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SFS Data Warehouse Glossary

Glossary

Below is a listing of terminology and data calculation explanations used in the Data Warehouse. For a more comprehensive list of finance terms, please see Basic Facts Section I: Glossary of Terms.

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Aid Membership

An average of prior-year resident, full-time equivalency pupils enrolled on the third Friday of September and second Friday of January (including part-time attendance hours of home-based or private school students), plus 100 percent summer school FTE and foster group home FTE. [§121.004(7) and §121.05(1)(a)]

See Equalization Aid formula for more information or see Memberships below for more information on other types of Membership used in school finance calculations.

Aid Percent (Equalization Aid/Shared Cost)

Derived from dividing the Equalization Aid eligibility amount (Line H1) by Total Shared Cost (Line E4) from the October 15 Aid Certification for the selected year. Represents the pure aid to shared cost percentage prior to any Choice/Charter Deductions and/or October-to-Final Aid Adjustments. See Equalization Aid Formula for more information.

Aid Value

Equalized valuation issued in May of each year by the Department of Revenue. The May certification is referred to as the School Aid Value Certification and will be used in the following year's Equalization Aid formula. Thus, the School Aid Value Certification issued in May, 2012 will be used in the October 15 2012-13 General Aid Certification. In the warehouse, this data element is identified as "Aid Value." For further information, see Equalized Valuation.

Aid Value Per Member

Derived from dividing the prior-year property value by prior-year membership. Data is taken from the October 15 Aid Certification for the selected year. See Equalization Aid Formula for more information.

Annual Report

Financial report submitted to the department by the school district consisting of actual revenues and expenditures for the school year. Annual Report financial data is used in the calculation of school district General Aid eligibility as well as many categorical aid programs and revenue and cost comparative measures.

Assessed Valuation

Value placed on each parcel of real property and on each individual’s taxable personal property by the local assessor. State law provides that all non-agricultural assessments must be based upon the market value of property as of January 1. Every municipality cannot be assessed exactly at market value each year and thus the law allows assessments to be within 10 percent of market value, providing there is equity between the taxpayers of the municipality. All school finance calculations use Equalized Valuation. For more information, see Property Value and Equalized Valuation.

Budget Report

Financial report submitted to DPI by the school districts of estimated revenues and expenditures for the school year.

CCDEB

County Children with Disabilities Education Board (formerly known as CHCEB). CCDEBs provide educational services to children with disabilities.

CESA

Cooperative Educational Service Agency.

Categorical Aid

Categorical aid is funding from the state and federal governments targeted to particular programs such as Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) or to students with special needs (Special Education). In addition to targeting certain programs or populations, categorical aid usually restricts how the funding can be spent (taken from Basic Facts Section E: Distribution of State Aid dollars).

Choice/Charter Deductions

General Aid deductions associated with the Milwaukee and Racine Parental Choice Programs and the Milwaukee-Racine Charter School Program.

Choice

Milwaukee and Racine Parental Choice Programs - The choice programs are funded from separate, GPR sum sufficient appropriations established for those programs. The cost of payments from the appropriation for the Milwaukee and Racine programs are partially offset by a net reduction in the General Aid otherwise paid to MPS (and to Racine, in 2011-12 and 2012-13 only) by an amount equal to 38.4 percent of the estimated total cost of the programs.

For specific statistics on the Milwaukee Parental Choice program, see Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. For specific statistics on the Racine Parental Choice program, see PPSCP Enrollment and Payment History.

Charter

Milwaukee-Racine Charter School Program - The charter program is funded from a separate, GPR sum sufficient appropriation established for that purpose. The cost of the payments from the appropriation is offset by a lapse from the General School Aids appropriation to the general fund in an amount equal to the estimated payments under the program. DPI is required to proportionately reduce the General School Aids for which each of the 424 school districts--including MPS and RUSD--is eligible to be paid by an amount totaling the charter lapse.

For additional information on both programs, see the Legislative Fiscal Bureau Informational Papers.

City of the First Class

Milwaukee is the only school district of this type. Governed by Chapter 119 of the State Statutes, the district is administered by a nine-member Board of Education. The Board is directly responsible to the electors, having the power to set the budget and determine the tax levy.

Common School District

Districts that are required to hold an annual meeting at which any district elector is eligible to attend, speak and vote taxes for operation, debt and for other purposes specified by law. The tax levy is approved by the electors at this meeting. For more information on other types of school district, see Governance Model below.

