Currently our LG schools are at/above capacity. How is the town/school board planning to address the burden this will have on our schools? Each year the class room sizes are going up and up. These housing projects are going to break our schools. How do we get another school to support this project??
Let me start with my disclaimers: I am not an accountant nor an authority on the school costs, nor do I necessarily understand their terminology when I read it. Below is my best guess at costs and you should assume this to a very broad-brush approach. I do not know the nuances of school finance, nor a lot about taxes that are used to pay for education. Almost all of the data I have used below comes from the web. I try to use only authoritative sources. I always welcome comments and corrections by the council, planning commission or persons with more knowledge than I have about the subject. It’s most important to get the information out in the open so that citizens can make intelligent decisions.
At this point in time (12-4-11), I believe the developers are charged a flat $2.97 per square foot (per SB 50). So a 2000 sq. ft. residence would generate $5940. And that’s it, no matter how many kids are going to school. The last information that I had, the annual costs per ADA (average daily attendance for students) is $9,311 per year for an elementary student and $ 11,579 for high school, well above that number – and remember, the developer pays it once, but the cost of educating a student is incurred every year. So one elementary kid’s education costs (K-8) nearly $83,799 and the developer paid $5940. If there were two kids in the house, they still only paid $5940, but the two kids cost $167,598 for 9 elementary years (K-8), plus another $96,632 for their high school years or a total of $251,397 for two kids to go completely through school.
None of this takes price increases nor inflation into account.
The town of course gets the new property tax from that 2000 sq. ft. every year. Let’s say the house sells for $1,200,000, that is $12,000 for as long as the house is owned by the people, and the schools get roughly ½ of that. Let’s say the parents buy the house when the kids enter kindergarten and leave when they graduate. For 2 kids, let’s assume neither flunks a grade and they are one year apart. So over 14 years, the parents have paid in $168,000 in taxes, but only ½ of it goes to education {$ 84,000}. If two kids cost $251,397 to educate – and the parents paid $5940 to the developer and $12,000 (remember, only ½ to the schools) per year for those 14 years, the net difference is – $161,457 net loss to educate two kids.
Home owners without kids, commercial businesses, parcel taxes, seniors moving to the area, etc. usually come without kids and help to pay off that -$161,457 deficit (about – – $81,000 for one child). People like me who have lived here for 40 years, in the same house, are a real drag on the tax base because of Prop. 13. You’re too young to really realize the benefits of prop. 13, but having your tax base with a slow, steady rise compared to what we were going through when house values were rocketing up in the early 70’s, is a real value. With that said, it’s still inequitable and changes need to be made, especially as commercial property goes.
My wife and I keep voting for the tax increases for LG schools if for no other reason, we know that Prop 13 has really crimped the system. And with that said, there is so much ineptitude and chicanery in our government, that I’m all for slashing the size of our government, and implementing a better system to hold them accountable. I digress……
CO LEA ID DISTRICT Expenditures
(EDP 365) Current Expense ADA Current Expense Per ADA LEA Type
43 69526 Los Gatos Union Elementary 26,398,511 2,835.3 9,311 Elementary
43 69534 Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High 35,277,866 3,046.8 11,579 High
We could ask to have Diana come to our January meeting, but I suspect she has tons of meetings already. It would be good to have someone attend that has more knowledge than I do about the true costs of school and what increasing development costs the town. We know that residential is a drain on the local tax and service cost base, but we only have rudimentary knowledge and its time to get that information out in the open too.
Kelly L
Currently our LG schools are at/above capacity. How is the town/school board planning to address the burden this will have on our schools? Each year the class room sizes are going up and up. These housing projects are going to break our schools. How do we get another school to support this project??
Jak
Kelly,
Let me start with my disclaimers: I am not an accountant nor an authority on the school costs, nor do I necessarily understand their terminology when I read it. Below is my best guess at costs and you should assume this to a very broad-brush approach. I do not know the nuances of school finance, nor a lot about taxes that are used to pay for education. Almost all of the data I have used below comes from the web. I try to use only authoritative sources. I always welcome comments and corrections by the council, planning commission or persons with more knowledge than I have about the subject. It’s most important to get the information out in the open so that citizens can make intelligent decisions.
At this point in time (12-4-11), I believe the developers are charged a flat $2.97 per square foot (per SB 50). So a 2000 sq. ft. residence would generate $5940. And that’s it, no matter how many kids are going to school. The last information that I had, the annual costs per ADA (average daily attendance for students) is $9,311 per year for an elementary student and $ 11,579 for high school, well above that number – and remember, the developer pays it once, but the cost of educating a student is incurred every year. So one elementary kid’s education costs (K-8) nearly $83,799 and the developer paid $5940. If there were two kids in the house, they still only paid $5940, but the two kids cost $167,598 for 9 elementary years (K-8), plus another $96,632 for their high school years or a total of $251,397 for two kids to go completely through school.
None of this takes price increases nor inflation into account.
The town of course gets the new property tax from that 2000 sq. ft. every year. Let’s say the house sells for $1,200,000, that is $12,000 for as long as the house is owned by the people, and the schools get roughly ½ of that. Let’s say the parents buy the house when the kids enter kindergarten and leave when they graduate. For 2 kids, let’s assume neither flunks a grade and they are one year apart. So over 14 years, the parents have paid in $168,000 in taxes, but only ½ of it goes to education {$ 84,000}. If two kids cost $251,397 to educate – and the parents paid $5940 to the developer and $12,000 (remember, only ½ to the schools) per year for those 14 years, the net difference is – $161,457 net loss to educate two kids.
Home owners without kids, commercial businesses, parcel taxes, seniors moving to the area, etc. usually come without kids and help to pay off that -$161,457 deficit (about – – $81,000 for one child). People like me who have lived here for 40 years, in the same house, are a real drag on the tax base because of Prop. 13. You’re too young to really realize the benefits of prop. 13, but having your tax base with a slow, steady rise compared to what we were going through when house values were rocketing up in the early 70’s, is a real value. With that said, it’s still inequitable and changes need to be made, especially as commercial property goes.
My wife and I keep voting for the tax increases for LG schools if for no other reason, we know that Prop 13 has really crimped the system. And with that said, there is so much ineptitude and chicanery in our government, that I’m all for slashing the size of our government, and implementing a better system to hold them accountable. I digress……
CO LEA ID DISTRICT Expenditures
(EDP 365) Current Expense ADA Current Expense Per ADA LEA Type
43 69526 Los Gatos Union Elementary 26,398,511 2,835.3 9,311 Elementary
43 69534 Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High 35,277,866 3,046.8 11,579 High
We could ask to have Diana come to our January meeting, but I suspect she has tons of meetings already. It would be good to have someone attend that has more knowledge than I do about the true costs of school and what increasing development costs the town. We know that residential is a drain on the local tax and service cost base, but we only have rudimentary knowledge and its time to get that information out in the open too.