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By Nate Bowler, AASBO President-elect

‘KISWSF’ — Keeping It

Simple with School Finance

When your RCL isn’t as much as you
want it to be because your ADM is down
even though the BSL is up and you are
using your TRCL instead of your TSL, thank
goodness that you have a good BBCF. You
might even be transferring DAA to your
M&O or RCL to your UCO to help out. Or
did you determine that an IFB, RFP, or RFQ
was appropriate for your project or did you
just use JOC on a co-op? If none of these
sentences made sense to you, then this
article may be for you. If you understood
everything in these sentences, then this that you can say that it is average daily membership, but then
article is most definitely for you. be ready to explain the next question: What is membership? If
As we interact with all of our different stakeholders, there are you can avoid the acronym, however, you help to educate those
many levels of understanding of School Finance. We influence around you on the elements to school finance. Practice makes
everyone from the homeowner who wants to know why taxes are perfect. Practice in board meetings, in the office, etc. Board
going up, to fellow administrators, legislators, community business meetings are a good place to practice avoiding acronyms. You
partners, and our governing boards that are involved in our students’ never know who might show up!
lives. We need to be cognizant of our acronyms and vernacular and
try to educate when we can. Here are a few good rules of thumb INVEST
when communicating with others regarding school finance. Invest the time when you have a captive audience. If you
RECOGNIZE have someone who is interested in school finance, embrace it.
Spending just 5 – 10 minutes talking to someone, it’s one more
Try to recognize that you live in this crazy world of school person who can help advocate for education – one more person
finance every day. Most people don’t. Your average community in your corner. It may turn into 30 minutes to an hour but
member has no idea that there is a difference between embrace it. The school finance “geekdom” has plenty of room!
attendance and enrollment. Try to recognize moments that you A group of AASBO members have updated the Arizona
might be using terms that not everyone understands. In your School Finance Summary Manual. It can be downloaded from
emails or presentations, try to catch yourself and see if there are the Members Only tab on the website. This year’s manual is
any terms that you are using that will need to be explained for now enhanced with links to supporting sites and documents.
a first-time attendee to a community meeting. Have someone To access it, log into your AASBO account, click on the
who maybe isn’t in school finance every day critique it for Membership tab, and then click Members Only. This can be a
understanding. A friend or family member outside of work is a great tool.
good soundboard for this. It helps a lot! Recognize that you speak a different language. Avoid
AVOID acronyms in public meetings as much as you can, and invest
the time to educate when you have an engaged listener. Now
It’s best to avoid using acronyms as much as you can. A good when you explain the reason that your revenue is down because
habit is to avoid them in public meetings such as governing you have less enrolled students and there is some carry-over
board meetings. This will help you when you are communicating budget from last year along with the option to move funds from
with other community members as well. If you are going to use an additional pot of money, you may not get as many glazed
acronyms, be sure YOU know what they mean! It’s a good idea looks! And perhaps, people will have a better understanding of
to refresh your memory now and then with what the acronyms what you do to support the students of Arizona.
stand for in case you get asked. Make sure that you can say,
when asked, that an RFQ is a request for qualifications and an Nate Bowler can be reached at: nbowler@besd33.org or (623) 925-
IFB is an invitation for bidding. When you say ADM, make sure 33407.

6 THE EDGE | SPRING 2019