Oklahoma districts expect more cuts
EDUCATIONTentative allocations may not mean much, official says
DAWN MARKS
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Published: July 28, 2009
Administrators in several Oklahoma school districts say they aren’t counting on initial state aid allocations and are making conservative estimates of their own.
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• Oklahoma City: Down $137,751
• Tulsa: Down $575,148
• Edmond: Up $89,277
• Midwest City-Del City: Down $318,833
• Moore: Down $190,134
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Conservative approach
David Fraser, chief financial officer for the Edmond Public Schools, said the initial allocation numbers help administrators see if factors have changed.
This year, for example, aid went up about $15 per student in the state, but most of that money will go to pay an increase into the state teachers’ retirement fund.
"We do our own projections. We’ve ended the year with an adequate and healthy fund balance. We’ll take a conservative approach,” Fraser said.
Fraser said he expects the Edmond district to grow in enrollment — perhaps by 350 students — and the overall budget to be up about $2.5 million, including local ad valorem.
Moore Superintendent Debbie Arato said she also expects state aid allocation numbers to be fluid. They will change again when districts receive a mid-year adjustment after enrollment counts in October. The district has a healthy fund balance of about 8 percent despite opening a new high school last year, she said.
Thankful for stimulus
Trish Williams, chief financial officer for Tulsa Public Schools, said administrators are expecting a decrease in state aid because of a reduction in weighted average daily membership, which has to do with the number of students in school on a certain day and the category that they fit into, such as if they have special needs.
The district’s initial allocation is down about $575,000 compared to the end of last fiscal year.
"Our real concern is if the state revenues are sufficient to fund the allocation,” Williams said.
Kathleen Kennedy, Oklahoma City Public Schools spokeswoman, said administrators don’t plan to use initial allocation numbers. The district will have a better picture later in the school year when final numbers are in, she said.
Stacy Boyer, spokeswoman for the Midwest City-Del City School District, said the district’s funding decreased about $300,000, but without $3.6 million in stimulus money, the school district would be down even more.
"We’re trying to survive on what we have,” she said. "We’re very thankful we received stimulus money, or we’d be really hurting.”
assistant state superintendent for finance
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Last years report/article said the state gets $8,000 per student but only spends $7,000. A difference of $1,000 per student or $641.72 MILLION that went unaccounted for.
In an article that ran with this one, the enrollment numbers have gone down slightly but the other numbers have gone up: Received $5.5 Billion but only spent $4.706 Billion ($1,251 per student) or $794 MILLION unaccounted for.
Obviously, that missing $1,000 to $1,251 per student would go along way to raising teachers salaries, raising per pupil spending to the regional average and increase Oklahoma's rankings in a lot of areas overall.