Stakeholders Input in the Budgeting Process

Additional Stakeholder Input in the Budgeting Process
I interviewed my superintendent and considered the readings and lectures for this week to discover the importance and contributions that may be made in the budgeting process from a variety of stakeholders.
All stakeholders supply meaningful information that should be considered. The central office and campus principals will share needs for their departments or campuses early in the planning stages. Central office might express the need for budgeting in the areas of insurance or worker and unemployment compensation. Principals may express their needs for instructional materials, furniture, technology or additional staffing.
Site Based Committees and District Improvement Committees may offer information based upon the needs of students after having assessed student data. Other examples may include improvements in facilities or specific teacher or department needs. An example this year for my district is the need to attain Pre-Kindergarten materials that are consumable as well as provide the Pre-K department with new curriculum materials that are closely aligned with the Kindergarten curriculum.
Teacher organizations do not play a huge part in the budget process at my district. However they would likely contribute input at a state level and to larger districts based upon the needs of their stakeholders – teachers. A few years ago we it was newsworthy that smaller class sizes were being addressed due to teacher organizations requests and this year, it was clear during the summer that teacher groups were very vocal concerning teacher lay-offs, etc. that occurred due to the unclear state budget cuts.
Perhaps the most involved party other than the superintendent and other fiscal agents is the Board of Trustees. Often they look at the district as a whole and make recommendations. In the past in my district the Trustees have expressed facility needs such as parking lot improvement and acquiring land for additional athletic use. The range of their concerns are broad as are the superintendent’s as they are making decisions for the whole district and are included in the budgeting development throughout the entire process.
It is apparent that many individuals and groups have an opinion regarding the school budget. This is an important part of budgeting and must be considered as the process of planning unfolds.

Superintendent's Roles and Responsibilities in the Budgeting Process

Week 2: Part 4:
After reviewing the readings for this course and interviewing my superintendent, I learned that while the superintendent often has the starring role in the budget process, he or she is wise to consider and consult a variety of resources to attain a budget that will satisfy the needs of the children of the school community. According to Valenti in Learning from the Best, a superintendent should be transparent and fully disclosing in all expenditure transactions, should hire only the most competent business staff and should ensure the integrity of financial affairs for the entire school community. Along with this, he adds that proper planning and number crunching are vital to preparing and maintaining a balanced budget. My superintendent also mentiioned ethics, honesty and full disclosure as integral parts of the financial planning process.Our school is a small 1A district where Pre-Kindergarten students through High School Seniors are served on the same campus. In our situation, the superintendent is primarily the lone financial officer. He is totally responsible for working up the budget even though input is sought from other stakeholders. Our business manager enters the numbers that are provided to generate the report. Sixty-seven percent of our current budget is salaries and benefits. Once the salaries are worked up and provided to her, she has a very detailed process that determines additional costs based on salaries. Those include workers' comp., unemployment compensation,health insurance, statuatory minimums cost , Teacher Retirement System expenditures, etc. In addition to the salaries, the other expenditures from the previous years are reviewed and adjusted depending on the level spent. Other anticipated items are included. For example, two years ago, a roof had to be replaced, last year air conditioning for the gymnasium was replaced and this year we anticipate purchasing at least one additional bus. It is all put together and you hope for enough funding to balance, and the superintendent continues to monitor the budget throughout the year and recommends budget ammendments as needed.Reflection:The superintendent's role as a financial officer is one of his or her greatest responsibilities. It was suggested in the readings this week that a superintendent devote twenty percent of his time to budgetary needs. This daunting task requires knowledge of the school and students' needs as well as knowledge of budgetary rules and procedures. Ethics is also mentioned as a great portion of meeting the budgeting officer requirements. A trust among the Superintendent and other district stakeholders must be maintained in order for the budget process to go smoothly. Another aspect of the superintendent's role that I have learned is that it is an ongoing, year-long process.

Goal Driven Budget

Part 1: Goal Driven BudgetWhen thinking about the budget for the whole school district it is important to keep in mind the school's mission and vision. This is a key element in a purpose or goal driven budget. A goal driven budget has in mind the total planning process of the district. As noted in the lecture this week, the campus plans and goals should be a "version of the vision." Campus Improvement Plans should be included in District Improvement Plans and planning and the budget should take both into consideration. I have assisted in writing both the Campus and District plans over a number of years in my district. These plans, usually written by the teachers and administrators are data driven, based upon the current needs of the total student population and are written with our school vision in mind. Of course, the funding is always in the back of the writers' minds, but generally the needs are addressed first and foremost. A Goal driven budget takes into account these stated needs, and allocates funds where necessary to attain the program, additional staffing, facility, etc. described in the DIP. Hopefully the board of trustees have also played a part in creating the District plans and goals or at least have approved the plans written by the teachers in order to make sure that the budget that they will also approve is aligned. Again, I refer to the lecture for this week when I add what was stated, " the budgeting process should not ignore the Board of Trustees goals. the district and campus goals should reflect a commitment to expending funds to achieve those goals." An example of a goal driven budget at my district was displayed in the past few weeks as we began a new school year and our Board of Trustees approved a new budget. The process began as our staff reviewed our recent AEIS report and analyzed the latest TAKS results. We found that our students would benefit from a more aligned and rigorous curriculum as well as software that will enable the administrators and staff to keep abreast of the student progress through benchmarking and closer observation. Student success on standardized testing is a part of our vision as it surely is in every school in the state! In our district plans, this need was addressed with the intent to fully incorporate CSCOPE in all four subject areas and to purchase Eduphria, a software product that will enable us to closely monitor student progress among other things. The budget was drafted to include these expenditures and the Board of Trustees approved them. The remainder of the items in the campus improvement plans were also provided for in the allocations of the budget.

