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A new budget director appointed to oversee the fiscal operations of the Boston public school system must cope with a pressing crisis: the refusal of the mayor and city council to provide further funds to finance the school department''s rapidly increasing budget and persistent deficit spending. The director quickly learns that spending is out of control. No centralized system exists to track expenditures. In planning and implementing a system of budgetary controls, the director must consider both present and future budget needs, as well as what proposals will be politically saleable, internally and externally. The case makes clear that the establishment of clear, bureaucratic procedures-pathways for information-have great bearing on the ability of organizations to serve the public. The case can be used as a vehicle for discussing the ways in which organizational procedures relate to strategic goals, as well as facilitating discussion of the technical challenges of budgeting and fiscal oversight.