DEAR EDITOR:
In his article
”
GUSD braces for severe budget cuts,
”
printed 12/12/02, Dispatch reporter Eric Leins stated that the
GUSD budget is $67.7 million with $52.9 million, or 78 percent,
spent on teacher salaries and benefits.
DEAR EDITOR:
In his article “GUSD braces for severe budget cuts,” printed 12/12/02, Dispatch reporter Eric Leins stated that the GUSD budget is $67.7 million with $52.9 million, or 78 percent, spent on teacher salaries and benefits.
The GUSD budget for 2002-2003 states that GUSD expenditures are $92,121,932. Teacher salary and benefits is about $20,624,921, or 22 percent of the total.
Financial information provided in public debates and, apparently, to reporters by school board members and GUSD employees over the last several years does not agree with the budget. Would someone from GUSD or the board please explain why this discrepancy exists? It looks as though they are quoting the General Fund as if it were the entire budget, the state Averaged Daily Attendance allotment as if it were the total income, and the total salary cost as if it were all paid to teachers, none of which is true.
Hope suggests that high finance is just way too complicated for me; cynicism suggests that the board and GUSD are trying to Enron the electorate. Please justify hope.
Optional boring stuff:
• Financial numbers are from the last four pages of the GUSD 2002-2003 final budget Fund Summary section. Enrollment information is in the Enrollment & ADA section. Copies of the GUSD budget are available gratis at the district office.
• GUSD expects $41,811,439 in state ADA (Average Daily Attendance) funding for 9,530 students, $4,387 per student. Additional money from the state ($10,474,017), the federal government ($5,041,861), and local sources ($4,341,181) bring the total revenue for the General Fund to $61,668,498. The General Fund is the portion of the budget that GUSD can spend pretty much the way it likes.
• GUSD also receives $207,193 for adult education, $3,624,325 from food services, $465,318 for child development, $1,900,000 for capital facilities, $303,135 from deferred maintenance, $11,910,693 for the building fund, $69,505 for the foundation fund, $919,000 in self insurance, $3,378,786 from a tax override, and $4,700,942 from “other financing sources.”
• Total income for GUSD is $89,147,395. Similarly, total expenditures are $92,121,932; $83,216,077 itemized expenditures and $8,905,855 in “other financing uses.”
• Deficit spending in 2002-2003 will reduce GUSD reserve funds from $16,840,197 to $13,865,660.
• Total salary and benefits are $53,368,125; ~$41,249,841 for 543 certificated employees and ~ $12,118,284 for 284 classified employees. (The budget lists benefits as a lump sum; I have allocated them by salary ratio.)
• Certificated employees, those with a teaching credential, divide into teachers and administrative staff. Classified employees, without a credential, are mostly maintenance, clerical, and administrative.
• The budget does not summarize employees; the above employee totals are added up from 26 detail sections.
• Figuring out the teacher/administrator ratio among credentialed employees takes hours. I did it for the 2001-2002 budget but am way too lazy to do it again this year. The 2001-2002 ratio was 55 percent teachers to 45 percent administrators with teachers receiving less than half of total certificated salary.
• The $52.9 million mentioned in Mr. Leins’s article is correct for the total of all salaries; the $20.6 million teacher pay that I claim above is half of total certificated compensation.
Stuart Allen, Gilroy
Submitted Wednesday, Jan. 8 to ed****@ga****.com
