Board Budget Development Priorities

In December, the Board of Trustees approved a set of budget development priorities to help guide the decisions that will need to be made this year. Each possible budget cut should be evaulated using these criteria. While all five criteria are important, the order in which they were placed represents the relative weight that each will be given.

Here are the priorities as they were approved:

1) Maintain Core Academic Programs for Students: Our primary responsibility is to make sure we have educational programs in place that support our students in achieving state and district standards. The core subjects of mathematics, reading, language arts, history and science must be maintained.

2) Maintain Other Educational Programs and Services for Students: We acknowledge that successful educational programs include more than core academics and therefore, as much as possible, we support maintaining other programs such as music, counseling, sports, and electives.

3) Maintain Acceptable Levels of Eseential Services: The district must maintain a level of support services, such as secretarial, business, personnel, maintenance, and administrative functions. These services allow us to meet legal requirements and operational goals required for the district to operate effectively.

4) Maintain a Commitment to our Employees: The district strives to maintain the commitment to our employees to compensate the adequately, support their work, and retain them to the fullest extent possible. It is also critical that we focus on the importance of recruiting and retaining a high quality work force.

5) Make Decisions that are Sustainable: The district should make decisions with an understanding of their long term impact on the instructional programs for students, personnel, and essential services in the District and to avoid short term decisions that have long term consequences.

These priorities will be achieved by following a set of strategies, listed below.

Strategy 1 - The district Mission Statement will serve as the basis for all decisions.

Strategy 2 - The Board will approve a balanced budget for the 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 school years.

Strategy 3 - The Board and Superintendent will invite and receive input from a broad base of constituents.

Strategy 4 - The Board and Superintendent will work with employee organizations to resolve the fiscal challenge resulting from a deficit in excess of $8 million and to minimize the impact on students and employees.

Strategy 5 - The Board and Superintendent will strive to maintain a balance between direct services to students and operational services.

Strategy 6 - The Board and Superintendent will be guided by the 5 principles listed above to prioritize choices when allocating scarce district resources.

Guided by the priorities and following the strategies listed above, the district will make it through the challenges of the next couple years and continue to serve the children of Berryessa with distinction. Please join us at one of our community forums on the budget on Feb. 22, 24, or 25, to provide your input to the choices we face.