Does Your February Budget Reflect Your January Goals?
February 3, 2027
Nine days ago, on January 25, I asked you to give your superintendent budget direction: focus the preliminary budget on the goals your board adopted in January. Show us how resources are allocated to achieve each goal. Flag any expenditure that doesn’t connect to a goal and explain why it’s necessary.
Today, the superintendent returns with that preliminary budget.
This is the most consequential governance moment between now and June. Not because the budget is the most important document you’ll approve this year — though it is. But because this meeting determines whether your January goal-setting was governance or theater.
If the budget reflects your goals, your board has a governance system — goals produce direction, direction produces allocation, allocation produces outcomes.
If the budget doesn’t reflect your goals — if the superintendent delivered the same spreadsheet as last year with new numbers plugged in — then your board has learned something important: the goals your board adopted in January did not shape the budget direction you gave, and the budget direction you gave did not shape the budget proposal.
That’s a February conversation, not a March crisis.
What to look for when the preliminary budget arrives
Most boards receive the preliminary budget as a completed document. Here are the line items, here are the revenue projections, here’s the fund balance estimate. The board’s job, in this common framing, is to react. Does the spending seem reasonable? Are there any obvious gaps? The board asks questions, the superintendent answers them, and the budget moves forward to a public hearing.
That’s not governance. That’s reading a document aloud at a meeting.
Here’s what your board should look for instead.
1. Does every adopted goal have a corresponding budget allocation?
Your board adopted goals in January. Specific, measurable, time-bound goals. Each goal represents a priority that the board expects the district to pursue.
The preliminary budget should show, for every adopted goal, the resources allocated to achieving it. Not the total district budget divided by the number of goals. A specific allocation — this program, this staffing, this intervention — mapped to this goal.
If a goal has no corresponding budget allocation, the board has a decision to make: either the goal can be achieved within existing allocations (in which case the superintendent should explain how), or the goal needs a dedicated allocation that isn’t in the budget (in which case the board needs to decide whether to reallocate or add funding).
2. Where’s the Goal Alignment Summary?
Monday’s piece mentioned the Council Bluffs model — a one-page document that maps every major spending category to a board-adopted goal. I recommend every board ask for this document alongside the preliminary budget.
The Goal Alignment Summary answers a single question: does this budget reflect what the board said it wanted? The answer should be visible on one page. If it takes a consultant and three committee meetings to figure out whether the budget aligns with the goals, the alignment doesn’t exist.
How Council Bluffs builds theirs
The Council Bluffs model is the most direct example I can give you. Their board adopts three to five measurable academic and climate goals in January. The superintendent is evaluated one hundred percent on progress toward those goals — no subjective ratings, no personality assessments. And the budget is built from the goals outward, not the reverse.
When the preliminary budget arrives in February, the Council Bluffs board receives a one-page “Goal Alignment Summary” alongside the budget document. Every major spending category is mapped to the adopted goal it supports. The reading intervention allocation maps to Goal 1. The math instructional coaching maps to Goal 2. Categories that don’t connect to an adopted goal — like debt service or utilities — are flagged with an explanation.
The board reviews this summary in the same meeting where they review the preliminary budget. The conversation moves from “is this number reasonable?” to “does this allocation serve the goal we adopted?” That’s the shift that changes everything.
Your board can ask for a Council Bluffs-style Goal Alignment Summary before your February budget meeting. The format is simple enough that a superintendent can build it in an afternoon. And it transforms the budget conversation from a numbers exercise into a priorities conversation.
3. What expenditures don’t map to a goal?
Some expenditures won’t map to an adopted goal — debt service, mandated programs, fixed utility costs, insurance. That’s fine. The Goal Alignment Summary should flag these, not hide them.
What the board should pay attention to: discretionary expenditures that don’t map to a goal. A new program. A staffing addition. A consultant contract. If the board didn’t direct resources toward it and it doesn’t connect to an adopted goal, ask why it’s in the budget.
I’m not saying every discretionary expenditure should be eliminated. I’m saying every discretionary expenditure should be defended. If it’s not connected to a goal the board adopted, the board should understand why it’s competing for resources with the priorities the board set.
