District Budget Design

1634 Words4 Pages

In a time of financial hard ships, balancing a districts budget has become increasingly difficult. As a school board member for the Peoria School district it is important and crucial to effective budget decision making to be educated on the school districts budget design and delegated responsibilities within the system. These decisions need to be made based on the protection of public funds and property. “The legal responsibility for such protection rests solely with the board of education in each school district” (Brimley, Verstengen, Garfield, 2012, pg. 332). Areas vital to this effective decision making of a board member are account practices, superintendent and board member responsibilities for a building budget, key terminology, how the funds are budgeted and coordinated, district budget timelines, enrollment projections and how they are calculated, and the possible considerations of staff requisitions. Every decision of a board member is of the upmost importance when balancing a district’s budget in 2014.
Accounting Practices
Accounting practices of a building budget are called GAAP; general accepted accounting principles (Brimley, Verstengen, Garfield, 2012). These practices are adopted by all school agencies in order to spend revenue the most effective and efficient way. Another goal is to make the money go as far as possible, therefore it is important to have a committee, team, and well researched established plan. “Schools can not achieve their instructional goals without the wise expenditure of public funds” (Brimley, Verstengen, Garfield, 2012, pg. 304). The principles include accuracy, completeness and timeline, simplicity, and uniformity of the accounting system (Brimley, Verstengen, Garfield, 2012). In every dist...

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