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School Budgets Explained

School Budgets Explained

Welcome to our budget guide. We are committed to providing transparent information about how our district operates to best support our students, staff, families and community. Can't find the information you're looking for? Please fill out the form below. 

Every year, our district evaluates services to students. We look at factors such as state funding, student enrollment and student outcomes. The goal is to ensure every dollar we spend is effectively serving students. To do this, we carefully assess staffing and programs to align with student needs and funding availability while considering our district’s Strategic Plan and our long-term financial stability.

Where does our funding come from?

For the 2024-2025 school year, our General Fund total of $77,688,246 accounts for nearly 60% of our total budget of $130,393,776. 

Sources of General Fund Revenue

Local Property Taxes: $20,825,200
State Sources (State School Fund/Common School Fund): $50,221,545
Federal Sources (Secure Rural Schools Fund): $600,000
Other Local Sources (Interest on investments/E-Rate Revenue/etc.): $1,916,501
Intermediate Sources (County School Fund/Douglas ESD): $125,000  
Beginning Fund Balance: $4,000,000 
 
Sources of Total Budget
In addition to the funding included in our General Fund, our district receives funding from the following primary sources*:

  • Federal Source Grants that support low-income students and students with disabilities (Title I, II and IV/IDEA/Perkins/Homeless Children and Youth).
  • ESSER Grant includes the final installment of COVID relief funds.
  • Non-Federal Source Grants that support the Horizons Foster Education Program, Early Literacy, Drivers Education, Staff Development, etc.
  • Student Success Act/Student Investment Account that supports students’ mental or behavioral health and academic achievement.  
  • High School Success/Measure 98 that supports dropout prevention, Career and Technical Education and college-level education opportunities. 
  • Food Services Fund to operate the School Lunch Program under the guidelines of the School Food and Nutrition Section of the Oregon Department of Education, which coordinates the state programs with the National School Lunch Program under the Department of Agriculture. Lunches and breakfasts are served in all district schools, and supper is served at qualifying schools.
  • Seismic Rehabilitation Grant Program funds. 

 
*These funds are restricted for specific uses to meet regulations and grant requirements and cannot be used for the district’s general operating expenses. 

Budget challenges for 2025-26:

  • Increase in PERS costs (employee retirement benefits)
  • Instability in state and federal funding
  • Declining enrollment

 

VISIT OUR BUDGET PAGE

VIEW OUR LONG-RANGE FACILITIES PLAN

LEARN ABOUT OUR MOST RECENT CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS

How does our funding support student success?

When you think about what keeps our schools running, it’s the people — the teachers in classrooms, the counselors, the custodians, and everyone working to serve students every day. For the 2024-25 school year, 73% of our General Fund budget is invested directly in the people who educate, care for and support our students. 


Details of other expenditures:

  • Purchased Services include items such as substitute teachers, utilities, student transportation, legal and auditing services.  
  • Supplies and Materials include items such as computer hardware/software, instructional supplies, textbooks, furniture and classroom equipment and library books.
  • Other Uses of Funds include items such as interfund transfers, contingency funds and ending fund balance. 
  • Other Objects include items such debt service and capital outlay. 

 

 

 

A bar and line graph shows general fund expenditures by object for the 2024-25 adopted budget.

The majority of our employees funded through the General Fund — 98% — are teachers and other certified/licensed staff, classified employees, principals and assistant principals.

 

Pie chart showing FTE by employee type for the 2024-25 budget.

Questions and Answers

  • Money to support public education in grades K-12 comes from state income taxes, the lottery fund, local revenues primarily consisting of property taxes, and federal funds. 

    Historically, the largest source of funding had been local property taxes, but this changed dramatically in 1990 when voters passed Measure 5, which lowered the amount of property taxes dedicated to schools. 

    By the 1995-1996 school year, local property taxes for education were limited to $5 per every $1,000 of a property’s assessed real market value. In 1997, voters passed Measure 50, which further limited local property taxes for schools by placing restrictions on assessed valuation of property and property tax rates. The effect of these measures was to shift the bulk of public school funding from local property taxes to Oregon’s General Fund, which comes from state income taxes.

    At $4.0327 per $1,000 of assessed property value, Roseburg School District’s permanent tax rate is lower than all other districts in Douglas County and neighboring districts in other counties. Communities including Coos Bay, Winston-Dillard, Reedsport, Glide, Elkton, Glendale, North Douglas, Myrtle Point and Bandon have higher permanent tax rates than Roseburg and also pay additional tax levies for their local school bonds. 

    You can compare current tax rates with Douglas County and neighboring districts here. You can compare current tax rates of similarly sized school districts in Oregon here.

    Oregon uses a formula to provide financial equity among school districts. Each school district receives (in combined state and local funds) an allocation per student, plus an additional amount for each student enrolled in more costly programs such as Special Education or English Language Learners.

    — Source: Oregon Blue Book

  • The local, state and federal funding that school districts in Oregon receive is intended to pay for the operation of schools, including staffing and programs serving students. 

    School districts, including ours, also direct some funds toward major maintenance. In addition, school districts can apply for a variety of grants to support building upgrades. You can view a list of upgrades our district has made using grant funding in the past five years here. 

    For school districts in Oregon to build or replace schools or complete other major construction projects, they must work with their communities to pass capital improvement bond measures that temporarily increase local tax rates. The majority of school districts in Oregon receive funds through bond measures to pay for such projects. The last time our community supported a bond measure was over 20 years ago. That funding primarily paid for the New Main and Student Center at Roseburg High School. The tax from that bond measure has since expired, and our district does not receive any additional local taxes for building upgrades.  

  • The district sets aside an estimated $1.5 million for its major maintenance fund each year to make repairs as needed and upgrades to buildings whenever possible. Any additional funding set aside could result in a reduction of staffing and student support services. For context, consider that out of the 2024-25 district general fund budget of $77,688,246, over 73% is directed toward staff salaries.

  • ESSER funds were used for items such as sanitation and air purifiers during the pandemic; much needed safety measures including the installation and construction of security fencing and secure front office vestibules; extra hours for staff; and additional positions to support unfinished learning.

  • In Oregon, 40% of marijuana taxes have historically been allocated to the State School Fund, which is distributed to school districts for general operating costs. The remaining portions have been split up between mental health, alcohol and drug treatment, state police, and cities and counties. Distribution amounts to the State School Fund were limited with the passage of Measure 110 in 2020. 

    Beginning with the 2021 Q1 distribution, Measure 110 specifies that $11.25 million per quarter be distributed statewide according to the previous percentages. Amounts above $11.25 million per quarter are distributed to the Drug Treatment and Recovery Services Fund.

  • In Oregon, public education receives 53% of Oregon Lottery revenue. Those funds are transferred to the Oregon Department of Education, where they are allocated out per student. This amount is added to the State School Fund, along with other General Fund dollars, and that amount gets transferred to each school district.

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