Role of a Superintendent in the Budget Process

For this assignment, I interviewed my site supervisor Jon Forsythe. Mr. Forsythe is the Director of Students Services for Brenham ISD and the former Superintendent for Fayetteville ISD. In discussing the superintendent’s roles and responsibilities in the budgeting process, Mr. Forsythe stated that “budgeting is the backbone of the district. With limited revenue available to fund programs designed to meet the needs of all students and fixed expenses needed for the operation of the district, creative budgeting plays an essential role to maximize student achievement.

The superintendent is responsible for ensuring that the financial operations of the district. The superintendent is also responsible for overseeing that the financial decisions being made align with the vision of the district. The financial template was created by Region XIII, for the use of the superintendent to use in collaboration with the finance director. The content of the template relates to M&O tax rates, WADA information, student counts, property value information, and tax collection data.

This information can help a superintendent see patterns within the district which can be very useful information.  These patters can show a superintendent areas of weakness or concerns as well as areas of strengths and highlights for a district. The superintendent has many responsibilities but it take a team to run a school district. It is very important for the superintendent to utilize his or her team in any way that can be beneficial to the school districts success. The template can provide data to help you better and more efficiently use your staff and their knowledge when analyzing these trends and patterns.