Appropriates $687,765,800 for the Public Schools Educational Support Program/Division of Operations for fiscal year 2019; amends existing law to increase the salary-based apportionment for classified staff; provides an estimate for discretionary funds per support unit; provides for expenditures for information technology staff; provides for classroom technology and instructional management systems; defines the term “distributed”; allows for transfers among other divisions; and makes a General Fund transfer.

This is the FY 2019 original appropriation bill for the Division of Operations of the Public Schools Educational Support Program. It appropriates $632,440,200 from the General Fund and $55,325,600 in dedicated funds. This division includes pupil transportation, salaries and benefits for classified staff, technology, innovation schools funding, and discretionary funds that can be used for any educational support services or general operations. This budget includes $4,316,900 for a 3% base salary increase for classified staff. Also included is $10,556,600 for nondiscretionary adjustments due to enrollment growth and the estimated increase in pupil transportation. The endowment adjustment includes a decrease of $3,276,000 from the General Fund and an increase of $3,276,000 from dedicated funds. The bill funds four line items, which provide $10,500,000 for technology in line item 3 that, when added to the $26 million in the FY 2019 Base, will bring the amount of funding for classroom technology up to $36.5 million for FY 2019. The combination of funding in line items 6 and 7 increases discretionary funding to $27,481 per support unit, which is a 2.7% increase over the current year. Individually, the $4,034,000 from the General Fund is tied to the 2017 Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase of 1.7% and the $7,209,300 from the General Fund for health insurance is the result of several calculations and analyses of school district health insurance costs, rate increases, and staffing levels. Line item 14 provides $500,000 for IT staffing. This is an increase of 5.8% from the General Fund and 5.2% from all funds.