I just tried to get an electronic version of the 700 page budget for the Lake County School District. The District only has an absurd, confusing 21 page summary on the website. I was told the detailed budget was not available in electronic file format, but I could pay about $105 to get a printed copy. It is time they put ALL detailed budget documents on the website, including interim working versions. In contrast, the Lake County Board provides their detailed 400 page budget on their website, and the School District Finance Office needs to do the same.
Here is a link to the only budget provided by the School District, which is a confusing, "required State format" report of
I have worked for several large firms that always used print to file software (even from mainframe computers) to produce electronic printed versions of large computer reports. These days, most operating systems have print to pdf drivers to create electronic versions of computer reports, and the School District needs to start using them.
For instance, HERE is the Palo Alto, California 418 page budget in 27 mb pdf format.
HERE is the Chicago Public Schools GUIDE to understanding the budget, and
HERE is the Chicago Public Schools 435 page 2010-2011 Budget in pdf format
Chicago has a great format with clear overviews of programs, etc. in the front section, but clearly they aren't providing full details on all their budgeted items for their large system, BUT they have specific, measurable metrics (key performance Indicators aka KPI's) for each program.
HERE is the 169 Final Budget for Lee County, FL which doesn't have many metrics and is mostly financial in nature, so I don't consider it very usefull to see how resources were used to achieve program objectives. But, 169 pages is better than 21 without a cover page.
BREVARD county, Florida's School District flubbed this test - they provided an 89 page pdf of their budget, but they printed it SIDEWAYS so it was extremely hard to read. See what we mean HERE. There is no excuse for doing that, when they could have printed it in landscape mode rather than portrait mode. They did the same sideways printing for a cost center version of the budget and did not provide any narrative at the beginning.
OSCEOLA County also provided a pdf, but it mixed landscape and portrait views of pages, making reading very difficult. They also did not include any narratives or performance metrics, thus it appears that Florida School Districts don't seem to care about budget transparency details or ensuring the public can understand where their money is being spent.
I also noticed not only that many other counties posted detailed pdf budget files, but they had videos of Board presentations, citizen guides, and videos of Budget overviews for the public and for the employees created by the Superintendent (Brevard County).
Recommendations:
- The Lake County School District provide DETAILED budgets in consistent, readable landscape mode in pdf format.
- LCSD should provide narratives at the front to clearly explain how the budget works, the various formats, and include measurable, resource based, time certain performance metrics for every program, and department.
vj
