Where does the money go?

  • General Fund:

    The Mukilteo School District’ has five operating budgets: the General Fund, the Capital Projects Fund, the Debt Service Fund, the Transportation Vehicle Fund, and the Associated Student Body Fund. The largest is the General Fund budget, which pays for everything that is not covered by the other funds. Almost all salaries and benefits are paid from the General Fund budget, as is the cost of textbooks, classroom supplies, the electricity and gas bills, school sports teams, diesel fuel for school buses, and copy machines. 

    There are three different ways to look at how that money is being allocated:

    • OBJECTS: What does the money buy? How much is spent on salaries, benefits, purchased services, or on materials and supplies?

    • ACTIVITIES: Which activity does the money support? Is it being spent on teaching, administration or on support?

    • PROGRAMS: In which program is the money being spent? Is it being spent on regular insruction, special education services, or other program?

    Objects:

    The largest expense item in the school district’s budget is for employee salaries and benefits. The district spends 50.6 percent on certificated staff salaries such as teachers, librarians, and school nurses, and 14.9 percent to classified employees (office workers, bus drivers, food service workers and maintenance staff). The 3.4 percent that is not spent on salaries and benefits pays for objects such as supplies, textbooks and other purchased services such as utilities and insurance.

    Activities:

    Considering the purpose of the school district’s spending, teaching and teaching support activities account for almost three-fourths of total expenditures. Transportation makes up 3.2 percent of the expenditures, food service is 1.8 percent, and maintenance and operations accounts for 5.7 percent.

    Programs:

    The school district spends 56.1 percent on regular classroom instruction, 14.9 percent is spent on special education instruction and about 7.5 percent is spent on compensatory instruction, which includes federal Title I programs for low-income students, the state Learning Assistance Program and programs that support students who don’t speak English. About 15 percent is spent on support services, such as food services, building maintenance and school buses.