Stakeholder Input - Budgeting Process

There are several people involved with the budgetary process at Lumberton Independent School District, all with different roles and responsibilities. While interviewing the Superintendent and his role regarding the budget process, he explained how other entities can offer valuable insight for the budget process.

Central Office Administrators and Staff

            Various people from Central Office can have valuable input into the budget process. The district technology coordinator visits all campuses and discusses with the principal and campus technology specialist about the upcoming school year needs and regarding the renewals of various technology programs. The Special Programs coordinator searches to find ways of increasing budgetary allocations through weighted funding and works alongside the PEIMS management person for the district.

Principals

            Principals are responsible for working with their campus improvement planning teams in identify the needs of the campus and formulating these needs into aligned campus goals. These goals need to be supported by budgetary allocations to successfully achieve the desired results. The principals need to be mindful of their responsibility in being an effective manager of the school funds while they are fulfilling the role of campus leader.

Campus Site Base Teams

            Campus site base decision making teams are important in developing collaborative plans for the campuses and offer support and advice in achieving the goals of the campus. The team must understand their role, as well as knowing they are the ones who represent all employees on the campus. The teachers, custodians, cafeteria employees, business leaders, and parents all come together to discuss the needs of the students and what resources are required to accomplish those needs. This collaborative structure is effective in understanding other viewpoints regarding the campus.

District Site Base Teams

            District site base teams work together to offer support and advice to the board for creating the district goals, as well as offer advice to current concerns the school district is faced with (i.e. bullying issues). These ideas are given to the Superintendent and board of trustees to identify funding resources to address the issues.

Teacher Organizations and Key Stakeholders

            In the district, teacher organizations and various stakeholders meet and offer information to the Superintendent and board of trustees through the board appointed liaison committee. This information is collected, and shows the school district is willing to listen to all stakeholders within the district. The ideas and concerns that are brought forth to the committee are used in the creation of the board adopted goals and thus budgetary allocations are appropriated to support the goals.

Board of Trustees

            The boards of trustees are the final stage in the adoption of a school budget. According to Dr. Danny Lovett, Region V Executive Director, It is important to first and foremost remember that the “power and responsibility of the board is to maintain the ownership of the school, the kids, and the money.” In order to not get into the areas of governance, the board must remember their roles; however, they are important with offering advice in the budgetary process. It is effective the Superintendent works alongside the school board, and truly involves their roles as the “Team of 8.”

Superintendent's Roles and Responsibilities - Budgeting Process

            This was a difficult week to interview the Superintendent, considering our school was out for the entire week for Thanksgiving holidays. However, with that being mentioned, I am grateful for our Superintendent taking the time to meet with me regarding his role in the budgeting process for Lumberton School District. As mentioned in previous assignment responses, the school district is currently in a focus of reorganization. Prior to this year, the school district had a Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, and a Director of Finance and Operations. Currently, we only have a Superintendent, and he has had to share all the roles and responsibilities of all three positions. With this being mentioned, he is currently in his first year as Superintendent, and having to learn many aspects of the budgeting process. I am thankful that he has given me the opportunity to participate in various webinars and participate in the actual budgeting process as he is learning as well.

            Mr. Valastro explained that his main role in the development of the budget is participating as the “chief financial and budgeting officer for the district and he must seek information to prepare and provide to the school board a well-balanced budget focused on achieving the goals and objectives of the district.” This being a vaguely mentioned statement he proceeded to explain the individual roles that he is currently faced with, and how different these roles are from the past. Prior to this school year, the Director of Finance and Operations prepared the forecasting templates for the district, and these items were submitted to the Superintendent for review. Through collaboration of the expected funds, and knowing the needs the district would be focusing upon the next year, a budget was created. Now, the Superintendent has to work with our new finance manager for the district to complete the templates and predict what revenue the district will be generating. He mentioned this is a wonderful time to learn about budgets considering all the issues affecting school funding today.

            Creating budgets also has political ties. Mr. Valastro has learned to be open with the school board, and to understand their views of the school district, and to incorporate some of their wishes through the budget. The main reason with the reorganization originated with the school board’s resentment towards the management of the school budget and the over expended funds that were utilized causing various line items to be overdrawn, thus overdrawing budgeted amounts in various functions. When this happened, the school board had to approve budget amendments. There were also some funding and payment transactions that occurred out of the view of the school board. All these issues created a “watchful board” on the budget and the budget process.

            The Superintendent also mentioned that budgeting must be goal driven. The goals created by the district must be adequately funded in order to achieve the desired results. The goals that must be obtained is crucial, and the budget provides the revenue to achieve merit.

