4 Effective School District Budgeting Strategies for Administrators

“A teacher is a compass that activates the magnets of curiosity, knowledge, and wisdom in the pupils.” ~ Ever Garrison

A school district budget is more than numbers. It serves as a blueprint for what the district intends to do for students and teachers, and by extension, what it does for the communities it serves. Some districts have more resources than others, but nobody has unlimited funds to spend on the education of district students.

At Alludo, we understand how crucial school budgeting is, and how difficult it can be to allocate resources to necessary professional development when funds are limited. Choosing the right school district budgeting strategy can help you make the most of your district’s resources and get to the best possible outcomes for your students. With that in mind, here are four effective school district budgeting strategies to try.

Table of Contents

1. What Does School District Budgeting Entail?
2. 4 Strategies for Administrators to Use for School District Budgeting
   1. #1: Functional Budget
   2. #2: Zero-Based Budgeting
   3. #3: Multi-Year Planning
   4. #4: Performance-Based Budgeting
3. Why Should Districts Allocate Funds for Professional Development?
4. Alludo’s Take
5. Bring Affordable Professional Development to Your District with Alludo

What Does School District Budgeting Entail?

School district budgeting entails many decisions about how the district’s available funds will be spent to further the education of the district’s children. It’s not simply a matter of allocating money. Rather, it involves making important decisions about which things are priorities and which are not, and doing the best to use the money that’s available to fulfill the district’s promises to its students and teachers.

School district budgeting is impacted by many things that dictate how much money is available, including the following:

• Enrollment projections. How many students will be attending the district’s schools? Enrollment determines teacher/student ratios. Since most districts have target ratios to take into consideration, higher than expected enrollment might necessitate hiring new teachers. Enrollment can also impact how much money a school district receives from the state.
• Property taxes. In many areas, the school district budget makes up a significant part of the overall municipal budget. Much of any district’s money comes from property taxes, and can therefore change based on revenue from taxes.
• State contributions. As we noted above, states may determine how much money to give a school district based on enrollment and other factors. For example, districts with high Special Education enrollment might qualify for state funding, as may districts with a lot of English Language Learners.

The budgeting process isn’t a one-time event but an ongoing effort to allocate and reallocate resources to make sure the needs of teachers and students are being met. With limited funds, school boards, administrators, and other parties must work together to pay existing teachers and hire new ones, provide resources and supplies, and much more.

4 Strategies for Administrators to Use for School District Budgeting

If your district’s budget needs work, here are four budgeting strategies for administrators that can help you make the most of limited resources.

#1: Functional Budget

A functional budget focuses on the function of an organization as a way to allocate resources. In a school district, the overall function is to educate the district’s students. Since the majority of funds in most districts go to the salaries of teachers, teaching assistants, and other staff, it may be helpful to look at a functional budget as a labor budget.

If you choose to use a functional budget strategy, you will need to include both direct and indirect labor costs. Direct labor costs would include salaries for teachers, teacher aides, paraeducators, and school administrators—in other words, anybody who is directly involved in the education and care of students.

Indirect labor costs include anybody who works in the district whose job it is to support teachers in the work they do. Examples include office staff, maintenance workers, janitorial staff, and so on.

Of course, your budget will also need to include other categories of spending such as supplies, technology, and so on. But, since labor makes up the majority of a school district budget, using a functional budget may be useful.

#2: Zero-Based Budgeting

Zero-based budgeting is probably the most time-consuming budgeting method to use but it has some significant benefits that may make the time spent worthwhile. Simply stated, the zero-based approach requires, as its name implies, starting from zero each time a new budget is created. There is no reference to previous budgets, which means that each line item in the budget must be justified in order to be included in the budget.

If a district chooses to use zero-based budgeting, it can quickly identify expenditures that are unnecessary or too high. The need to justify every bit of spending can quickly reveal which budgetary items are most important and which can be cut to make way for other things.

