Districts seeking additional funds from the voters or board of school estimate must submit the Separate Proposal Summary which documents the intended purpose(s) and amount(s) of any separate proposal(s) being submitted to the voters or board of school estimate. The total dollars entered on the summary report will be used on the “Effect of Separate Proposals on Estimated Tax Rate” worksheet under the “Tax Levy Certification” tab.
Click the “Save Data” button to save any data entry before leaving the screen.
To remove a line from the screen, click on the line, then click on the “Delete Proposal” button at the bottom of the screen.
A sample of the Separate Proposal Summary follows this section.
The additional proposal amounts approved by the local voters or board of school estimate, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:7F-39, must be submitted to the Commissioner both separately as proposed and approved and as part of the final overall budget certified for taxes. That is, the budget program must be updated to produce a formal state prescribed budget statement merging any approved additional proposals with the base budget amount. The merged budget will reflect the total approved tax levies, detailed appropriations and other data required on the state prescribed budget statement. The “Effect of Separate Proposals on Estimated Tax Rate” worksheet under the “Tax Levy Certification” tab must be completed by all districts with voter or board of school estimate approved separate proposals. Only APPROVED additional proposal amounts are to be included in the final budget.
The Separate Proposal Summary sheet must be updated to reflect only approved amounts. Districts will also be required to submit an itemized accounting for the approved separate proposals.
If the board of education is presenting a separate proposal(s) to the voters or the Board of School Estimate, an additional certification must be submitted. The district will execute Statement A of the Budget Statement Certification-Separate Proposal if the separate proposal was adopted as approved after the public hearing. Statement B is executed if after the public hearing: the separate proposal is revised; a separate proposal is initially developed and adopted; or the separate proposal is withdrawn from consideration.
If after the public hearing, the separate proposal is revised or initially adopted, two copies of the adopted question shall be (re)submitted to the executive county superintendent.
ii.Estimated Tuition Calculations
The estimated tuition calculation is a tool to assist regular districts in estimating tuition rates for both regular and special education students. County Vocational (CVSD) and Special Services (CSSD) School Districts must calculate the estimated tuition rate using forms provided by the Office of School Finance. Appropriation line 84040 (10-000-550-905 Budgeted Increase in Surplus for Estimated Tuition) is available to CVSD and CSSD for use in budgeting an appropriation increase to maintain the legally permitted surplus balances as calculated in the projected tuition rate.
The certification of tuition rates occurs after two years. In the 2013-14 budget, districts are required to include any applicable tuition adjustment for the certification of 2011-12 rates. The software will require districts to withdraw tuition reserve amounts to correspond to the year of rate certification.
The budget software automatically calculates the estimated costs per pupil using the Average Daily Enrollment (ADE) from the School Register Summary as specified in N.J.A.C. 6A:23A-17.1 and prebudget year (2012-13) data. Direct costs are apportioned to the applicable program (e.g. line 2100-Grade 1-5 Teacher Salaries - is apportioned to the tuition costs for grades 1-5). Indirect or undistributed costs are allocated using ratios based on the ADE for each program to the total applicable ADE for the cost area. For example, undistributed instructional costs for regular programs are prorated among regular program cost centers (preschool through grade 12) based on the ratio of ADE for each cost center to the total. Other undistributed instructional program costs (e.g., function 240-school administration) are prorated among regular and special education program cost centers based on the ADE ratio of each cost center to the total.
program cost per pupil ratios generated.
The tuition data entry screen requires very little data entry if not using the optional allocation method. Receiving districts should send a copy of the applicable Estimated Tuition Reports to the sending districts with an official notification of the rate being charged for each category for the 2013-14 year. Receiving districts are still required to file a letter of intent with the Division of Administration and Finance to perform their own final tuition rate calculations using the forms A4-1 and A4-2.
The estimated tuition calculation reports (regular and special education) sum the applicable current year appropriations as contained in sections I, II, III, and IV of the reports to calculate the Net Total Tuition Costs. This amount is then inflated by the greater of 2.5 percent or CPI to equal the Grand Total. The cost per pupil is calculated by dividing the Grand Total by the ADE.
The estimated tuition calculation is accessed through the Calculations tab of the budget software. When the Estimated Tuition Calculations is chosen, two selections appear:
1.) Formulas for Selected Appropriations, and 2.) Rate for All Programs.
The Formulas for Selected Appropriations provides the calculation of two amounts included in the rate calculation:
• Building Use Charge
• Allocated Costs – Other than Between Home and School
This screen should be opened before the "Rate for All Programs" screen, in order to initialize the calculations.
The "Rate for All Programs" provides the calculation of the estimated tuition rates. The first row is preloaded with the Average Daily Enrollment (ADE) figures from School Register Summary. The second row “ADE Entered by District” is used to enter the district’s projected ADE for the budget year only if different from the ADE preload and can only be entered if agreed upon by the executive county superintendent during mediation of a disputed tuition rate. A warning edit will appear on the Edit Report if the projection differs from the ADE. The software uses the ADE figures on the line entitled “ADE for Ratios” to calculate the ratios used in the program. If there is at least one change to the preloaded ADE figures, then all ADE data should be entered in row “ADE Entered by District”, even if it is the same as the preload. An on-screen message will warn the district that not all amounts have been entered:
Please enter a value 'equal to' or 'greater than' 0 for ALL columns from 1-15 of 'ADE Entered By School District' row. Otherwise Enrollment section values will default to 'ADE From School Register' row values.
entered to clear out the data entry, the system takes this as zero data-entered ADE and saves this amount as zero in each cell.
Amounts in the optional District Choice Allocations section may be overwritten with district choice amounts. Warning edits on the screen will check to ensure the total of each row equals the amount from the detailed 2012-13 appropriations as shown in the “Total” column of that row.
There are functions at the top of the screen to hide or show columns. This can be used to customize your view of the screen for data entry or for export. In the “click to hide column” function, select in the drop-down box the column you wish to hide from view, then click on “click to hide column”. The selected column will no longer display on the screen. You may do this for multiple columns. Columns hidden using this function will not be included in the files created using Export to PDF or Export to Excel.
If you have hidden a column and wish to view it again, in the “click to show column” function, select in the drop-down box the column you wish to show, then click on “click to show column”. The selected column will now display.
Click on the “Save Data” button to save the calculations and any data entry.