Gentlemen...start your checkbooks!

The state's July 1 estimates of equalized aid figures were released today.
Good news for Sun Prairie; not so good for most others.

Last year district administration guessed way too high (aid was $730K less than projected).
This year, they guessed way too LOW.
(Do you suppose, like Goldilocks, next year they might hit the target????  At least within a county or so?)


Estimates from our financial advisors back in March suggested a $1.4M increase in aid over 2011-12.
Actually, the aid estimate for 2012-13 is $3.84M more than 2011-12.

THAT, people, HUGE.
Only 12 (of 426) school districts have a larger %increase in equalized aid.
Only FOUR districts will receive a larger DOLLAR increase over last year.

But don't be planning on a reduction in your property taxes....
You know this district...
if they have money, they'll spend it.
Hell...even if they DON'T have it they'll spend it.

What will they do with $3.84M?  Hell..they could give everyone an 8% raise.

It is, after all, other people's money.

http://www.dpi.wi.gov/sfs/pdf/July1_aid_est_summary_pct.pdf

Gone, Baby, Gone

How did Sun Prairie fare with respect to the eagerly anticipated July 1 DPI general aid estimates?
Let's answer that question with another question:  How accurate/reliable has the quality of data and projections from the district been?
Answer that question, and you have your answer to the first question

Of course, if you've been stranded in Siberia for the last 6-12 months, let us just give you the answer right between the eyes.
In their Traveling PowerPoint Budget Show, Jim McCourt and Phil Frei have told us that their ACME crystal ball projected that we'd see a 4% reduction in our state aid.
Survey says: * buzzer sound *   a 6.25% reduction.

What does a 6.25% reduction (instead of 4.0%)  in state aid mean?
A unanticipated revenue loss of $731,650

Remember that "unallocated" $725,000 in the budget?  Gone, Baby, Gone
Remember that "wish list" of $600,000 in additional spending for which the $725,000 was earmarked?
Gone, Baby, Gone.

And THIS is why the district should have postponed it's June 16th budget hearing until AFTER this information was received.  Now they will have to scramble to try to spin this mess for the July 18th budget hearing.

We really need to get better, more reliable, more accurate data and projections out of the district office.  We spend a lot of taxpayer dollars on salaries. In theory, those expenses should net us better information than we are receiving.

State Aid Cuts Out; Deeper than Expected

Yesterday the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) released its estimate of general aids to school districts.  Of course, the disclaimer on this has to be that these estimates are based on information available as of July 1, 2011, and are subject to change.

   DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION

11-12 JULY 1 ESTIMATE VS. 10-11 OCT 15 AID CALCULATION

                                                TOTAL GENERAL AID ESTIMATE
                                                                                       
                                                13    DISTRICTS THAT INCREASE             1,073,642
                                               410    DISTRICTS THAT DECREASE          -399,800,040
                                                 1    DISTRICTS WITH NO CHANGE                    0
                                                                                  =================
                                                                                                                    -398,726,39
Read them and weep.

Recall that Gov. Walker's budget called for an 8.4% decrease to school funding.
These data reflect an average decrease of 9.1%.
For a dataset this large, and with this variability, the median is a better value to focus on than the mean (average).  For the 424 school districts, the median decrease in state aid is 10.13%.  In fact 230 out of the 424 districts received a cut of exactly 10.13%.

73% of districts had their state aid slashed by MORE than the average.

Is Walker's plan really working??

Budget to Clobber Sun Prairie for $1M More than Projected?

We  received this this afternoon from a Sun Prairie reader...

State Superintendent Tony Evers commented today on the Feb. 25 working paper from Dr. Andrew Reschovsky, a professor at the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Reschovsky’s study, “An Analysis of the Proposal to Reduce Revenue Limits for Wisconsin School Districts,” is based on widely reported reductions in school aid of more than $900 million and a new revenue limit that mandates a $500 per-pupil reduction in property tax authority.

 

Additional information is available on the Department of Public Instruction newsroom website http://dpi.wi.gov/eis/pdf/dpinr2011_22.pdf. A printout of the impact of reported per-pupil revenue limit reductions for the state’s 424 school districts is available at http://dpi.wi.gov/eis/pdf/dpinr2011_22_districtprojections.pdf.

 

 

SP could face 4.6 MILLION less based on the link at http://dpi.wi.gov/eis/pdf/dpinr2011_22_districtprojections.pdf

............................

Note:  Walker's Budget Bill calls for a slightly smaller ($834M) reduction in state aid, but further reduces the revenue limit (ability of a district to collect revenues) by another $50 per student, for a total reduction of $550/student.

Pint-Sized Passengers -- Hefty Cost

The School Board will review SP4K busing tomorrow night.

This started out as a simple issue...a parent complained (rightfully) that their 4 year old was spending 2 hours a day on a bus for about 2.5 hours of instruction.  But...as with many school board issues, this one became another bloomin' onion....the more layers you peel away, the more information that comes clear.

Notable facts:

1. We, the people, and the school board were sold a bill of goods with the 4K program.  We were told that busing costs were projected (and budgeted) to be about $50K.  The number of students is as projected, yet the busing costs are FOUR TIMES higher than projected at just under $200K per year.

2. The cost to bus each student is a whopping $1963.34 per year, which is just more than FOUR times the average cost to bus a K-12 student.

3. There are FOUR times fewer kids per bus than for K-12 kids.

4. Here's the silver tuna...the school district expects to make a profit of about ONE MILLION dollars off the 4K program.  Shhhhh...keep that one under your hat.  They don't want YOU to know that...and they certainly don't want Scott Walker to find out that DPI is giving out $1M more for 4K than the program actually costs ...for ONE district

WTF?