Budgeting is a process and plan for determining how money is to be raised and spent, as well as a document – the budget – developed and approved during the budgeting process.
In more technical terms, a budget is a statement of the total educational program for a given unit, as well as an estimate of resources necessary to carry out the program and the revenues needed to cover those expenditures. A vertical budget includes the various income and expenditure estimates in a given fiscal year, while a horizontal budget will include current estimates for a given fiscal year, compared to prior audited income and expenditures, and a projection of costs into the future. Hence, the budget is a statement of purpose and a review of income and expenditures by function – with a timeline to explain past, current, and future
School Budget
A school budget is a fiscal managerial document used to plan for the projection of expenditures that will be incurred during a designated period of time. The time period is referred to as the fiscal year.
Philosophy regarding the school budget
The philosophy in establishing the annual school budget should be to create a budget that supports appropriate funding for all educational programs so that the students may benefit and learn from quality learning experiences based on educationally sound and fiscally prudent planning.
Sources of Revenues that support the School Budget
A. Federal Funds : Federal funds support a minimal portion of the budget for expenditures that are directed
to specific categories of students with special needs for programming.
B. State Funds : State government provides funds to support schoolsin districts.
C. Local Funds : Local funds are generated primarily from property taxes and some miscellaneous sources. Local funds support the largest portion of the school budget.
Basic Process for the Development of School Budget
To begin the budget development process, the administration analyzes expenditures from the previous year’s budget. This analysis includes informal and formal audits, review of instructional versus non-instructional costs, study of budgeted versus actual expenditures, and various projections of increases in student enrolment, impact on facilities, and so on. The budget development process encompasses both school-based budgeting and district-based
budgeting. Budgeting by school sites decentralizes decision-making, thus promoting school staff input and providing for expenditure choices to meet student needs in the various schools. The school-based level also provides opportunity for parental input. The school-based budgets are reviewed to ensure that they correspond with the requirements of statutes, educational goals, district policies, and collective bargaining agreements. With school-based budgets, one can expect to see variances in how monies and resources are allocated at the school level. Differences in allocations reflect differences in student needs and in the overall size of the student population. School staff is responsible for:
(1) determining program requirements and assessing what students will require for learning and teachers will need for teaching;
(2) initiating and supervising an assessment of program needs relative to staffing and scheduling;
(3) obtaining community perspectives and opinions concerning school needs;
(4) recommending a school based budget that allocates funds in a manner best-suited to achieving the school improvement plan; and
(5) supporting school-based budget statistics with the plan for school improvement.
