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Budgeting at Crestone Charter School K-12

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How school budgets are created at CCS w/in MCSD#2

For viewers of this document, there are notes attached to these slides, but please contact me with any questions, tcleary@crestonecharter.com.

This material was presented at the budget approval Governing Council Meeting, Nov 20, 2024; all stakeholders were encouraged to attend.

Please refer to the 2024-2025 FY FINAL Budget doc for line numbers quoted throughout this presentation.

CCS is a rural K-12 public charter school of 100 students, using site-based and zero-based budgeting, for the whole school but w/ grade-band differentiation

CCS collaborates w/ geographic authorizer, but is mostly autonomous except for passthrough federal, state, and grant monies; we pay the district for Central Administrative Overhead Costs and some additional purchase services

Here is a brief video explaining the relationship between achievement and funding, and how CCS allocates funding to improve student performance.

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Essential Questions: How is the budget developed?

  1. Assess the challenges and opportunities
    1. student demographics and academics, staffing numbers and expenses,
    2. facilities and capitalized needs, and strategic planning foci.
  2. Goals and objectives,
    • input of teachers, Parental opinions
    • District and state Offices of Education
  3. Build the budget
    • estimating revenue and expenditures; prior unspent funds go to reserves (Beginning Fund Balance).
    • each new year starts at zero, and is planned to end at zero.
    • Expenses are based on two End-of-Year Actuals and Year-to-Date expenditures.
  4. Provide a breakdown summary
    • total Revenue,
    • General Educational Expenses, District costs, Administrative and operational costs
    • a bottom line balanced budget is submitted to the district, and added into the district budget for approval.
  5. Preparation for the following year’s budget,
    • reflect on the year’s goals and a cost-benefit analysis re: continuation or re-allocation of funds
    • CCS is audited independently and by the district, also MD&A and IRS 990.

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Essential Questions: How is the budget developed?

  1. Challenges and opportunities
  2. student demographics and academics:
    • Increase in students from 87 to 100 across 7 grade-band classrooms. 8 students per K-12 grade, up to 10
    • Free and reduced lunch: 76%.
    • NWEA, CMAS, and P/SAT scores low in Reading and Math
    • Mission driven expansion of Experiential Education programing.
  3. staffing numbers and expenses:
    • increase aide hours, and student support team personnel, K-5 reading intervention.
    • Staff recruitment and retention: salary and hourly scale increases, and staff support through coaching.
  4. facilities and capitalized needs:
    • more staff overall led to the need for a modular office space.
    • Experiential education: greenhouse dome, and increase in the van/bus fleet.
  5. strategic planning:
    • Students: academic growth, increased enrollment, attendance, 4 day school week implementation,
    • Staff: retention / salary scale, PD, Behavior Response Matrix,
    • Instructional Curricular and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) Coaching (ICMC), Student Support Team, Experiential programs and safety,
    • financial independence.

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Essential Questions: How is the budget developed?

2. goals and objectives:

  • Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) goal to increase to 50th percentile across all grades in reading and math on NWEA, CMAS, and P/SAT by year’s end, up from 40th percentile,.
  • A mission driven expansion of Experiential Education programing in quality, quantity, and safety.

3. build the budget: see subsequent slides (6: Revenue)

4. summary of the balanced budget: see Budget Summary slide (7: Expenses)

5. reflection on year’s goals:

  • academic improvement is needed to avoid a second year of a priority improvement rating (secondary math),
    • student engagement and rigor,
    • teacher instruction and management practices,
    • curricular resources and fidelity, and
    • experiential educational integration.
  • 24/25 is an expansion year in terms of
    • student numbers, student and teacher supports,
    • programming, facilities, and financial resources.
  • At the end of 24/25 reassessment
    • ICMC, student support team, and the experiential education coordinator,
    • based on NWEA, CMAS, and staff, student, and parent satisfaction surveys.

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Building the Budget: Revenue

2024-2025 FY FINAL Budget REVENUE: Lines 3-47

The CCS Beginning Fund balance is at $2.11M, having increase from $1.46M over three years since I became the Director.

Total projected revenue for CCS 24/25 SY

$2,953,364

State Per Pupil Operating Revenue (PPOR)

$2,262,718

(76.6%)

Other State Revenue

$210,370

(7.1%)

Federal money (Titles I, II, and IV, SRS)

$190,383

(6.4%)

CCS generated income and grants

About 10%

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Building the Budget: Expenses

2024-2025 FY FINAL Budget EXPENSES: Lines 48-644

Personnel Costs: $1,662,909 (56.9%) [minus capital and durable expenses (64.9%)]

Total projected revenue for CCS 24/25 SY

$2,953,364

Total General Ed Expenses (Teachers, aides, specialists, mentors, travel, SpEd, Counselor, PD, Exp Ed Coordinator, Instructional, Curricular, MTSS Coach, class budgets, supplies, enrichment, programming)

$1,430,930

(48.4%)

Cost to District (Central Admin Overhead Costs, additional purchased services)

$407,289

(13.8%)

CCS Admin and operating expenses (Admin, office, Tech, facilities, transportation, food service, Capital construction and maintenance) w/out district

$1,085,145

W/dist

(36.7%)

(50.5%)

BEST and TaBOR reserves

About 1%

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Essential Questions: Who is involved? What roles do they play?

Preliminary budget (April): Director, Business manager, classroom staff and a parent input

  • Projected Enrollment and PPOR (adjusted during Spring, prior to Oct revised budget, and end of the calendar year)

Year to date (YTD) expenses, prior two end of years (EOY) actuals: Director and Business manager

  • consider upcoming expenses; adjustments to line items that continue into next budget.

Staffing costs: Director

  • about 65% of our budget, therefore by the April Preliminary budget,
    • salary scale adjustments, intent to return, and new hires in process.

Strategic plans and initiatives Director and all stakeholders

  • based on staff, student, and parent surveys; helps guide programming and capital purchases.

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Essential Questions: How do budgets assist school boards in achieving their goals to meet the needs of the students?

CCS Governing Council model is based on Policy Governance (formerly Carver Governance).

  • delineates Ends (the End Goals), all Means (to achieve Ends) goes to Director, then to staff.
  • GC influences goals, Director interprets the goals and sets the methods to attain them.
  • Director sets dollars to pay for methods to achieve those goals.
  • GC guides measures used to assess efficacy of initiatives used to achieve goals.
  • Director submits budget with justification
  • GC ensures budget within Executive Limitations, then leaves means to the Director and educators.

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Essential Questions: How is the budget influenced by grade?

Budget is applied to all teachers and students as a K-12 whole.

Travel budgets vary by classroom

HS credit needs, MS/HS science teacher, K-12 art supplies, and grade level book and textbook budgets also vary.

Teacher payscales and number of contract days do not vary to keep things equitable!

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How school budgets are created at CCS w/in MCSD#2

Budget Priorities:

  1. student needs and goals
  2. adequately compensated and supported staff,
  3. data for informed decisions,
  4. tools to assess the outcomes.

Director meets the Ends given by the Governing Council, with any reasonable Means, within Executive Limitations.

CCS uses a zero-based and site-based approach to budgeting, fairly traditional budget-building process

  • setting goals,
  • determining spending norms based on projected revenue, EOY and YTD expenses,
  • funding for initiatives and capital expenses.

For viewers of this document, please contact me with any questions, tcleary@crestonecharter.com.

Here is a brief video explaining the relationship between achievement and funding, and how CCS allocates funding to improve student performance.