First year of Skyline High School cost Ann Arbor school district more than $2.5 million
The price of running Ann Arbor's Skyline High School in its first year? Just over $2.5 million.
That’s well within the range school officials established for the costs as the school was being built, Superintendent Todd Roberts said.
That figure was included in the audit of the district’s 2008-09 budget. The audit was approved by the school board during its meeting Wednesday night.
Overall, the audit showed the district spent $103,986,205 on instruction in the 2008-09 school year. That’s down slightly from the $104,871,699 spent on instruction in the 2007-08 school year.
Students arrive at Skyline High on the day it opened.
File photo
Instructional spending in 2008-09 made up 55.8 percent of the district’s $186.5 million general fund expenditures. In the 2007-08 school year, instructional spending was 55.7 percent of the districts $188.2 million general fund budget.
The district’s audit breaks down its spending by function, including how much was spent on elementary schools, middle schools and high schools.
The only area of those three to see an increase was spending on high schools, which rose from $27,897,286 in 2007-08 to $30,583,937 in 2008-09.
That increase was largely due to Skyline High School, which opened for the first year at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year with freshmen only.
Roberts said the district had to take on the bulk of the additional costs for running the school at the beginning of the year, even though it was only one-fourth full.
He said the hiring pattern at Skyline for new positions wouldn't continue for three more school years until the school is fully staffed. He said, for example, the district hired a band director but won’t hire another one as more students are attending the school.
Roberts also said the bulk of the teaching staff was transfers from other district middle schools and high schools.
As Skyline was being built, district officials estimated the cost of operating the new high school would run around $3.8 million to $4 million per year.
They said the district could afford that by switching a number of projects from its general fund to sinking and bond funds.
Roberts said he still thinks the district is on course to spend about that much on running Skyline, pending any budget cuts.
David Jesse covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at davidjesse@annarbor.com or at 734-623-2534.
Comments
DonBee
Thu, Dec 3, 2009 : 6:24 p.m.
Steve - Thank you. I note you are the only one who seems to have a pipeline into the school system. The budget will remain a mystery and subject to urban legend so long as no one takes the time to provide a good narrative to the budget and the audit reports. Until that time, the district is inviting people to make mistakes in reading the available numbers. I don't know who is responsible for talking to the tax payers, but whoever it is needs to work harder to reach the average citizen.
Steve Norton, MIPFS
Thu, Dec 3, 2009 : 3:06 p.m.
DonBee, it's kind of you to think I have such levels of influence, but I'm just a concerned citizen like you. I do agree that the district's practice of posting PDFs from scanned documents has not helped my aging eyes, and I will add my voice to the calls for documents generated electronically where possible (also makes them smaller). As to the issue of what is administration: I agree that principals are administrators. However, when people think of "instruction," I'm not sure most people are aware what *doesn't* get included in that, like libraries and librarians, school custodians, individual school administrators, and so on. So I'm not sure that I would accept that all that is just "overhead." Many student services, including many things funded with special education dollars, are included in "support" rather than instruction. I'm just trying to point out that the other 40% is mostly not central administration, but does include many other things that affect students every day. Is that "overhead?" Before saying we can do without things, we need to know the reality of where the money goes. And I am sure that people will find it much less mysterious than some folks have been claiming.
DonBee
Thu, Dec 3, 2009 : 12:39 a.m.
Steve will all due respect - Yes the superintendent's office is small, but the instruction improvement, principal office costs and other "administration" is much larger than 4%. With the audit report posted, I suggest people make their own decisions on what makes up adminstration and overhead and what does not. The office of the principal is over $12 million on a budget of $188 million. That alone is more than 4 percent. In my opinion principals are administration. In fact their union tells me they are. My read of the audit report shows much of the special education budget in the classroom, not all, but much. I know there is some (and it is broken down in the audit report) in the overhead category, so is transportation and utilities, transportation may be able to be cut, but utilities can not. I find it interesting that the cost of salaries is way more than the cost of fuel for the buses (a factor of about 5 times - if I assume the whole of the supplies budget when for fuel - it gets worse if I assume new tires and other supplies). We need to have an open debate on the numbers and the audit report offers the best view into the expenditures to date. It would be nice Steve if you could get a clean copy of the budget posted to the AAPS website, not the bad scan of a hard copy that is there today. It would also be nice if someone would tackle the areas that I posted on the audit report thread, and give us more background on why those numbers are what they are. Thank you in advance Steve
Steve Norton, MIPFS
Wed, Dec 2, 2009 : 11:58 p.m.
With respect, Ms. Nash, I've always found that article confusing. May I be so bold as to recommend a piece written for the millage campaign by BoE Trustee and economist Glenn Nelson? I think he does a very nice job of explaining what goes into each category: http://www.a2cmc.org/node/39 The long and the short of it is that these categories follow state-mandated definitions. "Instruction" includes only that spending which is literally in the classroom. The second biggest category, "support services" includes everything from school libraries and librarians to school nurses and guidance counselors. Many services in this category go to special education. Operations and maintenance is another big chunk: this is school custodians, the electric bill, and so on. Transportation is another segment. School administration (i.e. principals and school office staff) are also not included in "instruction" but in another category. Actual central administration is quite small, and accounts for only about 4% of district expenditures.
Commoncents
Wed, Dec 2, 2009 : 11:25 p.m.
"Instructional spending in 2008-09 made up 55.8 percent of the districts $186.5 million general fund expenditures." Where did the rest go? Teachers are getting pretty fired up that since the millage didn't pass it means they might get laid off. That stat leads me to believe 45% of the budget goes to administration and?? Let us know if you can.....