In a time of financial difficulty, balancing a district's budget became increasingly difficult. As a member of the Peoria School District Board of Education, it is important and crucial to effective budget decision making to be informed about the school district's budget design and delegated responsibilities within the system. These decisions must be made based on the protection of public funds and property. “The legal responsibility for such protection rests solely with the board of education of each school district” (Brimley, Verstengen, Garfield, 2012, p. 332). Areas critical to this effective decision making by a board member are accounting practices, responsibilities of the superintendent and board members regarding the building budget, key terminology, how how funds are budgeted and coordinated, district budget timelines, enrollment projections and how they are calculated, and possible considerations on staff requisitions. Every decision a board member makes is of the utmost importance when balancing a district's budget in 2014. Accounting Practices The accounting practices for a building's budget are called GAAP; generally accepted accounting principles (Brimley, Verstengen, Garfield, 2012). These practices are adopted by all school agencies in order to spend revenues in the most effective and efficient manner. Another goal is to make sure the money goes as far as possible, so it is important to have a committee, a team and a well-documented established plan. “Schools cannot achieve their educational goals without judicious spending of public funds” (Brimley, Verstengen, Garfield, 2012, p. 304). The principles include accuracy, completeness and timeliness, simplicity and uniformity of the accounting system (Brimley, Verstengen, Garfield, 2012). In every distribution...... middle of paper ......e Bottom Line. American School Board Journal, 195(5), 46-51. Brimley, V., Verstengen, DA and Garfield, RR (2012). Financing education in a climate of change (11th ed.). Boston: Pearson Eadie, D. (2007). Build a budget. Journal of the American Board of Education, 194(5), 50-51.NCES. (2011, March). Projections of education statistics until 2019 - Introduction to the projection methodology: elementary and secondary enrollments. Projections of education statistics until 2019 - Introduction to the projection methodology: elementary and secondary enrollments. Accessed February 23, 2014, from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/projections/projections2019/app_a1.aspPeoria Unified School District | Financial transparency. (2013). Peoria Unified School District | Financial transparency. Accessed February 23, 2014 from https://www.peoriaud.k12.az.us/admin/Pages/FinancialTransparency.aspx