OurDough Pants Discovered; District Switches to StashItWear

We must speak quickly. They're on to us.
The District knows that we've discovered their top secret OurDough pants.
They have subsequently switched tactics. Our intel reports suggest that they now are equipped with StashitWear! Be on the alert.

Fruity Math

At the school board's work-study session on the 2011-12 budget March 16 (more on that to come) , we  were provided with the slide at right (fruit added for clarity).  
We THINK we know where Mr. Phil is going with this slide.  We also think that Mr. Jim (Seabass) suggested it.

The problem is that it's not just apples and oranges...it's apples plus bananas get you tangeloes.  And that's borderline non-sense.
What they were TRYING to do, of course, is explain from where that 4.4% projected tax levy increase originates.  Last year's tax levy (general fund 10 + debt service levy) was $45.8M.  A 4.4% increase, then, would be about $2.0 M.  

Our debt service payment is increasing by about (gulp!) $1M next year....which means that roughly half of the 4.4% projected 2011-12 tax levy increase is coming directly from the High School/CHUMS construction.  Put another way, it means that without cuts and NO increased spending, we'd have a 2.1% increase to the tax levy just from debt service alone.  But that's where we move from the beaten path of Kansas to the yellow brick road on the way to Oz.

Enrollment = Revenue Limit, and that's NOT part of the budget.
The OTHER 2.3% is identified as "projected enrollment growth".  This has us scratching our heads because Mr. Frei has told us repeatedly that enrollment growth does not affect equalized aid from the state.  It is ONLY used to determine the revenue limit above which a district cannot spend. 

We THINK what they're trying to suggest is that new spending CAUSED by projected enrollment growth this fall will result in an additional 2.3% increase over the tax levy from last year.  2.3% of last year's $45.8M tax levy comes to $1,053,000.  We think that what this slide was trying to show was that a 4.4% increase to last year's tax levy is expected, with roughly half coming from additional debt service payments and half from costs incurred (e.g., new staff) associated with projected enrollment growth.

Of course, it's all smoke and mirrors until we follow the money trail and figure out what's happening with FUN Balance, the EdJobs Fund money, and all the resat of the cash in Phildough's OUR Dough pants.

Where's PhilDough?

The OurDough pants have quietly been getting quite stuffed as the fiscal year progresses to its conclusion June 30th.  We all saw the budget that was presented/approved last October.  What we didn't see then, and haven't heard since, however, is what the district is planning on doing with all the unexpected windfalls.  To name just a few:

• Administrative raises: Budgeted for 2%; "only" awarded 1%...where's dough from the difference? 
• Administrative health insurance premium: Budget  increased the employee share...where's that dough?
• Administrative Support raises: Budgeted for 2%; "only" awarded 1%...where's that dough? 
• Administrative support health insurance premium: Budget  increased the employee share...where's that dough?
• Local 60 raises: Budgeted for 2%; "only" awarded 1%...where's that dough? 
• Budgeted/unfilled staffing.......where's that dough?
• Staff replacement savings...where's that dough?
• ~$200,000 from sale of the home construction project...where's that dough?
• If Walker's plan goes through there will be at least $1M in "savings" THIS year ...where will that dough go?

Only "PhilDough" Frei knows.  He keeps filling pockets in his OurDough pants.  Can you find Phil and  Our Dough?

House Sold...But Where Does the $$$ Go??

Agenda Item Details

Meeting Jan 27, 2011 - SPECIAL SCHOOL BOARD MEETING  6:00 p.m. at the District Office (Room 220), 501 S. Bird St., Sun Prairie. 

Category New Business 

Subject Sale of house at 1306 Crossing Ridge Trail (Construction Trades Program) 

Type Action

We understand that LAST YEAR'S home construction house has been sold.  Rumors suggest that the amount was around $220,000, which would represent break-even considering instructor time.  That's what we want to be doing... breaking even while providing a great opportunity for kids.


Costing for last year's home building project

The question is....what do we do with un-budgeted revenues of $200,000?  That would buy a heck of a lot of school supplies and take THAT unsavory burden off of parents next fall.

We say un-budgeted because, like many grants applied for, Phil Frei can't really budget for a revenue for an unknown commodity.   if we don't budget for grant revenues, why would we budget for a home sale...especially in the current housing market. Of course, perhaps a revenue was built somewhere into the budget.  We don't believe so.

Enrollment Soars...338 new SPASD students

The budget planning metric budgeted for 133 students over last years total.

At the infamous, "official", 3rd Friday count, that tally was actually 338, for a whopping grand total district enrollment of 6969.

Elementary enrollment is up 77 kids to 3072.

Of course, "they" will caution us all that these numbers are constantly in flux.  But the bottom line is that we have to take a number at some moment in time, and the official date to do so is the "3rd Friday" of the school year.

What does 338 new students mean?

1. For this year, the Revenue limit will be much higher than expected....meaning the district COULD spend much more (although they must raise the levy to do so...they don't get state aid for these "new kids" till next year).  The Revenue Limit is based on the 3-year rolling average that they talk about.

2. Next year, we will see more state aid as a result of the new kids.   Next year, we will average the Sept 2010 3rd Friday count with the January 2011 count, add summer students from summer 2010, and --VOILA! -- that number will be used to calculate how much aid we will receive next year.  No 3-year average....we're just basing everything on the prior year's data.  So...effectively, there's a delay in incoming aid.

3. Will the drums start beating to initiate planning for an 8th elementary school?  As soon as spring 2011?  Hmmm?

How much equalization aid do we get per student?

From this year's Annual Meeting Booklet, we received $28,791,625 in "equalized aid" last year.  This number was based on enrollment from 2008-09, which was 6165.   If you divide $28,791,625 by 6165, you get about $4,700 in aid per student. 

Now let's check our simplified projection.   Last year, we had 6631 students.  Using our simplified figure of $4,700 in state aid per student, we would project receiving $32,546,445 in aid THIS school year (2010-11).    Lo and behold, what figure do we see in the Annual Meeting booklet for state aid we're receiving THIS year? $32,393,942 .  That's pretty close for government work, eh folks?  Our estimate was high by about $150K (0.47%), which is less than the money Phil carries around in his "our dough" pants.

The bottom line is that we constantly hear about all this wizardry about these calculations and we won't have all the information until October.  Horse puckey@!  We know last year's enrollment numbers...welll...last year.   We can estimate the amount of equalized aid based on last year.   

A note of caution:

Do we have this 100.0% 'dead-on balls accurate'?  No.  we wouldn't presume to have a perfect understanding of the way things work.  We're just a bunch of nobodies here. But we're pretty darn close.  The school district of course, will just say, "that mean blog is all wrong".

But what they will NEVER do, is publicly explain to you or anyone else WHERE it's incorrect.  Why? Because this is the stuff they do NOT want anyone to understand.  They like to wave their hands and operate under smoke and mirrors like a dime-store magician.  If you understand this stuff, then YOU become empowered...and the district is not all that keen on empowering you.

If the district REALLY wanted to do a service---and we'll offer this challenge--- then they should come up with a simplified explanation of how things work.  Not a 45 minute 50 slide dog-and-pony show, mind you, but a simplified 1-2 page explanation they can post on the website.

Geee...wouldn't that just smack of community service?