Appropriates $653,649,000 for the Public Schools Educational Support Program/Division of Operations for fiscal year 2018; 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”; and allows for transfers among other divisions.

This is the Fiscal Year 2018 appropriation for the Operations Division of the Public Schools Educational Support Program in the amount of $653,649,000. This budget includes $4,322,600 for a 3% base salary increase for classified staff and $9,808,200 for nondiscretionary adjustments due to enrollment growth. The adjustments include $7,143,500 to maintain discretionary funding at $25,696. Also, $2,537,100 is needed for salaries and benefits, $491,800 for projected transportation cost increases, and a decrease of $364,200 for unused unemployment insurance. There is also an increase of $10,324,800 of endowment funds and a decrease in the same amount from the General Fund. There are four line items included in this appropriation. Line item 1 provides $5,000,000 from the General Fund for classroom technology and infrastructure. Line item 2 increases discretionary funding by $2,978,900 from the General Fund and $3,000,000 one-time from dedicated funds. Line item 4 adds $5,000,000 from the General Fund to be distributed for information technology (IT) staffing. Line item 5 provides an increase of $9,967,800 from the General Fund to discretionary funds for the employer portion of health insurance for state-funded school district employees due to premium rate increases. The totals for this appropriation are $597,599,400 from the General Fund and $56,049,600 from dedicated funds, for a total of $653,649,000. This is an increase of 4.7% from the General Fund and 6.5% from all funds. Discretionary funds would be set at $26,748 per support unit, which is a 4.1% increase. Pursuant to Section 5 of this act, and to address rising health insurance costs, discretionary funds would be further divided into two distributions. The first distribution is $15,506 per support unit to be used at the discretion of the school district or charter school. The second distribution is $11,242 per support unit to be used to offset the school district or charter school employer cost of health, vision,