Defining budgeting processes and priorities

1. What kind of budget autonomy does your team wish to pursue?

Issues to consider include:

• Does your team want to seek autonomy to allocate the school’s entire budget, including the
  formula for salaries and benefits?
• To get that autonomy, are you willing to design and run a charter school?
• Does your team want to keep teachers’ salaries and benefits within the formula agreed on in
  the collective bargaining agreement (knowing that, in exchange, your team will get significantly
  less budget autonomy)? Often, teams that choose this arrangement benefit from support
  provided by the school district (such as payroll administration and food and transportation contracts). However,
  choosing this option means the team will control only a small amount of discretionary funds.
  Your team must decide if the benefits of such an arrangement outweigh the costs.
• Does your team want to secure autonomy to allocate discretionary funds only? If so, how can
  you negotiate to free up as much discretionary funding as possible?

These decisions may depend on whether your team can achieve its goals with partial budget autonomy. It’s also possible that your team has strong feelings about creating change within or beyond the district.

2. What process will your team use for allocating and approving the annual budget?

Many teams have a leader or committee (selected by and accountable to the whole team) who drafts the budget in line with the team’s shared purpose and budgeting priorities. Then, the team discusses and asks for adjustments before voting to approve the final budget (which is ratified by the school’s board). Will this process work for your team? If not, what will?

3. How will your team ensure your school gets the income it needs to be sustainable?

• How is enrollment related to the financial sustainability of the school (regardless of whether
  you have full budget autonomy)?
• Will you seek grants for supplemental funding? For start-up funding? Who will be responsible
  for pursuing this?
• If there is a formal arrangement for the teacher-powered team (e.g. the team has organized itself under the law as a cooperative, partnership, or LLC), will the team receive income from the school board in a lump sum?
• If there is not a formal arrangement, how will state funding flow into the school?

4. How will your team set priorities for spending?

• How will spending priorities support your team’s shared purpose?
• How will your team ensure you are meeting federal, state, and local spending requirements?