This week, our guest blogger is Business Administrator Ron Brickett. He's written a bit about budget balancing, fitting as we have just begun our budgeting process for the 2017-18 school year.
Budget Balancing
Budget Balancing for public schools can be described as the
art of balancing the budget between what is best for the students with what the taxpayers can afford. The Raymond School
Board is always concerned about budget balancing throughout the entire budget
process.
The budget process that I have used in Raymond is called zero-based budgeting. "Zero-based
budgeting is a method of budgeting in which all expenses must be justified for
each new period. Zero-based budgeting
starts from a “zero-base” and every function within an organization is analyzed
for its needs and costs. Budgets are
then built around what is needed for the upcoming period regardless of whether
the budget is higher or lower than the previous one.”
I begin the budget process in mid-summer by analyzing expense
accounts and determining what I consider as necessary budget amounts for the
next school year. This process includes many
estimations since we are only in the first month of the current school year and
I am estimating budgets for the next school year.
As my budget work progresses, I incorporate School Board,
Superintendent, Principals and Department Head suggestions into a draft budget
that is presented to the Town’s Budget Committee in the fall for their review
and suggestions.
Two very important meetings are held in the January time
frame to which taxpayers are invited to discuss their budget suggestions –
the Budget Public Hearing at which time Taxpayers can voice their opinions
about the budget and the Deliberative Session at which time taxpayers can
actually change the budget amount that ends up being included on the budget
warrant article to be voted on by taxpayers on election day. It is the taxpayers of Raymond who finally determine the school district’s budget for each school year.
I hope that you as a taxpayer continue to stay involved with
the budget process and help the School Board ensure that budget balancing is
occurring.
Ron Brickett,
Business Administrator
