Budget Process and Details

Budget Process and Details

Budget Process Overview The District s fiscal year runs from September 1 through August 31. The budgeting cycle begins in the fall, ten months before the adoption of the budget and continues until a final budget is filed with the Puget Sound Educational Service District in the summer before the budget is implemented. The law does not allow for the District to expend funds in excess of the budgeted expenditures. No adjustments to the legally adopted budget are required unless the planned expenditures for the year will exceed budgeted expenditures. The process of budget formulation involves all District stakeholders. The 2014-15 budget represents the first year of a new budgeting process, Budgeting by Priorities (BBP). The compilation of the individual, ranked proposals is performed by the budget department for the purposes of preparing the state reporting document and for the preparation of this Annual Budget Report which reflects the 2014-15 final budget as adopted by the Board on August 28, 2014. After the Board approved the final budget, it becomes the responsibility of the Budget Department to implement and monitor the budget. A system of budget allotments is established for each departmental unit. Daily review of transaction data is available with user access through network connections, which reflect appropriation levels, encumbrances, and year-to-date expenditures. This reporting system also enables the Budget Department to monitor all of the District s budgets on a regular basis and provides the necessary controls. If it becomes necessary during the course of the year to change any of the departmental budgets, transfers are initiated by department heads and approved by the appropriate administrator. The budget is available to Budget Managers in both the adopted format and the supplemental format. The accounting and budgeting policies of the District conform to the accounting principles and budgeting best practices for local districts as prescribed by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and generally accepted accounting principles. Implementing a New Process The Board of Directors of Tacoma Public Schools charged staff in 2012 to find a process that would provide alignment between their newly implemented strategic plan and the budget. In November of 2013, the District selected Budgeting by Priorities to achieve this goal. This implementation helped us identify five objectives for the Budgeting by Priorities (BP) process: Align the budget with strategic plan priorities Measure progress towards priorities Get the best value for each tax dollar Foster continuous learning in the District Provide for a better communication with the community Budgeting by Priorities focuses District budget decisions on strategic plan priorities which is a stark contrast to the traditional method of budgeting which essentially rolled the prior year budget so that modifications could be made based on revenue fluctuations or programmatic needs. The decision was made to utilize the budgeting by priorities process in the general fund only as the other funds have limited purposes or specific uses for resources that are naturally aligned to the strategic plan by the nature of the fund. 35

Building a Better Budget using Budgeting by Priorities Budgeting by Priorities (BBP) is a process used by many city and county governments that aligns the financial components of the budget with the strategic plan initiatives. The 2014-15 budget development was the first time that Tacoma Public Schools used the BBP process and it was a radical change from the former budget development practice. BBP results in funding programs and services that are deemed the most important to our success as defined by the strategic plan. Expenditures that do not significantly support the strategic plan will be eliminated through an evaluative scoring process. The benefits of the process include true alignment of expenditures to support the strategic goals, community input and involvement in the budget process, and data driven decisions that remove the capriciousness used to fund current initiatives. This was a challenging and rewarding budgeting process and will lead to a sustainable approach to evaluating programs and allocating funding. Below is the outline of the budgeting process: Identify funding Develop revenue projections from legislative and other internal impacts Determine priorities Evaluate the strategic plan goals and initiatives for updates or necessary adjustments Allocate Resources Determine the targeted dollar allocations that we want to spend on each strategic plan goal Identify results - develop requests for proposals that would be used by budget managers to develop proposals for services that they intent to provide Ranking proposals teams of staff review each proposal and determine if the results and measurements provided meet the needs of the district. Proposals are then ranked in order of how well they will achieve results Buying proposal rankings and requested dollars are evaluated by the executive team to determine what proposals will receive funding Communicate Using presentations and publication as well as providing training for users Proposals submitted by budget managers using data and evidence to identify how the dollars they are requesting will provide results for kids 36

Budget Process Details Strategic Plan Goals The Tacoma School District 2011-2015 Strategic Plan is the result of our belief that all students achieve their full potential by participation in an educational experience that is relevant, challenging and individualized, an experience that shares such common values as equity, cultural understanding, accountability and leadership and was designed based on the overarching goals of achievement, innovation, instruction, collaboration, early learning, and safety for all students in all schools. The four strategic plan goals are academic excellence, partnerships, safety, and early learning. To account for the activities of a responsible government, a fifth priority, support services, was included in the budgeting by priorities process. Revenue Projections Revenue projections are the start of the budgeting process. The process for projecting revenues has not changed with the change to the budgeting process. The primary goal of revenue projections is to assess and maintain fair, equitable and stable sources of revenue. Projections take special consideration of those factors that will impact the state, federal or local sources of funds into account in order to develop the budgeted revenues. Enrollment projections are the primary driver of revenue and a demographer is obtained in order to determine the number of students that revenues should be built on. Local factors such as salary and benefits rates, pension rates, and legislative impacts are also taken into account to ensure the most accurate projections of revenues. Results Teams Five Results Team groups were created and each group was assigned a strategic plan goal. Each of the Results Teams was to fashion Requests for Proposals (RFPs) based on the Strategic plan priority approved by the Board. To ensure that citizen input was incorporated into the budget process, information was sent to volunteers and feedback was sought from those volunteers. Requests for Proposals Each Results Team designed Requests for Proposals (RFPs) that related to its specific priority by identifying factors and criteria that should be included in individual department proposals. The Results Teams invited all departments (indicated in the Supplemental Section of this document, page 328) to submit proposals based on the criteria within the RFPs with the understanding that department offers would be ranked by the Results Teams using the factors in the RFPs. All funds allocated from the General Fund used the proposal writing process. Other funds used their traditional process for allocating funds. Proposal Submittals The submission of proposals were to include existing service or programs, new programs or activities, or improvements/changes to existing programs. Innovation was encouraged in all proposals as was collaboration between departments. In the BBP process, each department was required to submit proposals for the funding that they are currently allocated. This was done by identifying a specific strategic plan goal that their service most distinctly fit in to. Each proposal was then required to describe what, why, how and who the service provides for. No proposals were accepted from external vendors or consultants in this BBP process, but departments were encouraged to collaborate where possible to combine services if it was in the best interest of the District. 37

The proposal submission was expected to be simple, accurate, succinct, and complete. Additionally, the greatest expectation was that the proposal was based on results and evidence of results. This evidence of results was to be provided through performance indicators, data and benchmark measurements. The District currently has benchmark indicators for each of the District s strategic plan goal. These indicators are as follows: 38

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Ranking the Proposals Round One - Following the first submission by the budget manager, the Results Teams met with the budget manager to seek clarity or discuss proposal issues prior to critiquing and ranking the proposals. The ranking of the proposals was done using a point scale system as to how well the criteria of the RFP was addressed in the submission. During the first round of proposal ranking, the Results Teams were unaware of the request for funding forcing them to look at the merits, evidence and data of the proposal. Round Two - With the feedback from the ResultsTteams, budget managers were asked to make any corrections or clarification and resubmit their proposals for a final ranking. Project Team A project team, headed by the Superintendent, included executive staff and the Chief Financial Officer. The project team s primary responsibility was to assist the Results Teams and guide the overall process. Funding After the final rankings were completed by the results team, the executive team reviewed the proposals and rankings to made determinations about proposals to continue, discontinue or start funding. BBP Process Affirmed The Board of Director s vision for the BBP process has resulted in more than just a budget. The inclusion of the community, the expanded role of the District staff, transparency of data to the general user, cross departmental collaboration and the focus on providing results for kids has proven this to be the most valuable process change. The accompanying chart is the final result of the support related to each strategic plan goal. 40

Budgeting Process Timeline 41