TEA Budget Guidelines

EDLD 5342- Week 2- Part 3- TEA Budgeting Guidelines

From reading over the TEA Budgeting Guidelines, I have learned that I am indeed overwhelmed by the entire concept of budget and finance and am thankful for the resources and resourceful people available to complement my leadership style, strengths and weaknesses.

I learned that the budgeting process is a way for the district to describe its vision in financial terms and adequately fund its priorities. I learned that the majority of funding comes from local property taxes and state funding. Federal funds make up a small percentage. I also learned from reading that there are several different types of budgeting. The line-item format is the most widely utilized approach and is shown by taking the current budget and increasing or decreasing a certain percentage. Performance budgeting has a focus on efficiency.  Zero-base budgeting came about in the 1970s and is one of the newest budgetary approaches.  It forces you to start over each year and justify funding. Some districts have gone to this in these current tough economic times. In Site-based budgeting the principal and other campus staff are at the center of the budget preparation process. The campus is given an allotment for which they have the responsibility of planning and management. It appears that the campuses in my district function in many ways in site based budgeting because we are given an amount an plan accordingly. I am not sure which method all of our departments and the district as a whole use.

I can take this information and use it in the future when planning budgets by investigating the current methods of budgeting used in my district as a whole. I can also use this resource as a reference in future budget planning. As the times get tougher, it may become necessary to use different methods to get the most out of our funds.