Survival in a Down Economy: A Budget Reduction Process for Superintendents

In Survival in a Down Economy: A Budget Reduction Process for Superintendents, Gene Davis and Jack Coffland combine their experiences as school district leaders and as university professors to identify numerous elements of effective leadership that apply to budget building. Complete with examples of helpful worksheets, the authors explore sound policy-development and board-relationship strategies that are useful, regardless of economic conditions. Davis and Coffland thoughtfully suggest how superintendents can adapt processes and strategies to small, midsize or large school systems. Their work is based on a strong orientation toward shared decision making when resolving complex, difficult budget choices.

School district administrator Davis and educator and author Coffland have written a manual to help school district superintendents work with budget shortfalls and other financial challenges. A combination of text and worksheets, the book focuses on reducing budgets to match revenues and outlines how that task should be approached and the guiding principles for budget reduction recommendations.

School financing operations are challenging across the country. This manual has wisdom for leadership that is required to manage school resources and to improve student achievement-at the same time, balancing fiscal resources and accountability. As a chief financial officer, the advice on allocating resources during tough economig times is invaluable and will be used to assist our distrct in accomplishing our educational mision.

These two authors are eminently qualified to give practical advice to school leaders. The recommendations come from a wealth of experience. I urge you to read these pages carefully and give credence to what the authors are saying. I have learned much from them and continue to marvel at their wisdom. Your time invested will be well rewarded.

This manual is an easy-to-use, practical guide, which all superintendents in any size or type of school district would find extremely helpful as they deal with complex school district revenue shortfalls. The timely realistic case studies includded of actual school funding problems superintendents face today illustrate well the six-step, district-wide process recommended.