Dr Poplau responds to Metro South Article on District Funding
In response to the statistics in the Star Tribune South on Wednesday, I felt a need to give you the additional information that should reasonably accompany a numbers only presentation. Attached are some bullet points that should help you understand the limitations of the comparison as well as feel good about the function and efficiency of the New Prague Area Schools. By all comparisons we are fortunate with the environment in which we work and I have yet to find a district where the student education is supported at a the same extent without the benefit of a large additional property tax levy.

Classroom Instruction
New Prague Area Schools will have lower percentage costs for the following reasons:
• New staff being added each year for growth and consequently the average salary will be lower.
• Contract adjustments catching us up to the comparative districts especially with the teachers lower on the salary schedule have not fully been realized in our expenditures until the 2005-2006 expenditure year.
• We have exceptionally lower numbers for poverty and non-english speaking students than all other districts in the comparisons. This limits our funds in federal $$$ as well as state compensatory $$$. We do not have large programming in these areas and consequently our expenditures will be less.
• We have building level budgeting and efficiency is created such that the return on every dollar is very well managed.
Administration (District and Building)
I actually expected New Prague Area Schools to be higher in percentage than it was for the following reasons:
• Expenditures are being represented as percentages against the total. This is not a true statistical way of comparing districts as the smaller districts will always have higher percentage numbers. A much better measure is per pupil.
• We are performing all the same functions as every other district in the study but we also are in the middle of a large construction and expansion project. This adds costs especially in categories of administration.
• We are the size of district that can no longer be categorized as small but rather we are on the small size of large. This means that our organizational structure will have the components of a larger district for the purpose of district wide coordination and communication but as a percentage of total costs we will show a higher number than a larger district. As the student population grows this number will reduce and then stabilize.
The quick and true indication of how we are doing in balancing administration versus classroom expenditures should be:
• Class size
• Educational offerings for students
• Responsive expenditures for materials and equipment during a curriculum adoption cycle
• Professional development
• Accurate and timely State and Federal reporting
• Support for teachers in research and development toward innovative teaching practice
• Effective coordination of projects and tasks
• Smooth operations with regard to daily functions
• Long but reasonable work hours for administrative staff.