Tuesday, January 15, 2008

School budget I: certified staff

This post has two goals:

First, it's an explanation of an analysis that I've done of the BOE budget for the past few years.

Second, it's my analysis of the first of the six "major" categories within the BOE budget.

But first the explanation...

A few days ago, I posted this about the BOE budget... explaining the difference between the (six) "major" budget line items and (all) the "minor" budget line items.

Anyway, here is the previously posted summary... intended to detail the first (and second) of the six major categories:

As you can see, "a/c 110 - Administration" above, agrees to the detail in "a/c 110 - Administration" below (note the color coding):

And continue to follow the color coding below:

Then if you're reading the image directly above (just click on it to enlarge it), you should be able to see what I've done... while the BOE budget books normally include a "history" of budgetary line items... I've created a "history of the histories." That is... while the BOE Budget books normally include:

1) actual expenditures,
2) adopted BOE budgets, and
3) proposed Superintendent's budgets

even the historic numbers have changed over time... remember how no one knew how many teachers we had? Well, this is where that inconsistency in history "fell out."

Anyway, since I'll be trying to provide this analysis for each of the six "major" categories (as well as the minor categories) over the next few weeks... I encourage you to take a look at my analysis and ask me questions to clarify anything that is unclear.

Finally, I don't see much of interest here in the major category of "certified staff." Generally though, of most interest to me is seeing how actual expenditures align with both the BOE adopted budgets and the Superintendent's proposed budgets... particularly over time.

Tim White

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

wunderbar
This is what I think of when I think about our wonderful town
Wunderbar!
Say it every day and you will be happy
Great town
Great schools
Great community
Don't see us short
Be positve
Stay on the sunny side of life!
Negatives give the bad vibes
Let us all come together and celebrate

Anonymous said...

Here we are looking at a recession. The Gov. is talking about how bad things can become and keeping taxes and spending down. What does our Sup. of Schools do? He comes up with a 7.5% increase in the school budget. The highest since he took over - Great Move.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

"This is what I think of when I think"

When I see this graffiti crap, I think of a person that is out of touch with realty and who needs help.

I wonder why Tim doesn't remove it.

Anonymous said...

Be full of good cheer and happiness
Look forward to a great future
stay on the positive track
Can't be any other way

Anonymous said...

Tim, It's been awhile since I visited your blog. I stopped because of the junk that is being allowed to stay on (like our wonderbar person). If you really want people to take this blog seriously you have to remove this mindless junk. If you do they'll stop posting.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

to Matt A. (Wunderbar),

why don't you just shut up, unless you have something intelligent to add to this discussion.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Hey, Wunderbar,
my grandmother told me this about people who write graffiti:

Fools not known
by their faces
leave their names
in public places.

Tim White said...

12:44 & 1:24 I try to police, but don't always do the best job of it. Nonetheless, I'll try to do a better job of deleting spam when I can... though during the day can be tough.

Anonymous said...

Tim, All these numbers you post will confuse any average citizen. That being said, I do know that the requested 7.3% increase bringing the Boe budget to nearly 60 million is just too much. Last year enrollment declined and the superintendent got 4 out of the 7.5 teachers he wanted. This year enrollment is declining again by 85 and they're requesting 4 million more. Where does it end? With 85 fewer students, maybe they should reduce the teaching staff, but that will never happen. Instead this year they're looking for even more instructional aides.
I do think that if computers are going to be replaced that money should be bundled and requested in the 5 Year Capital Budget. Can't they bond it for a lesser time than 10 years? Also money requested for building improvements should also come from the Capital Budget and not the operating budget of the Board. The Town Council always seems to cut items out of the Capital Budget and then the Boe sometimes funds them through their operating budget. Maybe some of that HUGE surplus the TC majority wants to hold on to should be spent to fix up some of the schools.

Anonymous said...

10:02 point noted on there being too many numbers to make much sense of it... anyway, my point is to offer all the information to you. Then I'll highlight certain numbers that I feel may be of interest to you.

Anonymous said...

Fools not known
by their faces
leave their (crap)
in public places.

Yup, that just about sums up all of Matt's graffiti.

Anonymous said...

If this keeps going up at this rate what's going to happen in 7 years? Holly cow!!!! Maybe Double? We will need four new malls/yr to keep up.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.