My superintendent believes each of the groups listed brings a unique perspective to the budgeting process. The entities listed will represent the community in which the school is located, the professional staff, as well as the administrators of the district.
Central office administrators and staff will have a perspective that reflects the overall district's needs and concerns. Since I am in a very small district this is somewhat limited, but larger districts will have assistant superintendents for different areas of administration and each will be able to represent his area of expertise in the budgeting process. He also thinks central office personnel will have more knowledge of revenue and student population projections as well as a better working knowledge of how the state funds education.
Principals of the individual campuses will bring insight to the development of campus culture and goals for their schools. Principals will also bring a bigger view of their school's needs than classroom teachers because they have access to the special needs of each teacher and group on campus.
Site Based Decision Making Committees will bring in ideas from a perspective different than professional educators. He indicated that this new insight often allows schools and districts to think outside of the box. Often the businessmen on the committee will reflect a need for better trained employees and the district can respond with programs that will meet that need.
District improvement committees are useful in his view because they are usually goal oriented people and will be able to focus on what needs to be done to fix a problem and then also be creative enough to work on ways to fund the goals. We are in a unique position this year as we are being mandated to work closely with the District Improvement Committee because of bad TAKS scores from one subpopulation and their input will shape the budget more than ever.
Teacher organizations can be strong advocates for not only pay and benefits, but also working conditions, each of which will effect a budget. He believes that our local teacher organization has been very easy to work with and in fact, deals more with improving the quality of education that any with which he has worked. He believes the small town atmosphere keeps the relationship form becoming adversarial.
Our small town takes great pride in their schools. The superintendent mentioned several groups who have a large stake in our school system. One local foundation has donated money in the past to build an Ag Science building, renovate our auditorium, provide technology for our high school and just this year paid $20,000 so we could implement CSCOPE in the district. He reflected that not all "outsider" input changes the budget in a negative way.
Finally, the board of trustees can be a big help or a big hindrance, according to this third year superintendent. He expressed that his first two budgets went through with no issues, but this year's budget process became contentious as the board and administration dealt with the funding cuts from the state. Some individuals disagreed with budget cuts in extracurricular activities and even with some of the personnel moves that were made in order to keep a workable budget. The superintendent did say that the board represents the community and that their input should be valued because they are the districts eyes and ears in the community.
Reaction
Each group mentioned is an important part of the budget process, even if it is in an advisory role. The central office people should be the experts on school finance. They know the special programs, funding for those programs as well as rules and regulations that drive them. Principals are generally more focused on their own campus and tend to be somewhat territorial. Too often they do not see the overall district's best interests as clearly as they see the campus for which they advocate. Site based committee's can be beneficial, but only if they represent a broad range of the school's demographics. Too often they are the power players who are also involved in other groups such as PTO and booster clubs. The district improvement committee wields great power as the budget must respond to the goals they set. Teacher organizations in Texas aren't as powerful as other states, but it would be wise for any budget process to get as much input from those who are closest to the students. Community stakeholders can make or break a superintendent and need to be included in the budget process. They will often find a way to fund their favorite program, whether it is an extracurricular team or an educational program that they hold dear. Finally, the school board will have the final say in approving the budget, so obviously they need to be involved in the process, even if informally, from the beginning. Letting them know of projected issues with funding or student population growth or even potential major expenditures looming in the future will allow them to prepare for them and help inform the community of the issues.
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