Ferndale Schools

A collection of performance measures that a state, its school districts, and subpopulations of students within its schools are supposed to meet if the state receives Title I, Part A federal funding. In Washington, the measures include:

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The financial plan adopted by the governing body that forms a basis for appropriations.

Highly Capable Program in Ferndale School District

Funds that federal or state governments distribute to local education agencies or other governmental units according to certain formulas.

The difference between the combined interest rates on the investment of bond or note proceeds and the combined interest rates of the bonds or notes themselves. The ability of a school district to earn arbitrage is heavily regulated by federal income tax regulations.

These funds are one-time awards given under the auspices of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Funds generated by the ASB must be spent on ASB associated activities.

The property valuation determined by the municipal (city, village, town, or county) assessor as of January 1 in any given year. It is important that property of equal value be assessed at equal amounts, but it is not necessary that the amounts reflect the true sale value of the property. State law requires that total assessments within a municipality be within 10 percent of equalized valuation no less frequently than every five years.

Basic Education Apportionment: Averaged amount each student in Ferndale generates from the state budget. This year's average apportionment for each students was $5122.43.

This account balance should reflect the district's recorded inventories and/or prepaid items on the balance sheet. These are assets of the district that are not in spendable form and are listed under the "nonspendable fund balance" portion of the district budget.

The amount of money the board has designated as being available to the district to cover the cost of emergencies, unforeseen circumstances much like your household "savings" account.

A school district bond issue is a bond issue used by a public school district, typically to finance a building project or other capital projects. It is a written obligation to pay a specified sum of money, called the face value, at a fixed time in the future, called the date of maturity. Bonds generally carry interest at a fixed rate, but may carry variable rates. Principal and interest payments are usually payable periodically. A bond can have a final maturity of no greater than twenty years

The amount of money left in building and department budgets at the end of the fiscal year. This money must be accounted for in the "restricted fund balance" category.

The actual cash on hand at a specific point in time. Many school districts will have a negative cash balance at some point in the year unless they borrow. Cash balance is contrasted to Fund Balance in that it includes only cash.

Aid which is intended to finance or reimburse a specific category of instructional or supporting program or to aid a particular target group of pupils. The district may use the aid only for the purpose for which it is paid. For example Title 1 LAP, Special Ed, ELL, Highly Capable Program are all "categorical programs" with specific requirements.

Certificated Administrative Staff

Certificated Instructional Staff

A condensed user friendly version of the FSD budget.

School employees who are not required to hold teaching credentials, such as bus drivers, secretaries, custodians, instructional aides, and some management personnel.

Career and Technical Education

For the payment of principal and interest on long-term debt.

Major repairs of buildings and equipment that have been postponed by school districts. Some matching state funds are available to districts that establish a deferred maintenance program to proceed with these repairs.

This is federal legislation that pushed $10 billion out to the states to help the nation's school districts to rehire laid-off teachers. However this month, the Washington State Legislature did what Gov. Chris Gregoire asked and took the money to help balance the state budget, rather than pushing it out to school districts. Technically the lawmakers didn't take that money, since it has already been shipped to the districts. Instead, it reduced the amount it had been planning to pay for basic education by an identical amount.

This represents the number of certificated staff we are able to hire based on the projected budget for the coming year.

The total number of pupils enrolled, whether part-time, full-time, resident or non-resident. For state reporting purposes, students must be enrolled in a qualifying program. A pupil is considered enrolled whether in attendance on a specific count date or not, plus pupils enrolled in home bound instruction and non-graduates enrolled in qualifying alternative programs. If a pupil is absent without excuse for more than 20 consecutive school days, his or her enrollment is retroactively terminated to the last day of attendance.

The number of students determined by an analysis of different mathematical models, agreed upon and voted on by the board, to base our prediction of state apportionment dollars which establishes the budget for the coming year. This year the board agreed to take the most conservative of five different projection models and decrease that enrollment projection number by approximately 48 students. The projected enrollment number is used to establish the educational program in Ferndale next year is 4775.

End of Course exams in math required by state legislature

Full day kindergarten. In Ferndale Central elementary generates state dollars to fund their FDK program. For our other elementary schools each kindergarten student generates 1/2 of the amount as a student in grades 1-12 as the state fund only a half-time kin kindergarten program. Ferndale offers a FDK in all of our elementary schools.

Free/Reduced-price Meals. Also used to determine the level of poverty in a school or district

Full-Time Equivalent Student or Certificated Employee: The result of a computation that divides the (FTE) Enrollment amount of time for a less than full-time activity by the amount of time normally required in a corresponding full-time activity.

Represents the cumulative of surpluses and deficits over the years. The fund balance is often equated with the financial condition of a school district, however, it does not take into consideration long-term obligations (see Net Assets). Fund Balance contrasts with cash balance in that it includes certain amounts that are owed to or owed by the school district.

An account used to segregate a portion of fund balance which is marked for an intended, specific use by management or the board of directors. These amounts are not legally restricted nor do they represent a formal commitment on behalf of management or the board of directors. For funds other than the General Fund, these amounts also represent the excess of the assets of the fund over its liabilities, restrictions, commitments and are in spendable form.

Available expendable financial resources in a governmental fund that are not the object of tentative management plans (i.e. designations).

An account used to segregate a portion of fund balance which is legally restricted for a specific use. (Uninsured insurance risks, arbitrage rebate, carry over, inventory, etc.)Nonspendable Fund Balance. Those portions of a district's ending fund balance that are not available for use, either because they are not in spendable form or they are legally required to be maintained intact. Examples include the Inventory for a student store (not in spendable form), and the corpus of a trust fund (legally required to be maintained intact).