Common School Fund Aid

State financial assistance supporting the purchase of library books and other instructional materials for school libraries.[§43.70(3)]

Comparative Cost Per Member

Numeric measure for interdistrict comparisons of district expenditures. Compiled from audited Annual Reports submitted to DPI by local districts. For additional information, go to Basic Facts Section D: Comparative Cost Per Member.

Comparative Revenue Per Member

Numeric measure for interdistrict comparisons of district revenues from federal, state and local sources. Compiled from audited Annual Reports submitted to the Department of Public Instruction by local districts. For additional information, go to Basic Facts Section D: Comparative Revenue Per Member.

Current-year Membership

An average of current-year resident, full-time equivalency pupils enrolled on the third Friday of September and second Friday of January (including part-time attendance hours of home-based or private school students), plus 100 percent summer school FTE and foster group home FTE. [§121.004(7) and §121.05(1)(a)] for more information, see Membership.

Current-Year Membership is computed from current-year data and is used in all of the per-member statistics found in the Data Warehouse except those related to the October 15 General Aid Certification (Equalization Aid, Integration Aid, Intragration Aid and Special Adjustment Aid) which uses aid membership (prior-year membership). For more information on other types of Membership used in school finance calculations, see Membership below.

DPI

The Department of Public Instruction.

Equalization Aid

State financial assistance to public school district for use in funding a broad range of school district operational expenditures. Equalization Aid is the largest of the four General Aids (in contract, see Categorical Aid).

Equalization Aid Per Member: Data are taken from the October 15 Certification of Equalization Aid. Equalization Aid Per Member is computed by dividing the October 15 Certification amount by Aid Membership from the October 15 Aid Certification for the selected year. See Equalization Aid Formula for more information.

Equalization Aid/Shared Cost (Aid Percent)

Derived from dividing the Equalization aid eligibility amount (Line H1) by Total Shared Cost (Line E4) from the October 15 Aid Certification for the selected year. Represents the pure aid to shared cost percentage prior to any Choice, Charter Deductions and/or October-to-Final Aid Adjustments. See Equalization Aid Formula for more information.

Equalized Valuation

Assessed valuation multiplied by an adjustment factor computed by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue (DOR) for each type of property in a taxing district, designed to cause each type of property to have comparable value regardless of local assessment practices, reflecting its fair market value. Fair Market Value is the value that would be agreed upon between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an "arm's length" transaction where neither is required to act.

ALL values used in school finance calculations are equalized, as opposed to assessed. Equalized values are certified to school districts by DOR twice each year, in October and May.

Property value is are determined as of January 1 of any given year. The first set of values containing the updated value is issued in the October 1 Tax Apportionment Value Certification, which districts use to apportion levies and determine municipal tax bills. In the Warehouse, this value is identified as "Tax Values."

DOR may further refine this same set of values until a "final" version is issued the following May (almost 1 1/2 years after the original assessment). This final version--the School Aid Value Certification--will be used in the following year's Equalization Aid formula. Thus, property value as of January 1, 2011 will eventually be used in the 2012-13 Equalization Aid computation. In the Warehouse, this value is identified as "Aid Values."

Full-time Equivalency (FTE)

Resident student count adjusted to a full time program. For example, a student in a half-time kindergarten program state financial assistance supporting the costs of providing a uniform and effective state-approved driver education program is 0.5 FTE. Used in aid and revenue limit memberships.

General Aid

State financial assistance used by school district for any purpose to fund general operational expenditures. General Aid includes Equalization, Special Adjustment, Inter-District, and Intra-District. Prior to 1996, General Aid also included Minimum Aid. General Aid amounts in the warehouse are taken from the October 15 Aid Certification files at DPI and have been adjusted by the end-of-year Open Enrollment Transfer In/Out amounts and Revenue Limit Penalty adjustments. Aid amounts reflect actual, vouchered totals.

Per state law, three General Aid computations are performed each year:

  • the first on July 1 using unaudited Budget Report information;
  • the second in the October 15 Aid Calculation using the best Annual Report information available; and
  • the third after desk audits of the Annual Report data submitted by districts are complete.

Differences between the October 15 Aid Certification and the final aid amounts for each of the four General Aid programs (both positive and negative) become the "October-to-Final Aid adjustments" and are incorporated into the subsequent year's October 15 Aid Certification for the district. In cases where the district does not qualify for a specific aid program in the new year but has an adjustment in the specific aid program from the previous year, the adjustment IS the only aid amount in the new year when aid is paid to districts, negative aid amounts from one aid program are netted against another of the district's aid programs.

