Headbangers Ball…
October 3, 2013 — pwceducationreform
I’ve been attending school board meetings for longer than I care to remember. There are meetings that you walk out of feeling all warm and fuzzy, meetings where you leave wanting to slay dragons, and meetings where you want to run screaming around the parking lot banging your head against the wall. Last night was a head banging sort of night.
The head banging worthy events began with the conversation about Zero Based Budgeting. After listening to Mr Cline’s presentation on Zero Based Budgeting I think it can be fairly stated that he’s not a fan. Not even close. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that Mr Cline appears to be of the mindset that Zero Based Budgeting is an idiotic waste of time.
I think it can also be fairly concluded that Mr Cline and his team have neither the attitude nor the aptitude necessary to lead the school division through developing a zero based budget and that the only recourse available to pursue a zero based budget is to hire external contractors, preferably under the direction of the Audit Committee as Mr Cline is so strongly opposed to zero based budgeting. Since the Internal Auditor quit last March and hasn’t been replaced, that will give the Audit Committee something to do.
Why zero based budgeting? Because it allows you to build your budget from the bottom up based on your priorities. So for a school, each teacher would build a budget for his or her classroom based on what they need to do their job effectively. Not figure out how to allocate resources based on the budget you’ve been given, but build a budget to provide you with what you need to teach your students as effectively as possible. If the school division’s priority is to ensure that no one class has