Assembling a First Look at School-Level Financials

School district staff responsible for budget and finance might assemble a preliminary examination of spending at each school by populating the table below.

Any expenditures that can be captured by school can be reported in the school-level rows — making sure to use the actual salaries of the staff assigned to each school. Any district expenditures not captured in the school totals can be totaled and divided by the district’s enrollment and then accounted for in the school district rows.

All district expenditures should be captured somewhere (excluding debt service, adult education and tuition for students not attending the district’s schools).

Once the first look is created, districts could break out additional expenditures (transportation, special education or other costs) to further clarify existing spending.