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Business office outlines operational-efficiency plan and a $200,000 pilot to shift funds toward ML and SPED supports
Summary
The district business office presented a multi-stream operational-efficiency strategy including cloud-based budgeting, resource mapping, staffing-guideline review and a $200,000 pilot that allocated additional general funds to schools ($24 per ML student, $34 per SPED student) to support equity and advocacy.
Mr. Hernandez, from the district business office, presented the Finance & Operations Committee with a multi-part plan to improve operational efficiencies, standardize processes and strengthen the district’s budget and advocacy work.
Hernandez said the business office will pursue a seven-step, systematic framework and five priority work streams that include: formalizing the budget process and moving toward cloud-based budgeting integration (Munis or a compatible platform); mapping current resources across the district to align staffing and materials with priorities; creating a creative funding-advocacy plan that involves parents, schools and community stakeholders; reviewing staffing guidelines in light of current needs; and improving general-fund allocation methodology for regular, special education and multilingual-learner students.
He described a small pilot the district ran this year that reallocated $200,000 in general funds across 40 schools; that pilot added approximately $24 per multilingual-learner student and $34 per special-education student as an interim weighting to help schools with higher needs. Hernandez said formalizing the process and increasing those allocations over time would give the district a target to use in state advocacy.
The presentation also emphasized technology integration (extending the recent PO integration into inform K12), contract- and agreement-processing streamlining, internal collaboration across HR, facilities and academics, and training to help business-office staff act as strategic partners rather than pure data processors.
Board members praised the approach and asked for follow-up work to identify measurable milestones and timelines for cloud integration and staffing reviews. Chair Wilcox and others noted the plan should help quantify staffing gaps and present a clearer case for funding changes in future advocacy.
Ending: Hernandez said the office will continue to work through the redesign work group and provide periodic updates to the committee as projects move from design to implementation.
