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Four Funds For Budgeting

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Budgetary Funds The district budget is comprised of four major funds to categorize revenues and expenditures. Categorizing items into funds facilitates the budgetary process by grouping revenues and expenditures to compare expenses and make adjustments to meet educational goals as needed. The four funds for budgeting are the General Fund, Special Revenue Fund, Capital fund, and the Debt Fund. According to Hartman (2003), each fund contains different revenues and expenses (pp. 18-25).The General Funds includes funding from the federal, state, and local governments. Examples of revenues and expenditures from this fund are taxes, interest on investments, salaries, and instructional costs. The Special Revenue Fund is monies allotted for specific …show more content…

Sorenson & Goldsmith (2013) recommend that “key personnel should be bonded prior to collecting, accounting for, and depositing funds (p. 128). Furthermore, the administrator should view fiscal documents regularly, never sign blank checks, and conduct on-the-spot audits. In the words of former President Reagan, “Trust, but verify” (Sorenson & Goldsmith, p. 129). Hartman (2003) advises that the principal create a budget calendar and specify responsible personnel, the activity, and the date (p. 56). This step will provide the administrator with a quick reference so deadlines are not missed which could cause loss of funding for the school from competitive …show more content…

If a principal maintains accurate records through good record keeping, and there is an internal or external audit, everything will be in order. Impropriety can ruin an administrator’s career and break the trust within the community for managing public funds. Sorenson & Goldsmith (2013) provided an excellent example of an accounting clerk that was embezzling money which resulted in a conviction (p.18). Cases like this bring about suspicion from the public regarding the security of their tax dollars. In my district, the BEA Union treasurer, embezzled $20,000 before he was caught (http://www.app.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2014/11/14/barnegat-teacher-union-theft/19035139/ ). As a result, the union members have lost confidence in our leadership for lack of checks and balances. A proper budget template is necessary to demonstrate to the public how their tax dollars are being utilized and educate them in the budget process (see Table 2 for elements of a proper budget

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