Monthly Archives: October 2017


Setting Funding Priorities: What Does It Mean and How to Get It Done

As the year of 2017 is winding down, many districts will soon be or have been engaged in budget discussions for the 18-19 school year. One phrase that people will hear and probably use a lot is “funding priorities”. In this article, I discuss several confusions around funding priorities and lay out a path to successfully setting funding priorities that lead to strong budget decisions. FUNDING PRIORITIES What they are At the core of funding priorities are areas on which investment should be focused, such as equity, arts and music, culture and climate, and so on. This core should to […]


CBB Year 2 Report

Cycle-based Budgeting Year 2 Report is added to the CBB Toolkit. This report documents the second year implementing Cycle-based Budgeting at Jefferson County Public Schools (Louisville, KY). In addition to aligning another $24.3 million new spending with the district’s strategic plan, $20.3 million of existing spending was rolled into the process. Next, the challenges faced by the district to review 105 end-of-cycle programs totaling $33 million next year based on academic return on investment (A-ROI) are discussed. The report also includes an illustration of how A-ROI is defined and calculated and discussion of assumptions and issues around the formulation.