Port Neches-Groves ISD's M&O Fund

Port Neches-Groves Independent School District is a chapter 41 property rich school district.  The majority of our funding for the maintenance and operations fund comes from property tax revenue.  This amount is about $29 million dollars or roughly 85 % of our maintenance and operations fund.  The rest is from the state which is about $5 million or roughly 15%.  The average home is our district would be considered average by most accounts; however, what makes PNGISD property rich is the large industrial tax base.  We have multiple refineries in our district that lead to many jobs and opportunities for our students.  We had a recent decline in home values, as did the rest of America, yet it didn’t affect our maintenance and operations fund as drastically as it did some districts due to the industry.  According to our business manager, there is not much of a relationship between the source of our funds and the allocation of our funds for the school district.  We do not allocate funds based on where they came from.  We build our budget based on the previous year’s budget and make cutbacks when necessary to certain budgets that can be trimmed.  In other words, we build our budget on needs.  We have a balanced budget now and hope to remain that way.  We did have to absorb some positions about 3 years ago and were able to do so through attrition without laying off any of our staff.  The only way that we get new money is to get more students and we did see an influx of new students these past two years for the first time in awhile.  One thing that has really helped us is the House Bill 1200 money that we get from a few local industries.  This is an agreement to make a payment directly to us in lieu of paying the full tax amount to the state.  If they paid the state, the money would get recaptured so they pay less, but it goes directly to us instead.  The unfortunate thing is that this agreement will end in about 7 years and we will once again have to find a way to tighten our budget.  I have confident that the people of our district will come together and do just that.

TEA Budgeting Guidelines

TEA Budgeting Guidelines January 2010

Budgeting is the process of allocating resources to the prioritized needs of a school district (p. 7).  It is important that a district follows the recommended guidelines for their budget because they are spending taxpayer dollars and therefore are responsible to the people of their district. The budgeting process is comprised of three major phases: planning, preparation and evaluation.  Planning involves goal setting for the district and reviewing the goals to align the budget with the goals.  Preparation is when you allocate budgetary resources to meet these goals.  Finally, the budget is evaluated for its effectiveness in keeping up with the goals of the district.  Evaluating should be an ongoing process throughout the year.  There are also several different types of approaches to budgeting such as: line item budgeting, performance budgeting, program and program planning budgeting, zero-base budgeting, site-based budgeting, and outcome focused budgeting.  All of these budgeting approaches can be used by a school district based on there needs and personnel.  One thing that is important for a school district concerning budgeting is to make sure that they are meeting the state mandated legal requirements.  “TEA recommends that an interactive approach between the board of trustees and the superintendent be taken to establish the budget process and define related roles and responsibilities.”

Week 2, Part 5-Additional Stakeholders in the Budgeting Process

Summary

As part of my interview with the district business manager, I asked her about other people’s roles in the budgeting process.  In the central office staff the business manager prepares the budget and gets input from everybody else’s budget worksheets.  The principals play a major role in our district’s budget because they give the business manager their pupil projections and teacher/campus needs such as furniture, supplies, and equipment and she applies these numbers to the budget template.  The Site Based Committees look at their campus improvement plans to ensure that funds are spent to address the campus goals and if additional funds are needed.  The District Improvement Committee’s job is to check to make sure that the budget is lined up with the district improvement plan.  They are able to look at the big picture from a district standpoint and not just their individual campuses.  The Teacher organizations advocate for teacher raises and extra benefits for teachers. Other key stakeholders, such as parents, give input on budget to the board of trustees.  Many times they may notice what they consider to be a budget inequity that they may have the board further investigate.  Finally, it is the Board of Trustees job to approve the final budget for the school year.  They are very important because they represent the people of the district and ensure that the board goals are being carried out in the budget.

 

Reflection

            I enjoyed learned about how other stakeholders are involved in the budget process.  As a director I have seen firsthand some parts of the process, but there were others that I took for granted.  As the DAEP director, I am not required to make student projections for the upcoming year.  I now see why this is so important.  We make a big deal in our district about Kindergarten roundup each year and I realize now that this is about projected number of students.

School Finance Interview with the Business Manager

Summary

For this assignment, I interviewed the school business manager who is responsible for putting together the district budget, Cheryl Hernandez.  I first asked her about the procedures, utility and content of the Texas Education Agency Summary of Finance Template and how important it is to the budget process.  She said that she used the template to determine what our budget numbers will be based on the projections of students from the campus principals.  According to Cheryl, the template gives her a much clearer picture of our money figures than TEA because it is based on the student data that we give them, so it’s more up to date.

            When asked about the superintendent’s role and responsibilities in the budget process, Cheryl stated that he is the ultimate authority when it comes to the budget.  In PNGISD, the superintendent is the authority over the budget, though it is the business manager that actually does the figuring for the budget.  She mentioned that in the last district that our superintendent worked, he was responsible for everything involving the budget.  This was due to him working in a small district that didn’t have a business manager so since he has come to PNGISD he has not had to work with the template since, but he does have to approve the budget.

Reflection

            I gained a lot of knowledge by talking to the business manager about the school budget.  I was good to talk to someone who works extensively with school finance.  It really gave me an appreciation of knowing as much as possible about the template and continuously changing school finance rules and regulations.  If I am ever in a superintendent position one day, I hope that I am lucky enough to have a business manager like Cheryl so I can focus the majority of my time elsewhere. 

 

Goal Driven Budget

As school finances have reached tough times, it is very important for a district to have a goal driven budget.  A goal driven budget takes into account the shared goals and vision of a district and applies the finances accordingly.  According to Dr. Arterbury “the purpose of a goal driven budget is to assist in the attainment of a shared vision for the school district and every campus.”  The board sets the goals for the district, the district improvement committee develops a district improvement plan, and the campus site based committees develop the campus improvement plans.  All of these plans should be based on the needs of the district and campuses from the data.  Data based decision making really becomes a factor in having a goal driven budget.  For instance if the data shows that the middle school science scores have fallen behind state average, the campuses and/or district should see this and research curriculum or programs that may assist the teachers in improving these scores.  Once a plan is researched and decided on, the district budget should reflect the necessary funds allocating toward improving the science scores. 

            To see a good example of a goal driven budget from Port Neches-Groves Independent school district, you can look at Goal #1: Objective 3:  Goal #1 is Improvement of Academic Performance, Objective 3: Students in each student group, as indicated in AEIS and AYP will meet the STAAR/TAKS passing standard for Math at or above the state and region average.  A recent purchase using local funds to help with vertical and horizontal curriculum alignment in math was the CSCOPE curriculum.  Also, one of our elementary schools was able to secure another math teaching position using Title funds.  Many campuses implemented an after school tutorials program that specifically focused on math objectives.  The proper funds were appropriated for this and along the same lines; we expanded our summer school program to include more students.  All of these additional resources or programs cost money out of our budget that was based on our goals.