Glossary

Definitions of In$ite™ Terms

Function Definitions
Program Definitions
Locations and Educational Levels

Function Definitions

Instructional Teachers: salaries and related employment costs for teachers who interact with pupils face-to-face, or via electronic means. Includes classroom, hospital and home bound teachers. Includes the cost of third-party instructional services for district students (e.g. advanced college courses, or specialized classes provided by another district) . Includes the cost of travel for hospital, home bound, and itinerant teachers. Includes only the teaching portion of an expenditure for department chairpersons who also teach. Also includes drivers education teachers if taught during normal school hours and offered without a fee and restricted to students (otherwise assigned to Extracurricular).

Substitutes are the same as Instructional Teachers, except used for certified teachers not on permanent assignment.

Instructional Paraprofessionals are the same as Instructional Teachers, except Paraprofessionals. Usually called instructional aides or classroom aides and are not certified as teachers. They do provide direct service to students in the classroom. This category excludes: non-instructional paraprofessionals, aides and graders (non-instructional Para educators, aides, and graders assigned to teachers are assigned to Inservice, Staff Development and Support, all others are assigned to the appropriate detail function under Instructional Support, Operations, or Leadership).

   Classroom Materials

Pupil-use Technology and Software includes technology and software that pupils use and the salaries and related employment costs of staff who are dedicated to technology instruction (teachers are included in Instructional Teachers), pupil-use network management, or computer lab support personnel. The equipment could be located in the classroom, in computer labs, or connected by terminals to a central site. Includes expenditures for dedicated telephone lines, maintenance and repair, and service contracts. Technology and software for purposes other than pupil-use should be mapped to the detailed function that most closely matches its intended use.

Instructional Materials, Trips, and Supplies includes the cost of instructional materials & supplies and staff dedicated to managing the selection of those materials and supplies. Specific materials and supplies may including textbooks, paper, lab materials, test forms, workbooks, chalk, markers, maps and charts. (Only the costs of tests are assigned to this function. Test related research and development and the personnel involved in that process are assigned to the In$ite™ detail function Curriculum Development. Also includes costs of field trips that are instruction-related. Non-instructional trips (band, glee-club, etc.) are assigned to Extracurricular.

This category excludes: furniture, equipment, and their repairs  (assigned to Facilities); media, such as projectors, video players, video-conferencing, and equipment, etc., which are assigned to Library and Media.

Guidance and Counseling includes the salaries and related employment costs of guidance counselors that provide counseling to the general student population. Also includes field support coordinators that work directly with guidance counselors, and can include guidance and counseling administrators in the central office.

Excludes attendance functions and health services (assigned to Student Health and Services).

Library and Media includes the salaries and related employment costs of librarians and media technicians. Also includes the cost of media equipment, library books, and general media and library office costs. Also includes field support coordinators that work directly with librarians and media personnel, and administrators in the central office.

Extracurricular includes the salaries and related employment costs of coaches and staff related to sports, clubs and other extracurricular activities. Also includes cost of equipment, related facilities and utilities, and transportation. Includes non-instructional field trips (band, glee club, drama club, etc.) Excludes instructional field trips, which are assigned to Instructional Materials, Trips, and Supplies.

Student Health and Services includes the salaries and related employment costs of nurses and medical staff. This category also includes community outreach services directed toward the families of students, and attendance services.

Teacher Support

Curriculum Development includes the salaries and related employment costs of staff assigned to improving curriculum or teaching curriculum concepts to Teachers. If a Curriculum Department exists, this detail function includes all of the costs of that department including secretaries, clerks, and curriculum materials. Includes expenditures for purchased curriculums and purchased curriculum services.

In-service, Staff Development, and Support includes the cost of in-service training and other types of staff development provided either in-house or by outside providers. Also includes teacher mentoring program costs, teacher trainer costs, and non-instructional paraprofessionals, aides, and graders assigned to teachers.

Sabbaticals includes all costs of salaries and benefits related to providing teacher sabbaticals.

Program Support

Program Development includes the salaries and related employment costs of staff who develop, monitor, and maintain defined categorical programs (e.g. Special Education, Chapter 1/Title, or General Education). Includes office costs and clerical costs associated with the administrator's activities. This may include, for example, the staff costs of maintaining an IEP program for Special Education students including the clerical effort to maintain the records for IEPs. Also includes the portion of a teacher's salary related to serving as a department chair.

