Line

#

Chart label

Equity?

Explanation

1

Rank

The rank reflects size of school with 1 being the largest.

2

# Pupils

Projected enrollment as published by the School Dept. for the applicable school year.

3

FY’XX Equity Rate

The Equity Per Pupil Spending Rate, agreed upon yearly (with the Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance) is used to calculate the maximum allowed equity spending for each school.

4

FY ‘XX PTO Budgeted or Actual operating spending

Total of equity + non-equity line items representing operating expenses for the year (calculated in the file).

When reporting actual expenses for a given year in line items below, PTO’s should include expenses that were incurred in that year even if they weren’t paid until the following year.

5

PTO Per Pupil Spending

The average PTO expenditure per pupil (calculated).

6

Allowed Equity Spending

The maximum allowed equity spending by school is calculated in the file as: # Projected students X Per Pupil Equity Rate X 55%.

7

Equity

Spending

The number is calculated as the sum of the equity line items, described in Lines 9 to 16.

8

Equity as a percentage of allowed equity

This calculation shows how much a school’s PTO spent in relation to the total it could spend on Equity capped line items (line 7 divided by line 6).

9

Creative arts & sciences

yes

Costs for all programs brought into the school in connection with the citywide program.

10

Curriculum

Support

yes

Includes supplies and other teaching aids that enrich programs and Outdoor Classroom.   Examples include makeup for an in-class play and film for photographing in-class projects.   It also includes PTO’s bringing people “in residence” (e.g. artists, poets, authors, scientists) who spend their time primarily working directly with the students and are not part of the citywide Creative Arts & Sciences program.   It also includes supplemental software purchased by the PTO for learning and teaching and textbooks and trade books, which are subject to the equity cap.

11

Teacher discretionary funds

yes

Total amount given to teachers, including mini-grants and all teacher stipends.   In a footnote, please explain basis for amount per teacher; which teachers, if any, aside from classroom teachers get the stipend; what the categories are, if the amount is not flat across the board; how much is mini-grants or something other than a flat per-teacher stipend.   This includes classroom supplies and other needs funded to individual teachers.

12

Principal’s

Discretionary fund

yes

This line is funding to the Principal for Equity capped purposes, such as teacher workshops, textbooks, field trips for children who cannot afford them, etc.   To prevent non-equity expenditures, such as lunches for teachers, from impacting the PTO’s ability to fund equity capped items, principals can separately request reimbursement for the non-equity portion of principal’s discretionary fund disbursements that the PTO covers, so that the PTO can charge the appropriate non-equity line.

13

Individual/

Teacher workshop

yes

This includes PTO money spent (through the principal’s discretion) to sponsor single or small group teacher attendance at conferences and workshops (e.g. EDCO workshops, METCO Directors’ Association Conference).

14

Publishing center

yes

For Costs of a publishing center used by students.

15

Library (see Ln.36 for Automation)

yes

This line includes all PTO donations of books to the library.

16

Field trips

yes

Refers to educational events that occur outside the classroom.

17

Newsletter

no

Costs of the PTO newsletter, which serves as a communication vehicle between home and school.

18

Copier/printing support

no

Includes paper, toner, service contracts, repairs and any other support for copiers purchased by PTO’s for their exclusive use.   Regardless of whether a PTO has a copier, this line item also includes outside copying costs, printing and publishing costs.   Since copiers was a focus of an earlier equity report and still an issue, it would be helpful to reveal which schools have PTO copiers and which do not by having them note it in a footnote of their budget.

19

Directory/

Handbook

no

Directory contains class lists, with students’ and parents’ names, addresses, etc.   Handbook lists school policies, etc.   Some schools combine them into one publication.

20

Building &

Grounds

no

Includes any enhancements to outdoor facilities, such as landscaping, beautification and flowers, but does not include outdoor classrooms and playgrounds.   It also could include related costs, such as a pizza party, for volunteers who rake or provide other similar services.

