Big Lake Schools |
We want to hear from you, our community members. We need your help to meet the objective of our budgeting process, which is the optimal use of resources, while gaining the support of all stakeholders, to help us become the school we want to become. As part of our annual budgeting process, we are soliciting your ideas and thoughts about what you want our schools to look like, how to best set our budgeting priorities and ideas you may have to improve efficiencies. We also welcome the opportunity to clarify how we budget and how the district ensures your money is spent wisely. Last year in order to balance our budget, we undertook a comprehensive review of all District expenditures in collaboration with community members, staff and administration. The resulting budget was a reduction of over $2 million in operating expenses that included cuts in all areas of District operations. (This is on top of the significant operating cuts made the past 2 years.) The intent of the cuts was to minimize the impact to our students but there was still an impact since class sizes did increase, fees for activities did rise and other services were reduced. As we establish the budget this year, we will continue to look for additional ways to improve efficiency and welcome your involvement. Although our financial constraints continue to grow, we realize that our schools belong to the community and that we all need to work together to ensure our District meets the needs of our children. Please review the 2009-2010 budgeting process and the role you have in this process. Also, please review the details on our current budget and the current costs we incur to run the District. Please provide us your feedback. On the Budget Input page, you can share with us what you want our schools to look like, how you want us to set our budgeting priorities and ideas you may have to improve efficiencies. Please note that all recommendations will be considered but may not be responded to individually. Thank you for your involvement. |