Planning & Budget Overview
The San Joaquin Delta Community College District has a mission statement. Developed through a widely participatory process, the mission statement is reviewed periodically by the Planning and Budgeting Committee for possible revision. As part of the ongoing planning process, the Planning and Budgeting Committee reviews the mission statement each spring. The Board of Trustees also reviews the mission statement, along with any recommendations from the Planning and Budgeting Committee, each year during the Board's annual summer planning retreat.
In 1999 the college completed a major update to its Eductional and Student Services Master Plan. The Facilities Master Plan, developed to implement the Educational and Student Services Master Plan was also updated at that time.
Drawing on the Educational and Student Services Master Plan, the results of the institutional accreditation process, and reacting to information from external and internal environmental scans, the Board, campus leadership, and the Planning and Budgeting Committee identify crucial issues and priorities which are developed into institutional goals. Each goal is assigned to a shared governance committee and an administrative officer for the purpose of developing a specific Institutional Goal Plan for the college to follow to achieve the goal. The plan is submitted to the Planning and Budgeting Committee (and subsequently to the Superintendent/President and the Board of Trustees) for validation and endorsement as an ongoing part of the institutional planning process. For minor issues, an administrative officer might simply be assigned to develop a mini-plan for review by the Planning and Budgeting Committee and the Superintendent/President. While institutional goals may be developed at any time in response to changing circumstances, the Planning and Budgeting Committee will undertake review of institutional goals in the spring of each year and the Board of Trustees will review the goals each year during their summer planning retreat.
Additional input into the planning system comes from the institutional self-assessment and review of the accreditation process and the similar self-assessments and reviews of individual programs through the program review process. Each is on a six-year cycle. Some recommendations from these processes may be significant enough to warrant development of a co-responding institutional goal. Others might be addressed through development of mini-plans for review by the Planning and Budgeting Committee. Many program review recommendations can be addressed though budget unit participation in development of the Annual Institutional Plan and Budget.
Each year, as the budget development process begins in the spring, each budget unit submits a summary of planning objectives for the coming year, along with progress reports of accomplishments of past years objectives. The objectives are related to institutional goals and/or program review recommendations where possible. These objectives are limited to those that can be accomplished with existing resources. If the budget unit has a planning objective (or series of objectives) which require additional resources, one or more Program Improvement/Expansion Budget Requests are completed and submitted to the Planning and Budgeting Committee's costing, resource review, and prioritization process.
Similarly, each year committees and administrators responsible for one of the Institutional Goal Plans are asked to submit a summary of planning objectives for the coming year, and progress reports on accomplishment of past years objectives. Likewise, if additional resources are needed, Program Improvement/Expansion Budget Requests are submitted.
The result is the Annual Institutional Plan and Budget which, in addition to the familiar budget book, summarizes all the planning objectives and prioritizes requests for additional resources. When new needs for resources surface, they can be requested by submission of a Program Improvement/Expansion Budget Request at any time, which can then be prioritized and added to the list by the Planning and Budgeting Committee. If a new issue is sufficiently significant, it may prompt development of a new institutional goal and a corresponding Institutional Goal Plan.
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