School District Stakeholders Input in Budget Process: How Important?

EDLD 5342 Week Two Assignment, Part 5 – Additional Stakeholder Input in the Budgeting Process

Summary and Reaction

I asked the question, “What types of input do you receive for budget development from each of the following individuals or groups?”, and received the following answers for each bulleted category that are in blue font from the assistant superintendent of business operations:

Ø       Central Staff --department budgets

Ø       Principals--Campus budgets

Ø       Site Based Committees--None directly

Ø       District Improvement Committee-- None directly

Ø       Teacher Organizations --None directly

Ø       Key Stakeholders  None

Ø       Board of Trustees --Whatever is communicated to the Superintendent is passed on to staff to develop the budget

These with a specific response other than “None directly” are the individuals and groups that touch the assistant superintendent of business operations directly and those with the response of “None directly” are the responsibility of the assistant superintendent over educational operations in our district and she gets those responses and shares accordingly.

In the EDLD 5342 School Finance Performance Outcomes on page 2 of the Week 2 Assignment, the question is asked, what types of input could you receive for budget development from each of the following individuals or groups?, with the individuals and groups being the same as mentioned above. Input from central staff will come in many forms, review of non-allocated requests, review of personnel staffing needs, forecasts ad analyses to name a few. Principals will give input from the resource planning group (RPG) and Campus Improvement Committees (CIC), enrollment projections and staffing needs. Site Based Committees will give input to the principal on parent concerns, student concerns, and committee review of preliminary budget and non-allocated funding. In our district the District Improvement Committee meets at least 4 times a year and has access to input information by surveys and emails to the assistant superintendent of educational operations and she shares it appropriately. I am unaware at this time how the input from Teacher Organizations is processed, but I will be on the look out for information regarding this group. Key Stakeholders give information to all superintendents and central administrators throughout the year and many sit on Resource Planning Groups, Campus Improvement Committees, District Improvement Committees and other district advisory committees. The Board of Trustees gives input many ways to the superintendent through personal conversations, emails, work sessions, executive sessions, board meetings and dinners. All stakeholders input is valuable to be heard and considered.