Mission Statement

The mission of the West Valley School District, a vital partner in a proud and caring community, is to ensure that all students achieve their highest level of knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to be responsible and productive citizens, effective communicators, creative problem solvers and life-long learners.  Through mutual support and the combined efforts of our families, schools and community we will provide a safe, high quality learning environment in which each student experiences success every day.

 

Board of Directors

Mike Carey
Sasha Kinloch
 Mike Meyer
Jim Roberts
Staci Verbrugge, President
 

Superintendent of Schools

Dr. Peter Ansingh
ansinghp@wvsd208.org

 

Assistant Superintendent of Learning & Teaching

 Peter Finch
finchp@wvsd208.org

 

Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations

 Tom Fleming, CPA
flemingt@wvsd208.org

Introduction Budget and Levy Summary Highlights General Fund Enrollment Revenues Expenditures Capital Projects Fund Debt Service Fund Associated Student Body Fund Transportation Vehicle Fund General Fund Summary Revenues Expenditures Fund Balance Capital Projects Fund Summary Debt Service Fund Summary Associated Student Body Fund Summary Transportation Vehicle Fund Summary

 

This document is a Budget Summary and guide to the 2008-2009 Budget of the West Valley School District No. 208.  The Budget Summary represents a continuing effort to provide meaningful financial information to our community.

This document presents simplified financial information to aid the public’s understanding of how public schools are operated.  The revenue estimates and spending plans summarized within this document are shown in much greater detail in the formal budget, OSPI Form F-195.

The Budget Summary contains information on the budgets for all five (5) district funds – the General Fund, Transportation Vehicle Fund, Capital Projects Fund, Debt Service Fund, and the Associated Student Body Fund.  If additional, more detailed information is required, please contact the West Valley School District Business Office at (509) 972-6000.

We welcome your comments and suggestions.

            Dr. Peter Ansingh                                          Tom Fleming, CPA
            Superintendent                                               Assistant Supt. Business & Operations

West Valley School District No. 208
8902 Zier Road
Yakima, WA 98908

 Phone (509) 972-6000
Fax (509) 972-6001

ALL FUNDS

BUDGET AND LEVY SUMMARY – FISCAL YEAR 2008-2009

 

 

 

HIGHLIGHTS

The major effort of the budget for 2008-2009 school year is to present an expenditure plan that is realistically balanced with expected revenues and supports those activities which help our students meet state and district academic standards.  Further, the budget seeks to maintain the cash balance and fund balance of the district and thus avoid mid-year shortages of cash on hand to cover routine payroll and other expenditures.

 

General Fund

The General Fund budget is heavily influenced each year by changes in state funding levels.  This past legislative session included some changes in funding that were very expensive for school districts.  As a result, many school districts locally and around the state had to make tremendous cuts to programs to fund the legislative changes.  West Valley School District, while not immune to the changes, was able to cover the additional expenses by utilizing an increase in both the levy and enrollment.  The legislative impact to the West Valley School District for the 2008-2009 school year amounted to about $800,000 in additional costs.  The following is a summary of the major impact areas to school districts for the 2008-2009 school year:

Initiative 732 (COLA) – Approved by voters in November 2000, requires an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for school employees based on the Seattle Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the prior calendar year.  For the 2008-2009 school year, the State funded a 4.4% cost-of-living increase for both certificated and classified staff.  The state also provided a .72% increase to the certificated salary schedule to help eliminate some of the salary inequity that was created years ago when the state adopted a statewide salary allocation schedule.  This statewide allocation schedule is commonly known as the LEAP schedule.  At that time the state “grandfathered” 34 districts to a salary above the adopted LEAP schedule since their district’s salary schedule was already higher than the LEAP schedule.  The salary equity increase is intended to reduce the grandfathered districts from 34 to 13 by the end of the 2007-2009 biennium.  The district did not receive any salary equity increase for classified employees.

The district will receive a total of 5.12% increase for each funded Program 01-Basic Education certificated staff member and a 4.4% increase for each funded Program 01-Basic Education classified staff member.  This will result in about $480,000 in additional revenues to the district.   The total cost to pass this benefit through to all employees in the district is about $1,200,000. 

Local Effort Assistance (LEA) – Local Effort Assistance (LEA), also known as levy equalization, will continue in 2008-2009.  The Legislature continued to fund LEA at 100% as compared to 95.63% in 2005-2006.  LEA helps to equalize tax revenues between property rich districts and property poor district throughout the state.  The increase will result in additional revenues of $190,000 over and above the $1.65 million received in 2007-2008.  The increase will be used to offset the salary and retirement increases for unfunded Program-01 Basic Education staff.