District Improvement Plan Comparison

DISTRICT IMPROVEMENT PLAN COMPARISON
I reviewed the District Improvement Plans for Austin Independent Schooll District and for my district, Frost Independent School District. At first, I thought this would be a bit challenging and finding similarities would be difficult. I am from a small 1A district and comparing Frost to Austin seemed almost unrealistic. However as I began to break down the information I saw more similarities than I thought I would.FISD and AISD are both focused on the betterment of children.
Success of students at the high school grade level was more of a focus from AISD, but student achievement was the goal for both schools. FISD's DIP does not specifically include funding sources. We have estimated costs, where the AISD goals were specific as to where the funds would come. AISD provided detailed accounts of programs and policies in this report as well as budgetary updates, a comprehensive plan of improvement, a flow chart that was specific from Long term goals all the way down to Employee Performance plans.
FISD's DIP does state the person(s) responsible for implementation and there is room for an evaluation at the end of the year. Some of the goals are very similar. Fisd and AISD are making plans to improve graduation rates, attendance and participation. I suppose those are universal problems whether from small or large districts.

Equality - Equity - Adequacy

EQUALITY - EQUITY - ADEQUACY
Equality means every student has the same access to the same type of educational program. These funds are used for educational programs that benefit all students. Examples would be funds used for basic instruction and an equal distribution of funds for teachers to use on consumable supplies.
Equity means that the system is fair and responds to the needs of individuals. Equity in school finance refers to fair and equal distribution of resources. Compensatory funds to assist students who are economically disadvantaged are an example of equity funds. Another example might be use of funds for a remedial reading program for struggling students.
Adequacy means that the school district receives financial support sufficient to provide educational programs to meet state accreditation standards. Examples are funding for math, reading and other basic courses. Another example is the use of funds for mandated interventions for students that do not meet state testing standards.

Formula Funding - School Finance

Darla, I agree with your explanation of formula funding. Local property taxes formulated with state general funding, federal funding and adjustments for special instructional programs all have a starring role in the way state funds are allocated. Simply stated, the state attempts to equalize funding through revenue recapture and formula funding. A school district depends on it's local property taxes for funding. the size of the district, the amount of property owners and the value of property owned play a huge part in the amount of revenue a school district collect from ad valorem taxes. And of course , the results are as diverse as the staate of Texas itself. So a formula is used to adjust the amount of money received by the district which distributes more money to lower property tax schools and less money to schools that collect more property taxes. This idea of revenue recapture is commonly known as "Robin Hood" and by its very nature has been criticized and the state has seen much litigation due to this policy. The State of Texas presently has its own financial woes, and in order to repeal the recapture laws, the state would have to supplement the revenue lost by the districts on the receiving end of this program, making a repeal unlikely. The state also considers federal funding that schools receive for the formula fund expenditures. Again, federal funds are limited and it is unlikely that a bail out by the federal government will suddenly be granted. The state is realistically responsible for fomula funding.Funding for special instructional programs impacts formula funding as well. Special Education, Compensatory Education and a few other programs that deal with special populatons are taken into consideration when the formula funds are allocated. Funding for education in the state of Texas is in turmoil right now. The results of the latest legislative session are yet to be seen, but it is highly likely that we as educators will be forced to remain abreast of the changes, use our creativity and act conservatively with the funds we do have.

Important Historical Events of School Finance

In my opinion, one of the most important events that impacted the funding of public education occurred during the tenure of Mirabeau B. Lamar. Lamar persuaded the legislature to establish land grants that provided for the initial funding for two major Universities and county school districts in the Republic of Texas during the years of his presidency, 1839-1849. Although it was eventually found that these land grants were insufficient to fund public schools adequately, this was the first attempt to fund public education. I feel that this act was important because until this time, there had been no organized funding for a free public education.The next event that I consider very important occurred in 1876 when the new Texas Constitution was adopted. It contained important language that basically says that because education is important, it will be the responsibility of the state to establish and fund free public schools. This language provides the foundation by which the state government uses to assure that adequacy, equity and efficiency are met in providing our school funding. There have been changes to the constitution that were necessary. However this first attempt at adequacy, equity and efficiency provided the lawmakers with the basic principles that are still being used today to ensure a free quality education for all students. Thirdly, I find that the Gilmer- Aikin laws had a significant impact on the history of educational finance due to the number of relevant changes that came from these laws. In an effort to make public schools more efficient and better funded, the committee members that created these laws lowered the number of school districts, provided for teacher salary increases, formalized the school year, created the State Board of Education, organized how the state would supplement local taxes to fund the schools and made many other significant changes. These laws made many needed changes and clarified many details of public education funding and organization.