U-46 to make budget more transparent

Aiming to increase transparency, Elgin Area School District U-46 has outlined a new budget format to be used next fiscal year.

"The budget we have used up to this point really doesn't tell you much about what happens below the program level," Chief Financial Officer John Prince told the board this week.

He called the new system "more user-friendly and functional."

The new format, modeled after the budget for North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, will have four components.

The first section, an executive summary, contains broad information on major new initiatives and program expansions, along with general district information, like demographics, Prince said.

The next section, the comprehensive annual budget by fund, would outline expenditures and revenue by program and fund, letting taxpayers see how much money is going into the education, transportation and operations and maintenance funds, compared with the prior five years.

Another chapter breaks down the budgets for each of U-46's 53 schools. The final section will break down budgets by program.

In the new format, Prince said, department budgets will be "zero based," not subtracting from a certain amount of funds, but building up.

"This means the department essentially starts with almost a clean sheet of paper," Prince said. "-They have to indicate if they're going to expand a particular program, cost it out, and build justification for a particular budget."

The budget will be posted on line.

Superintendent Jose Torres told the board that he's familiar with the budget format from his work at Maryland's Anne Arundel County school district.

"In a sense it's not just trying to count nickels and dimes, but trying to tell a story about improvement, direction, policy. It becomes a communications publication," Torres said.

Fiscal year 2010 begins July 1.