JCSD1 Board Approves Loan to Repay Recapture Funds

The Johnson County School Board has accepted a cash advance payment for an interest-free loan through the Wyoming Department of Education for the district to pay back recapture funds to the state in the amount of just over $3.85 million.

According to the report to the board by Business Manager Connie Gay, the district needs to repay the overage of funding received that the district estimated on their guaranteed funding from the state.

According to edu.wyoming.gov, the Wyoming School Foundation Program provides a guaranteed level of funding to every Wyoming public school district. This “guarantee” is essentially a block grant and is based on a number of factors, the most important being the number of students enrolled in the district the previous year.

Once a district’s guarantee is established, that funding level is compared to the district’s available local revenue sources. If a district’s local revenues turn out to be less than its guarantee, the state of Wyoming makes up the difference through a series of entitlement payments distributed to the district throughout the school year.

A few school districts, including JCSD1 in the previous year, have access to local revenues in excess of their guarantees. These districts must rebate the excess to the state of Wyoming–a process known as recapture. All recaptured monies flow into a Foundation Program fund and are eventually redistributed to those districts receiving entitlement payments from the state

The district’s loan from the WDE will need to be payed back before December 15, 2023.