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COMPUTER ASSIGNMENT
EDA 757: Educational Finance
Developing a School-level Budget for the
Zerocuse School District
The Zerocuse School District serves a rural area in the northeastern part of the state of Illiana. The enrollment has remained fairly stable, but recent trends suggest the district is going to start to lose significant amounts of enrollment. In addition, the percent of population below the poverty line has increased in the last decade. The district economy relies primarily on farming, some small manufacturing, and services. Half of the population in the district is located in the village of Zerocuse with a population of (3,500). The district has property values per pupil that are well below the state average.
You have recently been hired as the school business administrator for the district. The superintendent would like to delegate more responsibility and flexibility to the building principals. You were hired, in part, because of your expertise in cost analysis and experience developing school-level budgets. The superintendent would also like a budgeting tool that is more flexible to help in financial decision-making. For example, the Illiana Education Department (IED) is putting pressure on the district to consolidate with a neighboring district to save money. The superintendent wants to be able to carefully evaluate what this decision will do to district costs. The superintendent is also trying to determine if the district should consider contracting out some services.
She has asked you as part of developing the 2002-03 budget to prepare school- level budgets. The district operates two schools—Percy Webster School (K-8 grades), and Zerocuse High School (9-12 grades). In the past the district has used a line item budget with information organized by program area and object of expenditure. While enrollment and personnel information has been collected at the school level, spending was controlled centrally in the business office. You have organized past enrollment, operational information, personnel information, and non-personnnel budgets into several tables that are attached.
- Enrollment by grade from 1993-94 to 2001-02, and live births from 1990- 01 to 2001-02.
- Information on enrollment by type, building capacity, and fiscal capacity measures for the district for 2001-02.
- Teacher staffing by education and experience, and other school staff in 2001-02. Counselors and librarians are certified teachers and are included in this table.
- Teacher salary schedules, and other salary schedules for 2002-
- Fringe benefits by type for 2002-
- Non-personnel budget by line item by school for 2001-
- For most other expenditures in the district, you have the 2001-02 actual expenditures for the whole district.
Other information relevant to preparing the budget includes:
- For transportation, the district contracts with a private company to provide transportation. The lease rate is $250,000 per year plus $1 per student bus mile per day (miles traveled by transported students per day).
- Operating days in the district is 180.
- Both buildings have only one principal, but can have more than one assistant principal. An additional assistant principal is added for every 400 students above an initial 400 students. In other words, if a school has 350 it has no assistant principals, 750 it has one principal, 950, it has two assistant principals.
- The superintendent wants to use the state maximum of 24 for class sizes as the district target for next year.
- Other state staffing requirements include 1 teacher for every 10 severely disabled students, 1 teacher for every 20 free lunch students for remedial education classes, 1 classroom aide for every 2 severely disabled students, 1 classroom aid for every 10 moderately disabled students.
- Other district targets include 1counselor for every 200 students, 1 librarian for every 600 students, 1 secretary for every 400 students, 1 nurse for every 500 students, and 1 custodian for every 250 students. One food service worker is hired for every 50 students taking school lunch.
- The district has generally assumed that teachers will take 10 days of sick leave per teacher in determining how many substitute teachers to hire. Substitute teachers are part-time. The district does not contribute to pension, health insurance, or life insurance for these employees.
- All other staff are fulltime, and paid an annual salary. The district does not pay sick leave or vacation above the salary. All teachers are under 10- month contracts, and other employees have 11-month contracts. They are assumed to take vacation during regular school vacations and in the summer.
- Other teacher compensation for extracurricular assignments has been estimated to be 5% of teacher salaries for Percy Webster School, and 7.5% for the Zerocuse H.S.
- In calculating the non-personnel budget, you have decided to use an inflation rate of 5% to adjust 2001-02 to 2002-03.
In addition, the district receives the following state and federal aid:
- School lunch program: The federal government reimburses the district at the following rates: Free lunch: $2.14 per child per lunch Reduced price lunch: $1.74 per child per lunch
- You need to calculate the state aid and federal aid that the district is going to receive for students in each school. Add the revenue information to the school-level budget you created, and determine the net cost per student in each school (cost minus aid). Determine what property tax rate the district will have to use to balance the budget. Hint: You have been given property values per pupil. You can assume that all this value is taxable, and that there are no other local sources of revenue. You should make revenue calculations as flexible as possible.
- The state government recently passed the “Reading Education and Development Act” (READ). A key part of READ is class size reduction in early grades. The act lowers maximum class sizes to 18 for kindergarten through 3rd^ grades. In return, the state will provide an additional $400 per child for all children in these grades. What are the financial implications of this act for the Zerocuse School District.
- The Regional Education Services Center (RESC), which is affiliated with the IED, can provide services for severely disabled students for school districts. The charge for these services is $15,000 per severely disabled child. The fee covers student transportation, and all services provided to these students. (For simplicity, ignore the problems this may cause complying with IDEA.) The district will also not be able to count these students in the Basic Operating Aid or Special Education Grant calculations. Should the district contract these services? Be clear about any assumptions you have made.
