What is the Per Pupil Expenditure Rate? ($7210.30) – Mehlville Messenger

1.  How does a district figure out the Per Pupil Expenditure rate?

Answer: The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) calculates “Current Expenditure per Average Daily Attendance” for each district in Missouri.  This figure is more commonly referred to as the “Per Pupil Expenditure” rate.  Current expenditures are primarily the operational expenditures for instructional and support services of a district.  The calculation does not use all of a district’s expenditures as it excludes debt payments, community education expenditures and capital expenditures.  Also excluded from the calculation are revenues from Food Service, Student Activities and reimbursements from other school districts.  Average Daily Attendance is the rate of hours students were in attendance as compared to the hours school was in session.  The most current figure available for the Mehlville School District is based on the 2006-2007 school year.  Mehlville’s Current Expenditures per Average Daily Attendance is $7210.30.

2.  What does the Per Pupil Expenditure rate mean to the public?

Answer: This tells the public the operating cost of educating the average student in a school year.  Again, this omits the costs of capital, debt and the other areas mentioned above.  By omitting capital and debt, the calculation does not take into account the costs of instructional equipment such as computers and projectors, nor the costs of general equipment, buses, facility, renovation, etc.

3.  Why is Mehlville’s Per Pupil Expenditure rate lower than most other St. Louis County schools?

Answer: In a nutshell, other school districts in St. Louis County are able to spend more on their students because they bring in more revenue.  Some districts’ Current Expenditures per ADA are more than double Mehlville’s Current Expenditures per ADA.