In reality, public budgeting is an on-going process continually happening on a daily basis. Economic, legislative, and other factors are constantly changing that affect the available resources to support on-going costs. The District responds to this changing environment literally on a daily basis. The District communicates with the Board of Education continually. Future decisions and changes in the District occur given available information. Nevertheless, the District formally adopts a budget periodically to ensure full transparency is available to the public, and the formal budget adoption process is put in place to provide for legal compliance, Board of Education oversight, and accountability.
Public budgeting is a mystery to most people. They are aware that the Beaver County School District proposes a budget to the Board of Education and that the Board makes decisions on taxes and what programs will receive financial support. Actually, public budgeting is a complex process that can be described in five phases shown below:
The Budget Call – The Superintendent, acting as the legal budget officer, includes staff members at her/his discretion in the budget process to one extent or another. Instructions are prepared and communicated to administrators that details how to go prepare the budget along with budget forms, timelines, and other criteria. Emphasis is placed on accurate, prompt, and uniform replies. This phase generally occurs between January through April.
Obtaining Input – The Superintendent determines how to best receive input from administrators, staff, patrons, and the school board with regard to the next year’s budget. The Business Office makes a complete analysis of the budget proposals and assembles the financial information, goals, objectives, and statistical information into one document for the Superintendent to Review. This phase generally occurs between January through April.
Review and Approval of the Budget by the Superintendent – The Business Administrator meets with the Superintendent on several different occasions as each section of the budget is completed. Discussions include the strengths and weaknesses of the budget as well as risks associated with decisions. Changes are sometimes made to the budget requests recommended and submitted by staff. Once the draft of the proposed budget is approved by the Superintendent, copies of the proposed budget are printed and given to the Board of Education for preliminary review. This phase generally occurs between January and April.
Public Meetings and Board Adoption of the Tentative Budget – Usually in the April and May Board meetings, preliminary budget plans are presented to the Board of Education for discussion. Board members are encouraged to review the proposed budget plans and explore their questions in the April and May Board meetings. Citizens are encouraged to attend the April and May Board meetings and offer feedback and suggestions. The Board of Education holds one public hearing at its June meeting to vote and adopt the preliminary tentative budget. Any interested citizen can obtain a copy of the proposed budget at least 15 days before the June Board meeting. Citizens can ask questions at the June Board meeting before the Board of Education adopts the budget. This phase generally occurs between March through June (except budget adoption through Truth-in-Taxation occurs in August). In August, the District presents a comprehensive budget plan and report to the Board for adoption. The August budget report is a more clear, extensive, complete, and transparent budget report, and this report includes updated information, statistical data, narrative explanations, and other relative information that was not presented and/or was not available in the June preliminary tentative budget.
Monitoring and Revising the Budget After Adoption – Once the Board of Education approves the proposed budget, the District Superintendent has the authority to spend taxpayer’s money. He does this by placing controls and assigning additional responsibilities to various staff members associated with a specific program or department or school. Staff members are held responsible for seeing that budget expenditures stay within the budget boundaries; however, overall execution and oversight is assigned to the Business Office. The budget is monitored and reconciled periodically to determine if formal Board action is required to amend the budget. This phase generally occurs after budget adoption through the end of the fiscal year.
Budget Roles & Responsibilities
The Board of Education is legally responsible for monitoring and approving the budget. The Board communicates values, mission, and goals that direct budget decisions.
The Superintendent is legally responsible for organizing and proposing a budget plan and making sure the approved budget plan is followed. The Superintendent is the legal budget officer of the District and prioritizes the budget to provide for the best possible education services within budget constraints.
The Business Administrator is legally responsible for monitoring expenditures to budget and legal compliance and assist the Superintendent with budget monitoring and development. The Business Administrator also helps to ensure generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) are followed.
Program/School Administrators implement approved budget plans and ensure budget and legal compliance are adhered to.