It’s budget time
Posted on May 1st, 2008 in On the Go and tagged budget, school district
Today was a budget meeting day with trustees, district staff, and partner groups. We have a $50 million budget and as we prepare for the next school year, this is the time when we review the wish lists of everyone. So many good ideas and so little money to implement them. From increases to libraries and technology to additional staffing in classrooms and for special needs students, everyone would like a little more.
There were no requests for budget reductions.
We should be in relatively good shape as we are in funding protection due to our enrollment decline. Things are quite tight though because our teacher costs are increasing due to the implementation on new harmonized salary grids. We will work through the wishlist with the guidance of the trustees and come back with some analysis and possibilities. Sounds like our work is cut out for us for the next little while.
June 2nd, 2008 6:11 am
I am currently enrolled in a graduate course called School Finance. This week we have been studying budgeting. Can you tell me how you build your budget, that is , what approach do you take?
SBB sounds like a good approach, what do you think?
June 9th, 2008 8:39 pm
Our process starts with the funding announcement from the Ministry of Education which is based upon projected student enrollment. We go from that to a meeting with partner groups and trustees: administrators, union presidents, parent group, senior staff. Each group has an opportunity to suggest areas that need an increase in budget.
We go from that to allocating staff by school based upon enrollment and special needs students.
There are also formulas for supplies, equipment, clerical, custodial, etc.
A draft budget is completed and presented at the next partner group meeting. More input is received.
This year the buget is extremely tight so not a lot of room for new programs, etc.
When the massaging is done, the Budget is presented as a bylaw at two consecutive Board meetings as a bylaw requires three readings. We need to be done the process by June 30.