Meeting your district’s financial goals ensures supported students and a thriving district. Involving your community will help you prioritize what matters most and create successful budget proposals.
However, getting buy-in on your annual budget proposal can be tough. Challenges include siloed budgeting processes, lack of alignment with community values or low trust, and needing approval for increases or levies in tough financial times. So, how do you overcome these challenges to pass your budget proposal?
Guilderland CSD’s Superintendent, Dr. Marie Wiles, used ThoughtExchange’s survey and engagement platform to quickly and easily gather, analyze, and report on constituents’ critical insights, successfully passing the district’s budget.
Here’s Her Story:
In early 2022, Guilderland CSD faced an unexpected expense of almost $2 million. The district also needed community approval for a 2.98% increase in the tax levy and an almost $5 million increase on the previous year’s budget.
Using ThoughtExchange, Dr. Wiles engaged the community in an inclusive discussion about their thoughts on the budget proposal. While traditional engagement methods couldn’t garner enough participation for a breadth of perspectives, ThoughtExchange brought close to 800 people into one conversation.
“You don’t have to worry about a snowstorm. You don’t have to pay for gas to get to the high school,” says Dr. Wiles. “It’s more inclusive.”
Analyzing and communicating results can take weeks, even months. ThoughtExchange’s advanced analytics and AI Advisor provided in-depth analysis, custom action plans, and instant report and presentation exports in just seconds.
“ThoughtExchange gives me lots of data—rather than making a guess or just listening to the people who are so tuned into the topic, have their own agenda about it, or are the loudest voice in the crowd. That can get in my ear, and all of a sudden you think, is that how everybody feels? That’s just not a very good way to make decisions.”
Instead, Dr. Wiles made community-informed decisions, and it paid off. In May 2022, 68% of the Guilderland public voted to approve Guilderland’s new budget. “My job has two sides to it—I’m leading a community, but I’m also serving a community. In order to serve, I need to know what they value, and what direction they would like our schools to go in. I feel like I can hit the mark of reflecting our community’s values much more accurately using ThoughtExchange,” says Dr. Wiles.
Are you ready for budget success? Download our free guide, The District Leaders’ Guide to Budget Success and find out how to engage your community at every stage and pass your next budget with qualitative and quantitative engagement tools, and lightning-fast analytics.
Learn more about ThoughtExchange here.