My answer to "What do you believe the funding priorities for the school board should be?" from the Germantown Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum:
Three of the top funding priorities would be:
Educational services and programs
Maintenance of buildings and grounds
Staff
A few years ago, an exercise was performed to eliminate unnecessary expenses that didn’t directly impact our students. This helped us get to the balanced budget situation that we have in place right now.
Because we approach the budget planning process from a zero-based budgeting perspective, we have the benefit of reviewing those priorities on an annual basis. This is a very good thing. We are able to plan appropriately and "trim the fat" since the goal is to balance the budget.
We also have to publish a 5-year capital improvement plan so we also have a sense of what kind of things are needed for the maintenance of buildings and grounds as we look ahead. These projects usually carry a big price tag.
We also review the financials every month during the Finance Committee meeting. This allows us to verify that we are on track, if any adjustments need to be made, or if any priorities have changed.
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