Department of Education officials just presented a rough draft of their budget request for the Legislature to the Board of Education’s Finance and Infrastructure Committee.

Committee Chairman Wesley Lo says he senses that the department’s budget strategy is ”very defensive, just hoping we’ll keep on getting money from the Legislature.”

“What’s our plan to get structural balance in our operational state?” he asks. “We need to get on a track where we’re actually coming up with a plan. Miracle-happens-when is a tough way to keep going every year.”

With a solid longterm financial plan, it will be easier to justify budget requests before the Legislature, observes one of the budget presenters.

Randy Moore, the district’s school facilities and support services guru, tells the committee that the department plans to revamp its longterm budget planning with the next fiscal biennium. (The Legislature appropriates state money for two fiscal years at a time, and we’re in the middle of one of those two-year cycles.)

Until the next two-year cycle begins, the district is just muddling through, Moore says.