Stakeholder Involvement in the Budget Process

Central Office Administrators and Staff--These personnel could contribute by submitting their own departmental budget to the superintendent. They would essentially go through the same steps for the district budget in finding out the needs of the department and developing a budget accordingly. They can also communicate with campus principals as to their roles into the budget.

Principals—they are in charge of their campus budgets. They would need to complete a needs assessment with their campus and develop a proposed budget for review and to be added to the district budget.


Site Based Decision Making Committees—they can assist the principal in deciding what the vision will be for the upcoming year and where the money needs to be spent.


District Improvement Committee—these people can be very beneficial to the development of the district budget. They assist by focusing the ideas and visions around the district into a common theme or goal. They then report to district personnel about their finding, which assist with the budget development.


Teacher Organizations—reporting what is needed and being communicated by the teachers is important. The buy in factor is huge with this group. They need to feel that they have contributed to the budget.


Key Stakeholders—Need to have a voice in the budget process and should be included in meetings, input taken, and help make decisions based on the community as a whole.

Board of Trustees—Final approval of the budget is by the board. The more they are involved in the process the more likely the budget will be passed with few amendments.



When you think of a budget process, you must know that it is an effort that all the stakeholders should be a part of. The more a district leader communicates and involves the stakeholders the better. Including them in on meetings, validating their ideas and communicating with everyone is the key to a successful district, much less a successful budget. Everyone on the list above has a key role that is dependent upon the next, or upon someone else’s ideas and contributions. Again, I think the only way to truly understand the budget process, you have to be involved and go for it.

Superintendent's Role in Budgeting

The role of the superintendent in the budgeting process can vary from district to district. I think the size of the district will have much to do with what the district leader actually does. Although, the end result will be the same. It will simply be the superintendent performing the task or orchestrating the task for someone else.
My district is an average size district with 3 high schools, 4 middle schools, and 15 elementary schools. Given the size of the district it is impossible for the superintendent to have her hands in on every decision and for her to perform every task necessary to develop a budget.
She has our demographer give projections for growth and expansion (construction). We have a CFO that actually heads up the budget process as far as finances go. She also relies heavily on the assistant superintendent's in each area (curriculum, finance, athletics, human resources etc) to gather the information from stakeholders that is necessary to make wise decisions about the budget.
Her primary roles would be to communicate with the board, keep everyone focused on the vision and mission of the district and obviously be the spokes person for the district. Making sure the proposals are communicated with public is also an important task. She ultimately has the final say in the budget, but must trust that she has surrounded herself with the right people to help her make the right decisions.
I think at a smaller district, the leader would have a much more hands on approach. Instead of putting the right things into play and then facilitating the actions, they would be performing the tasks. Again, the end result would be the same and similar decision would be made regardless of the size of the district.

REFLECTION:
In completing this assignment, I think I simply confirmed what I thought about the roles of a superintendent. I knew that the size of the district would play a role on the actual task the superintendent performed. Larger districts must have systems in place to get the job completed. Smaller districts would not have the resources necessary to work in the same way. The end result would be the same, a developed budget. Ultimately the pressure is there for the superintendent to get a budget proposed that will convey the vision of the district and spend the money accordingly. Surrounding yourself with the right people is key, as well as involving all of the necessary stakeholders in the process.

TEA Budgeting Guidelines Summary

In reading the TEA Guidelines for Budgeting, I learned many things. The process of budgeting can be very overwhelming and seem so daunting that it can come across as impossible. I think the best thing to do it to try to keep it as simple as you can as a district leader.
The difficult and most important part is figuring out what the "needs" of the district are and will be. Communicating with the stakeholders is crucial. Finding out the projected numbers is a guessing game sometimes, the estimated property taxes, the needs of the schools, and the cost of everything play a huge part in the process. How is a school leader supposed to be able to tie all of this into a budget and that budget be correct? The answer lies in the input and buy in that all the stakeholders give.
A school leader cannot be so arrogant as to not gather as much information from as many sources as possible before they propose or even begin to propose a budget. Having a sense of togetherness can ease some of the tension that comes along with developing a budget.
Having reviewed this process, I know I can use this information by not allowing myself to try and conquer this on my own. This holds true whether at I am at a large district or a very small one. I MUST use my resources to their fullest capabilities to develop a budget.

Goal Driven Budgets

A goal driven budget is a budget that will simply have campus goals aligned with district goals. This alignment will result in a common vision throughout the district. (Artebury, 2011). Districts that do not have a goal driven budget are wasting time and money in areas that may not be beneficial to the district, much less give to the common vision of the district. If a district is set on improving math scores, but are spending twice as much on science, then they are not focused on a goal driven budget. Making sure the goals we have are all measurable is very important. We want to be able to know if the money we are spending through our budget is having an impact on the scores. If not, we will need to focus our resources elsewhere.
My district has recently had a great focus on improving math and science scores throughout the district. Given this is a common vision with the entire district, we adequately spend money in the right areas. We budget for science and math coaches for campuses; we offer special programs that pay teachers for extra teaching. We meet regularly to make sure everyone is on the same page and are all still focused on the goals at hand. Focusing the correct financial resources in the right places all stem from having a goal driven budget and people in place that understand the vision.
Another goal of my district is to increase SAT and ACT testing numbers. Knowing this is a district goal, we pay for sophomores and juniors to take the PSAT and offer SAT prep classes through our schools. This is another example of a goal driven budget. We want to number of test takers to increase, so we spend money to make this happen.
I am sure, as Dr. Artebury stated, that there are many districts that do not have goal driven budgets and put their money here and there and hope for the best. This is not best practice and will likely end up negatively affecting the district. It is hard not to assume that everyone is doing things the right way, but many districts simply do not have it figured out.

Events in Texas Education

Texas had many events in its development that helped shape education as we know it today. One of the most important to me would be the development of the Texas Constitution in 1845. This constitution gave the framework necessary to build an educational system. The establishment of free schools came out of the constitution would allowed for equality in education at the time. Another important event would be Texas giving one tenth of the state revenue to the educational system. This allowed for better resources and solidified the need for growth through education. The final event that I see as one of the most important when the state declared that it was mandatory for kids to go to school. Granted, the age requirements were 8-14, but it gave some validity to education and that it was going to stay around.