School budget design and implementation processes

¶ … School Budget Is Designed

The Trenton Public Schools are the New Jersey comprehensive community public school District that serves students in pre-kindergarten. In Mercer County in New Jersey, the Trenton public school consists of 16 elementary schools, two middle schools as well as the high schools. The district is one of the 31 Abbott districts in the New Jersey generally referred as "SDA Districts" based on its requirements for the state to cover the costs of renovation and school building under the general supervision of New Jersey Schools Development Authority. In accordance with the "New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C. 6A:23-2.1 et seq.)," the New Jersey school districts presents financial budget in accordance with GAPP (generally accepted accounting principles). (State of New Jersey, 2008 Pi).

Objective of this report is to present the method that Trenton Public School district in New Jersey designs its budget.

Method Trenton Public School District Designs its Budget

The budget of the New Jersey Trenton Public School district is designed in accordance with GAAP accounting protocols. GAAP is a common set of accounting standards, principles and procedures that organizations use to compile and present their financial statements. In the United States, GAAP set the common accepted guidelines that organizations use to compile and record their accounting information. Under the New Jersey Administrative Code, each district maintains a uniform financial recording, which is consistence with GAAP accounting system. (Ernest & Young, 2012).The Trenton Public School district's classification of accounts and financial reporting structure are in accordance with GAAP, and the Trenton Public school district accounting classifications are as follows:

Funds,

Expenditure,

Revenue,

Program and Project/Report,

Balance Sheet accounts,

Miscellaneous Accounts and,

County Vocational & Special Services School District Accounts. (State of New Jersey, 2008).

The dimension of the school district accounting classification is presented in the table below.

Revenues

Expenditures

Balance Sheet

Fund

Revenue,

Program and Project / Report,

Location

Fund

Program & Project/Reporting

Function

Object

Location

Fund

Balance Sheet Account

The coding financial structures of the accounting applicable to each dimension are shown in the table below.

Revenues

Fund

Revenue Source

Program and Project/Reporting

Location

xxx xxx xxx

Expenditure

Fund

Program and Project/Reporting

Function

Object

Location

xxx xxx xxxx xxx

Balance Sheet

Fund

Balance Sheet Account

xxx xxx

The summary of the School district budgeted for the 2013 fiscal year is presented below.

Mersey County 2013 School District Budget

Revenue

Local Funding

$901,000

State Funding

$7, 789,000

Federal Funding

$1, 090,000

Total District Funding

$9,780,000

Expenditure

Salaries Expense

$4,495,000

Employee Benefits Expense

$1,501,000

Capital Outlay Expense

$172,000

Non-Elementary and Secondary Expense

$0

Total District Expenditure

$9,040,000

Percentages of the school district revenue sources for the 2011-2012 budget is as follows.

Revenue Sources, State: 86.5%

Revenue Sources, Local Taxes: 7.5%

Revenue Sources, Federal: 6%

Revenue Sources, Tuition: 0%

Revenue Sources, Use of Fund Balance: 0%

Revenue Sources, Other: 0%

2. Superintendent's and School Board's Responsibilities for Building a Budget

The budget for the school district is based upon the goals and policies of the Board, which is developed by the Superintendent .The superintendent and school board in accordance with the New Jersey law must prescribe a uniform double-entry system of bookkeeping for the Trenton school district. Typically, school board and superintendents are to implement ethical accounting practice for the school district, and they must ensure that the budgeting system is in accordance with the GAAP protocol. Moreover, all funds must be verified properly before they are dispersed, and Superintendents have special functions to oversee that precise records are kept to maintain proper bookkeeping. The primary role of school board and superintendents are to maintain a healthy school budget. A superintendent should always figure out how to spend money, and when it comes to school accounting, superintendents should oversee the budget of all districts. Typically, superintendents could reject certain segment of school's expenditure that is not in accordance with the law. Moreover, superintendents can also veto budgets if the budget includes unwarranted non-instructional costs, and superintendents must approve all aspects of budget before it is made public.

More importantly, it is the responsibility of the executive county superintendent to review and approve the budget before it is made public. The review will include the verification to ensure that the budget should be able to deliver the skills and knowledge to all students and students should be able to derive CCSS (Common Core State Standards) and NJCCC (New Jersey's Core Curriculum Content Standards) from the base budget.

The superintendents have the authority to alter the proposed revenue and expenditure that are deemed unsuitable or inappropriate.

"Failure of any district to budget funds to meet statutory requirements is a very serious matter and will result in the executive county superintendent rejection of the budget. The district will be advised of any lack of budget approval with specific recommendations on necessary corrective revisions." (New Jersey Department of Education 2013, P 14).

3. Key Budget Terminology

There are numerous terminologies with regard to the school district budget. The most important budget terminologies are

Revenue

The revenue is the money received by the school district within an accounting year. A fund is part of the revenue and there are four sources of revenue for the school district and this include:

Local source,

Intermediate source, state, and Federal sources.

Expenditures

Expenditures are the expenses that the school district must fulfill within an accounting year. Part of the school district expenditures are the payment of teachers' salary, and travel expenses for the school staff

Balance Sheet

Balance sheet reveals the total assets and the total liabilities in the budget. The assets consist of current assets and fixed assets. The current assets are the assets that the school district could turn into cash within one year while the fixed assets are the assets that the school district could turn into cash after one year. The liabilities are the obligations that the school district must settle, and the current liabilities are to be settled within one year while the long-term liabilities should be settled after one year.

4. How the funds in the budget are balanced and coordinated

The funds in the budget are balanced by ensuring that the revenue are equal the expenditure. To prepare the budget, the school district receives revenue from the local source, which includes tax levy, interest and miscellaneous income. The school district also receives revenue from the state source, and the state source revenue includes Preschool Education Aid (PEA), and Debt Service Aid. The federal source includes Special Education Medicaid Initiative (SEMI) and IMPACT. As being revealed in the Mercer County 2013 School District Budget, the local fund is $901,000, state fund is $7,789,000 and federal fund is $1,090,000 making the total revenue equal to $9,780,000.

Mersey County 2013 School District Budget

Revenue

Local Funding

$901,000

State Funding

$7,789,000

Federal Funding

$1,090,000

Total District Funding

$9,780,000

Expenditure

Salaries Expense

$4,495,000

Employee Benefits Expense

$1,501,000

Capital Outlay Expense

$172,000

Non-Elementary and Secondary Expense

$0

Total District Expenditure

$9,040,000

There is also expenditure in the school district budget, which reveals the expenses that will be carried out within the accounting year. The expenditure for the 2013 fiscal year is as follows: