Project Budgeting
Larry Goshorn, President The toughest part of budgeting is starting with a blank sheet of paper. As with any big problem you must tackle it by breaking it into pieces. Here is some background on budget...
View ArticleElection Day – June 5, 2012
Larry Goshorn, President It’s election day and school districts in California are asking voters for $2.67 billion in new bonds according to the California Taxpayers Association and the Sacramento Bee....
View ArticleRearview Mirror Management
Larry Goshorn, President I’ve been the technical support consultant for oversight committees on a number of large capital building programs. I’ve been to a lot of oversight committee meetings and seen...
View ArticleReporting Transparency: Consistency
Larry Goshorn, President As the technical support consultant for oversight committees on a number of large capital building programs, I’ve noticed that program management teams spend a lot of time and...
View ArticleReporting Transparency: Samples
Larry Goshorn, President As the technical support consultant for a number of oversight committees, I’ve noted a lack of comprehensive information in districts not using Account-Ability. One of the...
View ArticleMeeting Expectations Part 2: Stability in the Midst of Change
Larry Goshorn, President Boards, COCs and the public all expect stability. With regard to a building program, stability means keeping the bottom line of your project budgets from changing. Achieving...
View ArticleMeeting Expectations Part 3: The Program Reserve
Larry Goshorn, President Any well planned capital program must be prepared to handle change. Change is inevitable. Having a complete list of projects and a budget allocation for every project that...
View ArticleContract Contingency Allowances
Larry Goshorn, President Having enough money to finish a project means providing for the unknown. Previous blogs showed how to use project contingencies and a program reserves to prepare for the...
View ArticleSchool Bonds and Planning
Larry Goshorn, President Once, in a college discussion with an economics professor, I questioned the sustainability of economic systems by asking what they were powered by. The discussion confirmed...
View ArticlePlanning Your Capital Building Program – Part 1
Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” It’s possible that this quote has never been truer than when discussed in conjunction with a capital building program. The...
View ArticlePlanning Your Capital Building Program – Part 2
This is part 2 in our series about planning your Capital Building Program. Make sure you check back next month for part 3! Last time we looked at the Bottom-Up Program Development method of program...
View ArticlePlanning Your Capital Building Program – Part 3
Welcome to the third installment of our series on planning your capital building program! In part one, we examined both the strengths and weaknesses of the Bottom-Up Program Development method. Part...
View ArticleIt Depends…
I’ve learned to accept “It depends” as an answer to my questions. Provided of course that answer is followed up with a conversation about the variables that can affect it, and that the conversation...
View ArticleTransparency in Capital Building
There is one predictor of the success of your bond election and program that outweighs any other. While its presence might not completely guarantee that your bond will pass, its absence almost surely...
View ArticleTransparency in Tough Times
A news article out of Contra Costa County, CA recently caught my eye. It was about the loss of trust the local community had in their local school district (you can read that article here). The issue...
View ArticleSchool Bonds and Planning
Larry Goshorn, President Once, in a college discussion with an economics professor, I questioned the sustainability of economic systems by asking what they were powered by. The discussion confirmed...
View ArticleRearview Mirror Management
Larry Goshorn, President I’ve been the technical support consultant for oversight committees on a number of large capital building programs. I’ve been to a lot of oversight committee meetings and seen...
View ArticleReporting Transparency: Consistency
Larry Goshorn, President As the technical support consultant for oversight committees on a number of large capital building programs, I’ve noticed that program management teams spend a lot of time and...
View ArticleReporting Transparency: Samples
Larry Goshorn, President As the technical support consultant for a number of oversight committees, I’ve noted a lack of comprehensive information in districts not using Account-Ability. One of the...
View ArticlePlanning Your Capital Building Program – Part 1
Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” It’s possible that this quote has never been truer than when discussed in conjunction with a capital building program. The...
View Article
More Pages to Explore .....