MASC/MASS 19: Transparency: The New Normal

DeLai: you can do more with less but you're not going to get that less unless you improve transparency

Ready for presentation at @massupt @MASCSchoolComm joint conference on Fiscal Transparency with @DRG_mdelai and @MASBONet. Great crowd! #MASSMASC19 pic.twitter.com/mx3ivyOMw7

— Brian E. Allen (@Brian_E_Allen) November 6, 2019

comes not just from ESSA, but the increased public attention to awareness and attention
lack of equity, funding, understanding, communication, and trust
Allen: no secret sauce
things you're doing already and could do better

• ensure a highly participatory budget process
• make budget information accessible to all
• connect dollars to strategic outcomes

how are you developing and communicating a budget calendar:

when it starts, what are the steps within the process, so the public might know when to engage

 "budget process is a full 12 month process"

DeLai: educating constituents:

many factors people aren't thinking about

School Budget 101 in Brookline: not only budget process but the municipal finance law

complicated accounting aspects: governmental accounting is different

personnel law, collective bargaining agreements, enrollments

what is the role of the principals in the process? where are the feedback loops to central administration?

Allen: involve all stakeholders: "an honest look at how school committee members are involved in the process"

municipal side, principals, school site councils, staff, parents and families, students

"hard to ignore...codified right in Mass General Law what the role of the school committee is"

"obviously school committee has a community interest mind in the school committee" but also has the legal authority

principals engagement in finance: principals roles are trusted within a community

site council: MGL Ch. 71 sec 59C role is codified 

transparency "probably is the most misused word in school finance"

keeping staff informed; how to share information to the broader audience

involving students; "they're the most direct consumer of our product"

DeLai: make information accessible

doesn't mean only putting it on their website: "I am always surprised by how many districts don't have the budget document right on their website"

have to recognize that not everyone consumes information in the same way

how we use social media in sharing information with community

how you present the information: there are more people who cannot digest 40 pages of spreadsheets

informative infographics

governmental fund accounting: not all money comes from local sources

so where does it come from?

Allen: connecting budget to strategic initiatives

"those documents aren't supposed to live separately from one another"

"if you're making your decisions directly on your improvement plans...then that issue of lack of understanding, lack of equity, lack of trust can be countered...because you're tying it back to" the plans

Smart School Budgeting Tootkit: a wealth of resources, as a resource

DeLai: innovative ways in which information

huge lack of hands raised when asked how many districts are having school committee setting goals in allocating resources

in other words, barely anyone is doing that

"I'm a big fan of lively discussion, as long as it's respectful"

"if you aren't having that conversation in August [around calendar]" it's too late

Frequent financial reporting

"somebody somewhere said you have that detailed a role in the process"

best practice is on a monthly basis is reporting 'here's what we budgeted, here's what we've spent, here's what's left to be spent

report once a quarter should include best projected remainder of spending

"if you're finding out that you have an $8000 special education issue in May" you're going to be have an issue with transparency

"I love it when a district spends out its grant resources in the year"

monitor fee usage

Colorado in 2017 passed Financial Transparency Act requiring page on which information is shared

Citizen Transparency from Tyler (which makes MUNIS)

then someone raises Clear.gov

data dashboards: "you don't have to spend a lot of money to do a dashboard"

district data managers can do this

Google Data Suite being used

"you don't just want to share expenditures; you want to share outcomes"

talk about return on investment

This is our strategic goal, this is what we spent on it, this is the outcome

"we don't always get exactly what we wanted"

"if we do this then we believe we will get that"

what data is driving decision making? what information do you have to get out?
HOW do you get there? (it will take longer)
Q: how do you communicate the trade off of the level funded budget?
"be honest about it"
"you should take the lead in that; there are negative consequences to the decisions we're making"
"telling that story"
"presenting as a problem that we're trying to solve is..."
"there's a consequence to every decision that we make" and if there's a trade-off that we make, we make that clear
Q: I was on a site council "and we never saw the building budget"
superintendent engaging with the principals on the importance of engaging to the site councils
"through training"
and setting as a priority to the principals via administration
"you have to start early enough" as the law says site council is to meet in September
site council role is to set high level budget goals and funneling that information into the budget process