This course has been very challenging, but I have already found it
helpful to me in my current role. In our school district we run a fiscal
year that ends on 8/31. That means that May, June, July, and August
are utilized for budget planning for the next fiscal year. In fact, at last
night's school board meeting our Assistant Superintendent of Finance
presented the first run of the budget to our school board. The school
board members are considered to be an internal audience. As the
body that governs the school district these members are responsible
for making financial decisions that control costs and efficiency, and
they must ensure we are spending money in a way that helps us reach
our goals. The budget presentation to the school board utilizes the
ideas of cost accounting I have learned in this class. In fact, I have
been actively helping prepare for the budget presentation. I utilized
the same departmental budget preparation skills utilized for Project 2.
The presentation includes district assumptions about revenue (for
example: property values and tax rate, a 95% tax collection rate, c
average daily attendance (ADA) calculated at 95% of our 7,891
students, amount from the New Instructional Facilities Allotment,
estimated state aid from the Foundation School Program, and
estimated federal funds from Title I, II, III, IV, IDEA, Carl Perkins,
ESSER I, ESSER II, ESSER III, ESSER SUPP, and TCLAS grants) and
district assumptions about expenses (for example: teaching and staff
salaries, supplies and materials costs, program costs, transportation
costs, plant maintenance and operations, debt services,
constructions, security services, health services, counselling services,
etc.). Once the assumptions are presented then the school board is
given a report on the budget based on Fund, Function, and Object
codes. Note: budget codes are set by the Texas Education Agency,
and all activities and funds should be traced back to a specific code.
For example, Fund code 199 is the general fund, code 599 is the debt
services fund, fund 688 is local capital projects, etc. Each fund code
can be broken down by function (11 is instruction, 21 is instructional
leadership, 51 is plant maintenance and operations, etc.) or by object
(6100 is payroll costs, 6300 is supplies and materials, etc.). All of this
information allows us to give the school board members a per student
cost of education. This projected per student cost is compared to our
historical per student cost. For most school board members, they
want to know the per student cost and if revenues are greater than
expenses so we are projected to run a positive budget. For the budget
presentation I took all fund codes that correspond to federal grant
moneys. I was able to create a budget for these grant funds for the
fiscal year 23 (22-23 school year) and present a per student cost for
each fund and a per student cost for all grant funds combined. This
breakdown allows the school board members to better understand
our utilization of federal funds compared to state and local funds and
help assess the success of our programs funded by federal grant
moneys. While school accounting is different than business
accounting, my experiences in this course and my skills gained have
helped me take a step toward my future. I can now use my skills to
help us be more efficient and effective in using our moneys to
educate students. This course has taught me that I will utilize both
financial and cost accounting as a school district CFO.