General Aid amounts appearing in the Warehouse represent actual computed amounts and do not incorporate netting across General Aid programs.

Governance Model

All Wisconsin school districts are fiscally independent and separate entities. All have school boards responsible for the control and management of the property affairs of the school district. However, state law allows for variability in the school board governance model utilized to accomplish the affairs of the district. There are four types of school districts in Wisconsin: Common, Union High, Unified and City of the First Class.

Group Averages

Calculated by taking the sum of the primary column for the group and dividing it by the sum of the secondary column for the group, resulting in the weighted average.

High Poverty Aid

State financial assistance distributed to school district for which, in the October preceding each biennium, the number of pupils eligible for free or reduced-price lunch divided by the district's September membership is equal to at least 50 percent after rounding to the nearest whole percentage point. An eligible school district's aid entitlement is calculated by dividing the total state appropriation amount by membership to determine the payment amount. [§121.136]

Integration Transfer Aid

State financial assistance supporting the reduction of racial imbalance. Inter-District Transfer Aid is distributed to Milwaukee and its suburban districts to assist in the cost of transferring student between the districts. [§121.85] See General Aid above.

Intragration Transfer Aid

State financial assistance supporting the reduction of racial imbalance. Intra-District Transfer Aid is distributed to large urban districts to assist in the cost of transferring student WITHIN the districts. [§121.85] See General Aid above.

Members

Resident students for whom the district is legally required to provide a K-12 education.

Membership

Statistic derived from converting resident enrollment to full-time equivalency (FTE). The third Friday in September and the second Friday in January resident enrollments are adjusted by the ratio of specific students' programs of enrollment as compared to full-time enrollment. For instance, two students enrolled in a half-time kindergarten program will count as one FTE.

Summer School Membership is an aggregate of class minutes divided by 48,600, which represents the number of class minutes in a typical school year, assuming six periods per day and 180 days per year.

Membership counts are combined in various ways depending on the specific school finance computation. There are four membership counts in the Data Warehouse: Aid Membership, Revenue Limit Membership, Current-Year Membership and September Adjusted Head Count.

Membership Report

Report that collects district pupil count data for September and January enrollment each year. Data is used in the equalization aid and revenue limit calculations, as well as in numerous statistical comparison measures.

Mill Rate

Amount of property tax dollars levied for each $1,000 of tax property value. Note that the state average mill rate is computed as the total statewide levy divided by the total statewide taxable property value. K-8/UHS district configurations have the same underlying property, so the K-8 value is excluded from the state totals to avoid double counting.

October-to-Final Adjustments

Per state law, three General Aid computations are performed each year:

  • the first on July 1 using unaudited Budget Report information;
  • the second in the October 15 Aid Certification using the best Annual Report information available; and
  • the third after desk audits of the Annual Report data submitted by districts are complete.

Differences between the October 15 Aid Certification and the final aid amounts for each of the four General Aid programs (both positive and negative) become the "October-to-Final Aid Adjustments" and are incorporated into the subsequent year's October 15 Aid Certification.

October 15 Aid Certification

See General Aid above.

Per-Pupil Aid

Established in 2013 Wisconsin Act 20 to provide school districts with an additional amount of state aid outside the Revenue Limit. Aid amount is equal to the average of the number of pupils enrolled in the school district in the current and two preceding school years (Line 6: three-year average) multiplied by $75 in the 2013-14 school year and by $150 in each school year thereafter.

Property Value (or valuation)

Dollar value placed on land and buildings for the purposes of administering property taxes. Two commonly-used methods of valuing property valuation are assessed and equalized. Assessed valuation is property valuation as determined by the local municipal assessor as of January 1 in any given year. Because assessors in different taxing districts value property at different percentages of market value, it is necessary for DOR to convert the assessed values, by taxing jurisdiction, to 100 percent of market value. This process is designed to cause property across the state to have comparable value regardless of local assessment practices.

Property Value Per Member

See Equalized Value Per Member.

Ranking Methodology

Computed by sorting the list by descending value and assigning a rank of one to the district with the largest value, two for the next largest value, etc. Should a district have had a zero value for a specific ranked set, no rank was assigned. Thus, in a set of 421 districts, a rank of 250 could possibly be the smallest value in that specific data set.

