ERS worked with the Broad Center to create the Strategic CFO Guide, a leadership tool for school district financial leaders that follows up on our 2014 publication The New Education CFO with actionable best practices and exemplars. We have built out a set of additional resources from this guide–listed below–to support this work.
What to Review: Your district's current long-term financial plan; artifacts from prior planning cycles, such as board minutes and public presentations
What to Review: Your district's current strategic plan; publicly articulated priorities of board members and local elected officials
What to Review: Past budget presentations from your district, including both formal, annual presentations and any off-cycle updates; media from a past budget cycle that required reductions; media on community opinions of the last budget cycle
What to Review: Your district's current school planning process calendar; current school budget tools and templates; sample school budgets; principal survey data about satisfaction with central office supports
What to Review: Your district's current teacher contract; artifacts from the prior bargaining cycle; teacher compensation strategy documents; contracts from peer district or exemplar districts