Dallas ISD 2010-2011 budget to include series of town hall meetings

Wow, "2011" looks weird.

The Dallas Independent School District will get an earlier start on budget planning, thanks to the board of trustees' approval of the 2010-2011 budget development calendar. The board voted during its monthly meeting to approve the calendar, which also allows for a series of informative town hall meetings.

The new calendar calls for school board trustees to adopt districtwide staffing formulas at the October board meeting and for the executive team to set budget priorities and initiatives in November. Traditionally, Dallas ISD waited until early spring to begin these initial stages of budget development.

“Certainly, starting the budget process earlier has a number of obvious advantages,” said Executive Chief Financial Officer Larry Throm. “We want to ensure that there is ample time to fully analyze all the necessary data, refine student projections and apply student/teacher ratio formulas, so that we can adequately prepare, in the most cost effective way, to support the goals of the district.”

According to the budget development calendar, town hall meetings could start as early as May 2010.

Source: DISD