Here are tips to provide effective school business leadership in today’s “new” fiscal reality:
1. Develop realistic multi-year budget projections. Get clear on where you are and where you intend to go, focusing first on the coming budget year. Will you be able to balance your budget? What will it take? What are your alternatives? Look 3 to 5 years into the future to assess what the district must do to survive.
2. Interpret what fiscal projections mean for the district and other interested groups. Start with a realistic vision that includes budget numbers as well as their implications for the district. Focus on the most important facts, and make sure others in the organization acknowledge the reality of coming changes.
3. Help build a unified consensus among district leaders. Clarify attitudes about the necessary changes and focus on looking forward.
4. Recommend fiscal actions. Start by tightening the current system wherever possible. Question old ways of doing things and seek creative alternatives to improve or replace operations. Focus on bigger actions with bigger results. Identify potential new revenue sources. Examine areas for cost reduction.
School business leaders will need to shift gears between explaining the new fiscal reality, convincing others of the necessity for changes; identifying, evaluating, and implementing those changes; and raising expectations for performance within financial constraints. To steward the fiscal stability of the district and execute a successful transition into the new normal, focus on the most critical concerns:
- Key fiscal areas most important to the district’s health such as salaries, health insurance, pension costs, local tax revenues, facilities, major state subsidies, and federal funds, and how each of those areas will likely change in coming years.
- Factors that will affect estimates of change such as the economy and its impact on local and state tax revenues, state aid, growth of uncontrollable expenditures, and facilities remodeling or construction needs.
- Expectations for upcoming union contract negotiations, including what the district can afford, limitations on total compensation levels, changes in health care, concessionary bargaining, and possible trade-offs between salaries and benefit provisions.
The silver lining is that no SBO is navigating this fiscal reality alone. Your peers are facing similar challenges and are also your greatest resource. Reach out to your colleagues on ASBO’s Global School Business Network to start a conversation on budgeting challenges and solutions to help your district take the first step forward.