District Profile/Budget Summary Links

http://www.fwisd.org/about/Documents/DistrictProfile.pdf  -2010-2011 District Profile/Actual Budget

http://www.fwisd.org/business/Documents/budget/Budget%20Summary%202011-12.pdf - Budget Summary Report

Part 4 Week 3-5342

    One might argue that the benefits of a maximum M&O tax rate is the amount of funding for the school district, however, the primary reason to keep it at lower, manageable rate is to gain support from the voters. The I&S, or Interest and Sinking, fund is used to secure bonded debt so that school districts can maintain, improve, refurbish, or build new facilities. When a bond package is presented to the voters in the community to increase the tax rate for I&S, they may be more likely to support it if M&O has been kept at a reasonable rate.

Stakeholder Input in Budgeting Process

The types of input I could receive for budget development from each of the groups could vary, depending on the group.  From central office administrators and staff, I would depend upon them to use their areas of expertise to help develop the implement the budget.  I would use their knowledge and contacts to help design, implement and adjust as necessary to meet the district goals and appropriate use the resources.  From principals, I would expect them to provide a budget for their campus that aligns with their campus plan and district plan.  Just as the superintendent is the budget officer for the district, I would expect them to be the budget officer for their campus.  I would need their input for what parts of the budget are working towards the goals of the campus and district, and what parts of the budget need adjustment to help achieve the goals.  I would expect them to be “good stewards” of the district funds in aligning goals and budget.  The SBDM committees and DIP committee would provide me with input from the stakeholders on the vision and goals of the district.  They would review the goals and budget to make sure that they agree with the alignment of expectations and expenses.  Their input would provide information about the success of the communication and planning.  Teacher organizations would be stakeholders to help with allocation of personnel budget, but they would serve more as a source of support for the vision and goals than anything.  The input from key stakeholders could be the most quiet input but also most important of all.  These key stakeholders help provide information about the best investment opportunities for the fund balance, most effective legislators, key alignment issues of the TEA template for projected and actual funds, and potential areas of concern for laws and other issues.  This is probably the area where I am least familiar and most uncomfortable.  Lastly, the input from the Board of Trustees is crucial.  As the lecture notes state on page 2, “the Superintendent and Board of Trustees are often described as the team of eight”.  They need to provide clear and direct input about their goals for me as superintendent as well as their vision and goals for the district.  I need to provide for them open lines of communication about revenues, expenses and alignment of those budget issues to the goals of the district.  Without this teamwork, the goals of the district cannot be met and the failure to communicate about pending, future and actual budget issues can be devastating. 

In summarizing my reaction to the information gained about the input of the stakeholder groups, I realize I have great opportunity for growth.   I would need to be very strategic and intentional in developing positive communication ties and procedures to gather input from the district improvement plan committee and other SBDM teams.  Working with the teacher organizations does not present a challenge to me, again, due to my experience and communication skills.  I truly believe my greatest challenge is developing the relationships of key business stakeholders.  I will seek input from district leaders on how to do a better job of developing these relationships.

Budget Guidelines For TEA

     TEA’s budgeting guidelines looks like a monstrous document but if you read thru it carefully, it is an excellent guide for school districts.  One person can’t be responsible for the budget; the Superintendent needs to have a strong core of individuals that will be responsible for implementing, projecting and overseeing the budget.  The TEA resource guide provides detailed information and samples of reports that school districts can use to implement their budget.  The guide identifies the different types of budgets, legal requirements for budgets, annual budget responsibilities and guidelines.  The guide provides information on how to estimate annual revenues and expenditures. It provides you with a system of monitoring the budget and forecasting.  It provides you with information regarding student enrollment projection and the different types of grants.  It is a detailed guide but it is user friendly.  It provides districts with samples of reports and letters to use as resources.  Administrators or personnel that are responsible for monitoring and implementing the budget of a district need to read and review this document. It provides school districts with important and necessary information such as State Law requirements, TEA requirements and Local district requirements.  A copy of this document must be printed and reviewed on a yearly basis to assure that all guidelines are met while developing a district’s budget.

Roles and Responsibility Of Superintendent In Budget Process

Roles and Responsibilities Of The Superintendent In The Budget Process

    After interviewing Mr. Dansby, I realized that the role of the Superintendent involves a lot more political knowledge and business management than education and instruction knowledge.  During our conversation, we discussed how some districts have actually tried to use business executives to run school districts. Overall, these business professionals have not been successful because the nature of a school district is vastly different than most business models.  This past summer Mr. Dansby was in Austin a few times during the legislative session. This was important because he was able to report to the School board and help guide them in their decisions about utilization of resources and possible changes to revenue sources throughout the district. 