4. Does the budget match the direction you gave?
On January 25, your board gave budget direction. The specifics matter. Did your board ask the superintendent to:
- Focus spending on three priority goals?
- Identify the funding gap between current allocations and goal-required resources?
- Flag any expenditure that doesn’t connect to a goal?
Open your January 25 meeting minutes. Read the budget direction aloud. Then compare it to the preliminary budget on the table. Do they match?
If yes — the superintendent followed the board’s direction. Acknowledge that. If this is the first time it’s happened, name it. “The board gave direction, and the superintendent followed it. That’s how a governance relationship works.”
If no — the superintendent did not follow the board’s direction. The board needs to understand why. Not an adversarial conversation. A clarifying one. “We asked the superintendent to focus spending on three priority goals. The budget before us doesn’t appear to reflect that direction. Superintendent, can you help us understand what happened between our January direction and this February proposal?”
The five-minute budget-mapping exercise
Here’s a practical exercise for your February board meeting. It takes five minutes and it will tell you everything you need to know about budget alignment.
Take out a sheet of paper. Write your board’s adopted goals in a column on the left. (If you have more than five goals, you have too many goals — but that’s a January conversation, not a February one.)
On the right, write the major expenditure categories in the preliminary budget. Draw a line from each expenditure to the goal it supports.
The exercise reveals everything. If a major expenditure doesn’t connect to any goal, flag it. If a goal has no expenditure connected to it, flag it. If one goal has ten lines and another has none, have a conversation about priorities.
This exercise works on paper. It works on a whiteboard. It works on a shared screen. The format doesn’t matter. The mapping does.
What to do if the budget doesn’t align
You have two options.
Option 1: Direct a budget revision. Send the budget back to the superintendent with specific direction: “Reallocate resources from X to Y to align with Goals 1 and 2. Return with a revised proposal by [date].”
This is the right option when the misalignment is structural — the budget was built on last year’s priorities, not the board’s adopted goals.
Option 2: Adjust the budget through amendments. Make specific amendments to the budget during the board meeting. “I move to reallocate $75,000 from [program not connected to a goal] to [program that supports Goal 1].”
This is the right option when the misalignment is specific and the fix is clear. Some boards hesitate to amend a budget mid-meeting. I’ve watched boards that do it regularly, and the quality of the budget improves every year because the superintendent knows the board will review for alignment.
What the community is watching
Your January budget direction was a private conversation between the board and the superintendent. Your February budget review is not. The preliminary budget is a public document, presented at a public meeting, with public comment.
The community that watched your board adopt goals in January is now watching your board review the budget in February. They’re connecting the same dots you are. Does the spending match the priorities?
If your board can stand at a public meeting and say, “We adopted three goals in January. The preliminary budget before us allocates resources to each of those goals. Here’s the one-page Goal Alignment Summary that shows the connection” — you’ve just demonstrated that your board governs with integrity.
If your board cannot say that, the community will see the gap. They will draw their own conclusions about whether your January goals were real priorities or a press release.
The February budget review is where governance becomes visible. The community sees whether goals produce action, or whether goals produce words.
Make sure they see action.
Your free CTA: Reply to this email with the keyword Alignment and I’ll send you the Goal Alignment Summary Template — a one-page document format you can use at your February budget meeting to map every major expenditure to an adopted goal, flag unaligned spending, and record your board’s budget direction.
Your paid CTA: I offer a Budget Alignment Review & Facilitation session — a half-day engagement including goal-to-budget mapping, funding gap analysis, and preliminary budget review protocol. Your board leaves with a clear understanding of budget alignment and a recorded set of budget decisions. Reply to this email for pricing and availability.
This continues the February Execution Arc. Monday’s piece covered your first full data review. Next Monday: a deeper look at the Goal Alignment Summary tool and how Council Bluffs and other districts use it to make the goals-to-budget connection visible. Catch the full series at effectiveschoolboards.com/newsletter.
Backlinks: The January arc laid the foundation — goal adoption, budget direction, and the January-to-June governance roadmap. Catch it at effectiveschoolboards.com/newsletter.