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Here is a short excerpt from the Superintendents letter to the Board of Education, outlining her recommendations. I think that this does a pretty good job of briefly outlining how we got to where we are.
The full letter can be read at
http://www.spps.org/district_information/04-05_super_Budget_Rec.html
- - - - - Letter from Patricia Harvey
"Several factors are contributing to the loss in projected revenue for 2--4-2005 that is driving the deficit. The first factor is that the enrollment in the school district continues to decline for the third year in a row. The Student Accounting Office has estimated that the school district will see a decline of 1,677 pupil units in fiscal year 2005. This decline is fueled mainly by the decrease in the birthrate in Saint Paul and, consequently, by a lower number of school-age children (e.g. graduating classes of 4000 and kindergartners of 3200). We are also impacted to a lesser extent by expanded school choice.
The second factor contributing to the deficit is that the per pupil general education revenue that the district receives from the State of Minnesota is expected to remain at the level of $4,601 for the third year in a row. This is the amount that is in the law at this time; and since 2004 is not a funding year at the legislature, and increase is not expected. In fact, with the projected $185 million state deficit, we only hope that it will not be reduced.
The final factor contributing to the projected deficit is a continued increase in the costs that the district is expecting, at the same time that there is not a corresponding growth in revenue. In particular, the costs for health insurance are expected to continue to rise dramatically. The school district has made great strides to control the district's share of that increase through contract limits, but costs continue to escalate much faster than State funding. Other areas of increase are electricity and natural gas. In these areas, the district is projecting from a 7 percent to a 17 percent increase in costs for 2004-05."
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Links to this and more (I'll be adding more as the day progresses) can be found at:
http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/spps_forum.html
If anyone has anything to add about "how we got here" please share it with the forum.
-- Tim Erickson List Manager St. Paul Issues Forum http://www.e-democracy.org/stpaul/ Hamline Midway Resident 651-643-0722 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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