School Beat: Program Based Budgeting Noted: Flat or decreased enrollment noted

(Ed.note: The following was in the packet from the recent November 2007 Evansville School Board meeting.)


Program Based Budgeting:

We are a bit behind last year’s schedule, although this year’s process should be a little less time consuming. Due to the lateness of the state budget we weren’t able to get the figures together for the groups. We have also made some changes to the process based on last year’s experiences including more involvement on the part of the Administrative Team and the Board up front in setting priorities.

Last year, due to the enrollment increase we had about $477,805 to distribute once increases in fixed costs were allowed for. $89,512 went to the District to increase the capital projects fund. The rest ($388,393) was allocated to the sites based on a five year average of enrollment changes. In general, this allowed buildings to catch-up with needs based on increasing enrollment.

Given that the middle and elementary enrollments will be flat or slightly lower two years in a row, a much smaller amount than the $388,393 appears to be needed to finish catching up the high school and intermediate schools increased enrollment. This should leave money to address the District level needs that could not be addressed last year.

Finance Committee will meet on Monday at noon to review the budget assumptions and Administrative Team recommendations. The Finance Committee will discuss these and make recommendations that evening for the full board to consider.