Title of Assignment: The Operating Budget

Name of Student: Michael Kesselly

Name of Professor: Dr. Joseph Kelleh

Course Title: PAD 505 Budgeting and Finance

Date : July 27, 2014

Introduction
Formerly known as the State Education Office (SEO), the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) serves as the District of Columbia’s State Education Agency (SEA) which aims at enhancing educational services and opportunities to meet the life-long learning needs of all District residents by ensuring equitable distribution and availability of administrative, financial, and nutrition resources.
The mission of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) is to remove barriers and create pathways for District residents to receive a great education and prepare them for success in college, careers, and life.
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) plays many roles in the lives of children, teens, and adults seeking an education in the District of Columbia. The agency sets statewide policies, provides resources and support, and exercises accountability for all public education in DC. DC children and families are guaranteed to receive annual access to well-balanced meals by providing federal reimbursements, training and nutrition education to program participants. Special needs for transportation to school by District children is also provided.
OSSE administers programs make a budget programs up to $10,000 in order to fund adult literacy education and college tuition, which is likely to pay the college tuition for any qualified applicant living in the District.
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education operates the following 10 divisions: Office of the Director, General Education Tuition, Office of the Chief Operating Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Post-Secondary Education and Workforce Readiness, Office of Early Childhood Education, Office of Special Education, State Board of Education, Agency Financial Operations. (Office of the State Superintendent of Education Website)
Budget Overview
IN OSSE, Agency Financial Operations division is in charge of providing comprehensive and efficient financial management services to, and on behalf of, District agencies so that the financial integrity of the District of Columbia is maintained. This division is standard for all agencies using performance-based budgeting. Basically, OSSE manages and distributes federal funding to education providers and exercises oversight responsibility over federal education programs and related grants.
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education’s (OSSE) proposed FY 2013 gross budget is $430,760,598, which represents a 9.2 percent increase over its FY 2012 approved gross budget of $394,389,907. The proposed budget is comprised of $95,740,271 in Local funds, $4,266,000 in Dedicated Taxes, $58,500,150 in Federal Payments, $228,410,589 in Federal Grant Funds, $5,810,043 in Special Purpose Revenue funds, and $38,033,545 in Intra-District funds. (FY 2013 plan, p.g D37)
OSSE capital program includes the Statewide Longitudinal Education Data System (SLED), and the Special Education Data System (SEDS). SLED is a project to create a data warehouse populated with information extracted from disparate enterprise educational systems into a single compressive relational database. The SEDS is a comprehensive data system designed to support high quality, seamless service delivery for children with disabilities within the District. The SEDS supports the goal of optimizing the ability to track the District of Columbia’s delivery of special education services to all students. (Public Education System, 2012)
Cost Analysis
Based on Table GD0-4 - FY 2013 proposed Budget and Financial plan of OSSE, the proposed table classified by division and activity compared to the FY 2012 approved budget is shown as separate cost programs listing.
Variable costs are expenses that change in proportion to the activity of the agency. All expenses used for Education function are considered variable cost such as Budgets for following divisions: Elementary and Secondary Education, Post Sec Education and Workforce Readiness, Early Childhood Education, Special Education, State Board of Education.
Otherwise, fixed-costs could be found at all Operating and Administrating Divisions because they do not likely depend on changes from agency activities. They influence on how OSSE do operate. It is easily seen in expenses for Agency Financial Operations, Educational Facilities and Partnerships, Superintendent Office, Teaching and Learning.
Step fix cost, companies that must produce more products than they can with their current configuration incur step costs from expansion. For example, a company that produces computer monitors might have the machinery, production staff and work space to make 5,000 monitors per year. If the company receives a contract to produce 10,000 monitors per year for five years for a major retail company, the company will incur step costs to meet the production load. In this case, the additional machinery, personnel and production space may total an additional $1 million per year. This $1 million is considered a step cost.

Budget Challenges
Today, public school districts throughout the United States face enormous challenges related to Federal sequestration. Federal, state and local school mandates have created pressure to perform, while rising costs, budget cuts and declining revenue make it difficult for schools to meet the expectations and needs of the children and communities they serve. In these challenge times, OSSE need a professional budget analyst experienced in redesigning and modernizing financial budget so that the agency could confront with monetary challenges and ensure education needs for student outcomes.
The mission of Special Education Transportation, also known as the Office of the State Superintendent of Education Division of Student Transportation is to maintain a safe and reliable fleet of student transportation vehicles meanwhile implementing saving policy due to global economic downturn trend.
Budget Recommendations
Regarding educational quality, the agency should create a transparent and responsive communications system focusing on providing accessibility to critical data, introducing new formats for interaction with staff leadership and developing multiple ways to help internal and external stakeholders better understand OSSE’s key issues. In order to achieve that, OSSE should invest budget to establish programs keeping staff, stakeholders and parents updating the agency’s initiatives. For example, holding OSSE All-Staff meetings to ensure all employees catching up with the District education policy and agency issues; Producing monthly electronic broadcast messages to stakeholders in the form of a video, podcast, conference call, or webinar; hosting two public open-house events which will answer questions from stakeholders and parents from agency senior staff members. (David Catania, 2012)
It should be a plan to provide leadership development via trainings for OSSE leaders and managers to drive continuous improvement in performance. Accordingly, a training center should be established for all OSSE employees to gain their leadership or management skills to contribute to their professional development. A variety of grants management trainings taught by agency staff as well as standard HR related trainings are subject to offered.
According to FY 2012 and 2013 statistic, The Current Services Funding Level (CSFL) is a Local funds ONLY representation of the true cost of operating District agencies, before consideration of policy decisions. OSSE’s FY 2013 CSFL budget is $91,420,614, which represents a $564,681, or 0.6 percent, increase over the FY 2012 approved Local funds budget of $90,855,933. The CSFL reflects changes from the FY 2012 approved budget across multiple programs, and it estimates how much it would cost the agency to continue its current programs and operations into the following fiscal year. The initial adjustments in the budget proposal represent changes that should be compared to the FY 2013 CSFL budget and not necessarily changes made to the FY 2012 Local funds budget. (FY 2013 plan, p.g D37)
In the OSSE Federal Grant funds budget, the Elementary and Secondary Education division has the largest proportion of budget due to the realignment of these funds to the appropriate division. The agency proposes increases in this division as follows: $60,485,478 in Subsidies and Transfers, which includes anticipated available unspent, unobligated grant funds from fiscal year 2012 and formula grant funds awarded in fiscal year 2013.

References
Office of the State Superintendent of Education Website (2013). Retrieved May 02, 2013 from: http://osse.dc.gov/
FY 2013 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan, Table GD0-4; pg D37. District of Columbia Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Retrieved May 02, 2013 from: http://cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ocfo/publication/attachments/ocfo_gd_osse_chapter_0.pdf
Public Education System, GD0 Capital Budget 2013 (October 31,2012). District of Columbia Office of the Chief Financial Officer. Retrieved May 02, 2013 from: http://cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ocfo/publication/attachments/ocfo_gd_osse_capital_0.pdf
David Catania (2012). OSSE FY14 Proposed budget oversight questions. Council of the District of Columbia
Committee Education. Retrieved May 02, 2013 from: http://www.dccouncil.us/files/user_uploads/budget_responses/FY14_Proposed_Budget_Hearing_Questions.pdf