Revenue Limit

A district-specific limit on the revenue a school district is entitled to receive from general state aid (equalization, special adjustment, and integration aids), local levies and state Computer Aid [§121.90, 1993]. A district’s Maximum Revenue Limit is the amount found on Line 11 of a district’s calculation in any given year. Line references are from the actual Revenue Limit computation. Revenue Limit data was taken from the final Revenue Limit Computation files at DPI.

Revenue Limit Membership

An average of the sum of the district's most recent three September FTE membership counts and the most recent three summer school FTE membership numbers (prorated at 40 percent). Two three-year membership rolling averages are computed for use in the Revenue Limit computation, the base three-year average (Line 2) and the current three-year average (Line 6). Revenue Limit Membership refers to the Current three-year Average (Line 6). Line references are from the actual Revenue Limit computation. See Memberships above for more information on other types of Membership used in school finance calculations.

Revenue Limit per Member

Computed by dividing the Revenue Limit with All Exemptions (Line 11) by the Current Three-Year Average (Line 6) for the selected year. Line references are from the actual Revenue Limit computation. See Revenue Limit Computations for more information.

SAGE Aid

Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) Aid is distributed to districts implementing a five-year program designed to promote academic achievement through lower class sizes in elementary schools. [§118.43]

September Adjusted Head Count

Head count resulting from removing from the number of students in attendance non-resident students educated in the district and resident students ineligible to be counted and adding to the number of students in attendance resident students educated elsewhere. The result is the Adjusted Head Count and represents resident students eligible to be counted in state formulas. Students are counted in this manner on the third Friday in September and the second Friday in January.

Shared Cost Per Member

Sum of the net cost of the general fund and the net cost of the debt service fund. In general, shared costs are costs that have no specific corresponding revenue except for Property Tax or State General Aid. Shared Cost Per Member is Shared Cost divided by Aid Membership [§121.07(6)] (see Aid Membership). See Equalization Aid Formula for more information.

Sparsity Aid

State financial assistance paid to school districts that meet the following criteria:

  • school district membership is no more than 725 members;
  • district membership is less than 10 members per square mile of the district’s geographic area; and
  • at least 20 percent of school district’s membership qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch (FRL) under the National School Lunch Program. [§115.436]

Special Adjustment Aid

State financial assistance protecting school districts against receiving less than 85 percent of the prior year's state General Aid. For an explanation of negative Special Adjustment Aid amounts and additional information, see General Aid above. [§121.105]

Special Education Aid

State financial assistance supporting the costs of providing special education and related services to students. This includes reimbursement for teachers and teacher aides, physical and occupational therapists, speech/language therapists, special education directors, school psychologists, social workers and special transportation.

State Aid

Financial assistance distributed from the General Fund of the State of Wisconsin.

Tax Incremental Finance (TIF) Increment

Appreciation of equalize valuation of property within a TIF district above the base-level equalized valuation of the TIF district at the time it was created. Property taxes on the TIF increment which would normally go to school districts, counties, Technical College districts and others, instead go to the municipality which created the TIF district to assist that municipality in paying for the cost of infrastructure renewal within the TIF district.

Tax Levy Per Member

School district property taxes include levies for general operations, debt service, capital expansion and community services. Tax Levy/Member is total levied amount divided by Current-Year Membership. Tax levy data was taken from Tax Levy Certification Reports (PI-401) submitted to DPI by local districts.

Tax Value

Equalized valuation issued in October of each year by the Department of Revenue. Referred to as the Tax Apportionment Aid Value Certification, this set of values will be used by districts to apportion levies and determine municipal tax bills. In the Warehouse, this data element is identified as "Tax Values." See Equalized Valuation for more information.

Transportation Aid

State financial assistance supporting the costs of transporting public and non-public students to and from school. [§121.58]

Unified School District

Districts that are not required to hold an annual meeting. The School Board is directly responsible to the electors, having the power to set the budget and determine the tax levy. See Governance Model above for more information on other types of school districts.

Union High School District

Districts that provides programming for high school grades (9-12) only, with elementary programs provided by separate underlying elementary districts. Union High Schools are required to hold an annual meeting at which any district elector is eligible to attend, speak and vote taxes for operation and for other purposes specified by law. The tax levy is approved by the electors at this meeting. For more information on other types of school districts, see Governance Model above.