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Budget Reflection Ed 691 3/13/2013 Deidre Jenson Available Revenue: This year we had a large influx of students.

We anticipated 85 for our budget and ended up getting funding for 94 in Thorne Bay. We also gained some intensive students this last year, that we didnt budget for and we are hoping to carry over some of that budget to the following year. Previously, we have filed for Impact Aid - however, a few years ago we filed for it and did not qualify, so last year and this following year, we are not going to file for it again. It is not cost effective to spend the time filing for it, especially if you qualify for it then whatever you earn in impact aid, you lose in your foundation monies. We do get some vocational ed money and anticipate getting that again. We have a part time shop teacher. The rest of that money is paying for a shop teacher that builds things for the school district. We have income from PERS/TERS, however that basically holds harmless, because the same amount comes out as an expense. Timber receipts - We did not anticipate getting any timber receipts this year, so we did not budget the money in, as we have previously. We do not plan on budgeting timber receipt moneys again, as we dont anticipate receiving any, so we dont want to have to adjust. If some are tagged onto another bill, it will be a pleasant surprise as it was this fall. E-rate is another income that doesnt count for anything , as the expenses are 15% more that what the income is, so it does not add anything into our revenue. This year, our school district contracted our superintendent services for approximately 33,500 to Hydaburg School District. Hydaburg is currently looking at their budget and considering if they will contract again and for how much. It could be more. Student transportation is a revenue line item. This will not fluctuate much; only per enrollment. We have a revenue line item for Food Service, based on our free reduced lunch meal applications. We generally do not actually bring in any revenue off this, however, because we provide free breakfast and lunch to all students, regardless if they qualify or not. Then there are the NCLB monies, which are not listed in our revenue items, as they require different criteria for spending: Title 1, Migrant, etc. We anticipate that this will be 5% less next year because of the sequester on any federal programs. Indian Ed money will primarily stay the same as last year. Finally, our superintendent does a lot of work getting money from the legislature. He gains at least 4 6 every year through the DEECD (dept. of economics Workforce development budget?) He purchases things like new vehicles, buildings, etc. with these monies and basically are under the $50,000 allotted amount and therefore no paperwork is really required in how this money is spent.

There are other special revenues (grants) that our school district tries to tap into, but these are not included in our general budget, as they too have requirements that need to be followed regarding spending. For example, we have had a counseling grant the last 4 years which has paid for our counselor. Next year we wont have that because the grant is up. Resulting impacts: Impact of enrollment: We also lose one intensive needs student, which reduces our budget by close to $75,000. We have 11 graduates with a number of families moving. There are only a few kindergarteners that will be entering kindergarten next year. This could potentially drop our foundation formula considerably. The good thing is that if we drop 5% (a large enough drop in enrollment) in the district, then we may qualify for the stop gap measure that would hold our foundation funding close to the same (only a 5% decrease in funding) for at least one year. Our business manager says that she has never filed for this stop gap measure and she works for a number of different districts. She thinks this may actually be the year she has to file for it. However, this drop in enrollment has to occur district wide, not just in one school, so if we have an incline in enrollment in other sites, we may not qualify. One school may close which means we would lose potentially 10 students there as well. This all remains to be seen how this will work out once we get closer to enrollment time. Even though each site has a separate budget, they are still all tied together. In our district we are always looking at enrollment. It is a balancing act to keep parents happy so they will keep their kids enrolled and yet maintain the standards that you believe to beneficial to kids. May potentially could have a mass exodus from Thorne Bay. We lose a good group of leaders in the high school, leaving a few high school students with numbers so small they may not have enough students to have basketball or volleyball teams unless the girls and boys play together. Allocation process: Our site budgets generally stay the same. If the lead teacher feels the they need something at their site, they talk to their principal and the principal talks to the superintendent. At the beginning of every year before school starts, we hold site meetings with the sped teachers, the principals, the grant coordinator and lead teachers. This discussion revolves around how much aid time will be given per site, based on IEPs, Indian Ed and Migrant Ed and Title I students. There are very little monies allocated for general ed aides. Last year there was money generated at Thorne Bay for general ed aides but none in the outer sites. The money at Thorne bay was to pay for lunch and playground duty. There were no time given to the small outer sites for lunch duty. At the end of each year, meetings are held for the special revenues (NCLB money, Indian Ed, etc.) to decide what this money is going to be spent on. Parents, teachers, and students are invited to come to these meetings to give their input on

how they want the money spent; aid time, special curriculum, college trips, etc. This isnt set in stone, but the discussion is held anyway. Reflection: Our superintendent does a fabulous job of generating outside money. I have never seen a district apply for so many grants as this district. This can be good, but can also generate a lot of work. It takes writing the grant, using the monies, and monitoring the grant. It takes a huge joint effort from all teachers and especially administrators. I think this would be fine, if we could use this money to help make the work less for people instead of piling on more. The collaborate effort put forth in deciding how to spend the money is fairly good, however, sometimes it appears that it is just a front. If the powers that be really dont agree with the decision, then it doesnt happen, even if they say that it is a good idea. The time of the year that determines our funding is, in my opinion, ridiculous. Sarah Palin apparently began trying to put some money away for forward funding and in a few years we may actually have enough money built up so that we could do that. This would change our count dates from Oct. to April. It seems like so an obvious solution for schools to know what they will be working with, rather than having to guess and then shoot for the number, once they already have committed to binding contracts. That is challenging is small districts with small schools. The last thing that I see as difficult in this district is the allocation of aide monies. Teachers in Thorne Bay get duty free lunches, but the outer site teachers really dont get that. There are a number of things like that, that are viewed as favors. If you work hard, you get to go on workshop trips, if you put extra time in after school, youll get money for the weigh room, etc. That creates hard feelings and very low morale, something common in our school district.

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