Salem City Public Schools vs Fort Osage R-I
VA · 3,984 students • MO · 4,718 students • fiscal year 2024 • swap sides
In one line
- Salem City Public Schools and Fort Osage R-I spend within 2% of each other per student once local price levels are accounted for.
- Salem City Public Schools directs 12 more cents of every operating dollar to instruction than Fort Osage R-I.
- Salem City Public Schools reports fewer students per teacher (10.9 vs 13.3). This is a staffing ratio, not an average class size.
Are these even comparable?
Establish the shape of each district before reading a single dollar figure.
| Salem City Public Schools | Fort Osage R-I | |
|---|---|---|
| Students enrolled | 3,984 | 4,718 |
| Schools | 8 | 11 |
| Grades served | PK–12 | PK–12 |
| Setting | Suburb | Rural |
| County | Salem city | Jackson County |
| State | VA | MO |
| Local price level (US = 100) Above 100 means a dollar buys less here than the national average. | 93.6 | 92.5 |
The headline dollar
Current operating spending per student, shown three ways. The first is what each district reports. The second and third are the honest ones for comparison.
| Salem City Public Schools | Fort Osage R-I | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $14,030 | $14,021 |
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local price level, so both figures are in the same money. | $14,987 | $15,151 |
| Per student, price-adjusted, excluding transport Transportation provision varies enormously between districts and states. Removing it compares the parts both districts actually do. | $14,433 | $14,366 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land, never folded into the operating figures above. It is lumpy: a district mid-build looks expensive for two years. | Locked | Locked |
Salem City Public Schools
Fort Osage R-I
Where the money comes from
The funding mix determines how exposed a district is to local property values, to state politics, and to federal programmes ending.
Salem City Public Schools
- Local 40.0% Locked
- State 52.1% Locked
- Federal 7.9% Locked
Fort Osage R-I
- Local 46.3% Locked
- State 45.6% Locked
- Federal 8.1% Locked
| Salem City Public Schools | Fort Osage R-I | |
|---|---|---|
| Local share of revenue Mostly property tax. A high share means school budgets track local property values, up and down. | 40.0% | 46.3% |
| State share of revenue | 52.1% | 45.6% |
| Federal share of revenue | 7.9% | 8.1% |
| Total revenue | Locked | Locked |
How VA funds its districts
Standards of Quality (SOQ) with the Local Composite Index: the state sets a required staffing and programme basket, then splits its cost with the locality by measured local wealth.
How MO funds its districts
The Foundation Formula: a state adequacy target per weighted average daily attendance, less a local effort deduction.
Where the money goes
The same slices in the same order for both districts, plus the differences by function — because two pie charts side by side hide exactly the thing you want to see.
Salem City Public Schools
- Instruction 65.2% Locked
- Instructional staff support 5.8% Locked
- Student support 5.4% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 7.8% Locked
- Transportation 3.7% Locked
- Food service 3.6% Locked
- School administration 4.9% Locked
- District administration 2.0% Locked
- Other support 1.6% Locked
- Other current 3.6% Locked
Fort Osage R-I
- Instruction 52.6% Locked
- Instructional staff support 5.9% Locked
- Student support 6.7% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 12.2% Locked
- Transportation 5.2% Locked
- Food service 5.4% Locked
- School administration 3.8% Locked
- District administration 6.6% Locked
- Other support 1.6% Locked
- Other current 5.4% Locked
What is actually different
Share of each district's operating dollar, Salem City Public Schools minus Fort Osage R-I. Two pie charts side by side are almost impossible to read against each other; this is the same data as one chart.
| Salem City Public Schools | Fort Osage R-I | |
|---|---|---|
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms Instruction plus instructional staff support, as a share of current spending. | 71.0% | 58.5% |
| Administration share District office plus school administration. | 6.9% | 10.4% |
| Transportation share | 3.7% | 5.2% |
What the money buys
Staffing levels are the most direct thing a budget converts into.
| Salem City Public Schools | Fort Osage R-I | |
|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher This is a staffing ratio: total enrollment divided by teaching staff. It is NOT average class size. Actual classes are larger than this number in every district. | 10.9 | 13.3 |
| Students per counselor | Locked | Locked |
| Students per administrator | Locked | Locked |
| Total salaries All staff, not teachers alone. | Locked | Locked |
Who they serve
The answer to "but they serve different kids" — which is usually a fair objection.
| Salem City Public Schools | Fort Osage R-I | |
|---|---|---|
| Child poverty rate Children aged 5 to 17 in poverty within the district boundary. Used instead of free-lunch eligibility, which community eligibility has made unusable for comparison. | 11.7% | 12.9% |
| English learners | — | — |
| Students with disabilities | — | — |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | +1.5% | -6.4% |
Results, and results for the money
Stability and risk
The homebuyer’s real question: what is likely to change after I move in?
Salem City Public Schools
No stability flags raised.
Fort Osage R-I
- Declining enrollment Enrollment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrollment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
| Salem City Public Schools | Fort Osage R-I | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment change, 5 years | +1.5% | -6.4% |
| Long-term debt per student | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service share of spending | Locked | Locked |
Enrolling a child
The same checklist for both districts. Every "required" below links to the sentence it came from.
