SCHOOL DATA & REPORTS:
PER PUPIL SPENDING BY SCHOOL TYPE:
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
(FOR FY 2001-2004 ONLY)

This report organizes town school districts into groups by the type of school system they operate. The data for each group include the number of equalized pupils, budgeted expenditures and local education spending per equalized pupil, and statewide rankings. Districts are ranked within the group, based on budgets per equalized pupils for the group alone. At the bottom of each grouping are comparative numbers showing what the data would be if the group was considered a single school district.

NOTE: This background information is only applicable to the FY 2001-2004 reports. Background information for the FY 2005 report is contained in a separate document.

The report was conceived as a method to show the wide variety of school education systems in Vermont and how costs per pupil varied within and between the different systems.

Per pupil spending variations between districts may result from a wide variety of factors. This partial list of factors may explain some of the variation seen in the budgetary data:

• Budgets are total budgets and account for the costs of all students, including those who are tuitioned, numbers that vary widely between districts.
• Budgets per pupil are based on residential pupil counts that do not include tuitioning students, resulting in artificially high per pupil numbers for districts receiving tuition students.
• Special education costs may vary widely between districts.
• Transportation costs may vary widely between districts.
• Local programmatic choices differ between districts.
• New resources may be available from the implementation of Act 60.
• Historical spending patterns may differ.
• Capital construction projects may differ.
• Experience level of the teaching staff may differ.
• Contractual agreements with the staff may differ.

Local education spending is that portion of a school district budget funded by the general state support grant, local education tax revenues, and any aid from the sharing pool when applicable. Local education spending data are subject to the above factors plus others, such as:

• A surplus or deficit from a prior year;
• Privately donated dollars; and
• The distribution of federal dollars.

This report organizes town school districts into groups by the type of school system operated in FY 2004. The listed categories are not inclusive of all school systems operated throughout Vermont. Some school districts were placed in a category that most closely approximated their actual school system. For example, a school district operating a kindergarten through 3rd grade school was classified as a kindergarten through 6th grade school system.

Town school districts were then identified by size, based upon the number of equalized pupils within the district. The choices for school district size were not intended as any specific representation with the exception of those districts classified as small. Rather, they were logical dividing points in numerical terms. The size categories are as follows:

1. Small - less than 100 equalized pupils
2. Medium - greater than or equal to 100 equalized pupils, but less than 500
3. Large - greater than or equal to 500 equalized pupils, but less than 1,000
4. Very large - greater than or equal to 1,000 equalized pupils

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