What Does a School Board Actually Ask Before Approving Next Year's Budget?

Experienced Boards tend to come back to the same eight questions, which cover those five themes. Each one tests a different part of how the budget was built:

The bottom line is the result of the budget, while the assumptions are the cause. A modest surplus can rest on an optimistic enrolment figure, and a deficit can be a deliberate decision to invest. Looking only at the total can't tell the two apart.

Questions about assumptions are not a criticism of the finance team. They are the way a Board shows that it has understood the budget it is being asked to approve, which is exactly what the role requires.

Fee income is usually the school's largest source of revenue, so it is the first place to test. Ask for enrolment by year level, and for the assumptions behind it: how many current students are expected to return, how many new students are expected, and what that is based on.

Then ask how sensitive the result is. In a simple example, ten fewer students in a senior year group at an annual fee of 18,000 reduces gross tuition by 180,000, before any change to staffing. Also ask what the planned fee increase means for families, and whether discounts and bursaries have been allowed for.

Staffing cost depends on enrolment, class numbers and the wage assumption, so ask how all three were set. A new class can add a teacher at a particular enrolment level, so costs move in steps rather than smoothly.

It also helps to ask which increases are one-off and which will recur. A one-off cost is a decision for this year, while a recurring cost becomes part of the base for every year after.

A budget can balance for the year and still leave the school short of cash at certain points, especially around when fees arrive and when large payments fall due. Ask to see the cash position through the year, including the lowest point.

Ask what capital projects are included and how they are funded, and whether the operating result is large enough to cover depreciation and contribute to reserves under the Board's own policy. This is where a modest surplus on paper can turn out to be a real shortfall.

The most useful risk question is simple: what would have to be true for this budget to miss? A good answer names the two or three assumptions that matter most, shows what happens if they come in lower, and says what the school would do about it.

Ask whether a cautious scenario has been tested, such as lower re-enrolment or fewer new students. Also ask what would trigger a reforecast, and when the Board will see one, so that surprises become conversations rather than shocks.

Because the answers can be hard to produce quickly. The assumptions behind a budget often sit in separate workbooks, and answering a question like "what if enrolment is lower?" can mean recalculating revenue, staffing and the result by hand. By the time the paper reaches the Board, there may be little time left for questions.

None of this reflects a lack of skill in the finance team. They are usually doing careful work with the tools they have. The strain comes from the structure, where the assumptions and the results live in different places.

You don't need new tools to get a better conversation. These habits help, and they are the thinking behind the checklist at the end of this post:

1. Put the key assumptions on one page: enrolment, fee increase, wage assumption and the main risks, in plain language.
2. Show last year's actual results next to the budget: so the comparison is with what really happened.
3. Include a cautious scenario: so the Board can see how the result changes if assumptions come in lower.
4. Explain material changes in plain language: a short sentence beside each large movement.
5. Share the paper early and agree a window for questions: so answers can be prepared before the meeting.

Imagine a Board paper where the assumptions are live. When a committee member asks what happens if enrolment is lower, the finance team changes one number and shows the effect on revenue, staffing and the result, in the same meeting or the same day. The explanation behind each large movement is already attached to the number.

That's what PULSE, Feoda's planning, budgeting, forecasting and reporting platform built for schools, is designed to support. Assumptions and scenarios sit in one model, so a change flows through, and it works alongside the school's finance system. Existing workbooks can be the starting point, and the finance team stays in charge of the numbers and the story.

The Board's job doesn't change. The difference is that the answers arrive with numbers behind them, so more of the meeting goes into judgement and less into waiting for a recalculation.