    The responsibility of the Superintendent in some districts is the budget officer of the district.  Being that FWISD is a large district, there are other resources and other people that the Superintendent can depend upon to help.  In smaller districts, the Superintendent needs to be knowledgeable about not only the allocation of resources, but also the pending legislative decisions that could impact the district.  Since TEA is constantly amending their processes, Mr. Dansby recommends that a Superintendent should keep their own summary of finance that changes as predictions and actual patterns change.  I believe that the TEA template is a great guide.  Mr. Dansby feels sometimes as if the budget is never done.  It is an ongoing process.  The conversations about budget do not ever stop and are a topic on every agenda from central office, principal meeting, SBDM team meetings, and certainly the Board meetings.  The budget process begins in March and does not stop until the budget is approved the end of June.  Even then, the discussions continue as the CAFR is released and audits commence in June and July.  After I heard this, I think one of the first things a new Superintendent should do is look at the CAFR as one of the first assignments/tasks on the job. 

     All stakeholders need to feel and be part of the budget process.  In smaller districts, that input looks vastly different than it does in larger districts.  Regardless of the size, communication and transparency is key.  A Superintendent is rarely fired for academic issues.  Most times the issues revolve around budget concerns.  The communication with the Board and strong confidence in the CFO are critical to success.  The budget process typically involves revenue sources and expenditures and the teacher organizations do not really get involved in the budget process.  I believe a Superintendent should keep communication lines open with the teacher groups, but they do not have direct input to the budget issues.  Their issues are about staffing and personnel.  The Superintendent needs to communicate with the Board and make sure the spending and resources align with Board goals and the campus principals and district office administrators need to make sure their goals and campus plans align with the district plan.  This includes allocations of resources.  I believe that this is another reason why the Superintendent needs to make sure the Board has the opportunity to review the campus plans with transparency and openness.  Everyone needs to be on the same page. 

Having A Goal Driven Budget

Having A Goal Driven Budget

     A goal driven budget is one in which there is an alignment of the Board of Trustee goals with the district improvement plan goals with campus improvement plan goals so that the budget supports successful implementation of all.  This type of alignment requires strong communication with all stakeholders to ensure that the goals of the Board match the goals of the community and the financial allocations of the budget. 

     The utilization of goal driven budget process is evident in the alignment of the vision.  The vision of the board and the community is the basis for this plan.  It involves many community members and represents alignment of the vision of the Board, the district and the campuses.  As the budget situation changes based on the funding from the state, the strategic utilization of budget and resources becomes more critical.  This plan helps guide the intentional use of budget resources to achieve the goals of the district. 

     FWISD Interim Superintendent, Walter Dansby, meets weekly with the district’s leadership team to touch base with them on the recent legislative updates and district state of affairs.  The key to the process is starting early in the discussions with the Board and constantly monitoring the process to match predictions with actual spending patterns.  Close monitoring of these patterns and constant communication with the Board helps keep everyone informed as to the allocations and necessary adjustments.  As the Superintendent, communication with the Board helps maintain the responsibility piece while also supporting the stakeholder input. 

District Comparison

Before I get into this comparison, it should be noted that FWISD is currently in search of a new Superintendent. The District Improvement Plan is from the previous Superintendent and it is called Eliminating The Achievement Gap. This plan is has been ongoing since the 2010 school year.Let me address the similarities in the two plans. Both district plans include hiring highly qualified staff to meet the needs of the students. The AISD plan addresses the alignment of resources to help the district meet their goals while the FWISD plan is using an aggressive reform initiative to improve the achievement of all students. I would venture to conclude that these would address using resources to meet the goals of the district. AISD strategic plan includes the development of a well-rounded educational plan to help student compete in a today’s economy. I believe these two plans address the developing students who are able to contribute and compete in the global society in which we live. Both plans used a large stakeholder base to develop the plan. These stakeholders included parents, community members, and staff members. Neither of these plans included financial resources specifically tied to the plan. In the material that I originally accessed from our lecture, Appendix A from AISD did include specific mention of the funding resources. While this did not reference how much from each source contributed to the budget of the district, at least there was a point of reference for the funding. They both include portions of the SMART format, but the one area that is probably most notable is the lack of measurability. Both plans include statements such as “increase” or “more”, etc. While these do indicate direction, they do not provide measurable indicators.The AISD plan uses language that is included in the FWISD plan. This language addresses accountability measures such as TAKS and other references that are moving out of the education language. The Austin plan uses just as much as the FWISD plan. Both plans do address the accountability issues.The difference that I noticed is that the FWISD plan incorporates more references to technology, communication, facilities, and instructional strategies. The Appendix A of AISD does provide a resource list connected to funding of different parts of the plan. Both of the plans are for urban school districts and have specific strategies they are pursuing to help them meet the needs of the districts. Both plans have used a strong cross section of their stakeholders to develop the plans.

