Superintendent changes budget strategy

MANATEE COUNTY — Manatee County School District officials are hoping a new budget process will provide the public more opportunity for input while also giving Manatee County School Board members better information with which to make budgetary decisions.

Manatee Superintendent Tim McGonegal announced Oct. 21, a new budget development process for the 2012-2013 school year. The plan makes the School Board the primary information-gathering body and eliminates the Budget Review Committee, comprising community members and district employees, which has been used in years [email protected]past.

“This method will open up the process so more people can participate,” McGonegal said of the new process. “I have reviewed the methods used by Sarasota (County Public) Schools, the (University of Florida) Board of Trustees and Manatee County government. This is a hybrid of their methods.

“I’ll be contacting School Advisory Council members so they can participate, as well as taxpayer groups and business,” he said. “This new process will give the entire community a chance to provide input along the way so that many, many voices can share in these decisions.”

The district plans to promote the new budget process and solicit input from Manatee County residents through the district’s website as well as through tools such as Facebook and Twitter.

The district hosted its first of many budget workshops Oct. 31 to discuss the district’s website, defining the budget process and student enrollment trends.

A second workshop, slated for Nov. 28, will focus on the governor’s budget and its local impact on school funding.

District administrators said the new budgeting process starts budgetary discussions earlier than in years past, with a proposed budget posted to the website June 1. The plan also includes an additional public hearing and completes the budget process earlier than in previous years.

Contact Pam Eubanks at [email protected].

School board seeks input on new district boundaries
The Manatee County School Board now is seeking input on a proposal to realign School Board member district boundaries with those of Manatee County Commissioners.

The Manatee County School Board will host an open house for the public to view proposed redistricting boundaries of School Board members from 5-7 p.m. Nov. 7, in Room 203 of the School Support Center, 215 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.

Board members voted Oct. 10 to begin the redistricting process.

Superintendent Tim McGonegal said the board and county commissioners will hold a joint workshop Nov. 15 to further discuss proposed district alignments.

School district addresses class-size issues
To prevent shuffling Manatee County public school students from one school to another mid-school year, the Manatee County School Board Oct. 24 approved an option to exceed class size limits, as allowed in Florida statute.

Board officials deemed it would be impractical, educationally unsound and/or disruptive to student learning not to allow additional students in the classroom following an October student enrollment survey.
With the determination in place, Florida law allows schools to have up to three additional students per class in grades kindergarten through third grade and up to five additional students per class in grades four through 12.

School District 2012/2013 Budget Timetable
Nov. 28 — Board workshop: Governor’s budget, zero-based budgeting and overview of each division
Dec. 5 — Board workshop — Division of Business Services
Jan. 10 — Legislative session starts
Jan. 30 — Board workshop: Division of Support Services and Superintendent
Feb. 6 — Board workshop: Division of Curriculum and Instruction
March 9 — Scheduled end of legislative session
April 2 — Board workshop: Update of Legislative session, capital and general fund
April 30 — Board workshop: Superintendent recommendation on budget
May 7 — Board workshop: Budget workshop (optional)
May 8 — EdVantage Core Team meets
May 14 — Board meeting: Decision on budget
June 1 — Post proposed budget to district website
June 18 — Special public hearing on budget
June 25 — Board approval to advertise the tentative budget (consent agenda item)
July 26 — Budget advertisement runs in the newspaper
July 30 — First public hearing to adopt the tentative budget
Sept. 30 —Final public hearing to adopt the final budget