Health Insurance Benefit – The health insurance benefit was increased from $707 per FTE staff member to $732 per funded Program 01-Basic Education staff member.  This increase will result in about $97,000 in additional revenues to the district.  The total cost to pass this benefit through to all employees in the district is about $126,000.

Non-Employee Related Costs (NERC) – The district is currently funded at $9,703 per FTE (staffing) for NERCs.  The 2008-2009 budget has an increase to $10,178 for every Program 01-Basic Education funded staff person.  The increase will result in additional revenues of $80,000 over the 2007-2008 allocation.  This amount is allocated to help pay for utilities, building budgets, maintenance costs, etc.

Retirement Rates - The biggest financial impact to school districts that resulted from the 2008 legislative session was the increase in the retirement rates.  Substantially all employees of the school district participate in a cost-sharing statewide retirement system managed by the Washington State Department of Retirement Systems.  The two plans include the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) and School Employees’ Retirement System (SERS).  Each employee’s retirement plan is funded jointly by the employee and the district.  This legislative session included significant increases in both the employee and employer’s contribution rates.  The employer contribution rates increased from 5.84% and 5.9% to 8.46% and 7.54% for the TRS and SERS plans respectively.  The result is an increased cost to the district of about $460,000.

Learning Assistance Program
The state’s Learning Assistance Program (LAP) provides additional resources to school district to provide additional opportunities for struggling students.  The state eliminated the Promoting Academic Success Program (PAS) and increased funding for LAP.  The change in the funding formula will provide an increase of about $77,000 for LAP and a reduction of PAS funding of about $90,000 for the 2008-2009 budget

Library Improvement

Funding was provided by the state to allow school districts and schools to update and improve their libraries.  Specifically, the state provided one-time funding based upon $4.09 per FTE student.  The funding is intended to augment and improve the existing inventories of books found in our libraries.  The district is anticipating receiving approximately $19,000 for the 2008-2009 budget.

Targeted Investments in Math and Science

The state once again provided additional funding of Learning Improvement Days (LID) for math and science teachers to support district efforts to align instruction with the new math and science state standards.  This funding was first created in 2007-2008 and will continue in 2008-2009.  These professional development days are in addition to the two LID days the state already provides in the existing state funding formulas. The district is anticipating receiving about $75,000 for the targeted investments in math and science.  The additional funds will be used to supplement the district’s current professional development program in math and science.

Gas and Diesel Fuel

The cost of gas and diesel fuel continues to rise.  In May 2008 the cost per gallon of diesel was $3.71.  The district’s buses consume about 50,000 gallons of diesel every year.  For the 2008-2009 budget, diesel fuel in Program 99-Transportation was budgeted at $5.00 per gallon or $250,000.  An additional $2.00 per gallon was budgeted as contingency.

The district’s enrollment has grown steadily over the past several years.  The 2008-2009 budget is based on an enrollment projection of 4,660 FTE students (plus 47 FTE Running Start).  This is an increase of 122 FTE over the budgeted 2007-2008 school year.  A three year Cohort projection estimates 4,712 FTE for the 2008-2009 school year.

 

 

Revenues

The district receives revenues from three primary sources – local, state, and federal.  Local revenues account for 16.5%, federal sources for 6%, and state revenues supporting the majority of operations with 77.5%.

Local Resources: Local revenues come primarily from voter approved special levies and the purchase of breakfast and lunches from child nutrition.  The district is anticipating about $7.2 million in local resources.

State Resources:  The district is anticipating approximately $33.8 million in State resources to support basic operations of the district.  Most revenues from the State are allocated to the district based on student enrollment.  For every 1,000 students enrolled for the full year in our district the State provides Basic Education revenue to pay for the following: 

 

Category	Grades	State Funded Number of Staff/1000	District Number of Staff/1000
Teachers	K-4	53.20	58.22*
Teachers	5-12	46.00	48.50*
Administrators	K-12	4.00	3.43
Classified Staff	K-12	17.02	20.96*

 

* The District staff ratio includes levy funded teachers and para-professionals.  The K-4 Certificated Staffing is significantly above funding because the local levy supports full-day kindergarten.

Certificated staff include all employees holding a teaching certificate.  Certificated staff are funded based upon the district’s actual student enrollment.  The State uses a separate funding formula based upon student enrollment at the K-4 and 5-12 levels.  The number of certificated staff members is calculated and the State provides funding by placing each teacher in the district on the statewide salary allocation schedule (LEAP schedule).  Basically, an average salary factor per district is derived that determines the funds received.

Classified staff include custodians, secretaries, para-professionals, child nutrition staff, groundskeepers, maintenance personnel, technology personnel and others who do not hold a teaching certificate.  The number of staff members generated are based upon actual student enrollment.

