Top 5 Events and Dates in Developing a District Budget

A List of the Top Five Events and Dates in the Development of a District Budget

This timeline is based on a Sept. 1 fiscal start date and all dates are in accordance with that timetable.

# 1 February

Director of Finance hosts a timeline meeting for all department and campus representatives outlining the necessary dates for the budgeting process. In this meeting the initial budgetary concerns are discussed and the procedure for gaining input from the different site based committees is reviewed.

# 2 February

Take initial feedback from department and campus representatives as well as site based committees and establish a personnel plan for the upcoming year. This is essential due to the cost of personnel utilizing 80%-85% of the total budget and the need to offer contracts prior to the end of the current school year.

# 3 April

Review local revenue information provided by the county tax appraiser. This is important due to the role local revenue plays in the budgeting process.

# 4 June

Review the state funding template regularly to adjust the budget according to any versions that may affect the budgeting process. Over the years the versions provided can vary slightly but any change could affect a district’s budgetary process greatly.

# 5 July

Department heads and principals meet with the board to discuss justifications of a final budget. This provides the board an opportunity to ask each directly of their concerns and obstacles prior to the final budget proposal which must be submitted prior to the end of August in a public meeting.

Several of us had district start dates of July 1 so the timelines for those districts would be approximately three months before the ones for the September 1 development timeframe. Regardless of the fiscal start date, there are timelines that need to be adhered to so that the budget can be developed in a timely and organized manner.

Reflection Week Two Assignment Two

It is always interesting to view the different opinions that people have regarding the topics we are assigned to discuss.  Our consensus was quite easy since we all had the five events listed before we viewed the others posts.  The difference was the calendar month since we were on different fiscal years.  In collaborating, I find it interesting to see the slight differences in the processes each district utilizes on its way to establishing a budget.  Hence, the reason for the type of assignments we are given!