Goal Driven Budget

A goal driven budget is one in which the goals of the district are prioritized not just in writing, but also monetarily.  A school can create a goal of every child learning to speak fluent French.  If the money trail does not lead to resources being implemented for all students to learn French, then the budget is not goal driven.  Budget development must keep in mind the goals for the district and how they have been prioritized.  A goal that is low on the priority list should not see the majority of the funds.  All of this takes place annually and is successful through communication with the different stakeholders of the district.

After listening to the videoed interview with Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Arterbury, I am curious as to what our Board of Trustee’s goals are for Paducah ISD.  Not knowing the answer to that question makes it difficult to fulfill the vision that these seven individuals may have.  I will be pursuing this topic with our superintendent as I feel at times we are drifting in the educational sea!  Following the Board of Trustees giving the district a directional plan, the district improvement plan should be developed with a input from a variety of stakeholders.  Those stakeholders should include, but not be limited to, administration, teachers, parents, and business leaders.  For PISD, this is where I am struggling due to the fact that we are a one campus district.  More times than not, our campus improvement plan is a rehash of the district improvement plan.  I have considered meeting with each different level to come up with campus goals for the elementary, junior high and high school as these students are all at a different point in their educational journey and have different needs and levels of support.  The goals for each of these different levels should support the obtainment of the district level goals which in turn will provide for the obtainment of the Board of Trustee’s goals for the district. 

I can take a specific goal that has been discussed here in Paducah.  Our Board of Trustees has asked that we make our UIL teams more of a priority this year.  In part to help us do that, we have changed our daily schedule.  Teachers have been briefed on the goal of increasing our level of commitment to the UIL teams.  Stipends have been increased to show the commitment of the board as well.  Actually, the stipends were tripled from last year’s level.  The Board of Trustee goal was to increase our commitment to the UIL teams.  The district improvement plan was to change our daily schedule to allow for more time for teachers to help prepare the teams.  The campus level improvement plans will include how they will manage their times and the sharing of students.

I believe our first priority in trying to produce a goal driven budget for Paducah ISD is to sit down with the Board of Trustees and to hammer out the goals that they would like to see set for the district.  Since the budget process is done annually, the Board of Trustee goals should be done annually.  That does not mean that the goals could not carry over to the next year, but the Trustees would need to make that commitment again.  Once we get the direction set by the Board of Trustees, we should see the trickle down effect.  In the interview Dr. Arterbury said that they have reviewed many district and campus level plans and that there seems to be a complete disconnect.  I have no doubt that if PISD were to be reviewed we would fall into that group of disconnect.