Stakeholder Input to the District Budget

During my meeting with the assistant superintendent for finance and operations, I asked him about the level of input provided to our district budget process by the following groups of individual stake holders:

Ø  Central Office Administrators and Staff – these personnel are the leaders in the budgeting process of the district. They make recommendations and decisions about their departments and about the programs which they administer at each campus. They also help problem solve when difficult decisions need to be made. 

Ø  Principals – their input is invaluable in determining discretionary budget levels at each campus and in developing plans for expenditures of departmental funds to accomplish campus and district goals at their campus and with their student bodies. Principals garner the input of the campus staff, parents and campus improvement teams (SBDM). Their input reflects that of stakeholders from the grass roots of education, such as parents, teachers, and community and business representatives.

Ø  Site Based Decision Making Committees – These team members provide a wide base of experience and varied perspectives that help principals make decisions about expenditures and about how previous expenditures have fared as programs or initiatives are implemented. Most of their input relevant to the district budget development is funneled through the principal during district level budge planning meetings.

Ø  District Improvement Committee – in our district, the DIC has a huge impact on the professional development budget of the district. This group of people help develop the goals and direction of the professional development program.

Ø  Teacher Organizations- in our district, these organizations really have little impact except as their agendas influence the input from committee members on the DIC. The assistant superintendent expressed that in larger districts, input from these organizations is often felt as their membership is greater there. He also stated that in states where teacher unions exist, the input from those organizations is greater than in Texas.

Ø  Key Stakeholders- in Belton ISD key stake holders are consulted as part of large-impact district level committees such as the Long Range Facilities Planning Committee which is responsible for planning when bond elections will be held to address district growth needs and how much the district will ask from the voters.

Ø  Board of Trustees – The board is the approving body of the budget and has large input throughout the development process. They carry the responsibility of budget approval. In our district, the board has continued to be a unified voice that has supported the district administration’s direction. We have been fortunate that the district vision has moved in the same direction that the board has desired. This is not by accident as a great working relationship has been nurtured and has existed between our board and the district administration for years – even through transitions from previous to new board members.

The type of input received from stakeholders in Belton ISD did not surprise me. I have been a member of several planning committees in the district including our Student Health Advisory Committee and the District Long Range Facilities Planning Committee over the past ten years. Not only are teachers, students, parents, business people, and community members invited to be members of the committees, but their active participation is solicited and encouraged. I have personally witnessed a string of meetings during which public input has changed direction of district initiatives by revealing the community’s needs, desires, and concerns. I work in a district that is located in and serves an involved and caring community. As a district, we respond to them and have developed a great working relationship that has helped us remain fiscally responsible to our taxpayers while providing improvements that have continued to guarantee our high quality of education.