Additional Stakeholders and Budget

• Central Office Administrators and Staff,
• They can provide assistance in developing a plan for meeting the goals set by the school board.
• They can interpret data on where our district, and its campuses are
• Help determine which programs or interventions are needed to lead to meaningful change and improvement in the district.
• Help develop the district improvement plan
• Recruit support from the community and businesses for district initiatives

 

• Principals,
• They need to meet with leaders on their campus to identify their greatest areas of need
• Identify areas of academic and instructional deficiencies that need to be addressed
• Identify capital purchase needs
• Identify major projects needed to maintain or improve facilities that need to be budgeted for
• Devise a campus improvement plan that supports the district plan and goals

 

 

• Site Based Decision Making Committees,
• Identify needs of the campus
• Work with principal to identify professional development needs
• Develop the campus improvement plan
• Have input into the campus budget proposal

 

• District Improvement Committee,
• Plan for the future (5-10 years)
• Assist in developing the District Improvement Plan
• Determine programs needed to address deficiencies

 

• Teacher Organizations
• Provide input on ways to improve staff retention

 

 

• Key Stakeholders
• Garner support for school board initiatives
• Provide financial support to the school district

 

• Board of Trustees
• Approval of the budget
• Represent their constituents and needs represented in the community
• Garner support for tax increase or bond issue needs of the school district

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     This whole process of learning how the budgeting process works has been a tremendous learning experience and has further reinforced that leading a school district effectively is not a one person job.  As a Superintendent we need to take a collaborative approach to those things we can, which includes the budgeting process. 

     We need all educational stakeholders to assist us in developing a budget that adequately meets the needs of our students.  Central office administrators and staff help us see the big picture of the district as a whole.   They work in conjunction with the Superintendent to devise a district plan that supports the goals set forth by the school board.  More than any other groups they can look at the achievement and staff retention data to determine our greatest areas of need district wide.  In addition, they plan and gather financial support for the programs that we will begin using to address the needs of the district.  Principals on the other hand need to consider the greatest needs on their campus.  They need to develop a campus improvement plan that addressed their deficiencies and plan for improvement while maintaining alignment with the district vision, mission and goals.  Also, principals need to keep us abreast of their building maintenance and capital purchase needs.  By allowing us to know these needs and attempt to budget for them we can try to avoid major expenses throughout the year that we have not budgeted for.  These principals will work in conjunction with their site based teams to identify their campuses greatest academic deficiencies and a plan to address them.  Also, they can work within their department and report back on their anticipated budgetary needs for the year.  The teachers on this committee have the best vantage point to what teachers need in order to properly implement any new district initiatives in the district plan.  This brings us to the district improvement committee which helps devise a long term plan for the school district.  One of the key roles of the Superintendent is to manage short term resources while maintaining a long range plan.  We must be visionaries and set a course for where we want to go in the future.  The next two groups of people we need to consider are outside the school district, teacher organizations and key stakeholders.  Teacher organizations are often viewed as thorns in the side of school districts bringing about grievance procedures.  By building a positive relationship with these types of organizations we can seek input on what it would require in our budget to be financially competitive with those districts around us.  In addition, teacher organizations can provide insight into what steps could be taken to improve teacher retention a key ingredient to continual improvement.   Next, we have other stakeholders such as community and business members.  We need to build positive relationships with these stakeholders as they can assist us in furthering district initiatives.  With budgets getting tighter and tighter we need to begin thinking outside the box which may require additional funding.  With this these stakeholders can also help spread the good things we are doing in the school district throughout the community.  Therefore, when we do need to approach the voters with things such as tax increases or bond elections we have built bridges that can help us be successful in securing funding.  The final group we need to consider in the budget process is the board of trustees.  They can be considered the most important group in this process as they are the ones who ultimately approve the budget presented to them by the Superintendent.  As elected officials they are supposed to represent their constituents with their voting power and thus can help gather support for tax increases or bond issues to support district need.  Thus, it is critical to build relationships with these seven individuals they need to be aware of what is happening in the district so when a need arises for budgetary changes they can make informed decisions.

     At the end of the day gathering information about the budget involves people and thus requires us to develop relationships with these people.  In addition, we need communication as a key to success.  If we can do these things we can gather input from various sources in order to develop and approve a budget that meets the needs of the all educational stakeholders.