My district is a rural property poor school district with funds coming in from many sources. We receive funding from State mainly through the Foundation school program. SFSF and ARRA moneys were helpful to supplement the FSP but with the rules tied to the money it was difficult to manage appropriate spending and impact the local budget at the same time. Our WADA for 11-12 is at $5032.56 and WADA @compressed rate is at $5056.90. Compared to the 10-11 school year this represents a reduction in funding close to $500,000 or 5% of our total revenue. The numbers based on Target Revenue are not any better. Therefore, our district made many hard decisions and reduced expenditures through not filling many positions lost due to retirement and leaving the district, conservative spending, using grant funds whenever possible, and economic use of utilities. Thus far we have been successful in avoiding a reduction in force or mass removal of positions. Although some administrative positions have been removed from campuses, a majority of our school district's personnel have remained employed.
Allocation of funds is done well in our district. With so little everyone must be aware of spending funds, where they come from, and the rules in proper expenditure of those funds. One example of a significant problem faced in our district is the 55% rule for spending Vocational State funded money. According to the guidelines set by TEA for these funds our district must spend a min of 55% of that fund on direct expenditures to the program. With a small student body, and very specific rules tied to this money, spending it has proved to be an issue that requires creativity and collaboration. It is State money like this that rural districts, I think, would love to have more flexibility in spending and possibly the ability to roll it forward for a bigger project. My questions is, "Why can't school districts be trusted to spend money in the very best interest of the students they serve?" I guess it is because someone in the past has spent money inappropriately, and we all must suffer for that misguided act.
Good job. Our district is very similar to yours.Our actual WADA was higher but compressed WADA very similar. When conducting supt interview earlier in the course our supt shared with me similar situations about when our district looked at cutting budget you had to watch certain funding source issues. I like your last statement about asking why districts can not just spend money as see fit for needs of district. Very interesting, never really thought in those terms. Hope all is well in Childress, drive through your area often. Our son attends WT.
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