Frequently Asked Questions – These are Frequently Asked Questions about the finances of Rutland City Schools and education finance in Vermont from the Rutland City School Board. This piece generally explains how education taxes work and discusses common questions people have. If you would like additional information, please call the school district offices at 786-1998. We will be pleased to answer any questions.

FY2013 Budget This is a copy of the detailed FY 2013 budget to be voted on March 6, 2012.

FY2013 Budget Key This is a key to account codes that make the document more understandable. The account number format is based on legal requirements by the US and Vermont Departments of Education.

Three Years’ Prior Budget Summaries – Coming Soon

Estimated Education Tax Amounts – Coming Soon

Comparative Data for Cost Effectiveness – This information is prepared by the State and designed to compare the cost-competitiveness of schools that are comparable in size. It does not include technical centers, such as Stafford. In general, our schools have costs about 7.1% lower than the average of comparable schools. This is mainly due to our higher student to teacher and student to administrator ratios.

Administrative Staffing Analysis -Rutland Public Schools has conducted surveys of comparably-sized schools to determine if the district’s administrative staffing is above or below average. The results suggest a below-average number of administrators. Although this helps to keep costs down, it can have a quality impact on schools. Administrators evaluate and mentor teachers, monitor adherence to curriculum, assist in dealing with children who become disruptive, communicate with the public, and solve day-to-day problems that would bog down teachers and limit their productivity. It is not necessarily wise to be a low cost district in school building administration costs. We carefully monitor how well schools perform and the administrator staffing levels.

State Data about Administrative Costs- This sheet is a summary of the state’s computation of each supervisory union’s central administrative costs and school building administrative costs as a percentage of their total budgets. Rutland City Schools have the lowest cost of all 62 supervisory unions for our central and school building administration. The average is 9.55% of total PK-12 current expenditures and our cost is 6.2%. You may also click here and scroll to page 2 to link to the State site and a more readable version of this report.

Frequently Asked Questions. These are Frequently Asked Questions about the finances of Rutland City Schools and education finance in Vermont from the Rutland City School Board. This piece generally explains how education taxes work and discusses common questions people have. If you would like additional information, please call the school district offices at 786-1998. We will be pleased to answer any questions.

FY2012 Cut List. This list contains the final items cut from the first draft of the FY2012 budget. All items in Tier #1 were cut. All items in Tier #2 were cut except the last item- 1 day custodian. No items in Tier #3 were cut. FY2013 is expected to be a difficult budget years according to the State and future cuts will be addressed at that time.

FY2012 Budget. This is a copy of the detailed FY 2012 budget to be voted on March 1, 2011.

FY2012 Budget Account Key. This is a key to account codes that make the document more understandable. The account number format is based on legal requirements by the US and Vermont Departments of Education.

Three Years’ Prior Budget Summaries. This is a summary of the past three years’ budgets provided by the State. They also contain a projected tax rate based on our budget.

Estimated Education Tax Amounts. The State provides a Town Meeting Grid to enable taxpayers to estimate what their taxes would be depending on the budget being voted and the State’s assumption about base education tax rates. Town meeting grids contain a matrix of house values and household income levels. The chart reflects income sensitivity adjustments, formerly known as the rebates or prebates.

Comparative Data for Cost Effectiveness. This information is prepared by the State and designed to compare the cost-competitiveness of schools that are comparable in size. It does not include technical centers, such as Stafford. In general, our schools have costs about 5.7% lower than the average of comparable schools. This is mainly due to our higher student to teacher and student to administrator ratios.

Administrative Staffing Analysis. Rutland Public Schools has conducted surveys of comparably-sized schools to determine if the district’s administrative staffing is above or below average. The results suggest a below-average number of administrators. Although this helps to keep costs down, it can have a quality impact on schools. Administrators evaluate and mentor teachers, monitor adherence to curriculum, assist in dealing with children who become disruptive, communicate with the public, and solve day-to-day problems that would bog down teachers and limit their productivity. It is not necessarily wise to be a low cost district in school building administration costs. We carefully monitor how well schools perform and the administrator staffing levels.

State Data about Administrative Costs. This sheet is a summary of the state’s computation of each supervisory union’s central administrative costs and school building administrative costs as a percentage of their total budgets. Rutland City Schools have the lowest central office costs of all 62 supervisory unions. The average is 2.46% and our cost is 0.9%. Similarly, our school building administrative costs are the lowest. In this category, the average is 7.07% and ours is 4.96%. You may also click here and scroll to page 2 to link to the State site and a more readable version of this report.