Summary of TEA Budget Guidelines

Week 2, Assignment 3, Understanding TEA’s Budget Guidelines

Reflection

The TEA Budgeting Guidelines take you through all phases of the budgeting process.  Its appear to be a step by step process from the beginning to its completion.   I consider it a Roadmap.  The TEA budgeting Guidelines provides multiple sources of processes and templates for school district to follow when planning, preparing, and evaluating the district budget.  Important points from TEA Guidelines that I think are very critical for budget preparation are:

Knowing what the Objectives are for Budgeting

We budget so that we can get information to determine whether current-year revenues were sufficient to pay current year services.  Must make sure resources are obtained and used in a legal way.  A balance budget must be prepared that will meet all state, federal and local mandates. 

Budget process

The budget process has three major phases: planning, preparation and evaluation.  Planning defines the goals and objectives of campuses and the district.  When the plans and programs have been established, budgetary resource allocations are made to support them.  The resources allocations are the preparation phase of budgeting.  Allocations cannot be made until plans and programs have been established.  The budget is evaluated for its effectiveness in attaining goals and objectives.  Evaluation involves how funds were expended, what outcomes resulted from the expenditure of funds, and to what degree these outcomes achieved the objectives stated during the planning phase. 

Budget Approaches

TEA budget guidelines describe many processes a district can use to prepare its budget.  One of those is the Line-item approach which is the most simplistic approach. One advantage is that this allows a great deal of district-level control of expenditures.  Disadvantages of the Line-item approach is that it provides little useful information for decision makers and many districts have found this process burdensome because it requires the Board to approve budget amendments.  Another approach is the zero –based budget approach.  This budgeting process is ideal especially during times when budgets are decreasing.  This process ranks goals based on a ranking process where district expenditures are directly linked to district goals.  This provides space for alignment and allow citizens and taxpayers the opportunity to hold district officials accountable for the use of district funds. 

Staff Responsible for Preparing the Budget

The Superintendent and board of Trustees decide on the delegation of budget-preparation responsibilities.  The TEA Budgeting Guidelines gives a detailed template describing stakeholders and their roles and responsibilities.  These guidelines list procedural guidelines, a calendar of budgeting processes, and another template describing individual responsibilities and action items to guide the budget process. 

Adopting the District Budget

There must be a public hearing before the Board adopts the budget.  This hearing occurs after the Superintendent reviews the budget as well as the Board of Trustees review.  After the budget is approved it must be monitored.  The TEA Budgeting Guidelines provides detailed information on monitoring process.

Revising the Budget

Sometimes budgets must be revised in light of any new or updated information that can change the original forecast.  There is a procedure described in the TEA Budgeting Guidelines to assist in this area. 

In conclusion, the TEA Budgeting Guidelines are there to guide districts in the planning, preparation and evaluation process of the budgets.  The templates contained in the 147 page document helps prevent oversights of critical budgeting mandates.  It's a great Road Map for successful District Budgets.