Subject of the Week
Subject List
Winning the Parcel Tax - Again - With Community Involvement
"Plugging In" to Creative Solutions
Why Vouchers Would Harm Our Schools
Where the Kids Are
One of the simplest and yet most important facts-of-life guiding any
school district is that kindergarteners become first graders, first graders
go on to second, all the way up to high school graduates.
Despite relocations in and out of the district, parents choosing
private schools, and the occasional special case, the large majority of
students progress smoothly grade by grade.
Much can be learned about our history as a district, and likely
future challenges, just by looking at the numbers of where our kids are.
Luckily, we have a district staff that publishes an award-winning
budget document every year. Included
in that report are some very interesting tables and graphs that are the
subject of the week.
Our first chart is the striking roller coaster picture of PAUSD (Palo Alto Unified School District) enrollment. The Baby Boom is clear in the sixties, followed by the Baby Bust in the eighties. No wonder our district was challenged with school closings when enrollment fell to half of the peak. Lately we see the increase in numbers over the last decade.
Each year the district polls each of our 17 school for its attendance
on the 11th school day. This
is shown below, along with the staff and budget dedicated to each school.
The first block of the table are our twelve elementary schools, then
our three middle schools, and finally the two high schools.
While the table contains much useful data, it is a bit hard to tell how everything changes over time. The next three graphs are the historical pictures for elementary, middle, and high school. A couple of interesting results emerge. The need for the third middle school shows up clearly in middle school growth, even accounting for the change to three years that happened in 1991-92. We also see a pattern of high school growth. Elementary school enrollment is considerably flatter.
Our final table is the Facts at a Glance table that
ends the 420 page report. With
the help of this report, “PAUSD: Excellence
by Design, the 2003-2004 Budget” any member of the community can look at
the details of enrollment, revenues, and expenditures.
I strongly endorse open government and accessible details.
As a member of the School Board I would work to continue this process
and to strongly encourage the staff to make the Budget document readily
available online. This wonderful
report would then be easy to access for all citizens, modifiable when
budgets change, while holding down printing and distribution costs.
| - Camille Townsend (all charts and tables from the 2003-04 Budget Document adopted June 24, 2003. Some revisions, unfortunately downward in available district revenues, have occurred since then.) |