The school funding formula substantially impacts small school districts like Newell School District. Student enrollment count is taken on the last Friday of September. This count includes students that have out-of-district placement funded by the district and enrolled part-time. After the count is taken, the number is put into the formula to find our allocation. For a small school, even a small change is difficult.
School districts are funded by the “local effort” and state aid. The local need is established based on the student count. The local need minus the local effort, which includes property taxes and other local revenues, determines the state aid. School districts with high local effort and low local need lose money whereas districts with low local effort and/or high local need receive funding. Newell School District received $955,709 in State Aid for the 2023-2024 school year.
Newell School District receives Sparsity funding because it is rural with enrollment per square mile of .5 students or less and is over 400 sq. miles or more. Newell School District received $39,999 in Sparsity funding for the 2023-2024 school year. In addition, Newell School District will receive $192,000 in Title I funding to support the Title program and for implementing the MTSS-RTI methodology to support student learning.
Wind farm tax revenue has been very beneficial to the school district. Newell School District receives $173,252 and will continue to see that revenue for two more years. However, the district will receive 80% the following year and lose an additional 20% each of the following years until it is completely absorbed by the state. It is unfortunate to have that economic development in our district only to have it terminated.
Homeschooling is an alternative approach to education; however, the local school district does not receive any funding for homeschooled students unless there is partial enrollment in the public school. Homeschool students are encouraged to enroll in our CTE or any core classes. Homeschool students are no longer required to be tested in the state of South Dakota each year; however, Newell School District invites homeschool families into the school to use our assessment to view the progress in mathematics, reading, writing, and science.
