Alliance for Excellence in School Budgeting Fall Meeting
Join your education colleagues to discuss school budgeting, December 1-2, in Chicago, Illinois. This event is worth 12 CPE credits.
Maximizing ARP/ESSER funding is a big topic among school districts. How are you spending the money? What challenges do you face? That topic and more will be covered at this year's Alliance event. Don't miss this opportunity to learn and collaborate to create smarter school spending!
Alliance Schedule
December 1
School districts are charged with providing a free and appropriate education to all students, generally with limited funding. Most school districts have a strategic plan outlining the instructional goals they are attempting to meet in providing that education. In order to ensure that those limited funds are spent in support of the strategic goals, we will introduce participants to the GFOA’s Best Budgeting Practices for School Districts framework.
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Activity Leaders:
Carol MacLeod, GFOA Senior Project Manager
Dr. Kyle Wedberg, GFOA Senior Manager
In order to ensure that funds are being budgeted and spent in a manner that supports a school district’s strategic plan, programs will be reviewed, prioritized and funding decisions will be made. In this session, we will hear from two districts on how and why using data to support budgetary decisions has provided the transparency necessary to gain support for implementing changes that support the strategic goals of the district.
Time: 10:15 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Speakers:
Matthew Lentz, Chief Financial Officer, Board Secretary, Upper Moreland School District, Willow Grove, PA
Exceptional Student education is an area of public education that continues to grow at an increasing rate. While districts struggle with meeting the needs of students with special needs, there are multiple Federal and State programs to provide financial assistance. In the session, we will hear from a subject matter expert regarding ways to address the students’ needs while maintaining a solid financial base.
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Speaker: Nathan Levenson, President, New Solutions K-12, Brookline, MA
Smarter School Spending has developed several tools which can assist a district in analyzing their current financial spending picture and aid in identifying areas that could provide resources to support new or expanding instructional initiatives. In this session, we will explore the 31 Cost Saving Options this tools provides.
Time: 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Activity Leader: Carol MacLeod, GFOA Senior Project Manager
Time: 2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m.
Speaker: Jason Demerath, SFO, CSRM, Director of Business Services, School District of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
In part as a result of COVID-19, the move to remote learning, and the return to in-person learning, many students suffered significant learning losses. Several Federal programs have been established to provide temporary supports to school districts to address those learning losses. In this session, we will learn about how to maximize the major funding programs including: Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding (ESSER) allocated to the districts through individual states from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act, and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act.
Time: 3:00 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.
Speaker: Sharie Lewis, CPA, SFO, Director of Business Services and Operations, Parkrose School District 003, Portland, Oregon
Part of the purpose of the Budget Alliance is to provide support and tools to all districts to aid in implementing and supporting the Best Budgeting practices. In this session, we will examine several of the tools available on the SmarterSchoolSpending,org website and how to apply those tools to the budget process.
Time: 3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Activity Leaders: Carol MacLeod, GFOA Senior Project Manager
December 2
Transparency is a key tenet of any budget process. The budget process should include a communications strategy for clearly communicating to the participants, stakeholders, and general public about how the process works, what decisions were made, and why it is essential for inclusion in the budget process. In this session, we will discuss developing an “elevator speech," identifying your stakeholders, and identifying your budget messengers.
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Activity Leader: Dr. Kyle Wedberg, GFOA Senior Manager
As one of the original participants in the Budget Alliance, Michele Trongaard led the implementation of the GFOA Best Practices in School Budgeting in her school district. She later moved into a similar position at a larger district. In this session, we will learn about the challenges and opportunities of introducing the process to her new school district.
Time: 9:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Speaker: Michele Trongaard, Associate Superintendent of Business & Finance, Mansfield Independent School District, Mansfield, TX
An essential feature of a budget that best aligns resources with student achievement is that spending on activities that support the school district’s instructional priorities is prioritized above spending on other items. As a prerequisite to evaluating proposed expenditures for alignment with instructional priorities, a district must understand, at a minimum, the cost of the activities needed to implement the instructional priorities. Ideally, however, the district will understand the full breadth of the programs and services it offers by conducting an inventory of its current expenditures. In this session, we will introduce the topic of Academic Return on Investment (A-ROI) which seeks to quantify the total learning impact (student learning gains multiplied by the number of students helped) per dollar spent.
Time: 10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Speakers:
Stephanie Watson, Senior Director, District Management Group
Joseph Costello, Director, District Management Group
Time: 12:45 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.
Activity Leaders:
Carol MacLeod, GFOA Senior Project Manager,
Dr. Kyle Wedberg, GFOA Senior Manager
Ready to Attend?
Book hotel now to take advantage of discounted rate extended until November 14.
1. Register
2. Book Your Hotel
3. Grab the Agenda
Homework Before the Meeting
Summary of Best Practices in School Budgeting
GFOA has developed a series of Best Practices in School Budgeting, which clearly outline steps to developing a budget that best aligns resources with student achievement goals.
Cost Savings Options Tool
The goal of the Screening & Sizing Tools is to help identify potential opportunities to reallocate resources to address the district's strategic priorities. Together, they are meant to be a "quick and simple" assessment of a long list of potential opportunities.
Introductory District Diagnostic Tool
This tool provides a list of capacity indicators necessary to execute and sustain the Smarter School Spending process. There are specific capacities in each section of the process that are necessary to effectively complete the process. Use this tool to identify what capacities you have and will need to complete Smarter School Spending.
Rethinking School Budgeting: Supporting Your District’s Strategic Plan
As we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, we see overwhelming evidence of systemic change in public education. As we evaluate the changes in educational delivery and assessment, we must also evaluate the budget process necessary to support those changes. Now is the time to critically examine spending patterns to ensure that the goals for student achievement are driving the budget process.
Fiscal First Aid for School Districts – Recovering from Financial Distress
The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially difficult for organizations tasked with providing essential services to their communities, fighting the virus, pivoting almost overnight to address the new challenges of employees working from home, and navigating a multitude of economic challenges and hardships.
About the Alliance
The Alliance for Excellence in School Budgeting is a network of school districts formed by GFOA from across the nation working to implement GFOA’s Best Practices in School Budgeting. The Best Practices in School Budgeting is a framework to enhance a school district’s budget and planning process through better alignment of strategic goals/student outcomes and resource allocation.