Week 2 assignment

Week 2 Summary
Part 2

The TEA guidelines establish different budgetary processes.  The document is very long, but it is a great guide for a beginning superintendent. This is a great tool to have when structuring a district budget. It is loaded with different resources for budget preparation.  The reports include enrollment projections and revenue estimation documents. Personally, I found the budget calendar to be an extremely useful tool.  It provides the superintendent with very important deadlines.  The document included five different budget models. I personally prefer the hybrid model.   I learned that our district uses line item budgets, but we are now moving to a zero based system.  

Part 4

The superintendent is responsible for how the district is operated.  Budgeting takes up a large portion of the superintendent’s responsibility.  He or she serves as the chief budget officer for the district, and plays a major in developing the budget, according to the Texas education Code 44.002-44.006.

The role of the superintendent should include stakeholders. In this weeks lecture, Dr Arterbury put an emphasis on how budgeting is the “total planning process of the school district.”  The superintendent must be willing to involve all stakeholders.  This is necessary to build sustainable goals for the district.  This process is important because it shapes the way the campuses make their goals.  Once again, the budget is goal driven, it is necessary to establish sustainable goal in order to preserve valuable resources.  This is why it is important to include stakeholders.  This will achieve the necessary “buy-in”, that will help our district meet the goals it set out for.  

Part 5

I am very familiar with the process of establishing goals and priorities for a school.  This whole process is guided by district initiatives.  The superintendent and central office officials establish this by interpreting data and allocating funds to sustain those goals.  Even though I have not worked in this capacity on the district level, I believe do have experience on the campus level.  After interviewing my superintendent, I had a better understanding of how much of a burden this is.   He explained that this is a very tedious process, and that to accomplish some initiatives, it is often necessary to eliminate others.  Budget planning is a very important process with very serious consequences; for example, some changes can lead to the loss of employment for some people.  This is why every decision has to be considered before being adopted.