We should note that the time required may make this strategy one that is best used sparingly and in conjunction with other strategies. For example, you might review your budget with a zero-based strategy, going over line items to identify your priorities.

#3: Multi-Year Planning

Multi-year planning is a budgetary strategy that takes a broad view of future spending by incorporating two or more years of financial planning. It can be an extremely useful approach for any school district that has long-term goals that must have resources allocated to them over more than one school year.

The key to effective multi-year planning is to identify district and school goals that will take more than one year to achieve. For any line item on the budget that will roll over into the next year or multiple years, it’s essential to adjust projected costs for inflation. That way, you won’t run into a budget shortfall. It’s equally as important to factor in inflation for expenses that are recurring each school year, such as teacher salaries or utilities.

If you use this method, you’ll need to make sure you don’t overspend on long-term goals at the expense of ongoing needs, particularly as they relate to student safety and wellbeing. For any district that has long-term goals related to student achievement or teacher turnover, this method can be effective because it allows for budgeting for things like teacher professional development, which can contribute to improvements in student achievement.

#4: Performance-Based Budgeting

Performance-based budgeting is a strategy that allows school districts and administrators to allocate funds to a variety of initiatives based on how well they are performing. It emphasizes performance and may make it easy for districts to identify high-performing programs and give them additional funds, while removing them from initiatives that aren’t working as well. It may also be referred to as results-based budgeting or outcome-based budgeting.

The use of performance-based budgeting can serve as an incentive for participants to deliver results and encourage a greater focus on outcomes. It can also help with the pursuit of multi-year and long-term goals by allowing for resources to be set aside for programs that are delivering the best results related to those goals.

Many school districts prefer this approach because it increases accountability and transparency. If you want to try performance-based budgeting, it’s essential to identify your most important school district goals first. Once you know what they are, you can review performance metrics and make decisions about which programs and initiatives are delivering the results you want.

Why Should Districts Allocate Funds for Professional Development?

It won’t come as a surprise that we believe that professional development must be included in every school district budget. Not only are there state and district professional development requirements for teachers, staff, and administrators, but there is ample evidence to confirm the role that professional learning plays in reducing the cost of teacher turnover, something that’s become increasingly important in light of the ongoing teacher shortage.

Investing in professional development for teachers isn’t only necessary to fulfill state requirements. When teachers feel valued and supported, and they have a choice and a voice in what they learn, it leads directly to the achievement of long-term district goals and to improvements in student outcomes.

Investment in professional development can also improve your district’s hiring capacity. If you’ve already been impacted by the teacher shortage, a robust and engaging PD program can help you attract the best teachers to your district. 

On a related note, the right professional development platform can assist you in onboarding new substitute teachers with an eye toward helping them get hired on a full-time basis. Proper onboarding encourages qualified subs to learn from other teachers in the district, collaborate where it makes sense, and become part of the school and district communities.

Alludo’s Take

Here at Alludo Learning, we understand that most school districts are working with limited funds and that the country is in the midst of a teaching shortage. That’s why we’ve made it our mission to help by providing a cost-effective way to offer meaningful professional development without breaking your district budget.

We know that professional development, particularly where teachers have a choice in what they learn and when they learn it, can support school districts in the pursuit of their strategic goals and initiatives. It can also, as we noted above, play an essential role in preventing teacher turnover and increasing teacher retention.

Bring Affordable Professional Development to Your District with Alludo

Your school district budget must provide teachers with the resources and support they need while allowing for the pursuit of short-term and long-term district goals. The 4 budgeting strategies we’ve outlined here can help you make the most of your money while still providing teachers with the support they need in the form of professional development. Our free Budgeting Webinar covers even more strategies to prioritize spend and align professional development with core initiatives.

Are you looking for a budget-friendly way to provide professional development? Alludo has what you need. Click here to get your free trial of Madagascar, a sample course that demonstrates the benefits of our professional asynchronous learning platform.