Monday night, Windham school and town officials were given an in-depth look into how the state defines its subsidy of local education under the new Essential Programs and Services (EPS) model.
Under review by school officials is a proposed $28.07 million school district budget for 2006-2007 of which the state will pay $13.47 million, or $1.4 million more than last year.
James Rier of the state Department of Education led officials through a detailed breakdown of the funding model and how the state calculated its share of local education costs.
The funding model takes a comprehensive approach to deciding how much money a school needs to meet federal and state education standards, Rier explained.
Classroom education costs are assessed on a cost per pupil basis to the sum of $17.15 million for Windham’s nearly 3,000 students. Twice as much money per pupil is given to “special education,” or $2.2 million for Windham’s 286 special education students. “Limited English” students and financially disadvantaged students are also given weighted cost estimates under the model.
Expenses for advanced classes and vocational education are “spending driven,” Rier said, meaning the more money put into these classes, the more state subsidy is allotted for them.
Rier also showed a comparison between the state’s recommended staffing levels and Windham’s actual staffing of teachers and support personnel.
The Windham school district is two teachers short of the state’s recommendation, but that difference is accounted for in the high number of teacher’s assistants employed. One other noticeable difference was the increased number of guidance positions, four more than the number recommended by the model. But Rier noted these numbers are meant to generally assess state subsidy and not dictate staffing levels in a school.
If the district’s proposed budget of $28 million goes before the voters, the district will be asking for $2.29 million in additional local funds, roughly $400,000 above EPS guidelines.
This model is not perfect and doesn’t account for 100 percent of the education costs taken on by a school district, Superintendent Donn Davis notes.
Included in that $2.29 million in additional local funds is $905,000 in local debt payment, extracurricular activities like school sports ($363,000), and a sharp increase in energy costs ($312,000) unaccounted for by the model.
Despite a budget increase above the EPS model, the local share of education costs will remain the same as last year ($12.9 million) if the proposed budget is approved by voters this June.
On Monday, school board officials asked Rier to clarify whether the EPS funding model was meant to set a “tax cap” for educational spending.
Rier said the model itself only assessed the cost of local education to figure out state subsidy. The model has since been tied to the LD1 tax reform legislation which put a “tax cap” on the amount local property taxes can be raised to pay for town government.
Once Windham’s proposed school budget is finalized, school officials will have to sell the $400,000 in expenditures over EPS costs to taxpayers who will vote on the issue this June along with the school district budget. And the more explanation, the better, says Rier.
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