            Another challenge he is facing this year is the creation of the budget calendar. There is a budget calendar that has been used in the past, however, being new at this position, he mentions that “it is an important tool to have” and give certain “checkpoints” where we need to be during the process.

            His final goal is to have a prepared budget by May to give to the board of trustees to begin the budget workshops and public forums. The school board has expressed an interest in not letting their part of the budget process last more than a month. The board would like to have a budget approved by the month of July.

Understanding TEA Budgeting Guidelines

            In review of the “Financial Accountability System Resource Guide” prepared by Texas Education Agency, it is my opinion this document is essential in understanding and following the budget procedures in order to successfully master the budget process. This document is easy to follow, and adequately explains the procedures of budgeting. I, alongside the Lumberton ISD Superintendent of Schools and Business Manager, am currently participating in a webinar series with Joe Smith of TexasISD.com, and a webinar with Dale Dixon from Huntsville, related to school budgets, and after the first webinar event, it is easily seen where this document is a handy resource guide.

            I especially found it interesting in learning about the different budgeting approaches that were explained in the document. In assessing our current budget pattern, it is understood that in the past we have used a line-item budgeting approach; however, we are slowly moving towards site-based budgeting. Since, LISD is currently in a reorganization state, there have been many procedures that are being looked at differently.

            From the school’s new budgetary standpoint, learning the various budgetary roles and responsibilities of various personnel within the district has been effective in working through the change. Even though the budgetary roles and responsibilities are required for school districts with an ADA of 6500, it is important seeing the responsibilities that still must be mastered in the budgeting process.

            I’ve always been issued a budgetary calendar in the past when developing my campus budget, as well as the Career and Technology budget whenever I was the director of career and technology. Seeing the requirements that are embedded in the calendar through use of the budget calendar sample, the understanding of the calendar is more complete. Especially knowing there are legal requirements in the development of the budget.

            The information found in the guide, will also be helpful in the completion of our district projections for the upcoming school year. We have learned in the webinar series that we have participated in that the school district has over-projected estimates in the past, and now the school is responsible for repayment of a million dollars back to TEA. Through the use of the resource guide, the webinars, the coursework of School Finance, and the webinar series I am involved with, I feel that I will be more than prepared to assist the school district in the upcoming budgetary process for our district.

Goal Driven Budgets

            The definition of a goal driven budget is simply a means by which the goals based upon the vision and mission of the school are put into action. In today’s school climate, the expectation for the school and community having the authority and support in making decisions based upon the academic success and needs of students is a responsibility of the site base decision making teams. The site base decision making teams, both campus and district, should therefore be involved in the budget planning process. The goals that are adopted by the school board are to be used to measure the realization of the vision and mission of the school. In other words, the budget process and spending allocations should be followed to ensure the accomplishment of the school district’s goals. 
            According to Philip Gloudermans, Director of Strategic Communications at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, there can be many benefits to creating a goal driven budget, such as the budget will be built around academic needs. Also, campus principals and campus site base decision making teams will have flexibility in providing resources for the campus. Finally, a goal driven budget “promotes district conversations on school resource equity.” (Gloudermans, 2010).

            The Lumberton Independent School District has had a firm budgetary calendar in place to ensure the most effective process in budget planning. The school district has also adopted five main goals this school year, with several performance indicators tied to each goal. Currently, the district is in a reorganization state, with the Superintendent and Business Manager learning the budgeting process. I also have the opportunity to learn with these two individuals participating in various webinars and assisting in the budgetary projections for the upcoming school year. One main district goal that has been written is to “develop and maintain physical infrastructure to enhance educational opportunities for all students.” While this is a generally written goal, the performance indicators of the goal focus on the newly projected building projects and maintenance opportunities the school district has placed in the five year strategic plan to enhance and modernize the courses we offer to students.

            While focusing on a reorganization of the campus structure, it is important to understand the relationship between the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent as was mentioned in the lecture. The main issue resulting in the reorganization was dealing with funds and the management of the budget. Without stepping over into the area of governance by the school board, the relationship between our new Superintendent and the board has grown. The openness of the Superintendent with the School Board is evident, and the focus on the goals and objectives of the school district is being held with the stakeholders. This openness has created a stronger trust between the Superintendent, Business Manager, and Board of Trustees and all are learning their roles in creating the budgets. We have seen when there is turmoil at the top; the turmoil dwindles down amongst the campuses. This is now starting to change, and the budgeting process will be changing where the focus is upon academic achievement and growth.