Budget
In 2009, the district reported employing 537 teachers and administrators with a salary range of $40,000 to $148,231. Additionally, the teachers received: a defined benefit pension, health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, life insurance, professional development reimbursement, paid personal days, 10 paid sick days, and other benefits.
In 2007, the district employed 376 teachers. The average teacher salary in the district was $53,071 for 180 days worked. As of 2007, Pennsylvania ranked in the top 10 states in average teacher salaries. When adjusted for cost of living Pennsylvania ranked fourth in the nation for teacher compensation.
Shaler Area School District administrative costs per pupil in 2008 was $644.75 per pupil. The lowest administrative cost per pupil in Pennsylvania was $398 per pupil. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association keeps statistics on salaries of public school district employees in Pennsylvania. According to the association's report, the average salary for a superintendent, for the 2007-08 school year, was $122,165. Shaler Area SD's Superintendent was paid $148,231. Superintendents and administrators receive an extensive benefit package commensurate with that offered to the district's teachers' union.
In 2008, the district administration reported that per pupil spending was $12,993 which ranked 176th among Pennsylvania's 501 school districts. In 2010 the per pupil spending had increased to $13,787.33 Among the states, Pennsylvania’s total per pupil revenue (including all sources) ranked 11th at $15,023 per student, in 2008-09. In 2007, the Pennsylvania per pupil total expenditures was $12,759.
Reserves In 2008, the district reported a balance of $$3,843,438 in a unreserved-designated fund. The unreserved-undesignated fund balance was reported as $3,368,367. In 2010, Shaler Area School District Administration reported a decrease to $3,775,000 in the unreserved-designated fund balance. The unreserved-undesignated fund balance was reported as $3,479,203. Pennsylvania school district reserve funds are divided into two categories – designated and undesignated. The undesignated funds are not committed to any planned project. Designated funds and any other funds, such as capital reserves, are allocated to specific projects. School districts are required by state law to keep 5 percent of their annual spending in the undesignated reserve funds to preserve bond ratings. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education, from 2003 to 2010, as a whole, Pennsylvania school districts amassed nearly $3 billion in reserved funds.
In December 2010, the Pennsylvania Auditor General conducted a performance audit of the district. The findings were reported to the school board and administration.
The district is funded by a combination of: a local earned income tax 0.5%, a property tax, a real estate transfer tax 0.5%, coupled with substantial funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the federal government. In the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, pension income and Social Security income are exempted from state personal income tax and local earned income tax, regardless of the level of the individual’s personal wealth.
Read more about this topic: Shaler Area School District
Famous quotes containing the word budget:
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“A budget takes the fun out of money.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.”
—Joseph E. Levine (b. 1905)