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At $1,149 per pupil, San Carlos Unified’s
fiscal year 2004 per-pupil administrative costs were 60 percent higher than the
comparison districts’ $717 average. Higher salary costs due to a greater number
of administrative positions and employee longevity are primary contributors. The
District’s $1.91 cost-per-meal was 9 percent lower than the comparable
districts’ average, and the program was self-supporting due to lower food and
salary costs. However, the District did not appropriately control the collection
of monies from the sale of a la carte items and adult meals. The District’s
$2.69 per-mile student transportation costs were 44 percent higher than the
comparison districts’ average. These high costs resulted from the District’s
having more transportation employees and paying higher benefit costs than the
comparison districts’. The District also appeared to have higher fuel costs
because it included the costs of unleaded fuel used in unrelated vehicles as
part of its student transportation costs. The District’s plant operation and
maintenance costs were high primarily because it operates and maintains 384
square feet per student, which is 55 percent larger than the comparable
districts averaged. Further, the District’s waste disposal costs were almost six
times greater than the comparison districts’ average costs. The District spent
its Proposition 301 monies for purposes authorized under statute, with the
exception of about $4,600 of its menu monies, which were spent on noninstructional items, such as bottled water, postage, and administration.
Finally, while the District’s classroom dollar percentage of 52.9 percent was
almost 6 percentage points less than the state average, the District spent
$1,500 more per pupil in the classroom than the state average.
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