Additional significant state resources include Special Education, Learning Assistance, Bilingual, Student Achievement (I-728), and Transportation.

Federal Resources: The district is anticipating approximately $2.6 million in Federal resources.  These funds provide more specialized help for students who are performing poorly in reading and math (Title I), special services for special needs students (Special Education), subsidized breakfasts and lunches for students (Nutrition), targeted assistance for migrant students (Title I-Migrant Education), and class-size reduction (Teacher Principal Quality).

Other:  The district budgets $600,000 in both revenues and expenditures, for “capacity”.  School districts are not allowed to spend more in total dollars than are budgeted.  In order to allow for unanticipated receipts of grants, grant increases, and/or major donations, the district budgets an amount that will cover new expenditures tied to specific new revenues.

Expenditures 

General Fund expenditures can be categorized in several ways in the budget.  The district prepares its expenditure budget based on a program basis.  Program budgeting allows the district to examine the costs of instructional programs on an individual basis.  Details on the budget by program may be found in the section title General Fund Summary.

For ease of comparison with the 2007-2008 school year, the charts below summarize budgeted General Fund expenditures first by object of expenditure and then by activity.

Budgeted Expenditure Summary by Objects

 

 

Budgeted Expenditure Summary by Activity Group 

 

Other Support activities includes child nutrition, transportation, motor pool, building and grounds maintenance, and utilities.

District Administration includes board, superintendent’s office, business office, human resources and supervisors other than Principals.

  Capital Projects Fund 

The capital projects fund is used to account for the acquisition or construction of major capital facilities.  This includes the acquisition of land or existing facilities, construction of buildings, purchase of equipment, making capital improvements, or implementing technology systems.

The current budget includes expenditures for the new West Valley High School.  In addition, the budget provides for an operating transfer of $5,250,000 to the Debt Service fund to retire a bond issued in June 2007.

 

Debt Service Fund

The debt service fund makes payments on the District’s long-term debt.  The district currently has five outstanding bonds.  With the passage of the $52.3 million high school bond levy on May 16^th, 2006, the district issued new construction bonds in July 2006 and January 2007.  Anticipated tax revenues for 2008-2009 are estimated at $4,245,894.  This amount will allow the district to meet the bond principal and interest payments due in December and June.

The district also issue $5,000,000 in non-voted bonds in June 2007.  The bonds were issued to comply with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s requirements for funding the new high school project.  Funds are required to be on deposit with the Yakima County Treasurer before the district can enter into the construction contract.  The bonds will be repaid with state matching funds for the new high school.  The district is anticipating receiving $20 million in state matching funds.  This budget includes and operating transfer and expenditures of $5,250,000 to retire the non-voted bond.

 

Associated Student Body Fund 

Financial transactions in the Associated Student Body (ASB) Fund are limited to general student body activities, athletics, classes, clubs, and private moneys (charitable contributions).

The budget basically gives the schools the budget capacity to carry out their normal operations during the year.

Transportation Vehicle Fund 

The Transportation Vehicle Fund is used for the purchase, major repair, rebuilding, and related debt service for pupil transportation equipment.

Revenues in this fund are generated from depreciation received from the State and investment interest.  This year we are expecting to receive around $230,000 in depreciation.  We have also included a $150,000 transfer of levy funds from the General Fund to keep up on the increasing costs of bus purchases and the increases in student enrollment.  The 2008-2009 budget includes $390,000 in expenditure capacity to purchase up to three school busses. 

 

GENERAL FUND

Summary of Budget

 

 

 

GENERAL FUND

Detail of Revenues

Detail of Revenues 

Apportionment is driven by our staff mix factor, the statewide salary schedule, and our basic education enrollment.  The district is budgeting for an enrollment of 4,660 FTE (plus 47 FTE Running Start) for the 2008-2009 budget.

Federal Forest revenues are the district’s share of the sale of timber on federal forest land.  This district’s apportionment from the State is reduced by the district’s share of federal forest money each year.

Timber Excise Tax is the district’s share of the excise tax that is collected for the harvesting of timber.

Property Taxes are 44% of the 2008 levy received in the fall and 55% of the 2009 levy receive in the spring.

Local Effort Assistance is the district’s levy equalization funds related to the levy.  The district is anticipating an increase in levy equalization revenue for 2008-2009.

Tuition and Fees, Unassigned are fees for shop, art, lab and other miscellaneous items collected at the schools.  This revenue category also includes extra-curricular pay-to-participate fees.

