
Judge – Kansas Retirement System for Judges. Members include all justices of the Kansas Supreme Court and all judges of the Kansas Court of Appeals and District Courts of the State of Kansas, including District Magistrate judges.
KP&F – Kansas Police and Firemen’s Retirement System. Members include the Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Board of Regents Institutions, and any affiliated county, city, or other political subdivision of the state that employs police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, or university police.
KPERS – Kansas Public Employee Retirement System. Members are qualified state and local government employees not covered by Judge and KP&F.
Property Tax
Property tax is the #1 source of tax revenue in Kansas, accounting for 31% of all taxes collected in fiscal year 2012 by state and local governments. Data collected from the Kansas Department of Revenue, Property Valuation Division shows that property taxes increased by 103% between 1997 and 2012.
‘County’ as used in this database includes all taxing jurisdictions within a county (cities, townships, school districts, county government, etc.) Unless otherwise noted, all information includes both real estate and personal property.
The database includes both county-based and statewide information from 1997 through 2012 on property taxes, average mill rates, population, and changes in residential property values (in total and broken out by existing property and new property, as a percentage of the previous year’s total valuation.