Budget Staffing
When looking at your charter budget, it is easy to see where the vast majority of the costs lie. In almost all cases, personnel expenses – salaries and benefits – can comprise up to 80 percent of the total annual budget; with 62- 67 percent allotted for salaries and 15- 22 percent going towards benefits.
This presents immediate and obvious difficulties for administrators and finance personnel who must weigh the interests of students and teachers alike against the ever-changing funding challenges that charters face every budget year. Since offering a high-quality education is the top objective of any charter, disrupting the dynamic between teachers and students should be avoided as much as possible.
Employee Payroll and Benefits
When attempting to construct an annual staffing budget, employee payroll and benefits cannot escape scrutiny. However, it is vital to avoid a slash-and-burn mentality when making cuts in these areas. Before deciding to eliminate any positions, make sure all your resources – including your staff – are being utilized in the most efficient and effective manner possible. Instead of immediately resorting to layoffs or freezes, take a long, careful look at how well your charter is performing. A charter must gauge whether a staffing reduction makes sense from both a budgetary and operational standpoint. One significant factor of a staffing budget is that it is designed to provide an equitable distribution of available personnel staff for the charter in accordance with the District and Campus Improvement Plans.
Salary Schedule
Another significant factor is a charter’s salary schedule. Most charters will determine the salary level for their teachers and the majority of other employees based on a schedule that includes “steps” for years of service in the charter. It is at the discretion of the charter whether to honor previous experience when placing employees on the scale. Staff seniority usually has the greatest influence on average salaries and thus on the percentage of the budget that is spent for personnel. In general, the base salary of most senior teachers is about twice as much as new teachers. The structure of the salary schedule and the amount of any salary increase has predictable multiyear cost implications.
Employee Benefits
Another significant cost is employee benefits including paid vacations and holidays, sick leave, health care, life insurance, and retirement plans. Controlling the cost of benefits can be crucial for a charter’s financial health. Many charters use a benefits cap for this purpose, agreeing in the employee letter of agreement to pay a set maximum per employee.
There is good news in all of this, however. Innovative staffing strategies can minimize the impact to student learning while keeping your fiscal goals within reach. By implementing a staffing analysis to the budget process and by streamlining your staffing you can control budget costs and keep the focus on your students and the high level of education your charter provides.
Want to learn more?
To obtain more in depth information on budget staffing and some of the techniques outlined here, please feel free to register for our online webinar Budget Staffing online course here.
Need some assistance? Reach out!
- Email CFO Jackie Hernandez: jhernandez@charterschoolsuccess.com