This fund is used to account for all moneys and resources set aside for the acquisition of fixed assets through construction and remodeling projects.

The fund used to account for expenditures for the purchase, major repair, rebuilding, and related debt service incurred for pupil transportation equipment.

This refers to the loss of Federal revenue associated with ARRA funds which are one-time awards given under the auspices of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). These funds were to be spent by the end of the 2011 fiscal year. There are no new funds being awarded under the auspices of the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds. Positions or programs associated with this revenue source will not longer be funded with AARA federal dollars.

The primary, legally-defined fund used by the state and school districts to differentiate general revenues and expenditures from those placed in other funds for specific uses.

Student Achievement funding was created by the passage of Initiative 728 in the November 2000 general election. There is no funding for Student Achievement for 2010-11.

Federal funds (unrestricted) paid to districts predominantly based on the number of federally (usually military) employed parents in the district or students of Native American descent. Impact aid may also be received as a payment in lieu of property taxes for federal forest land.

The rate used to recover a portion of the general expenses of operating the district (overhead costs) to a specific grant or program. School districts may assess indirect costs to some state and federal grants.

Kindergarten through 12th Grade

Kindergarten through Community College

Local Education Agency: A term used by the state and federal governments to identify school (LEA) districts and other local agencies that provide educational services. There is a numerical identification number assigned to each LEA. Ferndale is District #502.

Limited English Proficient

The total amount of real property taxes certified by each school board as necessary to provide funding for the annual school budget.

Funds allocated by the Legislature to address perceived inequalities and raise the funding level of school districts with lower revenue limits toward the statewide average based on size and type of district.

• Increases Local Effort Assistance (LEA) from 12 percent to 14 percent for 2011 through 2017.
• Lifts levy lid by 4 percentage points (from 24 percent to 28 percent for non-grandfathered districts) for 2011 through 2017.

The dollar amount that is determined by taking the total tax levy and dividing it by the value of property to be taxed. Normally stated in terms of dollars and cents per $1,000¬ósee Mill Rate.

The basic education allocation includes funding for the following fringe benefits required by law:(a) Employer contributions to OASI (social security). (b) Industrial insurance, medical aid, and the supplemental pension contribution.(c) Unemployment compensation. (d) Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) contribution. (e) Teachers' Retirement System (TRS) contribution.

Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs. Formerly known by the acronym NERC, or Non employee related costs.

Non employee related costs. NERC has a new accronym MSOC which stands for Materials, Supplies and Operating Costs.

Public Employees' Retirement System

A method of distributing funding according to the individual characteristics of each pupil. Weights or ratios are assigned for categories of pupil need or special costs and funds are allocated to districts based on their total weighted pupil count such as for special Education or ELL students.

Contracts we have with outside vendors.

Revised Code of Washington. Rules and regulations governing public education in Washington State

Reduction in Force. This represents the number of teaching positions that will not be funded in the coming year based on insufficient funds.

The Race-to-the-Top Incentive grants will reward states that have made significant progress in improving the equitable distribution of qualified teachers; establishing longitudinal data systems; enhancing the quality of assessments, including English language learners and students with disabilities in state assessments; improving the academic content and achievement standards; and providing effective support to schools identified for corrective action and restructuring.

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Federal funding available to school districts with demonstrated needs for special education funding in excess of state, federal, and local funding otherwise provided.

State Board of Education

State Education Agency - Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction

Supplemental Services (under NCLB) Additional learning opportunities, such as tutoring services, that must be provided to students from low-income families who are attending schools that have not met annual performance goals for two years in a row under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Parents can choose the appropriate services for their child from a list of approved providers. The school district pays for the services. (See Adequate Yearly Progress.)

School Improvement Planning

Student Success Team. A team of school staff members often composed of the principal, school psychologist, teachers, and resource specialists whose task is to find solutions to identified problems that students are facing.

The basic education allocation formula allocates state moneys and consists of certificated instructional staff (CIS) units, certificated administrative staff (CAS) units, classified staff units, legislatively specified salary and employee benefit levels, and nonemployee-related costs (NERC). Staff units are generated by full-time equivalent (FTE) enrolled pupils, excluding Running Start FTE enrollment, reported to this agency

These funds are one-time awards given under the auspices of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

This revenue provides financial assistance to school districts for students in need of specially designed instruction.

The district is allocated revenue based on the years of experience and educational levels of the staff hired by the district. This means it is not a fiscal savings to hire teachers that have less experience and less advanced educational credentials.

State-collected excise tax imposed on all timber harvested from state, federal, or privately owned land distributed to local school districts based on a timber assessed value (TAV) formula.

Funds for educationally disadvantaged students, calculated based on percentage of students on free and/or reduced lunch.

Train and recruit highly qualified teachers and principals

The purpose of this program is to increase access to technology, particularly in schools served by high-need local educational agencies; improve student academic achievement; provide schoolteachers, principals, and administrators with the capacity to integrate technology effectively into curricula and instruction that are aligned with challenging state academic content and student academic achievement standards; use technology to promote parent and family involvement in education; and support the rigorous evaluation of programs.

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Innovative programs / Public Charter Schools

Remote and necessary schools

Indian Education

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance..."

Transportation Vehicle Fund

Vocational Education

Washington Administrative Code

Permission from the State Board of Education to set aside the requirements of an Education Code provision or administrative regulations upon the request of a school district. The code specifies which laws can be waived.

New funding distribution formulas defined by the legislature to go into effect during the 2011-2013 biennium. Such funding distribution formulas change the elements of funding formulas used in the past to generate state dollars.