2007 September 30th Unit Count

Report to the Appoquinimink School DistrictBoard of Education

October 9, 2007

The Process

State funding for staff is allocated to school districts and charter schools based on Title 14, Chapter 17 of the Delaware Code. “Funding units” are allocated based on the enrollment of students in special education, “regular” education, and secondary vocational courses on the last school day in September of each year.

The Process

Districts and charters are audited within the school year to ensure compliance with State regulations and law. Schools must show that they have, and follow, a process for identifying “no shows” and for accurately reporting enrollment and special education/vocational information.

The Pilot Unit Count

This year Appoquinimink is in year two of the Needs-Based Funding Model, a new method for counting funding units. The intent of the new model is to provide financial incentives for districts who serve children in educationally-appropriate special education settings.

The Pilot Unit Count

For districts in year two of Needs-Based Funding, any gain or loss compared to the “traditional” method is capped at six units. This year, Appoquinimink benefited by the full amount of the cap, six funding units.

Units Earned, 9/30/06 - 9/30/07

  2006 2007 Change

Regular 345 378 +33

Special 104 110 +6

Vocational 25 23 -2

Pilot Cap 3 6 +3

TOTAL 477 517 +40

We earned 40 more units in 2007. If Needs-Based Funding were in full implementation, we would earn 521.67, or 4.67 above the cap.

Enrollment, Sep 2003-Sep 2007 Incr/decr from 2006

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 % #

AECC 442 481 228 247 307 24.3% 60

CLECC -- -- 285 303 363 19.8% 60

BME 561 599 694 762 796 4.5% 34

CLE 607 609 636 655 666 1.7% 11

OBL 569 610 601 623 677 8.7% 54

SLE 569 623 642 622 672 8.0% 50

TES 331 317 353 374 490 31.0% 116

MMS 884 931 1019 1097 1142 4.1% 45

RMS 724 724 771 790 836 5.8% 46

9th Gr Ac         565 6.1% 

129 MHS 1708 1816 2067 2115 1679

TOTAL 6395 6710 7296 7588 8193

count 614 315 586 292 605

% 10.6% 4.9% 8.7% 4.0% 8.0%

Staffing Process:

• District contracted with Data Service Center• Used DSC FTE Reporting system to track our utilization

of earned units

• Met regularly to review enrollment and position allocation

• MaryAnn Mieczkowski • Debbie Panchisin• Eileen McAllister• Chuck Longfellow• Dr. Proffitt• Dr. Marchio• Maryellen Brown• Matt Fallis

The Team

Ensuring the accuracy of the September 30th Unit Count is truly a team effort. We thank all who have had a role in a smooth unit count process:

• School Secretaries

• Educational Diagnosticians

• Special Education/Student Services

• Principals/Assistant Principals

• Teachers

• Appoquinimink and DOE Technology Staff

• School Choice and HR Staff

• District Office Unit Count Team