- Lenape Regional High School District
- Financial Procedures Manual
- BUDGET DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
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The school district budget is the educational and financial plan of the school district. The budget enables the staff and administration to guide the children of the school district to meet the predetermined goals and objectives established by the staff and administration adopted by the Board of Education.
The budget document must be prepared and presented so it can be easily implemented and justified. All administration and staff have budgetary responsibilities to insure that timelines are met in compliance with district and state mandates.
The budget development procedure is designed to encourage input from all personnel employed in the district and accountability to anyone who is part of the district.
When formulating the budget for the next school year departmental needs must be established to determine justification for requests. Supervisors must communicate with all staff within their departments to obtain non-personnel items that need to be purchased to insure a quality education that meets departmental goals.
Due dates for phases of the budget process will vary from year to year, so preparing early will only help the process. After receiving the directive from the School Principal all departments should enter their budget into the accounting software called Systems 3000 following the Remote User Instructions.
After departmental and program budgets have been reviewed, the principal can perform edits to the budget using the same Remote User Instructions. The principals may seek assistance and input from the Business Administrator. The building budgets are reviewed by the Business Administrator by the end of November. The principals may utilize the supervisors to support budgetary justifications during the review process.
The Business Administrator compiles the complete district budget and prepares it for presentation to the Superintendent.
The finance committee meets with the administrative team as necessary to review the entire budget during December and to finalize the instructional portion. The entire budget for the upcoming year is presented to the board of education after the winter holiday break. Additional meeting may be scheduled if needed.
After approval by the board of education, at the public meeting, the budget is prepared and delivered to the state department of education.
The budget is then advertised and voted on by the eight sending districts for final approval to complete the budget approval process. After public approval, the supervisors review their individual department budgets and check for quantity of various budgeted item based on student enrollment. Enrollment figures are furnished by the guidance supervisors. This final count is due in the Superintendent's office by June 1st of the budgeted school year.
Budgeted materials are ordered under each supervisor's name through Educational Data Systems. Each supervisor is responsible for checking in their goods and returning their signed purchase orders to the Business Administrator for payment. This task should be completed during the budget year and after July 1st.Visit Uniform Minimum Chart of Accounts for New Jersey Public Schools for the most current version.