NORTH BATTLEFORD ‑ The process has begun at Living Sky School Division to prepare the 2022 budget.
At the division’s board meeting Wednesday in North Battleford, it was confirmed the budget will be presented at their April 13 meeting. The division is currently in the midst of preparing that budget and crunching the numbers in time for that presentation.
Much of the meeting Wednesday focused on a review of the process being employed to develop the 2022 budget. Director of Education Brenda Vickers and the senior leadership led the board through what the process entailed in a presentation that lasted for a couple of hours.
Vickers explained the process used was based on “design thinking,” which uses human-centred techniques to solve problems in creative and innovative ways.
Design thinking is a process used by some leading brands including Apple and Samsung. Vickers described it as a process that is “user-focused” and challenges assumptions.
“Design thinking kind of is located in the intersection of what is desirable for the people we serve, what is technologically feasible for us to do and can we afford — it is economically viable,” said Vickers.
To develop the budget, Vickers said they went out and interviewed people, talking to the users and staff and hearing their stories.
Participants within the division took part in a “design challenge” — taking part in a brainstorming session where the challenge was how to build a sustainable delivery model from a users’ point of view.
The idea of the process was to look deeply at the budget and what they were trying to do with it. Vickers explained to the board the goal was to “be the boss of the budget rather than the budget be the boss of us.”
“I think for years that darned budget has been a bit of our master,” Vickers told the board at the start of the presentation. “And the goal is to get ahead of it and be able to plan strategically, and that was the talk a couple of years ago. We have to really rethink how we offer services.”
The board was largely receptive to the innovative approach, though some trustees also expressed concerns about what the outcome of it might be.
“To me, all I heard was we are going to try and build an individualized budget,” said trustee Kim Gartner. His concern was that there might be too much of a focus on individualized programming requests that might water down the other services delivered on a universal basis to all students throughout the division.
“To try and do individual programming here, there and everywhere — that man is going to go crazy,” said Gartner, pointing to the division's Chief Financial Officer Lonny Darroch.
Vickers assured Gartner that there would be “a minimum standard in every school. We want it to be equitable,” she said.
The next step is to go through and bring the budget to the board April 13 with all the numbers.
