District sets fresh accountability goals

June 19, 2005

JOEL DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - Each year, about 80 percent of the Mat-Su Borough's budget goes to fund public education. The biggest piece of the financial pie usually entails the greatest expectations.

The Mat-Su School District, however, is sometimes charged with being oversized and ever expanding. Several borough residents issued these and similar complaints at borough budget meetings this spring.

School district officials cite rapid student growth, increased retirement benefit payoffs and financial burdens from No Child Left Behind as contributing factors to the rising cost of education.

These expenditures are often difficult for the public to read and understand and ultimately school funding comes from taxpayers' pockets.

With this in mind, the school district has implemented a new way of creating annual education budgets - a method they hope will build public trust and participation as well as greater financial accountability for the district.

School Board President Mike Chmielewski said the new "performance-based budgeting" method will take effect for the 2006-2007 education budget. Ideally, the method will allow people to see exactly how much money is spent on each educational program, while also showing what the district did or failed to do with its budget.

"This model has proven itself for those districts willing to do it," he said Tuesday night after a joint School Board/Borough Assembly meeting in Palmer. "The biggest thing is changing the way people have thought about budgeting before."

In the past, the district has practiced a "line item" budgeting method that funds each individual school under separate categories. This has made it difficult to gauge the cost effectiveness and efficiency of districtwide educational programs.

Now, the district will rank all its top education priorities. Extra items will be funded only after core programs are funded throughout the district. The new method allows school board members to systematically cut or add budget items based on annual funding levels and effectiveness of programs from previous years.

Chief School Administrator Bob Doyle told the borough assembly Tuesday night that the new method enables the school district to show elected officials and residents exactly what was accomplished with the money spent on each program.

Doyle explained that the district will be able to come back each year and say, "You gave us some additional money last year and this is what we did with it and this is how the students benefited and what they achieved."

To determine the needs and goals of each school program, the district will form 16 program team consisting of school employees, union presidents, parents, teachers, business partners and district staff. Each team will tackle one of 16 education programs, including elementary instruction, special education and custodial services.

The teams will meet regularly, August through October, to evaluate their programs and set expectations for the coming year.

In January, each program team will present three funding scenarios for their program. In one scenario, the program would receive 85-percent funding from the previous year, the second scenario would keep funding levels the same as the year before and the third option would increase funding by 5 percent.

Each option will set the goals and expectations the district should aspire toward for that program.

A ranking committee then evaluates and ranks each of the proposals. All the programs must receive at least 85-percent funding from the previous year. After that, any extra funding is granted based on the order of importance as established by the ranking committee.

The ranking committee would decide, for instance, whether it was more important to increase funding for elementary instruction or high school instruction.

If the district is ever forced to modify its initial budget proposal due to shortfalls or surpluses, it can cut or add to programs based on their order in the ranking.

Beginning this summer, Chmielewski said the school district will solicit community members for involvement on the program teams.

"As people participate, their voices will be heard," he said. "We're asking for commitment here to be a part of this process."

Contact Joel Davidson at 352-2266.