2010 TEA Budget Guidelines

Since I have little budgeting experience, I was looking for some help online.  I actually found the TEA Guidelines.  It made things clear to me and I thought I had to share it!  I went so far as to post it on the discussion board.  Then I started the third assignment and realized that this was actually the resource needed and it was already a part of the class resources.  The good news is – I really liked this resource!

I started reading with the different budget processes.  I realized very quickly that our budget here was created using the Line-Item Budget Process.  I read the disadvantages closely and realized that I could see each of the following in our district.

1.  I have not heard as much long term discussion in our district as I have in some of the others. 

2.  Without the long term discussion, there is little need for planning.  Without this planning, some issues that are minor and could be prevented are not looked at.  These smaller issues can then become larger issues that cost the district more money. 

3.  I have also noticed people trying to spend their money with the following rationalization, “I don’t want them to cut my budget next year since I didn’t use it all this year.”  Unfortunately, this happened in order for people to be worried about it. 

I enjoyed the discussion of the different budget types and would like to visit with school that may be employing something other than the Line-Item Budget.  I would like to see what benefits the district had seen and what had lead to the district switching to something new in the first place. 

Reading the legal requirements and the district requirements helped clear up some of my questions.  It also lead to a conversation with my site supervisor, our superintendent, about our process and how our process this year worked.  The discussion of the calendar, the annual revenue, and the annual expenditures all began to make sense to a point that I felt like I could contribute in a discussion of school budget planning.  This may be one of the top resources that we have been provided in our classes and I plan on having a written copy and a bookmark so that it is available when needed.