Sales of Goods, Supplies are revenues received for miscellaneous items sold by the district.  Revenues in this category could include anything from a t-shirt sold by a school to the sale of a surplus vehicle.

Day Care revenues are derived from providing lunch to EPIC.

Gifts, Grants and Donations are revenues received commonly from local PTA’s.

Other Community Services are the revenues received by the Child Nutrition Department providing “catering” services.

School Bus Revenue, Local are revenues received in the form of grants from local PTA’s.

Local Non-tax Unassigned revenues are miscellaneous revenues collected by the district that do not fit into another revenue category.

Investment Earnings are received by investing idle cash held by the County Treasurer.

Fines & Damages are collected from students for book fines and damages to property.

Insurance Recoveries are received based upon mishaps that occur during the year.  Most revenues are received from our insurance carrier for damages in which the district is insured.

Rentals & Lease revenues are received from the rental of district property.

Direct Federal JROTC is the federal share of the JROTC program.

Child Nutrition Federal, State & Local – These revenues are directly related to the number of meals served throughout the year.  Due to the rising cost of food the meal prices were increased for the 2008-09 school year.

Food Commodities - The revenues received in this category are related to the commodities that that district receives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  The revenues received are in the form of food.  No actual cash is received.  Proper accounting procedures require the district to record and recognized the revenues and expenditures.

Transportation Allocation - The district’s allocation from the State is based on student ridership.  The district anticipates a slightly larger allocation in revenues than received in the 2007-2008 school year.

Special Education includes State and Federally funded programs.  The district anticipates a slightly higher allocation in revenues for both programs as received in the 2007-2008 school year.

Title I Disadvantaged is a federally funded program that is based on the District’s poverty level.  The anticipated 2008-09 allocation is expected to be about $245,000 higher than the 2007-2008 allocation as a result of an increase in the poverty level for the West Valley School District as identified in the most recent population census.

Title I Migrant is a federally funded program that is based on the District’s migrant student population.  The anticipated 2008-09 allocation is expected to be several thousand dollars less than the 2007-2008 allocation.

School Improvement is a series of federally funded grant programs encompassing various titles of the No Child Left Behind Act designed to improve the quality of education.  The District’s largest grant is this category is the Teacher Principal Quality grant.  The anticipated 2008-09 allocation is expected to be several thousand dollars less than the 2007-2008 allocation.  The Teacher Principal Quality grant is used to reduce class-size at the elementary level.

Learning Assistance Program is a State funded program based on the District’s poverty level. The anticipated 2008-09 allocation is expected to be about $100,000 larger than the 2007-2008 allocation.  The increase is supplemental funding that must be used at the secondary level.  LAP was increased as a result of the elimination of the Promoting Academic Success Program.

Transitional Bilingual is a State funded program based on the District’s bilingual enrollment.  The anticipated 2008-09 allocation is expected to be similar to the 2007-2008 allocation.

Student Achievement or I-728 Funds reflects an increase over the 2007-2008 allocation.  The revenues generated in this program relate to the district’s 2007-2008 enrollment.  The state increased the allocation per student for the 2008-2009 school year. 

Highly Capable is a State funded program based on 2% of the District basic education enrollment.

Revenue Capacity – with the premise that any increase in expenditures is accompanied by a like increase in revenues, $600,000 is budgeted in both revenues and expenditures to accommodate additional grants or other funding received over the course of the year.

GENERAL FUND

 Detail of Expenditures 

Detail of Expenditures

Basic Education is about $2.3 million more than last year as a result of the cost-of-living increases, the significant increase in retirement rates, the increase in the health insurance benefit and the 120 FTE increase in enrollment.

Vocational Education is up slightly as a result in the cost-of-living increase, the increase in retirement rates and the increase in the health insurance benefit.

District-wide Support consists of the Board, Superintendent, Business Office, Human Resources, Grounds, Maintenance, Technology, Utilities, and WSIPC/ESD information systems costs.  The majority of the increase in expenditures is a result of the cost-of-living increase, the increase in the health insurance benefit and the increase in retirement rates.

Special Education is up slightly as a result in the cost-of-living increase, the increase in retirement rates and the increase in the health insurance benefit.

Federal and State grants reflect the same changes as the revenue side.

Child Nutrition reflects the breakfast and lunch programs.  It shows large increase as a result of the increased cost of labor (cost-of-living, health insurance and retirement) and food.

Transportation has increased significantly due to the increased cost of labor (cost-of-living, health insurance and retirement) and the rising cost of diesel fuel.

Expenditure Capacity – with the premise that any increase in revenues is accompanied by a like increase in expenditures, $600,000 is budgeted in both revenues and expenditures to accommodate additional grants or other funding received over the course of the year.