Fort Osage R-I
Enrollment - Fort Osage R-I School District
Registration runs through Infinite Campus. Read August 25, 2026.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Salem City Public Schools
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
Fort Osage R-I
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrollment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
- Required the page says so, and the sentence is quoted.
- Mentioned only it comes up, but not as a requirement — often a sentence saying the district cannot demand it.
- Not mentioned we read the page and it was not on it. That is not the same as "not required".
- Page not read we have no enrollment page for this district.
Documents to bring
How enrolling works
Locked 11 steps of the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments, proof of residency — are not shown. What to bring is above, and stays free.
- A blank row means the requirement did not appear on the district’s page. It does not mean the district will not ask for it — published lists are routinely incomplete, and the registrar has the final word.
- Requirements change every enrollment season. Check the district’s own page, linked above, before you gather anything.
- A district cannot condition enrollment on your child’s immigration status: under Plyler v. Doe (1982) every child resident in the district is entitled to a free public education. If a district asks for something that would reveal status, you are not obliged to provide it.
- If your family is in temporary or shared housing, the McKinney-Vento Act lets a child enrol immediately without the residency and records documents listed here. Ask for the district’s homeless liaison by name.
Comparability notes
- Cross-state comparison. Dollars below are shown both as reported and adjusted to a common price level, because a dollar buys different amounts of teacher in VA and MO.
What these numbers are, exactly
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what a district spends. This one asks who chose to.
Salem City Public Schools
The county or town levies it, not the district
This school system reports no property tax of its own. It is a dependent system: the county or city levies the tax and appropriates money to the schools. You still pay school property tax — the school board simply is not the body that sets it, and the appropriation is argued out at the county or city council.
Fort Osage R-I
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
| Salem City Public Schools | Fort Osage R-I | |
|---|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | — | $6,179 |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | $5,570 | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | — | 37.9% |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $0 | $0 |
- Salem City Public Schools: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- Fort Osage R-I: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. It records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Who sits on the board
Salem City Public Schools board of education
- Andy Raines — Chair
- Macel Janoschka — Vice Chair
- Teresa Sizemore — Member
- Mike Crawley — Member
- Chris King — Member
- Nicole Whitlow — Clerk
- The public may speak: “Addressing the School Board The Salem City School Board welcomes public participation at its meetings.”
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
These seats are elected, and what this board decides — the budget, the attendance boundaries, the calendar — is decided at a meeting the public may attend. The district’s own board page, linked above, is where it publishes the schedule and the agenda. We do not hold meeting dates or contact details for these people.
Fort Osage R-I board of education
- Mrs. Stephanie Watson — President term ends 2029
- Mr. Tim Brown — Vice President term ends 2028
- Mr. Chris Gross — Member term ends 2027
- Mr. Floyd Hawkins — Member term ends 2027
- Mrs. Gwen Hefner — Member term ends 2028
- Mr. Dustin Schnakenberg — Member term ends 2029
- Mr. David Shrout — Member term ends 2029
- How many seats the board has: “Fort Osage is governed by a seven-member Board of Education.”
- The public may speak: “If you would like to speak at a board meeting, you must fill out a ‘Request for Public Participation’ card 20 minutes before the meeting begins.”
- How long a term runs: “Residents of the district who wish to serve a three-year term on the Board of Education may file their candidacy at the District Office located at:”
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
These seats are elected, and what this board decides — the budget, the attendance boundaries, the calendar — is decided at a meeting the public may attend. The district’s own board page, linked above, is where it publishes the schedule and the agenda. We do not hold meeting dates or contact details for these people.
Funding measures on the ballot
Salem City Public Schools
We hold every school funding measure the state of VA published for 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2025, and this district appears in none of them.
What this state publishes: Bond and capital questions put to voters by Virginia counties and cities for their school divisions, back to the earliest the Department of Elections has published. Virginia school divisions cannot tax or borrow, so every question here was asked by the locality and is matched to the division drawn on the same lines. No dollar amount is shown: the source gives a short label rather than the ballot text, and truncates it mid-number often enough that any figure taken from it could be wrong. No pass or fail is shown either — the only outcome column the source publishes is decided per precinct, and in Henrico County in 2013 most precincts voted no while the county voted yes.
Fort Osage R-I
We have not read MO’s election results, so this column is empty because of us and not because of Fort Osage R-I. Whether it has asked its voters for money is a question its county election office can answer and we cannot, yet.
Nobody has read MO’s school election results yet — that is a gap on our side, not a fact about this district. Its county elections office holds what it asked its voters for and what they answered, and that is a public record you can request. What it says is worth asking about at a board meeting.
The detailed figures for Salem City Public Schools and Fort Osage R-I
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student
- total revenue and total current spending, and the funding mix in dollars (the percentage shares stay free)
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counselor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
- the enrollment process — deadlines, appointments and proof of residency
$1.79 for both, for three months, 21 cents less than buying them one at a time.
The 3-month unlock is a single payment and does not renew; it simply ends. A subscription renews, monthly or yearly as chosen, until you cancel. No account to create: this purchase is held in this browser, so clearing site data or moving to another browser loses it, and the phone apps sell their own unlock through their own store. What to do if you lose it.
Compare something else
Salem City Public Schools on its own · Fort Osage R-I on its own