Finance 5342 Week 1

Group 4's Completed Part 3 (Robert Murray, Jeff Nations, Randall Nedrow, Marilyn Pace-White)

Equality, Adequacy and Equity

The concepts of equality, adequacy and equity: If you consider equity to be defined as fair or equal distribution of resources for schooling and then you take into account student differences and school district characteristics and then there are many examples provided for equity. Examples might include transportation issues for districts whose children live far apart, career courses or academies that have expensive equipment requirements and special programs to address gifted students or special education students. I believe these are the funds that are used to help level the field for districts. I think that many people confuse these words by using them interchangeably. I believe equity and equality are probably the most misused. Equality means, every student has the same type of basic educational program. I believe this means everyone gets the same basic education. Examples of this would include basic educational allotments for every student and Tier I funding sources for situations such as new instructional facility allotments, technology, and military child allotments. Adequacy is to include that the school district receives financial support sufficient to meet state accreditation standards. Examples of this include textbook sand minimum teacher salaries.

Finance 5342 Week 1

Group 4's Completed Part 2 (Robert Murray, Jeff Nations, Randall Nedrow, Marilyn Pace-White)

Issues That Impact A State Formula

We believe these are three or four basic issues that impact a state formula: The first item that I think impacts state formula includes the taxes that fund education. Taxes are dependent upon many issues; public education in Texas could not survive without the taxes generated statewide. Taxes are also probably the most contested part of school funding since the distribution of these taxes differs from district to district. The property taxes collected can vary depending upon whether you are from a property wealthy area or not. The second item that impacts the state formula is the weighted average daily attendance also known as “WADA.” Since WADA tries to balance the playing field for districts by taking into account the additional education needs of students, this WADA can be critical to a school district. We believe the next two items I selected are the third and fourth issues that have a major impact on state formula funding. Average Daily Attendance, also known as “ADA” is critical because we can't teach the students if they are not in attendance. The emphasis the state puts on schools by provided funding based on ADA is important, but in some cultures parents do not understand or value the importance of education. As a result, a choice of the family or culture becomes a financial burden to the district without any impact on the family. Many schools are providing creative solutions to entice attendance, but the bottom line is that the district suffers for the decisions of the family. I also think that the compensatory education funding is important because it provides financial support to the school district to teach educationally disadvantaged pupils and underachieving students. This might be the funding that compensates for the ADA deficiencies of those families who are disadvantaged or at risk that do not support education by getting their students to school.

Finance 5342 Week 1

Group 4's Completed Part 1 (Robert Murray, Jeff Nations, Randall Nedrow, Marilyn Pace-White)

Historical Happenings in the Finance Aspect of Texas Education

We believe these are the three most important events in the historical background of financing education in Texas. First, we believe that the establishment of the Texas constitution was first most important event in Texas education. The importance of the 1845 constitution which, provided for the establishment of free schools and called for state taxes to support education. We also believe the 1876 Constitution established by name the Permanent and Available School Funds is as well equally important. These decisions lead to the facts that the founding fathers of Texas placed an emphasis on education and state support of the education system. The second historical event that we thought is important has to do with the court decisions centering on the Edgewood case. The interpretation of the court decisions from Edgewood, Rodriguez and West Orange Cove has greatly impacted how Texas funds education with respect to equity, adequate and equality. We believe that the third most that third most important event would be the passing of the Gilmer Aiken Laws. This law established an organized approach to the state supplementing local taxes in an attempt to adequately fund public education and we believe it surpasses the HB 1 because it created the opportunity for HB 1 to even exist. With the implementation of the Gilmer Aiken Law, it seems it became the catalyst for changes in school funding to be battled in the courtroom instead of the legislature.