State Aid - Calculating Formula Needs

The first calculation for the Nebraska Department of Education is determine the number of Formula Students in each District. "Formula Students" is basically the sum of the number of students in grades K-12 + the number of 4 year olds in preschool - the number of half-day kindergarten students. There are some calculations made to account for the percentage of time four year olds and half-day kindergarten students attend school, with preschool students counting as 0.37 of a student and half-day kindergarten as 0.5. Bancroft-Rosalie has 268.79 Formula Students. The Department of Education lists all schools from the lowest Formula Students to the Largest with their adjusted General Fund Operating Expenditures and cost per student. Next the Department of Education calculates the Adjusted General Fund Operating Expenditures for each district. Adjusted General Fund Expenditures is the result of the Total Expenditures from the General Fund minus funds received and spent on identified State and Federal programs, including the allowances I noted in yesterdays blog. For example, Bancroft-Rosalie adjustments would include any General Fund Expenditures to pay off Bonds, for preschool, summer school, poverty programs, the limited English program, some transportation costs, distance education, above state average instructional time, and special receipts. The adjusted General Fund Operating Expenditures for Bancroft-Rosalie $2,100,223.10. Divided by 268.79 Formula Students, the adjusted cost per formula student is $7813.64. Calculating Basic Funding Needs for each district: Take the 10 larger schools, 10 smaller schools and the school district itself. Add the adjusted General Fund Operating Expenditures for all 21 schools, throwing out the 2 highest and 2 lowest numbers. Divide the total by 17 and that number is the Basic Funding Needed for that school district. The Bancroft-Rosalie Basic Need is $2,605,823.87. Look at the document below to see the schools that are included in our district calculations. I circled the four schools that were thrown out of the calculation for being the two highest and two lowest spending schools. Notice that we were thrown out of our own cost grouping because we were one of the low spending schools, which has been the case every year.