After GrokTALK! action report - Jorge sends info from his Education Update segment - Granite Grok

After GrokTALK! action report – Jorge sends info from his Education Update segment

School houseYou can listen to the audio here or watch it here but Jorge Mesa-Tejada was kind enough to send in some text to buttress the segment on which he spoke about looking over School District Budgets:

HOW TO READ AND UNDERSTAND A SCHOOL BUDGET

 Taxpayers are usually mystified when they are handed out a thick package of charts, tables and numbers when they arrive at School District’s Public Budget Hearings and/or Deliberative Sessions.  How do you cut through all that fog and get to the items that are meaningful to you? How will that affect your taxes next year?

You will be relieved to learn that most of that data—that is, the individual budget line items—are meaningless to you for the simple reason that there is precious little you can do to change it: only the School Board—the governing body—can.  However, you—the legislative body—can CHANGE the “bottom line,”—the total budget—during Deliberative Session or School Annual Meeting but not an individual line item.  Here is crib sheet of how to cut through the fog:

  1. Go to the last page of the budget and note the proposed 2015-2016 Budget.  Example: $24,000,000.
  2. Next, go to the bottom of page titled ANTICIPATED REVENUE (usually follows the budget) and find the TOTAL INCOME line.  Example: $5,000,000
  3. Subtract TOTAL INCOME from PROPOSED 2015-2016 BUDGET to get the DISTRICT ASSESSMENT (formerly called APPROPRIATION).  Example: $24,000,000 – 5,000,000 = $19,000,000
  4. The DISTRICT ASSESSMENT, $19,000,000, is the amount that must be raised through taxes.

Now that you know the total amount that has to be raised through taxes, you can approximate how much is that on the tax rate. I say “approximate” because you’ll be using last year’s tax computation figures.

This is how you can approximate the tax impact:

Find the TAX RATE CALCULATION page in the latest Town Report (usually in the range 17 through 20)

  1. At the bottom of the page, there is a section titled PROOF OF RATE. The very last line is the Net Assessed Valuation – ALL OTHER TAXES.  This is the valuation used to calculate tax rate. Example: $1,000,000,000 (one billion dollars)
  2.  Drop the rightmost three digits from that number.  Example: $1,000,000,000 transforms to $1,000,000.  That’s how much money will be raised by $1 on the tax rate.
  3. Now, take the number you got in #4 (above)) above and divide it by the number you got in# 2.

Example: = $19,000,000 / $1,000,000 = $19.00 tax/$1K valuation.

  1. So, if your home is valued at $300,000, drop the last three digits ($300,000à $300) and multiply by the just computed tax rate: $300 x $19.00 = $5,700

Now on to the next part of what Jorge sent in:

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASS SIZE AND STUDENT-TO-TEACHER RATIO.

Another source of confusion is the random use of the terms “CLASS SIZE” and “STUDENT-TO-TEACHER” ratio.  They are NOT equivalent!

  • CLASS SIZE is a guideline figure that appears in ED 306 – Minimum Standards for Public Schools, defined as follows:

Ed 306.17  Class Size.

(a)  Class size for instructional purposes, in each school shall be:

a.  Kindergarten – grade 2, 25 students or fewer per teacher, provided that each school shall strive to achieve the class size of 20 students or fewer per teacher;

b.  Grades 3 – 5, 30 students or fewer per teacher, provided that each school shall strive to achieve the class size of 25 students or fewer per teacher; and

c.  Middle and senior high school, 30 students or fewer per teacher.

                 The School Board can, and usually does, set its own class sizes which are, not surprisingly, lower.

  • STUDENT-TO-TEACHER RATIO, on the other hand, is a statistically developed figure by the Department of Education based on the districts TOTAL STUDENT ENROLLMENT and the NUMBER OF FULL-TIME-EQUIVALENT (FTE) CLASSROOM TEACHERS.  These figures are published annually in the fall. This is what the table looks like in the DoE website (the hyperlinks are live: just click on the Excel or PDF symbol for that year’s report):

Student Teacher Ratio

By district, fall enrollment, total FTE (full-time equivalent) of classroom teachers and ratio is reported. The two public academies are also reported.

 Year(s) Last Updated

2013-2014   03/07/14  Excel    PDF
2012-2013   02/04/13  Excel    PDF
2011-2012   03/19/12   Excel    PDF
2010-2011   03/11/11    Excel    PDF
2009-2010   02/08/10  Excel   PDF
2008-2009   03/30/09  Excel   PDF
2007-2008   04/16/08  Excel   PDF
2006-2007   04/27/07  Excel   PDF

Notice the range for the 2013-2014 report: 5.4 to 14.9 with a state average of 12.1.  See the difference when compared to Class Size?  Of the two, STUDENT-TO-TEACHER is the more accurate because it takes into consideration EVERY teacher—not just the homeroom teachers—that are employed by the district.

School Boards and Superintendents HATE student-to-teacher ratio.

For example, Hampstead’s STUDENT-TO-TEACHER RATIO for 2013-2014 was 11.6 (789 K-8 students, 68 FTE Teachers.) On the other hand, the School Board’s Class Size policy is:

  • Preschool and Kindergarten not to exceed 18 students (State max: 25)
  • Grades 1 and 2 not to exceed 20 students (State max: 25)
  • Grades 3-5 not to exceed 23 students (State max: 30)
  • Grades 6-8 not to exceed 25 students (State max: 30)
  • The above class sizes are School Board recommendations and may be exceeded by vote of the Board.

Some difference, huh?

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