- Zerocuse School District borders on a much smaller district, Sibernia School District. While Sibernia serves students from kindergarten to 12th^ grade, it has only 364 students (28 students in each grade). Both Sibernia and Zerocuse have school buildings that will need major renovation in the near future. The Illiana Education Department is encouraging the Zerocuse School District to annex Sibernia. You can assume that the composition of students in Sibernia is the same as for Zerocuse, except that all students would be able to take the bus. The average bus mileage for Sibernia students would be 10 miles per day. The property values per pupil are approximately the same. Sibernia residents and the Sibernia Education Association both voted to approve the annexation. Annexation implies that Zerocuse SD will serve all the students presently going to Sibernia SD. You can use assume that the district did NOT contract out special needs services to RESC or reduce class sizes. In other words, use the results of parts 1. and 2. to do this analysis.
Based purely on the impact on district costs and revenues, should the superintendent of Zerocuse SD support the annexation? Be clear what assumptions you made in developing this estimate. What other factors should be considered before a final recommendation is made?
You should build these budgets in a flexible spreadsheet. You need to develop a PowerPoint presentation of your results for the Superintendent and the Board of Education. While accuracy and flexibility of your budget spreadsheet are very important, so is the clarity of your budget presentation. Try to avoid jargon that they will probably not be familiar with, and avoid long messy tables that will be hard for them to follow. As one of your professors from college said several years ago, “School business officials that can effectively communicate school district finances are worth their weight in gold.”
Years of Experience BA MA MA+30 PhD Total 1 0 3 2 0 5 2 0 3 3 0 6 3 0 5 3 0 8 4 2 6 3 0 11 5+ 9 14 8 0 31 Total 11 31 19 0 61
Years of Experience BA MA MA+30 PhD Total 1 0 2 1 0 3 2 0 1 1 0 2 3 0 3 1 0 4 4 1 2 1 1 5 5+ 2 3 3 1 9 Total 3 11 7 2 23 Note: Includes counselors, librarians, and special needs teachers. You can assume for
Zerocuse High School Education Category
Fulltime teachers by Experience and Education (2001-02)
Percy Webster School Education Category
Assistant Secretarial Classroom Food Service Year Principal Libarian Counselor Staff Nurse Custodian Aide Worker
Percy Webster School 2 2 5 3 2 4 26 13
Zerocuse High School 1 1 2 1 1 2 10 4
Zerocuse School District -- Other Staff Required (2001-02)
Years of Experience BA MA MA+30 PhD 1 $35,000 $38,000 $41,000 $44, 2 $37,000 $40,000 $43,000 $46, 3 $39,000 $42,000 $45,000 $48, 4 $41,000 $44,000 $47,000 $50, 5+ $44,000 $47,000 $50,000 $53,
Substitute Teacher Salary $30,
Principal $78, Asst. Principal $66,
Secretarial staff $29, Nurse $33, Classroom aide $30, Custodian $31, Food service worker $24,
Fulltime Teachers
Zerocuse School District -- Salary Information
Education Category
Administrators
Non-Certified Staff
Amount Period Health Insurance Annual cost $4,000 Annual e/disability Insurance trict cost $400 Annual ial Security ployer contribution 7.65% Annual salary) ployment Insurance ployer contribution 2.60% Annual salary) Worker's Compensation 1.00% Annual Employer contribution (% of salary) Retirement Contribution 9.00% Annual Employer contribution (% of salary) Note: Health insurance, life insurance, and pensions only apply to fulltime employees (not substitute teachers).
Zerocuse School District -- Employee Benefits (2002-03)
Lif Dis Soc Em (% of Unem Em (% of
Function/Object Expenditures
Detailed School District Budget (2001-02)
- Year K - 1993-94 - 1994-95 - 1995-96 - 1996-97 - 1997-98 - 1998-99
- 1999-2000 - 2000-01 - 2001-02 - Year Births Year - 1990-91 152 1993-94 - 1991-92 141 1994-95 - 1992-93 138 1995-96 - 1993-94 140 1996-97 - 1994-95 135 1997-98 - 1995-96 125 1998-99 - 1996-97 118 1999-2000 - 1997-98 120 2000-01 - 1998-99 121 2001-02
- 1999-2000 - 2000-01 - 2001-02
- Total Enrollment:
- Free lunch
- Subsidized lunch
- Percent of other students getting lunch
- Moderate disabilities
- Severe disabilities
- Students taking bus
- Average bus miles per student per day - Square footage 60,000 35,000 85, Facilities: - Rated Capacity 1,100 480 1, - Property values per pupil in district $110, Fiscal capacity information: - Property values per pupil (state average) $225,
- Board of Education $63,
- Personnel $60,
- Materials & Supplies $1,
- Equipment $1,
- Contracts $
- Superintendant Office $186,
- Personnel $180,
- Materials & Supplies $1,
- Equipment $5,
- Curriculum Director $162, Contracts
- Personnel $155,
- Materials & Supplies $2,
- Equipment $4,
- Pupil Services Director $163, Contracts
- Personnel $155,
- Materials & Supplies $3,
- Equipment $4,
- School Business Office $240, Contracts
- Personnel $230,
- Materials & Supplies $1,
- Equipment $5,
- Contracts $4,
- Building & Grounds Office $305,
- Personnel $210,
- Materials & Supplies $25,
- Equipment $55,
- Contracts $15,
- Transportation $126,
- Personnel $125,
- Materials & Supplies
- Equipment $
- Undistributed Expenses $391,
- Utilities $78,
- Insurance $38,
- Legal Expenditures $36,
- Misc. operating expenditures $59,
- Debt Service $257,
