Strembitsky’s school budgeting model in use around the world

If your local principal and teachers are calling the shots on how to spend school money, it’s because of Michael Strembitsky.

Developed countries across the globe have been intrigued by Strembitsky’s idea of school-based budgeting. Time Magazine in 2003 declared it the “hottest trend” in education and decreed Edmonton public “the most imitated public school system in North America.”

It started in 1976, when a handful of Edmonton public schools tested site-based decisions. By 1979, all district principals had the power to choose how to spend their school’s money based on their needs, including how many teachers and support staff to hire.

Strembitsky believes people working on the front lines are best positioned to judge where to allocate money. With dollars following the students, he also opened Edmonton’s school boundaries, which gave parents and students more choice and prodded schools to offer more innovative and varied programs.

Although Edmonton public’s current superintendent has introduced some tweaks, such as extra pots of money for urgent needs popping up in schools, Darrel Robertson said site-based decisions are still going strong in the district. The approach empowers and engages staff, students and parents, he said.

“It is something that I hold very important in our work at Edmonton Public Schools,” Robertson said.

Today, central office staff let each school know how much provincial funding they can expect for the coming year based on projected enrolment. Once each school sets its budget in the spring, central office finance staff assemble the overall district budget to be approved by the school board.

Many Alberta school districts followed Edmonton public’s lead, including Edmonton Catholic and the Calgary Board of Education, handing over some decisionmaking power to school principals.

In 1997, Alberta Education published the School Based Decision Making Resource Guide, which was forwarded to school boards for their consideration. The ministry doesn’t prescribe which budgeting methods boards ought to use, but offered it as an option, said Larissa Liepins, press secretary to the education minister.

Although many boards report using a variation of the practice during the past 20 years, the model differs among school districts.

The Airdrie-based Rocky View School District adopted site-based budgeting about 20 years ago. It has recently returned to more central decision-making, said Darrell Couture, associate superintendent of business and operations.

Two years ago, the district removed K-8 school principals’ roles in deciding how many school staff to hire, Couture said. High school principals still have that power.

The rapidly growing school district had too many new principals who felt ill-equipped to make financial decisions, he said. Scarce resources also pushed the district to centralize some decisions, so the district could use its money as efficiently as possible, he said.

Elk Island Catholic Schools, meanwhile, began using the sitebased model three years ago.

Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools makes staffing decisions centrally with principal input, but gives principals the ability to decide how to spend funds for school supplies and services.