The Roselle Park School District (RPSD) learned that it would receive $10,460,264 in state aid for the 2014-15 school year. This is an increase of $37,240 – or 0.4% – increase from last year’s aid, with all aid remaining the same from 2013-14 with the exception of additional categories of PARCC Readiness Aid and Per Pupil Growth (PPG) Aid.
PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) is a consortium of 18 states collaborating to develop a common set of K-12 English and math assessments that reflect the core standards that determine college and career readiness. PARCC will replace NJ ASK and HSPA tests by the spring of 2015. Per-Pupil Growth Aid can be used for virtually any general fund budget item and the decision on where to spend these funds will be made at the local level. The calculations made for PARCC and PPG combined are calculated at an additional $20 for every student in district.
The breakdown in state aid for RPSD for the current and previous school year is as follows:
| Total State Aid | $10,423,024 |
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| Equalization Aid | $9,176,611 | 87.7% | $9,176,611 |
| Transportation Aid | $19,838 | 0.2% | $19,838 |
| Special Education Aid | $1,140,860 | 10.9% | $1,140,860 |
| Security Aid | $85,714 | 0.8% | $85,714 |
| PARCC Readiness Aid | $18,620 | 0.2% | - |
| Per Pupil Growth Aid | $18,620 | 0.2% | - |
| Additional Adjustment Aid | $1 | 0.00001% | $1 |
Equalization Aid is predicated on a local share determined by district property wealth and district income. Transportation Aid is determined by the cost per pupil of transporting a regular student and a special education student. Special Education Aid presumes that 14.78% of every district’s student population is classified as special education, with an additional 1.72% needing speech therapy. Security Aid is a combination of the cost a district receives for each pupil in the district – which is a uniform number throughout New Jersey – and additional security aid for every “At Risk” student in the district.
The 0.4% increase marks the 3rd smallest increase in 18 years since the 1997-98 school year. The 2010-11 year had the only decrease in funding with a 13.2% decrease from the previous year. Four years had 0% increase.
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| 1997-1998 | |||
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| 2008-2009 | |||
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| 2010-2011 | |||
| 2011-2012 | |||
| 2012-2013 | |||
| 2013-2014 | |||
| 2014-2015 |