The Jefferson School District is reporting a budgeted Revenue Limit of $7,311,795 as of 8/31 of this year. This is less than that budgeted as of one month earlier, which was based on outdated and low enrollment projections as well as inaccurate and outdated state allocation rates from as early as January. Meanwhile newer and more accurate data became available in May, and again at the beginning of August, when the State passed this year's budget.
The number above is based on enrollment, along with a defined funding rate per ADA (average daily attendance.) The ADA is projected by using a 95% factor (when historically, the attendance rate among the district schools is closer to 98%.)
As of September 4, total district enrollment is reported as 1842. This, by the way is a 21% increase over September 2002. In fact, the average increase over the last five years is 17%. I argued for a higher budgeted rate given historical trends, however the board majority opted to budget at a 10% increase. Incidentally, that 10% is on ADA – not enrollment. Thus the 95% reduction factor has already been applied before taking 10 percent. Silly, isn't it?
The state budget passed this summer left the per ADA rate unchanged with no cost of living adjustment. For Jefferson School District, that means that we will receive $4644.50 per ADA for the current year. Taking 95% of 1842 leaves 1749.9 as our current ADA. Keep in mind also that enrollment has grown by over 6% between September and March of the previous two school years. Multiplying the 1749.9 ADA by the $4644.50 rate results in revenue of over $8.1 million as of last week, or $815,000 more than is being reported. Why?
If we project the actuals out to March 2004, and use a 6% growth rate, we would have an enrollment of 1953. This would result in over $8.6 million in revenue. This doesn't even include the million dollars the district will receive for lottery and class size reduction funding, not to mention the millions of dollars in developer fees.
Based on the current expenditure budget of just over $7.5 million, the district would have over $1.1 million projected in excess reserve in the general fund from this year alone. Combining that with the beginning balance of over $2 million results in a surplus of over $3.1 million. Clearly, convincing evidence exists that there are sufficient funds to restore many if not all budget cuts made during the past two school years.
Please join me in protesting the apparent reporting underages that prohibit the board from seeing the true picture and therefore allowing them confidence to restore funding that has been taken from the children. There is a board meeting tonight (Tuesday, September 9) at 6:30pm in the Jefferson School Cafeteria - 7500 W. Linne Rd., Tracy.
Daniel Wells is in his first year serving as a Jefferson School District trustee.