WASBO Fall Conference September, 2008

1. WASBO Fall ConferenceSeptember, 2008 DPI Updates Jerry Landmark, Assistant Director School Finance Team

2. DPI Update • Special Education Report Re-design; • On-time Communication: RSS feeds; • School Finance Analysis Tools; • DPI Biennial Budget Request-School Finance Issues • September Aid Estimate • Questions and Answers ….No matter what happens, someone will find a way to take it too seriously….

3. Special Ed Report Re-design • Beginning with the 2008-09 PI-1504 Special Ed Budget, districts will be asked to submit their report via SAFR; • The new report will still be separate from the PI-1505 Budget Report, but edits will be built in to ensure certain numbers from each report match.

4. Special Ed Report Re-design • The report is still in development, but will be available on October 20; • The report is due December 5.

5. Special Ed Report Re-design • The report is a lot like other SAFR reports, with the same input of a data file, rejected accounts, error, etc. • I’ll give you a sneak preview, and briefly go through some of the screens, but keep in mind it may change between now and October 20.

6. RSS Feeds …..Nobody cares if you can’t dance….just get up and dance…..!

7. What About RSS Feeds? • The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats: "Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)", or "Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)". • Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999, the RSS icon first gained widespread use in 2005–2006.

8. What About RSS Feeds? • RSS is a family of Web Feed formats used to publish frequently updated works such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video in a standardized format.

9. What About RSS Feeds? • Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them publish content quickly and automatically; • They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

10. What About RSS Feeds? • The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. • The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.

11. What About RSS Feeds? • Why is the DPI School Finance team testing RSS Feeds? • To provide you with up-to-date communication for specific topics of interest; • To provide immediate information when changes to specific spreadsheets, reports or documents are made; • No waiting for the weekly or bi-weekly listserv messages.

12. What About RSS Feeds? • Why is the DPI School Finance testing RSS Feeds? • To allow the Finance Team to eventually end all snail-mailings but yet provide the same or better communication with everyone.

13. What About RSS Feeds? • How do you get School Finance RSS feeds? • Go to our School Finance Website and click on the “School Finance RSS News Feeds” to subscribe; • Whenever a change is made to the 2008-09 Pre-Populated Revenue Limit Worksheet a message will pop into your email alerting you of the change.

14. What About RSS Feeds? • We’re looking for people to test this – and would appreciate your trying it and giving us some feedback; • Send your thoughts and feedback to Daryl Miller at daryl.miller@dpi.wi.gov or David Carlson at david.carlson@dpi.wi.gov

15. School Finance Analysis Tools …if you look like your passport picture… you probably need the trip….!

16. School Finance Analysis Tools • They can be found on our website under “District Budget Development and Planning; • I’ll briefly go through some of the tools Karen Kucharz-Robbe has developed to forecast and analyze where a district is and estimate where it’s going.

17. DPI Biennial Budget Request …Don’t think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm…..Malayan Proverb

18. DPI Biennial Budget Request • Add $187 million GPR in FY10 and $379 million in FY11 to fund 2/3 “partial school revenues”; • Aid would total $4,986,527,000 in 2010 and $5,178,690,000 in 2011; • This reflects a 3.9% and 3.85% annual increase, respectively, over the biennium.

19. DPI Biennial Budget Request • Add $11,889,300 GPR in FY10 and $24,436,200 to continue to fund the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program; • State general fund pays 55% of the total cost of the MPCP; Milwaukee Public Schools pays the remaining 45%; • Total aid would be $140,725,800 in FY10 and $153,272,700 in FY 11; • In September, 2008 there were 129 private schools eligible to participate in MPCP.

20. DPI Biennial Budget Request • Add $9,303,500 in FY10 and $15,500,000 in FY11 to fully fund the Milwaukee/Racine Charter Schools Program (MRCSP); • Aid would total $58,231,000 in FY10 and $64,427,500 in FY11; • Currently there are 16 charter schools participating in the MRCSP, 5 sponsored by the City of Milwaukee, 10 by UW-Milwaukee, and 1 by UW-Parkside.

21. DPI Biennial Budget Request • Increase the per-pupil low-revenue ceiling by $400 annually, to $9,400 in FY10 and $9,800 in FY11; • This allows approximately 110-120 of the lowest spending districts to increase their revenues to narrow the disparity with the highest spending districts.

22. DPI Biennial Budget Request • Increase the per pupil revenue limit adjustment to $335 in FY10 and $350 in FY11; • This is a 3.5% average annual revenue limit increase; • Current law would only allow approximately $285 in FY10 and $297 in FY11.

23. DPI Biennial Budget Request • Information about other DPI Biennial Budget Requests can be found on the School Financial Services website. …if you think education is expensive, try ignorance…….

24. September Aid Estimate • The latest September Equalization Aid estimate is now posted to our School Finance Website; • We used your last year’s aid membership, May 2008 Equalized Values, and PI-1506 AC data. • We ask that you use it as a data check – look at the worksheet we generated and make sure it agrees with your data.

25. Thank You • Please contact me or one of the consultants listed below for questions or comments: Jerry Landmark 608-267-9209 jerome.landmark@dpi.wi.gov Lori Ames 608-266-3464 lori.ames@dpi.wi.gov Brad Adams 508-267-3752 bradley.adams@dpi.wi.gov Karen Kucharz-Robbe 608-267-9707 karen.kucharzrobbe@dpi.wi.gov