Week 2 School Finance - Goal Driven Budgeting

Goal driven budgeting is the use of data, input from stakeholders, and identified needs to drive budgetary decisions through a collaborative process where the end result is a shared identified vision for the budget year. Goal driven budgeting is prudent in education and seen often in the Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) Cycle used during the process of writing the District and Campus Improvement Plans (DIP/CIP). The cycle, required by NCLB and referenced in TEC 11.252, is a step-by-step process where districts are intentionally looking at data sets to analyze needs and strengths within the organization. The investigation is not limited to student assessment alone, but extends into demographics, culture and climate, staff, curriculum, family and community involvement, and technology. This process is the first step in goal driven budgeting. Without the establishment of needs over wants, future budgetary decisions are misguided and often misspent. Another key aspect of the CNA is the input from various groups both inside and outside of the district. Community members, parents, teachers, businesspersons, and sometimes secondary students should be a part of this developed vision and the identification of district needs. Therefore, it is important to note that once the needs are identified and the shared vision is established (step 2), the next key is to develop the plan to implement this vision in the schools. After the needs are identified and a vision for the future is agreed upon, the next step (3) is to develop the goals and strategies the district and campuses will implement to attain the vision set by the CNA process. This implementation will involve a clear plan, DIP/CIP, and commitment to that plan at every level. I believe this is where the some disconnect begins, at least for us locally. The plan might be developed and developed well, but without checkpoints for sincere reflection of adherence with the district goals, the plan is just a piece of paper or a pdf file on a website.

A local control that some districts has moved to, especially those that have been audited by TEA and/or the Dep. Of ED., a pre-requisition step prior to expenditure in any federal fund code. This ensures that funds are clearly identified as meeting a district or campus “goal” and “strategy for implementation of that goal” prior to purchase approval. I know that in my own school district the conversation has begun for all expenditures to possibly follow this pre-requisition method, ensuring all expenditures correlate with district and campus goals. Currently, and I believe commonly, this process is happening in districts, but verbally. Unfortunately, the world of accountability that we live in has people checking on the spending of public funds. Therefore, I find it to be a serious point of emphasis as a new superintendent to initiate a review of the budgeting process. As Dr. Arterbury states in the lecture, the connection of goals between the district, campus and board of trustees is vital in the budgeting process for a school district. So as a new superintendent, I believe connecting the goals of these district entities is vital to financial success. A clear process where needs are identified, goals and strategies are connected to the identified needs, and expenses are made to accomplish the goals and strategies will lead to good financial outcomes. In my interview with our district Business Manager, she believes the same steps are vital to good fiscal responsibility in our district. Last year, because of NCLB guidelines and recent audits in Texas, our district went to a pre-requisition for all supply and material expenditures out of federal funds. Once the pre-requisition is submitted to our District Support Center, our Federal Programs Director must sign off that the expenditure meets a district or campus identified need. Then, once approved, the Business Manager is the final sign off, and a purchase order can be generated. Although this is a time consuming process, the end result is clear. All federal expenditures will be tied to DIP/CIP needs. Locally, when we consider this for all purchases regardless of fund code, the time to accomplish the process is far too great to justify the result. Therefore, we have started a conversation with campus and district administration to authorize purchase orders that can only be tied to DIP/CIP goals. This informal process should increase the direction of expenditures and narrow the focus of general spending.