Comparative Analysis Service

Good information is the essential starting point to making good decisions.  To improve our services to Minnesota school districts, Ehlers has developed a financial information model to help school officials make better data driven decisions.  There is a plethora of raw data available to school districts; the challenge is to find the most useful data and then to organize and present it in a meaningful, simple, and understandable format. 

With this service our goal is to provide data that will be easy to understand and helpful to the user. We would anticipate the data to be particularly valuable when communicating the need for voter support for an upcoming referendum or when making major budget decisions.  However, having good information available at all times is critical to effective management of the school district.

Numeric and graphic comparisons have been created using the most current information from a variety of sources, including school tax reports, School District Profiles, and other data bases created by the state.  Fifty reports have been drafted with more in process.  While the focus of the system is on property taxes and debt, there is ample information and comparative data on facilities, expenditures, revenue, staffing, enrollment and fund balance. The information is organized into five broad categories:

• Property Taxes
• Facilities and Debt
• Enrollment and Staffing
• Expenditures
• Revenue and Fund Balance

With the Comparative Analysis Services system Ehlers staff can easily create comparisons for the requesting district to selected comparison districts, plus a comparison to state averages and the averages for the selected group.