USD #223 Update
January 22, 2008
As we continue exploring the information about declining enrollment, another factor unique to our small district is the parochial population at both sites. We currently have 33 students at Linn Lutheran and 90 students at St. John’s Catholic. This is a significant number of students that we currently do not receive full funding for.
Although every taxpayer is assessed the 20 mills for education funding, we do not receive the full benefit of that figure because those 123 students do not count toward our funding formula. We do receive partial funding for those students that receive services from the public school. Any student that comes to the public school for classes is counted during the time they are in class. They are also counted in our special education population if they are receiving services.
Items that are added benefits for the public school include the use of the St. John’s gym, land for junior high football practice, parochial staff members filling extra-curricular positions and a commitment to continue to look for ways to help each other. This year we have been working further with St. John’s for our junior high math classes. The public and parochial students receive instruction from the math teacher from St. John’s and the public school is paying for that portion of the salary. The added benefit to the public school is that we can now count the junior high students from St. John’s as .6 FTE (full time equivalency).
For the current year’s public school budget we are able to count an FTE of the Linn parochial students of 2.7. The St. John’s students are counted at 25.4. This is the amount of time the public school can count those students for funding purposes. When you add those together for a figure of 28.1 and multiply that by the base state aid of $4,374 you get a figure of $122,909 that helps fund the public school operations.
It is vital, in our small communities, that we continue to focus on working together to maintain our schools and communities. As we look to the future and work toward continuing our strong educational systems in both communities, it is imperative that we keep the communication line open and think outside the box for ways that will help benefit the students of all of our schools.
Superintendent
Steve Joonas
