Cumberland vs Avon Grove SD
RI · 4,881 students • PA · 4,896 students • fiscal year 2024 • swap sides
In one line
- Avon Grove SD spends 7% more per student than Cumberland after adjusting for local price levels.
- Both direct a similar share of each operating dollar to classrooms.
Are these even comparable?
Establish the shape of each district before reading a single dollar figure.
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| Students enrolled | 4,881 | 4,896 |
| Schools | 9 | 4 |
| Grades served | PK–12 | K–12 |
| Setting | Suburb | Suburb |
| County | Providence County | Chester County |
| State | RI | PA |
| Local price level (US = 100) Above 100 means a dollar buys less here than the national average. | 101.8 | 102.6 |
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.
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $16,930 | $18,330 |
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local price level, so both figures are in the same money. | $16,635 | $17,873 |
| Per student, price-adjusted, excluding transport Transportation provision varies enormously between districts and states. Removing it compares the parts both districts actually do. | $15,862 | $16,579 |
| 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 |
Cumberland
Avon Grove SD
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.
Cumberland
- Local 58.9% Locked
- State 35.3% Locked
- Federal 5.8% Locked
Avon Grove SD
- Local 64.4% Locked
- State 33.1% Locked
- Federal 2.5% Locked
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| Local share of revenue Mostly property tax. A high share means school budgets track local property values, up and down. | 58.9% | 64.4% |
| State share of revenue | 35.3% | 33.1% |
| Federal share of revenue | 5.8% | 2.5% |
| Total revenue | Locked | Locked |
How RI funds its districts
We have not yet written up RI's funding formula, so nothing is claimed here.
How PA funds its districts
A student-weighted basic education funding formula applied to new money only, over a historically large local share.
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.
Cumberland
- Instruction 64.9% Locked
- Instructional staff support 2.3% Locked
- Student support 8.9% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 6.2% Locked
- Transportation 4.6% Locked
- Food service 2.7% Locked
- School administration 3.8% Locked
- District administration 1.8% Locked
- Other support 3.6% Locked
- Other current 2.7% Locked
Avon Grove SD
- Instruction 63.3% Locked
- Instructional staff support 3.3% Locked
- Student support 6.9% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 6.7% Locked
- Transportation 7.2% Locked
- Food service 3.0% Locked
- School administration 4.0% Locked
- District administration 2.0% Locked
- Other support 3.6% Locked
- Other current 3.0% Locked
What is actually different
Share of each district's operating dollar, Cumberland minus Avon Grove SD. Two pie charts side by side are almost impossible to read against each other; this is the same data as one chart.
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms Instruction plus instructional staff support, as a share of current spending. | 67.1% | 66.6% |
| Administration share District office plus school administration. | 5.6% | 6.0% |
| Transportation share | 4.6% | 7.2% |
What the money buys
Staffing levels are the most direct thing a budget converts into.
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | 13.5 | 13.9 |
| 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.
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | 5.6% | 5.5% |
| English learners | — | — |
| Students with disabilities | — | — |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | +4.6% | -3.7% |
Results, and results for the money
Stability and risk
The homebuyer’s real question: what is likely to change after I move in?
Cumberland
No stability flags raised.
Avon Grove SD
No stability flags raised.
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment change, 5 years | +4.6% | -3.7% |
| 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.
Avon Grove SD
Student Registration - Avon Grove School District
Registration runs through PowerSchool. Read August 25, 2026.
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
Cumberland
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.
Avon Grove SD
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
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of residency | Required “Proof of Residency:” | Required “Proof of Residency” |
| Proof of age (usually a birth certificate) | Required “Birth Certificate or Passport for each child you are registering.” | Required “Proof of Age” |
| Immunisation records | Required “Immunization Records for each child with month, day and year of shots for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTP);” | Required “Physical Form & Immunization Records:” |
| Physical examination | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Dental, vision or hearing screening | Required “proof of hearing screening;” | Not mentioned |
| Tuberculosis test | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Records from the previous school | Required “By June 30, a final report card and letter of recommendation from the child’s kindergarten must be provided to the Office of the Superintendent/Designee.” | Not mentioned |
| IEP or 504 plan | Not mentioned | Required “If your student was receiving special education, related services or services under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, please bring a copy of the IEP and/o…” |
| Custody or guardianship paperwork | Not mentioned | Required “If student’s parents do not reside together, please provide a current custody agreement.” |
| Parent or guardian photo ID | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Home language survey | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Emergency contact information | Not mentioned | Required “Emergency Contact Information:” |
| Proof of income | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Social security number Asked for by some districts. It is not required to enrol, and a school may not refuse a child who does not provide one. We list it because districts ask, not because you must answer. | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
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 RI and PA.
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.
Cumberland
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.
Avon Grove SD
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.
| Cumberland | Avon Grove SD | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | — | $13,486 |
| 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. | $10,129 | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | — | 57.9% |
| 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. | $27 | $0 |
- Avon Grove SD: 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
Cumberland board of education
- Amy S. Vogel — Chairperson
- Kerry Feather — District 2
- Heather Chea — DISTRICT 1
- Andrew Bacon
- Keri L. Smith — Vice Chairperson
- Lisa Goldstein — Clerk
1 of these is listed on the page without an office. It names them among the board without saying which office they hold, so none is shown for them. It is not a vacancy.
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-09-01. 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
Cumberland
We hold every school funding measure the state of RI published for 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024, and this district appears in none of them.
What this state publishes: Rhode Island publishes precinct counts and never a declared outcome, so no row here says whether a measure passed — the numbers are the state's, the arithmetic is yours. Only the November generals are read, because the state's primaries carry school committee candidate races and no questions; a question put to a town at a special election or a financial town meeting is not in this source at all. The 2010, 2012 and 2014 files record every local question as a number and a town — 'QUESTION 10 - TOWN OF BRISTOL' — with no subject, so those three years are blank here whatever the towns actually voted on. And a question is published only where its title names a dollar figure or a borrowing, which leaves out several capital questions whose titles say only what would be built.
Avon Grove SD
We have not read PA’s election results, so this column is empty because of us and not because of Avon Grove SD. Whether it has asked its voters for money is a question its county election office can answer and we cannot, yet.
Nobody has read PA’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 Cumberland and Avon Grove SD
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.
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