Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Information Required to Effectively Manage School Budgets


Chris Frame is a finance expert whose industry experience spans over two decades, and who has held various positions within the education sector, including treasurer/chief financial officer of Jefferson Township Schools. There, he worked closely with the board of education and fiscal oversight committee. During his time at Jefferson Township Schools, Chris Frame handled key responsibilities such as payroll and managing school budgets.

School leadership teams are often tasked with managing school budgets, from handling simple petty cash issues to overseeing departmental budgets. To successfully monitor and manage school finances and budgets, it’s essential to avoid being overwhelmed by the numbers, and to come up with a clearly defined mechanism. In addition to focusing on how your school managed its budget in the past, you should also think about what you’d like to accomplish in the future if you had sufficient financing.

An effective school budget should be a reflection of a school’s improvement plan, and should be reviewed on an annual, 2-year and 5-year basis. To have a good budget, you should have information on previous budgets so you can examine past performance, number of students, staffing requirements, and examination results to determine how various curriculum areas should be budgeted for, as well as funds needed for insurance and maintenance.