Failed Budget Governance: Start with Where Your Money Went this Year Compared to a Year Ago – Not with Cuts Out of Context
Our School Board is beginning a budget dialogue with the community using budget cut discussion items – wrong!
A first place for the Board to start budget discussions would be to look at where the money went last year (Download Comparison of 03-04 budget vs. 04-05 budget)
Where did the budget increase? Building Services, Student Services, Human Resources and Education Services – $18.3 million
Where was the budget cut? Elementary, Middle and High Schools took the biggest cuts – $2.1 million.
The MMSD School Board needs to start here, ask for an estimate of revenues for 05-06 and ask for scenarios with different allocations of these revenues. The School Board would then have a place to start a dialogue with the community.
