District budget office expands site-based budgeting pilot; plans full rollout next year

A district Budget Office presenter and Ms. Johnson, the district’s director of budgeting, discussed the rollout of a site-based budgeting pilot and broader central-budget reviews during a weekly budget update. Ms. Johnson said, “We have 5 schools currently participating in it,” and the office aims to add more sites each year.

The pilot is intended to shift more decision-making about spending to individual school sites. “The money follows the students,” Ms. Johnson said. Under the model, the district allocates funds to each school based on the students it serves that year, and schools can make staffing and spending choices to match student needs.

Budget staff said the pilot currently includes a mix of schools described as several high schools, one middle school and one elementary school. The office characterized the pilot as a learning process and said staff are working through coordination among departments, including ESE and curriculum, because those areas affect how site budgets are used.

At the same time, the Budget Office said it is conducting a line-by-line review of centrally held budgets across departments to identify needs and “do more with less.” Training for participating principals is expected to continue throughout the year as the district adds schools to the pilot.

No formal vote or board action was recorded in the update. The Budget Office framed next steps as continuing training, troubleshooting issues raised in the pilot schools and expanding participation so “all of the sites [are] on board for next year,” as the presenter put it.

Officials did not specify the total number of schools in the district that will be added each year, dollar amounts tied to allocations, or a firm timeline beyond the goal of having all sites participating by next year.