In the second year of a divisive per-pupil funding formula, Chicago Public Schools officials are again telling principals their school budgets won’t be cut even if the school’s enrollment fails to meet projections.
More Top Picks Best Led Desk Lamps For Studying
In letters to principals, CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett said “transition contingency funds” from the Student-Based Budgeting policy and an “anticipated surplus from Tax Increment Financing funds” will be used to ensure no schools see a drop in funding this year under the per-pupil formula. Schools with enrollments that exceed projections, however, will be awarded a corresponding increase in funding, Byrd-Bennett said. The district made a similar concession last year.
The district will take two additional enrollment counts in October, the district CEO said, and schools will be eligible to receive additional funding if enrollment has increased by 10 or more students on those dates.
“No funding will be removed based on these later counts, even if enrollment has dropped,” Byrd-Bennett wrote. The exact amount of money to be used to offset any cuts was not specified in the letter.
While school enrollment figures in past years were tied to the number of teaching position assigned to a school, CPS last year instituted a per-pupil funding system that links every dollar a school receives — for staff, textbooks, programs, supplies and teachers — to the number of students enrolled. The district also began using attendance figures from the 10th day of classes to determine an official enrollment figure, as opposed to the past practice of using the 20th day.
State and federal funding based on the number of low-income students in a school will continue to be based on 20th-day enrollment numbers, officials said, and Byrd-Bennett said schools would soon receive an update on budget adjustments related to those programs.
School officials have not yet released the district’s total enrollment at the 10-day mark this year.
Projected enrollment for the CPS 2015 fiscal year was 400,445 students, slightly less than the number of students enrolled by the 20th day of last school year, according to district budget documents.
The district faces a grim budget picture.
In April, while district officials said cost-cutting and a one-time accounting maneuver would provide an additional $70 million for school-based budgets in the current school year. Last year, individual school budgets were slashedbecause of declining enrollment and the move to per-pupil funding, triggering protests from some parents and prompting some schools to raise funds for their buildings.
District officials said at the time that more money would be available this school year, partly from making two additional months of property tax revenue available for the 2014-15 school budget. A government watchdog group called the accounting move “financially risky.”
[email protected]
Twitter: @PerezJr