Financial Audits

I met with our Superintendent of Finance to answer questions about our annual external audit. Here is how the process works. The auditor is selected through a formal RFQ ( request for qualifications) process. Each firm is rated based on several criteria, and a firm is selected who is considered to be the best selection for our district. The auditor conducts the audit with Generally Accepted Principles for State and Local Governments as outlined in the GASB Statements and Interpretations and FASAB Statements and Interpretations. The GASB is the Government Accounting Standards Board and the FASAB is the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board. The auditors are governed by the State of Texas Financial Accountability System . The audit concludes that the financial statements are free of material misstatement, and if they are not, to communicate to management and the Board of Trustees. They also determine if the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the respective financial position of governmental activities. The results of the audit are communicated at a Board meeting. The auditor is present and presents his or her findings to the school board. We had our audit very recently and our district received a “Superior” rating from the auditor. Our Superintendent of Finance does a great job with the finances of our district.

Understanding Personnel Salaries

I interviewed our Assistant Superintendent of Finance for this assignment.  This was an eye opening experience for me because of the numbers that she gave me. The total personnel cost for the 12-13 school year were $11,689,284. This is 67.52% of the total budget. This only leaves around 33% of the budget left to accommodate other programs. This makes it difficult to cut the budget if a crisis situation were to arise. Personnel would have to be cut through a RIF process. The 67.52% is 5% higher than the state average. Our district can manage this because we have a leaner operating budget. I can attest to a lean budget because since I am the high school principal, I have to look at my budget each year and make appropriate cuts to certain programs. When the state cut  funds to school districts recently, our district was able to keep teaching jobs by cutting budgets across the board, cutting insurance, and limiting travel.

If the district were to have a 5% increase to salaries, there would be positive and negative impacts to the budget. The positive impacts include attracting more desirable teachers. Competing better with local districts for teachers. Moral of staff could be higher. The negative impacts of a 5% increase are that the salary increase is permanent, and the district cannot reduce salaries for the same assignment if money is not  available. With current funding laws, if a district is at the maximum tax rate ($1.17 with rollback election) and student population is stagnant, there will be no additional funding to pay for raises. Money will have to come from a fund balance and a deficit budget will be realized. The district may have to reduce other areas of the budget to fund a salary increase. Taxpayers may not agree with teachers receiving an increase larger than the increase in the cost of living, or larger  than what other industries give as raises. This could result in a change in the Board of Trustees a the next election.

Stakeholder Input on Budget

I interviewed Dr. Jerry Ausburn for my assignment on the input of additional stakeholders in the budgeting process. He said that with the collaboration of everyone listed, school districts can have a meaningful and successful budget that allocates money for the appropriate needs. The Central Administrators are very important  in the process. Our Assistant Superintendent of Finance is spoken to daily about available resources, the fund balance, and the overall parameters of the budget. The District and Campus Site Base Teams gather input from stakeholders, gain support from the committee, and do comprehensive needs assessments to determine needs. Some teacher organizations in larger  districts  can affect the budget by bringing up topics such as raises for teachers. Other stakeholders such as local industries and local leaders can bring material and financial resources and donations that can affect the budget. The school board establishes goals, are voices for the community, analyze the budget, and approve the budget.

The Superintendent has to be able to work collaboratively with each of these people and organizations.

Superintendents Role in Budgeting Process

Although the budget process can be very time consuming, it is critical for school superintendents to ensure that they maximize all available resources and eliminate unnecessary costly ones that are may be outdated and no longer effective. This is important during tough economic times. The effective development of a comprehensive needs assessment and the development of a campus plan will assist school leaders in determining which resources would be cost effective for teachers and ultimately most productive in increasing levels of student achievement.

Effective budget planning should include effective strategies and resources that includes helping all stakeholders throughout the school community understand the need to be proactive, responsive, engaging, and effective in developing the budget.

Superintendents must also consider future enrollment projections in order to adequately prepare for student needs. As the struggle to solve the school finance issue in the state of Texas continues, it is highly important that local school districts find new ways to effectively utilize and maximize all available financial, material, and human resources in order to continue providing a quality education for our children. It seems as if the accountability standards increase, school funding decreases. Educating students of today and tomorrow is going to cost considerably more than in previous years, as there are far greater environmental and social issues that are having a negative impact on student performance in the classroom.

TEA Budgeting Guidelines

The school budget is a comprehensive and collaborative process that involves many decisions that affect the school and the community as a whole. One of the biggest challenges with the budget is prioritizing needs and agreeing on these priorities. Unlike the budget of a privately owned company, the school budget is looked at under a microscope because the money being allocated is tax payer money. In order to reach consensus on priorities, the budget process in schools should use a collaborative process between the board, Superintendent, and district and campus committees.      As I read through the budget guidelines from TEA, I never would have imagined that there were so many approaches to forming a budget from line item budgeting to outcome focused budgeting. I counted six different approaches on forming the budget. Each approach has it’s positives and negatives. It is in my opinion, that the line item budgeting, which includes using expenditure request based on historical expenditure and revenue data, is the easiest approach out of all of them.      Another important aspect of the budget is the performance evaluation. It is considered the cornerstone of budgeting and financial reporting. The budgets are put under a microscope by various entities such as TEA and state laws. Revenues and expenditures should be balanced. The budget overview process which consist of planning, proportions, and evaluation will help sustain a balanced budget.      There are many aspects and basic assumptions of the budget that need to be analyzed by the Superintendent and business director as they prepare it. Some items that need to be taken into account are inflation, growth rate, fund balance, construction trends, cash and fund balance forecast, grants, multi-year construction projects, and the political makeup of the legislature. Because of these aspects, a good Superintendent and business director will be very conservative when budgeting items for the school year.     School district are also required to have public hearings when adopting the school budget. In the district that I am in, the hearing does not draw a large crowd. I can imagine that in other larger districts, there may be many advocates that are at the public meetings to give their point of view on certain aspects of the budget.    School Finance and budgeting is one of my weaker areas in the Superintendent competencies. I read through most of this document and have learned a great deal about the process, laws, deadlines, and specifics of budgeting correctly. I plan to run this document off and put it into a binder for future use when needed. The budget process is very comprehensive and must be done correctly and efficiently. Knowledge of these budgeting guidelines is imperative to the budget process. With the state of the legislature and school budgets in 2012, I can imagine that more changes are probably on the horizon. Every district in the state found this out during the past couple of years when the legislature cut school funding by 5 billion dollars. The legislative session in 2013 has many issues related to education including school finance. School officials across the state of Texas will be watching.