Leadership magazine Sept/Oct 2014 V 44 No 1 | Page 20

Budgets in an era of
local control and accountability:

Tips for
ite Leaders

Even in the midst of change – including greater scrutiny of budgets – there is a set of
best practices and core principles school leaders should adopt in order to be successful.

T

he transition is over. By now all school districts and
county offices of education have moved from the
old education finance model to the Local Control
Funding Formula. Throughout the state, education leaders have, for the most part, successfully completed
our first Local Control Accountability Plans. We start this
instructional year under a new funding model and plan by
which to achieve specific targets as outlined in law.
Implementation of the LCFF and our LCAPs were certainly
big events for education leaders this past year. Both will have
lasting effects on how education leaders develop and execute
their budgets, programs, and daily site-level operations. District and county office LCAPs sparked many changes in the
way school districts and county offices go about budgeting.
But will LCFF/LCAP fundamentally and forever alter the
way site and program leaders develop, implement and lead
their budgets? I believe the answer is no. Even in the midst
of all this change, there remains a set of best practices and
core principles site and program leaders should adopt to be
successful. If there was a change, it is that the LCFF/LCAP
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Leadership

magnified the importance of such practices and principles,
while putting site and program funding and budgeting under
greater public scrutiny.
As a result, it has become even more imperative that site
and program leaders develop good budgeting skills, along
with other leadership traits, to be successful. The following
are some helpful tips to develop this skill set. It is in no way
an exhaustive list, but does represent a good place for site and
program leaders to begin their journey.

1. Develop a basic understanding of the big picture.
Site and program leaders are not expected to be experts in
state and federal education laws and funding systems. However, they should possess a basic understanding of how and
where their agency gets its funding. If you work at a site or
program that receives specific federal or state funding – such
a migrant education, Title I, after-school, or other revenue –

By Brett W. McFadden