challenge is for boards to steer between rubber-stamping and micromanaging, to keep a strategic focus and to ask smart questions. At the highest level, boards should evaluate budgets according to the school’s mission and strategic priorities. Does the budget tell the story of the kind of school we aspire to be? Budget lines such as teacher salary and benefits, financial aid, professional development, technology, and capital expenditures all provide evidence. Assuming the board has created a strategic plan, the budget is the primary document indicating the school’s commitment to the plan and progress in actualizing it. Budgets are an equivalent of medical reports, readouts showing the state of a school’s financial well-being. Like an EKG, they need to be scanned to ascertain that the school functions according to expected norms. Is the budget balanced? Does tuition cover the majority of expenses (with a goal greater than 75%)? Is fundraising hitting development targets? Allocations need to be reviewed, especially by the committee charged with initial oversight. Boards also need to plan beyond the current annual budget, aiming for a strong endowment and for cash reserves. An additional level for evaluating the school’s health is to look for trends. Boards should compare the current budget with those from the recent past to understand the school’s situation in context. Where is tuition revenue today in comparison to previous years, factoring in enrollment, fees, and assistance? Where have allocations shifted? Take a look at the school’s programs: do the older ones still represent the school’s priorities? Are the new initiatives being funded to the level needed for success? Finally, index your school’s finances against the larger field of Jewish and independent schools using DASL to help determine your benchmarks and your success in meeting them.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash |
