Enrollment and Financial Analysis — Smithfield Public Schools


Smithfield Public Schools -- Enrollment and Financial Analysis

After reading, reviewing and evaluating financial/budget proposals for several years, I decided to compile an analysis of enrollment associated with the Smithfield Public Schools.

Introduction

Originally, The analysis compiled enrollment data complied by RIDE for the October 1 census; which every educational institution (that receives Federal funds) is required to submit (for private schools, DoE).

The RIDE data is compiled for the fourteen levels (Pre-K, K and 1-12).  The current analysis tracks data from FY2004 -- FY2022.

From my membership on the Financial Review Commission, there was another spreadsheet that I compiled included various financial statistics.  I decided that, for an extended and complete view of SPS, the financial, enrollment, labor and other metrics would be combined into a collection of spreadsheets and tables consisting of eight pages.

Some Foundational Definitions/Terms

  • Fiscal Year: Currently, the 19 years span from FY2004 -- FY2022.  Remember that fiscal year is always defined as the second (ending) year of the budget/school year.  So, FY2022 is from July 2021 -- June 2022.
  • Graduating Class: The Graduating Class (organized into a cohort) is the "body" of the class that moves through the 14 levels (grades) of their educational experience.
  • Transition of Data for Graduating (Cohort) Class: The current SPS Class of 2022 (senior class) corresponds to the FY designation.  As shown in the 181 enrollment value is as of October 1, 2021 census.
  • The Class of 2022 for FY2021 was the junior class.  Reviewing the FY2021, their enrollment was 178.  Notice it is depicted on the same row as the 181 corresponding to the graduating class (2022).
  • Therefore, you may "eyeball" the enrollment in this class from 34 (Pre-K) through 181 (Grade 12).
  • This transition will become important to calculate the change in enrollment for the graduating class (cohort).
  • For example: The class of 2022 gained three students (net) from FY2021 to FY2022.
  • There are some instructions on Page 2 of the PDF.

Got that? Make sense?  🙂

Explanation and Analysis by Printed Page

Analysis and Discussion

The report was provided to the Town Manager, Town Council and Superintendent of Schools prior to this post.

A full analysis and discussion of the data will be forthcoming.  At this point, the PDF report is being provided to the public for viewing.