Prince William County Public Schools

The Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) has awarded Prince William County Public Schools with the Meritorious Budget Award (MBA) for the 2020-21 budget year. This is the 23^rd consecutive year that PWCS has earned this award, and PWCS was the first school division in Virginia to earn this award in 1997.

This award recognizes best practices for budget presentations for school districts. To be eligible for the award, participants must submit an application and their documents for the budget year to a panel of school financial officials. The officials review the materials to ensure the application and budget documents meet their standards using the MBA "criteria checklist," and also provide helpful feedback to school districts on ways they can improve their budget presentations.

School districts in their first or second year applying are eligible for the Pathway to MBA program to ease into MBA compliance. Returning districts that meet program requirements are then eligible to apply to the MBA program.

To earn this award, the MBA checklist states the school budget should reflect, "a technically well-prepared [budget], clear and logical in its narration of facts and data, mathematically accurate and free of spelling and grammatical errors, and have consistent formatting throughout including writing style."

In a press release, ASBO International Executive Director David J. Lewis shared, "Districts that apply to the MBA or Pathway to the MBA programs recognize the importance of presenting a high-quality, easy-to-understand budget internally and to the community. By participating in the programs, not only do districts have access to the tools and resources they need to communicate the district's goals and objectives clearly, they demonstrate their commitment to upholding nationally recognized budget presentation standards."

To learn more about the ABSO and their MBA program, please visit their website.