21

Playground Maintenance

no

This line is for landscaping and other work directly associated with maintaining the playground area.   While the City is legally responsible for the playgrounds and the Dept. of Parks & Recreation does some repairs, PTO’s may expend funds to supplement city efforts, such as for service contracts, ongoing maintenance, etc.   (See also Lns. 37-39)

22

5th grade

no

This refers to non-education-related activities such as graduation and yearbook and after-school activities such as plays.   It also includes events that occur around the time of graduation in lieu of trips to amusement parks and dances, regardless of whether or not these alternative events are educational.   It includes the entire 5th grade fund, unless there were educational events earlier in the year and not around graduation time, which would be subject to the equity cap.

23

Use of building

no

Charges imposed on PTO for custodial services for fundraisers, meetings and other events (excluding the complimentary first five meetings) if not included in the event line item.

24

Teacher

Appreciation

no

This includes such non-education-related items as retirement gifts, thank you events, acknowledgments of deaths in the family, pizza etc. for the teachers.

25

Understanding

Our Differences

no

This cost is for a mandated program of the School System, and is a flat amount for each school.   If included as an equity line, there would be a disproportionate impact on a small school’s equity spending limit; therefore, it is included as a non-equity line item.

26

CAPP

no

Childhood Assault Prevention Program fee – similar to Line 25 above, this is also a mandated program of the School System with a flat fee per school, creating a disproportionate impact on a small school if included as an equity spending line item.

27

Hospitality

no

Covers costs for food, decorations, amenities of PTO meetings/ events (other than teacher/ staff appreciation); an example is cookies and coffee for PTO meetings.

28

PTO Council & School Council

no

This includes dues and other costs such as for copying and for postage for related mailings or publications.

29

Adult Speakers’

Programs

no

An example is fees paid to speakers for addressing families and guardians on educational topics.

30

Community Events

no

This includes community-building, non-fundraiser events such as free picnics, free Halloween fun nights, Color Day, Back to School picnic, and kindergarten picnics.

31

PTO misc.

no

This line item should be limited as much as possible to non-recurring and small $’s expenditures that do not fit in another category (example: purchase of a bulletin board).

32

PTO Administration

no

Recurring administrative costs of a PTO might include filing fees (such as to MA), bank charges, supplies (such as name tags) and other office-type costs that are not related to a specific committee or are related to the PTO’s legal entity.

33

METCO Partner

no

Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the Dept. of Education under the Racial Imbalance Law.

34

Committees

no

Includes costs for such programs as social action, social responsibility, core values, academic excellence, human differences, etc.

35

Outreach & Donations

no

PTO’s provide monetary gifts or grants to support a variety of causes.   Any such payments or support would be captured here; examples are funding afterschool tuition, donations to foreign communities or projects, gifts commemorating deaths, etc.

Other – non-equity - list

no

List / describe amounts here, if they specifically do not fit in one of the above categories and are of larger $’s or recurring type expenditure for your PTO.

36

Technology

no

Includes computers and peripherals such as printers, external CD Roms, modems, fax machines, scanners, digital cameras, alpha smarts, word processors, LCD projectors, etc. and the predetermined software bundle that comes already loaded on a new computer.   The definition of what is eligible to be covered by PTO funding may be updated in 2002-03 after Equity Committee discussions.

36

Library Automation

no

This line is for PTO funding of the School System’s project to automate libraries.

37-39

Other – list individual items,   including Playground refurbishment projects

List other non-recurring expenditures of the PTO so that the Total shown at the bottom, in Line 40, represents everything spent in the year.   List all one-time and/or major $’s outlays, whether or not require separate fund raising was/is involved.   Note that all PTO expenditures here must be specifically excluded from Equity caps.   Examples include purchase of an oven for the school kitchen, banquet tables, playground improvements.

Playground improvements - The City is legally responsible for playgrounds, and the Dept. of Parks & Recreation makes periodic assessments of improvements needed.   However, PTO’s may be called upon to fund raise to supplement city funds available for major projects.   Include here all replacements of major damaged parts or other major refurbishments of playgrounds.