Types of Input Received for Budget Development

Based on the interview of our district's Superintendent and Business Manager, I learned that our Business Manager prepares a budget from requests that campus principals make.  The Superintendent and Business manager review the requests and look at past expenditures to see if the numbers are appropriate.  The Superintendent has insight as to what the board may want to include in the budget.  An example of something the board may want to include is raises.  The Superintendent and Business Manager try to work them into the budget.  The Superintendent and Business manager try not to present something that doesn't have board support and put them in the position of being the "bad guys."  The Superintendent and Business Manager also look at new initiatives that administrators may want to implement and see if there is funding for them.
The type of input that is received from Principals while developing the budget is in the form of budget worksheets that are given to all administrators.  The principals/administrators review the worksheets and make any changes they feel are necessary.  The principals get input from SBDM committees while reviewing the budget worksheets.  The District Improvement Committee, Teacher Organizations and community members have a minimum amount of input in the development of the budget.  The Board of Trustees has opportunity to review and make changes to the budget at budget workshops.  They also adopt the budget.  This is one of their major responsibilities.

Superintendent Interview

Based on this week’s readings and Superintendent and Business Manager interviews, I learned that the Superintendent plays an integral role in the budgeting process.  I found the reading in Learning from the Best: Lessons from Award-Winning Superintendents to be very informative and thought that expending the budget ideally at 98 percent of the gross estimate would be a great method of ensuring a balanced budget, if possible.  I had never considered that a Superintendent should spend the equivalent of one work day per week, or 20 percent of their time, reviewing the district budget.  I understand why this is necessary, but this is an area in which I will have to pay close attention and learn considerably more about to feel comfortable and confident that I know what I am doing.

TEA Budgeting Guidelines

I believe that the document titled, “TEA Budgeting Guidelines January 2010,” is a very important document for anyone wishing to learn more about school finance and the budgeting process.  I have stated from the first Superintendent class that finance is probably my greatest weakness.  I found this document to be very helpful to me in understanding school finance.  I learned many things while reading the budgeting guidelines document.  For example, our district uses the line item approach to budgeting.  I thought that there were no other processes of budgeting for a district and that all districts used the line item method.  I also achieved a better level of understanding related to Tier 1 and Tier 2 allotments.  I believe that these guidelines will help me be able to contribute to developing a district budget because I can review the guidelines and actually understand the process better than in the past.

A Goal Driven Budget

A goal driven budget is a budget which is based upon the goals of the school district.  As Dr. Arterbury stated in this Week’s interview, “The district and campus goals should reflect the Board goals and the budgeting process should reflect a commitment to expending funds to achieve those goals.”  When developing campus and district plans, the budget and programs should be considered to determine if they are being used in the best way possible to support goals.  I believe that Orangefield ISD does an excellent job of thoroughly reviewing district and campus plans and then analyzing the budget to determine which money can be allocated to support the goals.  

A goal driven budget is important because districts need to know what they are striving to achieve and they need to have the means to achieve that goal through the support of the Superintendent and the board.   Meeting campus and district goals is the “prize at the finish line” and using the budget to attain the goals is the “roadmap” to get to the finish line.  All districts need to know where they are going, or what the goals are. When they understand what is expected of them and where the district is headed, faculty and staff members are better able to accomplish these goals and present a unified organization with the same end in mind.