Faith School District superintendent Mel Dutton is trying not to think about how his students and staff could be affected if South Dakota legislators approve Gov. Mike Rounds' proposal to end sparsity payments to rural schools.

"It will be devastating," he said.

The Faith School District is one of 25 districts that would no longer share in $2.3 million from the state next year. The original aid bill, sponsored three years ago by then state Sen. Eric Bogue, assists schools too geographically distanced from other schools to consolidate but struggle to survive because of their size.

In his budget address last week, Rounds proposed giving the 3 percent minimum increase to education, while ending the sparsity payments and the aid to districts with sharply declining or increasing enrollment numbers.

Faith would qualify for the maximum amount given for sparsity this year, $165,000, which is about 11 percent of its $1.54 million general fund budget.

"I was extremely disappointed," Dutton said of the proposed cuts. "But I can't say I was completely surprised. Sparse schools are an easy target. There are few of us and we're not strongly represented."

Faith's seclusion is unmistakable. The small town folds up from the flats of the prairie, with nothing but sky and cattle for long, straight stretches. The school district covers 864 square miles and neighbors are far and few between; Phillip is 87 miles away, Bison is 55 and Dupree is 23. The school currently enrolls 193 students, many of them are drawn from the west and south of town. If Faith were forced to consolidate with Dupree, some students would be forced to drive 110 miles a day to attend school.

"It isn't that we get special treatment because we're small; it's a necessary thing we have to have to provide education to kids in these very remote areas," Dutton said.

Rounds agrees. The sparsity payment is one of the best enhancements to the formula that distributes state aid to school districts, Rounds said Monday during a Dakota News Network radio program.

However, Rounds said he did not think it would be logical to keep the sparsity payments when he is recommending eliminating extra aid to districts with significantly increasing or decreasing enrollments. Also, the sparsity aid program was due to lapse after this year.

The sparsity payments are necessary, Dutton said, and part of the lawsuit over the state's education funding has not had a ruling yet. Dutton testified at the trial earlier this year, and his beliefs that the state is not funding education adequately is stronger now that the sparsity payments could be cut off.

"I understand that everyone has to tighten belts," he said. "but it's unfair for sparse schools to have to sacrifice up to 11 percent of a budget."

He said he's pleased the governor proposed the minimum 3 percent increase mandated by law. But if Faith receives a 3 percent increase, and has to cut the budget by 11 percent from the loss of sparsity, the district's finances are on borrowed time.

The district could opt out of the state's general fund levy limitations. The district just finished an opt out that lasted four years at $175,000 a year. If another one was passed this year, the district might be able to stay financially afloat for another year, Dutton said.

Bison School District also is in a precarious financial position without the sparsity money.

The sparsity money makes up about 11.5 percent of its budget, said Superintendent Shawn Winthers, and consolidation is not an option.

"I'm facing cutting three staff in a system with only 18 certified staff," he said.

He's hoping to avoid that, he said, but the district will be backed into a corner.

"There's a difference between wanting to be small and having to be small," he said. "I have kids that are 45 miles away from my building, and if I close my doors, I've got kids over 50 miles from a school."

The district would receive $165,000 in sparsity payments next year, and the district's general fund budget is $1.4 million.

Dutton said he is sympathetic to the plight of the state - increasing costs and smaller revenue streams. But most of the schools that would be affected by the sparsity payment cuts are already on shaky ground. If it was worthy when it was adopted, it still is, he said.

Winthers agreed.

"If it was the right thing to do in the past few years, how is it not the right thing to do now?" he asked.

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com