For those of you who could not attend, I will tell you the D2D listening session was very interesting and informative. Several readers contacted me after the meeting regarding the article written about the event. Their questions specifically related to one aspect of the D2D presentation at the meeting. The article on the event said the following.
--------------------
ShorewoodNOW, 6/25/07"Sean Cummings, who spoke on behalf of D2D, said that upon completion of the facility, it would like attract new families to Shorewood.
Cummings said if four new families with two children moved into Shorewood each year and those children attended Shorewood schools, it would generate more than $11 million in revenue for the district."
----------------------
I contacted Mr. Cummings yesterday to seek clarification on the statistics behind this calculation. Here is his response.
-----------------------
From: Sean Cummings
Date: 6/26/07Dear Steve,
Thank you for your interest in and support of D2D. I will drop a sign off at your home in the next few days.
It is my understanding that the average benefit to the school district of a student is $140,000. This assumes the child stays in the system the entire 13 years (K-12).
This is how the funding was calculated.
If D2D attracted (or retained) 4 incremental families (2 child avg.) per year for 10 years to Shorewood schools it would result in $11 million in increased funding:
per student value (K-12) = $140,000
4 families x 2 students = 8 students
8 students x $140,000 = $1,120,000 for each set of 8 kids in the system for 13 years
$1,120,000 over 10 yrs. = $11,200,000 assuming a new set of 8 kids entered into the system each year for 10 years and stayed the entire time
In summary, this assumes that 80 new kids (8 kids per year x 10 years) come into the system and stay the entire time. 80 x $140,000 = $11,200,000 over 10 years or 1,120,000 per year
Cut the assumption in half to just 2 families and D2D still delivers $5.6 million over 10 years or $560,000 per year
This numbers assumes a flat rate benefit per student, state formulas are very complex. I cannot begin to figure out all of these scenarios. This was intended to illustrate the directional power of increased (or declining) enrollment on school funding and the need to implement bold, visible changes to our schools to attract additional residents. If D2D prevents some families from leaving the system it is equally valuable. There are just two ways to keep our schools strong, one is to raise taxes and the other is to increase enrollment. As a tax payer and resident I like D2D because it provides a very visible investment in the community, utilizing primarily privately raised funds, that will appeal to prospective home buyers and renters.
Please let me know if you have any further questions.
Sean
------------------------------
1. In the D2D response, I saw no mention of the $600,000 that the VIllage of Shorewood was expected to put up. Somewhere, I saw a statement that village tax payers would pay about $200 for each $300,000 assesment. If D2D is a privitized approach to upgrading athlethic facilities, why should the local gov't subsidize the effort to the tone of $600,000? Why can't this be a loan to the School Board to be paid back to the Village at $60,000 a year from future private donations? Does the $11,000,000 for eight students in school come from State collected taxes. Will Shorewood residents, get hit by State taxes as well as School taxes and additional Village taxes. I thought CDA efforts were to reduce tax, why are the members now encouraging increase in taxes? Why should empty nesters and people without children and seniors who will no longer have children have to pay additional taxes to support new sports buildings? Why don't the families with the children make their contributions on a private basis? I believe that those people who are against subsidies of other sorts and are all for privatization should go all out to keep this a private project in order to prove that privatization can work. I don't believe sports to be necessary for eduaction, in fact it works against good education and diverts the attention of our young. I'm not giving my name because those who attack certain blogs won't give theirs."
- Anonymous, 6/27/07
From Steve: Some of these issues were covered in the actual presentation that day. I will try to post some of the actual materials from the D2D committee, which answers some of these questions.
2. A - What was the calculation behind $140,000 (is this net present value?), or w
