Finance Week 3, Part 4

Currently, the district I work in receives approximately thirty-four million dollars in revenue. From local property taxes, we received 42% ($13.9 million), 57% ($19.5 million) from state funds, and less than 1% ($75,000) from federal funds. The revenue is then allocated to different categories. Function 11, which is instruction, receives the largest allocation at approximately $19 million. Our district has focused on instruction the past few years and wants to ensure that horizontal and vertical alignment are taking place. Now, as we move to STAAR testing, instruction has been the focal point for rigor and differentiated teaching methods. District Operation (Function 51) is the second highest category which receives $4.3 million. Function 51 receives around 12% of the allocation. Function 23 receives approximately $1.6 million towards school leadership. The district wants to move from being a “good district” to a “great district”. Our district now has in place an Executive Director of Curriculum position. This position works collaboratively with principals and assists in developing our principals into instructional leaders. With this in mind, the district is spending money to ensure that effective leadership is being practiced.
According to my district’s summary of finances, our WADA is $5,456,266. State Compensatory Allotment receives $2.8 million. Compensatory education focuses on at-risk students and giving additional support to ensure that these students have a chance to be academically successful. Furthermore, the career and technology allotment is approximately $2.1 million and funding for special education is $1.7 million. My campus, specifically, has had a tremendous gain for about $700,000 allotted towards career and technology. The focus has been getting more students involved with career and technology education. Having more students involved with CTE will increase our revenue. My district, however, also received $1.4 million decrease in total tax collections from the previous year.

My district has been anticipating budget shortfall from the state for a few years. In preparation for this, we did not have to absorb any positions this past year. This can be mainly due to a fund balance that has over $12 million. Over the years, anytime someone left our district, we absorbed that position when it was possible. In my opinion, this was a smart move because it has helped us build a strong fund balance. There are still crucial decisions in the upcoming months about our anticipated budget shortfall and what our board of trustees will have to decide is most important for our student’s education.