School Budget Process Moving Along in Early Stages

Even with the most recently completed budget process still fresh in the minds of the members of the Howell , preparations are already in the works for next year's budget.

During last week's board meeting, questions were asked about the status of the budget even in these very early stages. Board Secretary Ron Sanasac said he is expecting the board to continue its trend of flat tax levy's, though that could change depending on the level of state aid the district receives.  

Board President Tim O'Brien asked Sanasac if even without the state aid numbers if a preliminary budget could be presented to the board as the process moves along. Much like O'Brien is in his first year as the president, board member John Van Noy is in his first year on the board and his first leading the finance committee. 

Van Noy said he would prefer to have the committee complete its work and have the numbers in place before it was reviewed as the numbers could be subject to change. "I would have a problem with that even though Mr. Sanasac is quite capable and astute in providing data based on the information he has currently," he said. 

Even in these early stages, Van Noy said his committee is being deliberate to gain as much information as possible to help assemble the final budget. "We are interviewing different groups so they can tell us what their projections are for this year," he said. "We have some targets that we're requesting certain groups to try and meet."

Van Noy added that in addition to his committee's role in assembling the budget being important, it was also important how they do it. "I think it's essential that we be transparent and that we don't get in a situation where the public that we're trying to serve with their students all of a sudden says there's one person that's creating our budget and that's what's happening."

O'Brien said he agreed with the transparency but was curious whether the timing of the process could be moved up or what would stop that from happening. "I'm just curious how far along [we are], have we gotten all the numbers crunched to your satisfaction yet? Or do we still need a couple of months to get our operating budget?" he said. 

He asked what the "big variable," was that still needed to be determined and Sanasac reported that it was the always important state aid number. "We are collecting data. We're looking at that as it's presented as each component to the finance committe," he said

Sanasac added that while no numbers are yet known how much money the district will get from Trenton, he has no reason at this point to believe that there will not be any money coming their way. "We're shooting at that target," he said. 

While the district waits for those numbers, Van Noy said his committee will stick to the schedule it laid out for itself with the goal being to get as complete of a budget as possible. "Everything has been transparent and open and I would hate to derail that for the sake of, we use this word efficiency so often, for the sake of that, that we miss something."

As the process continues, Van Noy said he was confident his committee would do the job they are assigned to do in conjunction with members of the administration including Sanasac and his staff. "It involves a lot of input," he said. "It involves input from finance committee board members and citizen committee members who may want to also offer input. It requires analysis and thought and once it's done it's something that we can stand by and not say oh, it was just created by one person. It was created by a committee, hopefully for you folks to review and decide on what you would like to do."

The finance committee was scheduled to meet again tonight at 7 p.m. at the board of education offices. The other board members of the committee are Al Miller and Jeanette Smith

During the most recent elections for the board, the proposed budget for the current school year was  with a flat tax levywhen Van Noy, Miller and Dr. Stephen M. Levine were elected.