FY 2011 Budget Information
Frequently Asked Questions. These are Frequently Asked Questions about the finances of Rutland City Schools and education finance in Vermont from the Rutland City School Board. This piece generally explains how education taxes work and discusses common questions people have. If you would like additional information, please call the school district offices at 773-1900. We will be pleased to answer any questions.
FY2011 January 19, 2010 Cut List. This list contains the specific items cut from the FY2011 budget. All items in Tiers #1 and #2 were cut. No items in Tiers #3 or #4 were cut. FY2012 and FY2013 are expected to be difficult budget years according to the State and future cuts will be addressed at that time.
FY2011 Budget. This is a copy of the detailed FY 2011 budget to be voted on March 2, 2010.
FY2011 Budget Account Key. This is a key to account codes that make the document more understandable. The account number format is based on legal requirements by the US and Vermont Departments of Education.
FY 2011 Grants Budgets. This is a copy of the detailed individual grants and other forms of reimbursement budgets broken out to the maximum level of detail. They are included in the above budget at a summary level. These accounts are summarized together in the full budget above in account lines beginning with 99 and found at the end of the budget.
Three Years’ Prior Budget Summaries. These are summary sheets of the past three years’ budgets provided by the State. They also contain a projected tax rate based on our budget.
COMING SOON– Estimated Education Tax Amounts. The State, as of this writing, has not announced an official base tax rate for FY11 nor has it formally issued “town meeting grids” (the chart that shows estimated tax amounts) to town and city clerks or schools districts. However, the Joint Fiscal Office has drafted model grids under an 86 cent base rate assumption. You may estimate your taxes by following the links below. Your actual taxes may be lower or higher based on the actual base tax rate that will be set by the State.
We will post the link to this info here when it becomes available from the State.
Comparative Data for Cost Effectiveness. This information is prepared by the State and designed to compare the cost-competitiveness of schools that are comparable in size. It does not include technical centers, such as Stafford. In general, our schools have costs about 8.1% lower than the average of comparable schools. This is mainly due to our higher student to teacher and student to administrator ratios.
Administrative Staffing Analysis. Rutland Public Schools has conducted surveys of comparably-sized schools to determine if the district’s administrative staffing is above or below average. The results suggest a below-average number of administrators. Although this helps to keep costs down, it can have a quality impact on schools. Administrators evaluate and mentor teachers, monitor adherence to curriculum, assist in dealing with children who become disruptive, communicate with the public, and solve day-to-day problems that would bog down teachers and limit their productivity. It is not necessarily wise to be a low cost district in school building administration costs. We carefully monitor how well schools perform and the administrator staffing levels.
State Data about Administrative Costs. This sheet is a summary of the state’s computation of each supervisory union’s central administrative costs and school building administrative costs as a percentage of their total budgets. Rutland City Schools have the lowest central office costs of all 62 supervisory unions. The average is 2.44% and our cost is 1.26%. Similarly, our school building administrative costs are second from the lowest, 61st of 62nd. In this category, the average is 7.04% and ours is 4.87%. You may also click here to link to the State site and a more readable version of this report.
Download PDF of Fine Arts Calendar.
Download the RMS & RHS Bus Routes in PDF format.