Week 3 Assignment, Part 4

The sources of funding in Copperas Cove ISD include Local, State and Federal. The 2011-12 budget, approved August 30, 2011, totaled $77,623,281. The funds were allocated for the following areas: instruction, instructional resources, staff development, school leadership, guidance and counseling, social work services, health services, student transportation, food service, co-curricular activities, general administration, plant maintenance, security services, data processing services, community services, debt services, facility construction and other governmental expenditures. Maintenance and Operations assumes $73 million dollars and Interest and the Sinking Fund assumes $4.5 million dollars. Instruction, instructional support, central administration compose 72% of the district budget. Operations, construction and debt make up the remaining 28% of the budget. As a property poor school district with very limited industry from which to generate revenue, CCISD receives additional funds from the federal government. These funds help to offset the lack of axes generally generated from local industry that are absent in our community because it is primarily composed of military families. These funds make it possible for our district to provide a quality education to our students. Without these funds we would be in a situation similar to District 1 that we have been studying this week. This last year, as compared to the prior year's budget, teacher salaries and debt payments increased. The debt increase was part of the debt repayment plan from the last bond election. Allocations and expenditures are tightly governed. As a manager of a budget, once a budget is approved it is expected that it is adhered to with exceptions being few and far between. The superintendent and the school board have made it clear that budgets should be built to address identified needs through activities, strategies and materials noted in the organizational improvement plans. And so any request to move allocated funds to make a different expenditure other than one that has been thoroughly filtered and previously requested to meet a specific need is rare. In this sense, the existing budgets are goal-driven and the procedures for reallocating budgeted funds protect the intended expenditures and allotments of the budget.