Agenda - 11-16-2004-5o - Laserfiche WebLink

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Transaortation Costs: The state funds transportation of students to and from school. It does not provide funding for all the other educational activities that require transportation services such as participating in sporting events, concerts, and other extra curriculaz activities that are important to a student's overall educational experience and achievement. In DPS, we have many initiatives and coimnunity partnerships which require transportation of students to various locations in Durham. The state also does not provide funding for activity buses, or the initial purchase of new "yellow" buses. The state does provide amrual funding for replacement buses, The NC General Assembly has limited the full access to those funds over the past few years to help balance their budget. This action has placed schools further behind in obtaining replacement buses and increased our operating costs to maintain an older fleet. Limited Enelish Proficiency: bi Durham Public Schools we have experienced a 14.5% average growth over the last five years in students who are classified as "Limited English Proficient (L,EP)", DPS has increased from 1,175 LEP students in October 1998 to a projection of over 2,500 students for the current fiscal year. These LEP students are a diverse group and include 39 different languages, Although 90% of the students aze Spanish-speaking, the school system must meet the instmctional needs of all these students, including those children speaking Urdu, Russian, Mandarin, Tagalog and the other diverse languages, We have worked to maintain an allocation for our schools of one LEP teacher for every 50 students. In FY 2003-04, the state provided LEP directed funding of approximately $443 per pupih Our local expenditure this year for this program (either obtained from current expense funds or offsetting other state resources) totaled $841,900 or $365 additional per pupil funding. This was necessary in order to meet the minimum instructional needs for this population of students. Charter Schools: By state statute, if a student attends a charter school, the LEA in which the child resides shall transfer to the charter school an amount equal to the per pupil local current expense allocation for the fiscal yeaz (G.S.115C-238(b)). Currently Durham Public Schools pays 20 charter schools funding for over 1840 students who are Durham residents and are attending charter schools. Of these 20 chazter schools, eight are located within Durham County. Our current annual local budget for this program is $5,000,000, Budgetary concerns with charter schools center around the constant movement of students in and out of charter schools during the year. Funding for schools is set by the state based on the higher of the first or second month Average Daily Membership (Best 1 of 2 ADM). The trend in charter schools is that many students move back to DPS after the second month of school once state funding is set for the year, This is also problematic in dealing with high cost special needs children. State funding is fixed after the first 60 days of school per 3