Support Units and School Finance

School funding in Idaho is based on average daily attendance (ADA) of students which is then converted into support units. At Genesee, we receive one support unit for every nineteen elementary ADA, twelve secondary ADA, 14.5 elementary special education ADA and forty kindergarten ADA. In more populous school districts, like Moscow and Lewiston, it takes a higher ADA to gain a support unit. For example it requires 23 ADA if you have more than 300 elementary students. The discrepancy is a recognition that it costs more per student to educate students in a smaller school than a larger one.

Support units are important because they are used to generate two pots of money we receive from the state. The largest pot is for salaries and benefits. We are allocated 1.1 teachers per support unit, .075 administrators per unit and .375 classified staff per unit. In addition, a district with fewer than 40 units receives an additional .5 administrator and .5 teacher. If a district has fewer than 20 units it receives another .5 teacher. This year Genesee generated 19.6 units however we are in "protected status" which means that we cannot have less than 99% of the units we had the prior year which provides districts with declining enrollment one additional year to adjust to the reduced ADA. So this year we have 20.2 units which generates 22.72 teachers, 2.015 administrators, and 7.575 classified staff. All of these numbers are expressed as full-time equivalents. Using this information, coupled with the experience and education of the instructional and administrative staff, a salary and benefit allocation is provided to the District.

The other pot of money is for discretionary expenditures (supplies, maintenance, utilities, equipment, textbooks, etc.). The District should receive $25,696 per support unit for these other expenditures assuming that the enrollment statewide does exceed the projected enrollment. If it does, then every support unit would generate a lesser amount of funding.

There is other funding which comes from the state which is not related to support units such as transportation reimbursement which is received the year following the actual expenditures and is reimbursed at a rate of 85% of allowable costs. Other state support is related to ADA but not support units. This includes a textbook allowance, classroom supply money, and technology.

The state covers 79% of all general education expenditures in the Genesee School District. Each May I provide a presentation at school to explain the budgeting process and state funding which supports the budget. I encourage all interested persons to attend this meeting.