Dorchester Times: What Can Be Done To Lower DPS' Spending?

Thursday, September 3, 2015

What Can Be Done To Lower DPS' Spending?

We love Dorchester Public School. We love the building; the teachers; the administration; and the students.

To be clear, we think DPS ranks among the best Class D schools in the state.

But an investigation by the Times has found that the cost of educating our students significantly exceeds the state average.

That leads us to ask: Can our school and our school board do more to keep the costs of educating our kids in check?

According to our investigation, Dorchester Public School's per-student cost for school year 2013-14 was $16,911, when broken down by average daily membership.

When using average daily attendance, it cost our school district taxpayers $17,506 per pupil.

Those are shocking figures -- especially considering that 20 years ago the cost per pupil was around $6,400 a year.

Why should you care? Consider that funding for K-12 education makes up 60% of the average property tax bill in Nebraska.

Then consider that during the 2013-14 school year, the average cost per pupil across the state was about $11,364. That means it costs DPS $5,547 more per year, per student.

Now keep in mind that Dorchester does not boast the most expensive per-pupil cost in the county. That distinction belongs to Friend Public School, which has a per-student cost of $18,007 when tabulated by average daily membership. Friend's per-student cost is $18,812 when figured by average daily attendance.

Crete Public Schools spent $11,088 per pupil. Wilber-Clatonia Public Schools spent $10,746 per pupil.

Statewide, the lowest cost per pupil belongs to Gretna Public Schools, which spent $9,380 per student. The highest cost per pupil belongs to Wheeler Central Public School, which spent a whopping $28,276 for every K-12 student.

The comparisons are at: http://www.education.ne.gov/FOS/SchoolFinance/AFR/PPCArchive.html

2 comments:

AnonymousSeptember 8, 2015 at 5:49 PM
The higher cost of educating Dorchester's students is primarily due to the low numbers of students in the district. Small districts have the same requirements as larger schools - but will naturally have a higher per pupil cost. Small schools frequently have one $75,000 teacher (total salary and benefits) for a classroom of 10 students. A larger school will have that same $75,000 teacher in a class room of 25 students. This is a simple illustration why per pupil costs are higher in a small school -- small school's $7,500 per pupil cost vs. $3,000 per cost in the larger school.

It's simple math - Total Costs divided by a smaller student count number results in a higher per pupil cost. It's the cost of a small school. There are benefits to choose to have your child in a small school setting - but you're going to have pay for it.

In the future, please include all of the facts when a story like this appears -- Obviously this article was not intended to educate your readers.
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PhDSeptember 8, 2015 at 6:37 PM
Even I could make the connection between the higher costs per student for smaller schools. Do you really think the blogsters needed spell that out? If they had, I'll bet you'd be accusing them of pushing for consolidation. :-/
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."