EDLD 5342 Week 2- Part 1

By Vinni123 Creative Commons

A goal driven budget is simply a school district budget that is focused on the achievement of the district’s goals. It places financial priority on the goals that the district needs to accomplish.  As seen in the Austin I.S.D. District Improvement Plan that was reviewed in week 1 of this course, a school district should align its goals from the Strategic Plan at the top all the way down to department goals. If a school district is intent on achieving specific goals then monies will be allocated to this purpose. In the lecture, Dr. Arterbury reviewed the development of a goal driven budget. He stated that although the Board of Trustees of a school district does not develop the budget they do develop annual goals that they expect to be carried out. The Superintendent of a school district needs to take these goals into account when formulating the annual budget. Campuses that use zero based budgeting would use goal driven budgeting to ensure that the majority of their budget requests is are directly impacting programs that correlate to the campus’ goals.

As a school district develops a budget the need for proper strategic planning becomes more important. If a school district has conducted a comprehensive needs assessment it can better pair that needs assessment with the strategic plan and prioritize goals for the upcoming school year. If they fail in either category they may develop a budget that is unresponsive to the needs of the district or develop budgets that are disjointed from one year to the next and quickly change when new board members are elected.

One of the goals in our current district improvement plan that comes from the strategic plan is to expand the fine arts department and replace band instruments. The district has undertaken a needs assessment and reviewed the current instrument inventories at all campuses. In December, the band teacher will present the information to the school board. In January, a request to increase the band’s budget by $100,000 for the next four school years will be submitted to allow the purchase of new instruments. This is an example of goal driven budgeting. The school board and community would like to see the program expanded so the budget is being developed to reach this goal.

Another example of goal driven budgeting in the district improvement plan is the hiring of instructional coaches on each campus. This goal that was originally paid for out of stimulus funds. However, the district made a commitment to continuing these positions with local funds at a cost of almost one million dollars. The campuses and the district site based team were committed to continuing this and their voices were heard. As Dr. Arterbury discussed during the lecture it is important for a superintendent to listen to a variety of stakeholders when developing the annual budget and to be responsive to the needs of the district.

In conclusion, a goals driven budget ensures that the district has provided an adequate amount of funding for proposed goals. It allows, and at times forces, a school district to prioritize the implementation of goals based on the financial outlook of the school district during the upcoming year.  “A version of the vision,” was the statement used by Dr. Arterbury that best summarizes goal driven budgeting.