Therapists, Psychologists, Evaluators, Personal Attendants and Social Workers includes the salaries or contract fees and related employment costs of evaluators, social workers, therapists, psychologists, or other type of counselor serving specific needs of a defined program (e.g. Special Education), regardless of funding source. This detail category excludes the cost of counseling for the general population of students not related to a specific program (these are assigned to Guidance and Counseling). Includes the cost of personal student attendants.

Operations

Non-instructional Pupil Services

Transportation includes all costs of transportation services associated with district students attending district schools. This may include bus driver salaries and related employment costs, or transportation contracts, and administrators who administer the transportation services. Also includes the maintenance and operating costs associated with bus operations.

Food Service includes all costs of food service operations. This may include central and on-site food preparation salaries and related employment costs, or food service contracts, and administrators who administer food services.

Safety includes the cost of safety personnel (salaried or contracted) and the cost of safety devices and maintenance of safety equipment in schools and in buses. Includes crossing guards, school security personnel, and related equipment.

Facilities

Building, Upkeep, Utilities, and Maintenance are the costs associated with running the day-to-day operations of facilities. Each detail function below includes expenses, if any, related to the office of the staff included in that detail function. Includes cost of utilities, desks, chairs, furniture and fixtures. Includes salaries and related employment costs and contracted services of custodians, janitors, and maintenance workers; and the cost of associated supplies, service contracts, furnishings

Excludes: Capital outlay (assigned to Capital Projects), lease expense (assigned to the function that the leased item pertains to) and debt service (assigned to Debt Service) related to buildings.

Business Services

Data Processing includes the cost of the data processing department (excludes student use technology, see Pupil Use Technology and Software). Includes salaries and related employment costs, equipment cost and DP maintenance contracts.

Business Operations includes the cost of business offices (e.g. payroll, human resources, accounting and finance, procurement). Includes interest payments on revolving lines of credit used to fill funding gaps between receipt of tax revenues. Includes salaries and related employment costs, office expenses and all other departmental costs.

Other Commitments

Contingencies

Budgeted Contingencies are the amount of the budget reserved for Contingencies or undesignated.

Capital

Debt Service includes the cost of principal and interest payments made on debt (except for revolving credit - see Business Operations).

Capital Projects includes capital expenditures for land, buildings, and improvements. Typically includes all expenditures in a district's Capital Projects Fund. If Capital Projects Fund expenditures include furniture and equipment, these expenditures should be mapped to school or non-school buildings, as appropriate.

Out-of-District Obligations

Parochial, Private, Charter, and Public School Pass-Throughs include dollars that are passed through the public school district to parochial, private, charter and public schools. None of this cost benefits the school district. Includes contracted services of private schools for Special Education pupils. Also includes tuition to cover educational and special needs supplied by other sources where the day-to-day responsibility for the student is outside the district, as well as associated transportation costs.

Retiree Benefits and Other include cost of retirement benefits paid to retirees out of current operating funds. The cost of pension funding for current employees is allocated as a related employment cost to other functional categories.

Enterprise and Community Service Operations include activities that are financed and operated in a manner similar to private business enterprises - when the stated intent is that the costs are financed or recovered primarily through user charges. One example could be a bookstore. Also includes activities concerned with providing community services. Examples include a community swimming pool, a recreation program for the elderly and a child-care center for working parents.

Legal Obligations

Claims and Settlements include specific litigation awards or settlement of obligations resulting in the outlay of cash. Fees associated with legal services rendered are assigned to Legal under leadership.

Leadership

School Management

Principals and Assistant Principals include the salaries and related employment costs of principals and assistant principals who work in schools. A principal usually has the responsibility of being the instructional leader for a specific school or schools. Any time spent by these individuals in face-to-face teaching is assigned to Instructional Teachers.

School Office include the salaries, and related employment costs for administrative support staff for the principal and assistant principals. Also includes the basic administrative costs of running the school (office supplies, etc.)

Program and Operations Management

Deputies, Senior Administrators, Researchers, and Program Evaluators include the office costs, salary and related employment costs of deputy superintendents, senior administrators, research staff, public relations and program evaluators. The personnel included in this In$ite™ function are thought of as the superintendent's cabinet. Any time spent by these individuals in face-to-face teaching is assigned to Instructional Teachers.

District Management

Superintendent and School Board includes the salaries and related employment costs of the superintendent and the school board. Also includes the office and support staff costs that support these functions.

