Policy Title:  College Budget
Policy Number:  2.15

Purpose

The College Budget purpose is to:

  1. Align annual operations objectives and actions with the College’s strategic plan; it’s vision, mission, diversity statement, and strategic objectives and initiatives (Board Policy 0).
  2. Optimize the limited financial resources available to meet the goals of the College;
  3. Serve as the College’s formal financial plan.

The Board of Trustees is responsible for maintaining the overall fiscal health of the college. The Board has final authority for the adoption of the budget.

The college President shall work closely with the Vice President for Administrative Services (Assistant Treasurer to the Board) and recommend a balanced budget in accordance with the strategic plan College ensuring that:

  • Assets are sufficient and appropriate to the mission;
  • Assets are maintained/not allowed to depreciate or become obsolete;
  • Assets are applied to achieve mission, support strategic objectives, and respond to priorities of key constituencies, and,
  • The primary focus is on long-term shaping and maintenance of asset structure rather than short- term economic cost of the asset.

The College President has the overall responsibility for monitoring the budget and ensuring that the total annual budget is not exceeded.

It is the policy of the Board that the budget process be transparent and inclusive, allowing input from Trustees, administration, staff, and community members.

The Board shall set a goal for the amount of cash reserves available to carry over for future years. Cash reserves should be adequate to meet future unforeseen demands, long term goals, and emergency needs. Use of cash reserves for budgeting or transfer of cash reserves during the year for unforeseen or emergency expenditures must be approved in advance by the Board.

The policy of the Board is to include consideration of a long-term perspective in the budgeting plan and process. Priorities, with estimated costs and ties to the strategic plan, shall be outlined for a minimum of 5 years. A required capital outlay plan shall be projected for a minimum of 3 years.

The College President shall set an annual “contingency fund” amount. This fund is used in cases where the adopted budget is inadequate to meet the required expenses of various functions and departments. Changes to the contingency fund (by transfer to or from other functions or departments) should be approved by the Board, as this is considered to be a substantial change to the adopted budget. Intra-functional and inter-departmental transfers may be made to cover unexpected expenses, as long as the total expenses per function does not exceed the established budget. However, all budget transfers shall conform to establish Budget Transfer Guidelines that are periodically reviewed and updated.

There should not be any planned “slush” funds present within the budget understood to be intentionally overstated and available for unforeseen emerging circumstances that should otherwise be met and funded by the contingency fund.

Budgets shall be aggregated and evaluated annually and any over expenditure conditions shall be identified and reported at the appropriate level within the organizational chain of command.

Monitoring the budget is important to ensure that the financial, operational and capital plans that were developed and approved for implementation as part of the budget processes are being implemented. Budget monitoring is crucial for an organization to be able to enforce accountability related to spending. Regular, comprehensive monitoring of the budget allows EWC to evaluate service level provision, ensure any new initiatives are making expected progress towards goals/expectations, learn more about trends and other deviations that may impact future operations, and finally demonstrate transparency by sharing findings from this regular monitoring.

Budget monitoring must include examination of a broad set of functions in order to fully inform what actions need to be taken if significant deviations are found.

Budget monitoring should include analysis of a diverse set of indicators to best inform the analysis and facilitate evaluation of EWC’s overall performance. EWC will establish comprehensive budget monitoring that includes the following key items:

  • Revenues
  • Expenditures
  • Personnel
  • Non-personnel
  • Operations
  • Capital
  • Economic Trends
  • Performance Measures

The College’s operating budget is prepared annually, detailing revenues and expenditures. The budget is prepared to coincide with the fiscal year of the College, July 1 to June 30. The Board of Trustees has the ultimate responsibility for approving the annual operating budget.

Original Adoption Date:  10/10/19
Revision Date(s): 
Date reviewed, no change: