Part 4 Interview with Director of Finance

Part 4: Interview

My superintendent was not available, so I had the opportunity to interview our District’s Director of Finance. What I learned from the visit is that The Summary of Finance Template is an extremely important tool when it comes to budgeting and planning. Our Director of Finance stated districts use the template as recommended by TEA who also uses it for planning and forecasting.  He was familiar with the development of the template and stated that other templates are available for preparing the district’s budget to ensure that the District’s Planning Estimate is in line with the Legislative Planning Estimate.  Due to the information that is placed into the template close monitored throughout the fiscal year is ongoing. He shared that even after a budget has been adopted because TEA is constantly changing the template and revising the revenue projections.

He shared a view of what the template looks like. He saw the look on my face and replied, “The template is very simple to use all a school district or whoever is designated to enter the information has to do is go into the Summary of Finance page on the TEA web-site and type in its district identification number and the information automatically feeds in directly from TEA.  It just that simple.

The next question’s response is direct and to the point.

      What are the superintendent’s roles and responsibilities in the budgeting process?

Director of Finance Response:

The district’s budget preparation and submittal to the board for approval is the sole responsibility of the superintendent. The board passes the budget based on the established goals and parameters that the district is trying to achieve. The superintendent communicates and collaborates with the both the Director of Finance and the Chief Business Officer.  The superintendent provides directions as to what will go into the budget for next fiscal year.  The Chief Business Officer will research to determine if the directions are reasonable.  Whatever the findings are from the research of the direction the superintendent brings it before the board of trustees.

 It is their budget and they have the ultimate say as to what does and doesn’t go into the budget.  The ultimate goal is to ensure that students are achieving academic success.