What is the cost?

What does it cost to educate a Jay County student?
It depends.
A “cost by school” analysis provided this month by Jay Schools business manager Brad DeRome indicates that costs vary depending upon a school’s enrollment, its efficiency in terms of energy use and the age of its faculty.
And DeRome’s analysis doesn’t address the fact that transportation costs vary dramatically, depending upon how many miles a student spends on a bus.
DeRome, a certified public accountant who worked for Naas Foods, Portland Forge and CTS before joining the school corporation, likens the “cost by school” report to an analysis of a company’s different product lines.
Some products will be more profitable than others, while some may not be profitable at all but may be important when viewed in a larger context such as keeping a customer happy.
DeRome’s report, which is included annually in the school board’s informational packet at budget time, focuses most closely on the general fund, nearly all of which comes from state tax revenue distributed based on a school funding formula determined by the Indiana General Assembly.
In calendar 2014, state basic grant revenue was $7,286 per student coming into the general fund. So every single student drop in enrollment translates into a reduction of that amount in state funding.
And with enrollment declining to 3,334 in 2014 from 3,829 in 1999, board members and administrators have been weighing tough choices.
While no action has been taken, superintendent Tim Long has outlined a plan that would close Pennville Elementary School and move its students to Redkey Elementary School. The proposal would also move all Jay County eighth graders to a segregated section of Jay County High School and move West Jay Middle School’s sixth and seventh graders to East Jay Middle School. Westlawn Elementary School would then make use of the West Jay building in Dunkirk.

DeRome’s “cost by school” report is an effort at helping the board make informed decisions.
Enrollment in Jay Schools in 2014 broke down like this:
•Jay County High School, 1,222.
•East Jay Middle School, 554.
•West Jay Middle School, 249.
•Bloomfield Elementary School, 230.
•East Elementary School, 237.
•General Shanks Elementary School, 301.
•Judge Haynes Elementary School, 202.
•Pennville Elementary School, 80.
•Redkey Elementary School, 147.
•Westlawn Elementary School, 212.
DeRome’s report allocates that $7,286 in state revenue per student to each school based upon the school’s enrollment, treating it the same way that sales revenue for individual products would be tallied up for industry.
Using that method, the enrollment figures translate into revenue-per-school numbers that look like this:
•Jay County High School, $8,174,999.
•East Jay Middle School, $4,036,497.
•West Jay Middle School, $1,814,238.
•Bloomfield Elementary School, $1,675,802.
•East Elementary School, $1,726,805.
•General Shanks Elementary School, $2,193,115.
•Judge Haynes Elementary School, $1,471,791.
•Pennville Elementary School, $582,888.
•Redkey Elementary School, $1,071,056.
•Westlawn Elementary School, $1,544,652.
The report then tallies up the expenses per school for salaries, benefits, utilities, and supplies. And then it subtracts the expenses from the revenue the way an accountant would when building a profit and loss statement.
By that calculation — if they were viewed as product lines in the business world — some Jay Schools are “profitable,” their revenues are greater than their expenses, while one school — Pennville — is operating at a “loss.”
Here’s how those numbers break down:
•Jay County High School, $1,987,901 in the black.
•East Jay Middle School, $1,444,247 in the black.
•West Jay Middle School, $21,089 in the black.
•Bloomfield Elementary School, $657,339 in the black.
•East Elementary School, $638,559 in the black.
•General Shanks Elementary School, $1,115,060 in the black.
•Judge Haynes Elementary School, $476,128 in the black.
•Pennville Elementary School, $77,163 in the red.
•Redkey Elementary School, $170,474 in the black.
•Westlawn Elementary School, $509,134 in the black.
When total spending per school is divided by the number of students enrolled at each school, disparities arise in the cost per student, with the cost of educating a student at Pennville more than twice the cost of educating the same student at General Shanks.
That’s because, with state support linked to enrollment, the bigger the school the lower the cost per student.
Here’s a look at the 2014 cost per student at each school:
•Jay County High School, $5,514.
•East Jay Middle School, $4,679.
•West Jay Middle School, $7,201.
•Bloomfield Elementary School, $4,428.
•East Elementary School, $4,592.
•General Shanks Elementary School, $3,582.
•Judge Haynes Elementary School, $4,929.
•Pennville Elementary School, $8,251.
•Redkey Elementary School, $6,126.
•Westlawn Elementary School, $4,885.
But there are other costs as well.
DeRome’s report breaks out all those general fund expenses which have to be considered district-wide and shared among all the schools.
Those include not only central office administrators and staff, guidance counselors, librarians, some 61 instructional aides (primarily for special education), custodians, teachers who work at multiple schools, extracurricular stipends for teachers who are also coaches and sponsors of student organizations and maintenance workers.
That district-wide number, totaled an additional $1,491,618 or another $1,766 per student in 2014.
In presenting his report to the board, DeRome cautioned that it’s unwise to make broad generalizations from a single year’s numbers. Staff changes as well as enrollment fluctuations are a factor.
For instance, Pennville Elementary’s average teacher salary of $36,076 is the lowest in the district because its staff is younger and has less seniority on the pay scale.
Utility costs also vary greatly from building to building.
With all funds included, the utility cost to operate the Pennville building is 89 cents per square foot, while the average for all Jay school buildings is $1.54 per square foot.
And, again, none of these numbers reflect the cost of transportation, since those expenses are not paid from the general fund.