DATE: April 3, 2008
SUBJECT: 2007–08 Revised Summary of Finances
TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED:
A revised Summary of Finances (SOF) and other related reports for the 2007–2008 school year have been posted to the School Finance website of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) at www.tea.state.tx.us/school.finance/. A summary of relevant information about the data updates in these reports, including planned future updates, is provided below:
New Summary of Finances (SOF) report – The format of the SOF has been streamlined and improved. Please take a moment to review and become familiar with the new layout. We will be adding more “drill down” links to view calculation details for more allotments in the coming months. We would greatly appreciate your feedback as we continue to improve our reporting in order to make your district’s funding information more accessible.
Projected Student Counts – The district planning estimate (DPE) column reflects the latest projection of end-of-year average daily attendance (ADA) and full-time equivalents (FTEs) for the current year. The ADA was projected by calculating the ratio of the final ADA reported to the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) for 2006–07 to the fall enrollment for that year. That ratio is applied to the enrollment reported to PEIMS in the fall of this school year. All other ADA and FTE counts were then estimated as a percentage of the projected ADA, again using last year’s ratios.
Budgeted Tax Collections – Budgeted maintenance and operations (M&O) tax collections for the 2007–08 school year as reported to PEIMS have been used on both the legislative planning estimate (LPE) and DPE columns. If your district was awarded an Instructional Facilities Allotment (IFA) for a lease-purchase agreement, the district’s local share of the IFA allotment has been subtracted from the M&O tax collections estimate before the calculation of state aid.
Revenue Target – At this time, the 2006–07 final settle-up process is not yet complete. However, the calculation of the revenue target on this version of the SOF reflects the most current “revenue per WADA” amounts for the “S2” and “S3” funding scenarios within the additional state aid for tax reduction (ASATR) hold harmless calculation. The final revenue per WADA amounts will be updated in the next version of the SOF, which is currently scheduled for publication in mid-September.
As always, the TEA strongly advises school districts to project state aid based on the best available information. Your district should complete the 2007–08 state aid template produced by the Education Service Center in Region XIII or an equivalent state aid estimation process. (The School Finance website provides a link to the ESC template on the website's "State Funding Worksheets Page" at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/school.finance/funding/index.html.) The greatest value of the SOF report is in explaining the basis of cash distributions to districts. Estimation of state aid earned can be significantly impacted by factors not known to the TEA and thus not reflected on the SOF reports produced by the State Funding Division. If you have any questions concerning these reports, please contact a state funding consultant at (512) 463-9238.
Sincerely,
Helen Daniels, Director
State Funding