Legal includes the salaries and related employment costs of the Legal Department staff. Also includes the office and support staff costs that support this function. Includes cost of contracted legal services.

The In$ite™ program dimension is used to indicate which group of students benefited from the expenditure. There are six broad program areas, and each school district can define up to 90 sub-programs within each of these six broad areas. Guidelines for each of the six program areas are listed below:

Special Education includes all additional costs for children with special needs (full-time and part-time special education) funded from both local property taxes (tax levy) and federal, state, and local categorical funding (i.e. reimbursable and other dollars with specific targets, regulations, and other spending constraints). In Pennsylvania, the state considers gifted education programs to be part of special education as well.

Bilingual, ESL, or LEP include costs related to federal and state programs for children with limited English proficiency, but does not include costs of "foreign language training" (e.g., immersion programs). Also known as English as a Second Language (ESL) or Limited English Proficient (LEP) programs.

Chapter 1 or Title 1 includes the costs of all programs targeted toward children at risk of academic failure, typically due to the impact of poverty. Includes Federal dollars (distributed by the State) for assisting low-income students under the federal law Improving America's Schools Act (IASA).

Vocational Education includes those vocational training costs that are directly associated with integrated education programs to teach trades or specific job-related skills; also involves pre-vocational experiences and explorations, planning related to employment after school graduation, or planning related to attending trade schools, community colleges, or a four-year university, with the intent of mastering a particular trade or employment skill. Regular "home economics" and "shop" classes are not included in this program but should be included in General Education.

Other Programs is used to track programs that are outside the bounds of the typical school day, school year, or regular curriculum. Child care, recreational programs, military programs, and summer school are all examples of "other" programs. These programs may or may not be mandated and they may or may not have dedicated revenue sources assigned to support them.

General Education costs are those associated with the standard, or regular programs, drawn from the General Fund, from both State and Local sources (property taxes or tax-levy dollars), and are thus not categorical or reimbursable. General education programs are open to any student, although not all students may enroll in every program. Examples include band and music programs, drama programs, athletic programs, etc.

In$ite™ uses the location dimension to indicate where the benefit of a particular expenditure takes place. In some cases this may not be the same as the location which controls the expenditure. For instance, some expenditures such as transportation or food service are made by the central office but services are actually provided at individual schools. Reports reflect both costs that are charged directly to buildings as well as those that are allocated from a central location as in the above examples. All buildings in the district are assigned to one of the location categories below.

Schools includes expenditures charged directly to the school site plus costs allocated from central sites for goods and services delivered to pupils and teachers in the schools. In cases where a district's schools do not serve exactly the grade levels in the definitions, the school type with the most similar cost structure is chosen.

Elementary generally serves kindergarten through fifth or sixth grade. Usually set up as self-contained classrooms (non-departmentalized).

Middle generally serves sixth or seventh through eighth or ninth grade. Usually set up in a departmental structure, but may be more team-oriented or have other flexible classroom groupings.

High generally serves ninth or tenth through twelfth grades. Usually set up using separate department or cost centers to reflect specific programs or services.

Other may not be a separate physical location, but "other schools" can be created to segregate the costs of programs or services that are either outside the bounds of the typical school day (day care programs), school year (summer school), or school population (preschool). Assigning these costs to an "other school" location makes their actual physical locations more comparable to each other. For instance, if only one elementary school in the district has a pre-school that serves the whole district, the costs of that elementary school would not be comparable to the others in the district. By assigning the preschool costs to an "other school" location, all elementary schools are comparable and the costs of the preschool services are still clearly shown.

Alternative is generally used to indicate schools that have very specialized curricula or serve very specific populations of students with unique needs. As a result of the programs or services provided, these schools tend to have cost structures that are very different from their mainstream counterparts. Alternative schools for students with discipline or other behavioral problems are common examples.

Non-school: Includes expenditures associated with the Board of Education, school district management and the other costs at non-school locations (warehouse, garage, etc.). Locations designated as "non-school" cannot have students assigned to them.

Non-Allocated Costs: This "location" dimension is used in reports to separate all the non-school expenditures assigned to the Other Commitments functions from other non-school expenditures. These costs (which include debt service, capital projects, retiree benefits, enterprise operations, etc.) do not reflect day-to-day costs of the internal district operations and are never allocated out to school buildings. Separating these expenditures makes it easier to see the costs that may be more easily available for reallocation or restructuring within the district's budget.