Week 2 School Finance - Additional Stakeholder Input

For this assignment I met with the district Business Manager (BM). Although this time of year is extremely busy, we found time to address the assignment in its entirety, but briefly.
Types of input from:

• CO Admin and Staff - payroll figures, overtime use, lunch prices, meal revenue, CO travel, supply needs, maintenance and transportation needs
  
• Principals - Campus supply needs, software and hardware needs, personnel changes for coding, structural needs
• SBDM Committee - big picture items, like goals, vision, curriculum, assessment, and culture
• District Improvement - we do this in the SBDM Committee
• Teacher Organizations - these are represented but not locally organized to contribute to budget planning.
• Stakeholders - we consider tax rate, city projects due to the sharing of facilities, and service organizations. All of these organizations informally have input on school spending.
• Board - review current budget monthly, provide input monthly during planning process and this year drove the expenditures of the district down by several hundred thousand dollars. They are a key part of the budget annually.

I would like to publicly thank our BM for her time answering this question during a very high stress time of the fiscal year. In reaction to the answers from our BM, I am not surprised by any of them. I have worked in the same office with her for months and have seen this process unfold this school year. I believe, as stated in previous reflections, that for me in the role of superintendent, I will have a hands on approach to budgeting. I am not sure if it because of a thirst to understand the process and a desire to involve as many stakeholders as possible or if I just think it is the right thing to do. Either way, for me, the budget and superintendent go hand in hand. Locally, the major players in the budget are the board and principals, I would like to offer the opportunity for expanded input based on goals, vision, and needs. I would like to develop spending models for maintaining our technology, transportation fleet, and buildings. I am not saying my district does it wrong, we absolutely are doing something correct with a positive fund balance, but I am saying in regards to input, I believe there is another level.