SMSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Schumacher announced during the Board of Education Financial Report on March 25 that the district isn’t adding any of the 113.3 Building Needs Assessment requested full-time positions including interventionists, Information Technology IT specialists, teacher instructional coaches and elementary counselors, according to SMSD Board recaps.
“This was very hard to do,” Schumacher said, in an address to the SMSD Board of Education. “The topic of adding counselors is a very passionate topic, but hopefully our community can understand that while we want to add these positions and add counselors, we aren’t able to do that at this time.”
The district said the decision comes after declining enrollment and decreased state funding. For the 2025-26 school year, the district lost over $4 million due to a sudden drop in enrollment of over 250 students across the district, according to Schumacher.
With increased cost of living in Johnson County, families have been moving to other parts of Kansas and leaving SMSD, according to Schumacher. Over the past four years, the cost of owning a single-family home in Johnson County has risen 27%, from $330,000 to $451,000, according to an article from the Johnson County government.
Many students and families are also concerned with sending their kids to school, Title 1 schools specifically, with the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence in Kansas City, according to Schumacher…