As you probably know from past postings here around the foundation budget, the city is assessed a minimum contribution to the Worcester Public Schools each year.
It doesn't all come in cash.
(I discovered this for myself last year when I asked where the line item was for water and sewer in the school budget. There isn't one.)
You will find here the city's contribution of services to the WPS. There's a calculation at the top that determines how much the city can assess for services provided by the city auditor, purchasing, city technical services, the city treasurer, and the city manager's office.
It's basically "how much of the entire city budget is the school budget?" The answer is about 51%. The schools then pay that percentage of the listed departments. Yes, that does mean that 51% of the City Manager's office is paid for by the schools, as is 51% of the city auditor, treasurer, technical services, and purchasing.
That's about $4.6 million.
Add to that $592,895 in police services (that's the rest of the salaries of the police officers that are assigned to the schools) and the $475, 552 in water and sewer.
That's a total of $5.65 million.
NOTE: This does not include the 3% grant fee assessed for each grant received by WPS. That's an additional $1.3 million.
can the regs be changed? 50% of city managers expenses seems silly to charge to schools
ReplyDeleteThe regs say there are two options: either this one, or a flat per pupil amount (set by the state). Were we doing the latter, it would save us over $2 million.
ReplyDeleteIt is a negotiated agreement between the superintendent and the city manger.
why does the school dept duplicate purchasing and technical services functions when the city is already getting paid to perform those functions. A 51 percent assignment of costs would seem to indicate that 51 percent of a dept's time is spent on school business
ReplyDelete