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Budget and Finance: 2012-2013 Budget

   

More About Budget and Finance

bullet Approved Budget

bullet Budget Advisory Committee

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blue star bullet K-12 Funding Guide PDF icon

blue star bullet Levy Information

bullet Prototypical School Funding Model and Financial Health Indicator

bullet School Funding In the News

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Superintendent's Budget Message
The Sumner School District has a well-earned reputation for providing quality education.  Our educators use a variety of instructional strategies to ensure all students reach high levels of academic achievement.  This is supported through our commitment to working collaboratively in professional learning communities.  The challenge before us is to sustain and enhance the quality of the educational experience in a fiscally responsible way. In difficult economic times, this challenge is more complex.

As we developed the budgets for 2012-13, our priority was to continue to provide resources that enable students and staff to engage in the learning experiences and opportunities that make the Sumner School District …. a great place to learn!

Unlike many districts that have cut millions of dollars from their budgets again, we have made moderate adjustments to the budget, programs and services for the coming year.  This is a result of conservative spending, operational efficiencies and sustainable reductions in expenditures over the past three years along with conservative budgeting and enrollment projections.

Craig Spencer, Superintendent

Sumner School District 2012-13 Budget Goals

  • Prioritize and support all services identified as essential to the K-12 education program.
  • Provide adequate funds to revitalize professional development programs for teachers.
  • Provide sufficient resources for teaching and learning.
  • Maintain undesignated, unreserved fund balance of 5% of budgeted expenditures as required by Board policy.

New Budget Priorities

  • Provide SUSTAINABLE funding strategies to support programs and services that increase student learning.
  • Develop a budget that begins to calculate staffing based upon the Prototypical School Funding model.
  • Respond to increasing need and changing work by investing in the things that matter most.
  • Develop a budget that helps to meet the goals in the Strategic Plan

PDF icon 2012-13 User-Friendly Budget

Budget Development Process and
Philosophy for Budget Decisions

Guiding Principles for Budget Reductions

Philosophy

The Superintendent and cabinet have developed a philosophy to adopt a budget that supports the primary mission of the District
and results in savings that:

star Support quality learning opportunities for all students;
star Maintain safe school learning environment for students and staff;
star Consider non-employee related expenses before personnel reductions;
star Identify strategic savings rather than across-the-board reductions;
star Promote operational efficiencies and consolidation of services;
star Consider stakeholder input;
star Align with actions of the state Legislature;
star Consider reducing local subsidies of state and federal categorical programs; and
star Pursue additional revenue sources.

Decision Process

School Board: The Board of Directors formally adopts the District budget.

Budget Team
Superintendent, Principals, Administrators and Directors: Prepare budget documents and make recommendations to the School Board.

Budget Advisory Committee
Community, District Employees, Students serve in an advisory capacity to the Budget Team and Superintendent.


How to Make It All Work

Staff and community members may provide feedback on possible impacts of budget decisions.

Once decisions are made, they will be communicated to staff. Implementation of these decisions will be achieved through collaborative work.

star Input & Ideas
star Feedback & Possible Impacts
star Decisions & Adoption and Implementation

The first level of budget reduction analysis begins after base quality has been established.

What constitutes the “base quality education level” that the district is unwilling to go below? What are the “essential support services” required to effectively deliver a quality educational program? Does our strategic plan support the base quality identified?

The next level of budget reductions is based on the effectiveness of specific programs or services.

What programs are not achieving the desired results? Do we have data available on program effectiveness? If not, an evaluation process will need to be implemented.

All school programs and support services will be judged by determining impact upon the district’s base quality educational program and support of approved school district policies.

What are the programs benefits in terms of the base quality educational plan for the district?

Cabinet will conduct a thorough review of all Board policies to ascertain if the policies support the approved “Base Quality” definition.

A review team will be established to look for the hidden costs or issues.

Budget reduction proposals must be targeted to real, achievable ends.

Each budget reductions proposal should indicate the amount saved. Do the savings also impact revenue?

A budget cut, recommended to the Board by the review process, can be omitted only if another budget cut of similar dollar amount is substituted.

Across the board cuts or percentage cuts will not be instituted.

Key stakeholders will be involved in the budget reduction process.

A communication plan will be developed to keep all school district employees and the community at large informed about every step in the budget reduction process.

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Mission

We believe it is our responsibility to ensure
the best education for all of our students.

We believe in success for students and staff every day.

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