Size and structure
These set the shape of the school. Every other answer scales against them, so nothing costs anything yet, though they decide how far each later dollar stretches.
Staffing and curriculum
Teaching staff is almost always the single largest line in a day school budget, Judaic and general studies together. This is where the ledger starts filling in earnest.
Student support
In practice, every school offers some learning support; what varies is the degree. The question is how much specialist staffing the school builds in versus refers out.
Enrichment and Israel programs
The programs that build identity and connection: clubs, Israel fellows, and the trips that turn a curriculum into an experience.
Campus and safety
Where the school lives, how it is protected, and how it moves: four line items that swing more with the building than with the classroom.
Leadership
Everyone who runs the institution rather than teaches in it, from the head of school down through the business office. Principal and assistant-principal pay track off the head of school's, so set that first.
Tuition and fundraising
The ledger is almost full. This last chapter adds the final line, payroll tax and benefits on everything above, then asks what families actually pay and what the community has to raise to cover the rest.
