Weed+4+-+School+Finance

The three most important components of the Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) is the purpose, reporting, and financial solvency review. The purpose (19 TAC 109.1005) is for districts to be held financial accountable for the financial resources and operational expenses. The reporting (109.1101) of the ratings to the parents and taxpayers brings mutual trust and integrity to the school district. FIRST consists of 22 indicators than range from fund balance to teacher-student ratio in a format that can easily be communicated to parents, community and other stakeholders. The financial solvency review (TAC 109.1101) is necessary for district to maintain and anticipate the future financial situation of the district.
 * Week 4**
 * Part 1 – Understand FIRST**

District 1 $ 10,529 (830 students = 276 students per campus) District 2 $ 10,316 (32,326 students = 718 students per campus)
 * Part 2 – Economy of Scale **
 * Total Revenue Per Pupil **

District 1 $ 8,611 District 2 $ 8,908
 * Total Operational Expenditures per pupil **

District 1 $ 39,771 District 2 $ 50,307 The total revenue per pupil in District 1 is about $200 more than District 1. District 1 has only 830 students and the $200 more per student is only $160,000. Whereas, District 2 may receive less total revenue the student population of 32,000 brings in a vast more revenue. District 1 appears to be a small rural area with little industry and depends on 61% of the revenue from the state. District 2 is a larger populated area and they only receive about 27% from the state. The total operational expenditures per pupil for District 1 are lower than District 2. However, the percentages of the expenditures are the area that needs to be compared. On instructional District 1 spends 54% and District spends 62%, a difference of 8%. Another area of noticeable difference is the athletics/related activates, District 1 spends 11% and District 2 spends 2%. The smaller district has to spend a larger percent amount on non-instructional in order to have enough funds for all operational areas of a school. The greatest disparity between the districts is the average teacher salary. District 2 average salaries are about $10,500 more than District 1. The local funding of District 2 gives them the advantage to offer attractive teacher salaries compared to a District 1 and offer additional instructional resources. The economy of scale is evident is by just the massive difference in the school population and teacher salaries. One would think the economy of scale is not apparent by looking at only the total revenue and operational expenditures per student. However, teacher salaries and the non-instructional expenditures take the majority of the revenue in a small district. The instructional resources, programs, and facilities are not going to be as available to a smaller district. On a different note, is the difference in student performance of District 1 and District 2. District 1 is considerable lower in state assessments and college admissions.
 * Average teacher salary **

// Dr. Stephens stated in this week’s lecture that “differentiated staffing is a concept that proposes specialized use of personnel.” Differentiated staffing already exists in many elementary PE classes, co-teaching in inclusion, and Special Education classes where a teacher may have one or more assistance. These teachers are able to concentrate on what they do best with having an assistant. Differentiated staffing as intended would assist the high school setting the most by having larger classes in such classes as history or language arts. A specialized teacher in these areas could concentrate on the curriculum and the delivery of instruction while having an assistant for grading and other tasks associated with the classroom. Another way would to have a several specialized teacher share one or two assistants. // // The concept of differentiated staffing by utilizing professionals in specialized area would benefit the students. However, the overall reform would be difficult for stakeholders to accept. For differentiated staffing to work as intended would require the reorganization of the school/district. The uproar of having more students in a classroom and needing fewer personnel will be a hard to convince too many. //
 * Part 3 – Differentiated Staffing **