README_SDP_Budget.txt
REVISIONS
20140425 (April 25th, 2014) - Initial release.

This README file contains some background information and guidance on School District of Philadelphia (SDP) data. This set of data was extracted in April of 2014, and includes information about the School District budget for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015. The School District recognizes the Fiscal Year as July 1st to June 30th. 

School Level Budget / Obligation Detail
Budgeted Versus Actual School Level Salary and Benefits. School personnel and non-personnel expenses (books, supplies, etc.) are budgeted for the following year based on enrollment projections and a series of formulas consistent with provisions of federal and state law, School Reform Commission policy and union contract provisions. As such, it is not known in April (when budgeting occurs for the following school year) which specific teacher or other personnel will be at any given school in September. Therefore, the District budgets an average salary for teachers and other positions based on the enrollment projections and formulas. School principals have some discretion on the use of funds, and the budget is established and becomes the Approved budget on July 1st. After the school year starts, the specific personnel in that school have been determined. It is often the case that the actual salary and benefit costs of the personnel in the school will either be, in aggregate, higher or lower than the sum of the average budgeted salaries established the prior April. Therefore, most schools will have actual salary and benefit obligations that are either higher or lower than the budgeted amount for salaries and benefits.

School Based Budget and Expenditures / Obligations Are not the only resources available to the school. A significant amount of resource support to schools is not budgeted and expensed through school budgets or accounting codes. Rather, those resources are budgeted, allocated, and expensed centrally typically because the allocation of those resources are tied directly to actual student enrollment not known until after school starts, or because the resources are tied directly to specific student attributes. In addition, resources are sometime maintained centrally to assure program compliance and the nature of the services suggests a central allocation is more efficient. Examples of resources that fall into this category are federal Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) funding based on specific special education student needs, English as a Second Language teachers, school police officers, school custodians and engineers, and food service workers. The budgets and obligations for these items are contained in separate budget lines that are part of the data set.

Please refer to the School Budget Guide on the School District's Budget website (http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/root/home/leadership/budget-website/ ).
Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, or would like to request other data sets.
Happy data diving!
opendata@philasd.org

Individual files:

README_SDP_BUDGET.TXT - You're soaking in it!
 
budget_information.csv
Provides lump sum budget information for Fiscal Years 2014 and 2015. Budget Hierarchy Information: The budget hierarchy at a given point-in-time represents the structure by which the District is implementing its academic plans.
FUNCTION_CLASS - Code identifying the function class.
FUNCTION_CLASS_NAME - Description of the function class of the budget.  This is the highest distinct category for the budget.
FUNCTION_GROUP- Code identifying the function group.
FUNCTION_GROUP_NAME - Description of the function group of the budget.  This is the next highest distinct category for the budget.
FUNCTION- Code identifying the function.
FUNCTION_NAME - Description of the function of the budget.  This is the next highest distinct category for the budget.
ACTIVITY - Code identifying the budget activity.
ACTIVITY_NAME - Description of the activity type.
-- Current Fiscal Year 2014 Estimates through to June 30th, 2014:
OPERATING_CYEST_LUMPSUM_AMT - Amount of budget from operating funds.
GRANT_CYEST_LUMPSUM_AMT - Amount of budget from grant funds.
CAPITAL_CYEST_LUMPSUM_AMT - Amount of budget from capital funds.
OTHER_CYEST_LUMPSUM_AMT - Amount of budget from other funds.
TOTAL_CYEST_LUMPSUM_AMT - The total budget.
-- Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2015
OPERATING_ACT_LUMPSUM_AMT - Amount of budget from operating funds.
GRANT_ACT_LUMPSUM_AMT - Amount of budget from grant funds.
CAPITAL_ACT_LUMPSUM_AMT - Amount of budget from capital funds.
OTHER_ACT_LUMPSUM_AMT - Amount of budget from other funds.
TOTAL_ACT_LUMPSUM_AMT - The total budget.
RUN_DATE - The date the data was extracted from SDP data systems.
 
School District Data Sets Terms of Use.pdf
Terms of use for use the open data sets from the School District of Philadelphia.