Budget and Resource Management
ISLLC Standard 3: A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by ensuring
management of the organization, operations, and resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning
environment.
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A leader can be defined as a person aiming to make an influential and positive change in peoples whose lives are affected by the cause. Leadership involves the ability to influence others to pursue a goal or shared vision, establishing relationships, and developing knowledge of various individuals and situations. School budgeting and school vision are intertwined, and therefore you can’t have one without the other. When it comes to budgeting and resource management, a leader must have the knowledge and understanding of operational procedures at the school and district level, human resources management and development, and principles and issues relating to fiscal operations of school management. Over the course of my internship, I've had the opportunity to work with my school leader to ensure financial, human, and material resources are aligned to the goals of school for the current and upcoming school year.
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Artifacts
Management by Wandering Around
I believe the concept of management by wandering around is highly effective. This concept not only requires building leaders to wander around the school, but instead to wander purposefully. Just thinking of past experiences as a classroom teacher at schools were administrators were not visible, versus where they were visible, makes me think of the huge difference in student achievement, student behavior, and teacher quality. As a teacher, it kept myself and my students on our toes because we never knew when we would get a surprise visit. Although students were always learning, it still made me feel supported by administration.
As a principal, I would incorporate MBWA into my daily schedule. Both students and teachers would be aware of expectations when it comes to promoting a positive learning environment. This will ensure that there are to be no surprises that appear throughout the year or things gone unnoticed by administration. When it comes to the school building, I would also use MBWA to help maintain a safe and orderly physical environment. I would make it a priority to wander around at least bi-weekly to check the physical environment. While I know that I cannot handle the daily task of doing this, I would make sure that it is my main responsibility assigned for my lead maintenance staff member. This person would have a detailed list of things that should be checked throughout the school week, and then report back to me so that I can assure that everything is well-maintained.
This concept helps in the budget process in many different ways. The first way it helps is when it comes to building maintenance. If the building principal is aware of what needs to be fixed in the school, there will be no room for surprises if something breaks. It also assists in knowing what the needs of teachers and students are, so that it can be carefully planned out in the budget. For example, if the school is doing online state testing for the school year, the principal should not wait until mid-year to decide to find money or fundraise to get the technology needed for the students to get exposure to online testing. Altogether, MBWA ensures that the building leader is aware of all aspects that could have a potential effect on the school’s budget.
I haven’t had much of an opportunity to gain experience on the fundraising process in my current school. At my previous school, which was also in a different school district, I was over Student Government, so I was aware of the district’s policy and procedures for fundraising. Each time we collected money, we had to turn it in to the bookkeeper. We had to have a paper trail for everything! At first it seemed tedious to me, but now I understand exactly why these policies have to be in place. When it came to classroom teachers, the school leader didn’t do well with explaining the procedure to teachers. We were just told that each day we had to turn in any money that we were given for student fees the same day, if it was over $5.
At the school I currently work at, teachers are not aware of the fundraising policies. At the beginning of each school year, the School Operations Manager comes in to hand out a paper with the policy and procedures on it, but none of the information is explained in detail. However, I’m not sure if this has caused an issue yet because I don’t know if the school has ever been in a situation where money went missing, which could be part of the reason why there’s no emphasis on following the policy. In my opinion, I also feel that the school could do better with scheduling fundraisers. I think we tend to do too many at one time. During the typical week, there are at least two to three fundraisers. These fundraisers range from $1 dress down days, selling pizza, selling snacks, dances, or etc. Many of the times, it is not publicized as to why the fundraiser is being held, which could cause some conflict when it comes to school community members/stakeholders seeing where the money will be allocated to. Since parent involvement is essential for most school fundraising efforts, as a building leader, I would ensure my school effectively publicizes the purpose of fundraisers.
Generated Income Sources
Allocating Resources and Finances
At Alice Harte Charter teachers are given a $500 supply stipend at the beginning of the school year. Teachers are given the freedom to spend the money as they please, whether they decide to use it for supplies or otherwise. However, it's in the district’s best interest to ensure teachers have all tools necessary to be successful once the school year begins.
Although teachers aren't necessarily able to have input on the budget process, the school leaders do well with making sure there is enough funds allocated to every grade level and subject area to last the entire year. At the end of each year, returning teachers are allowed to turn in invoices for items they would like to have purchased for the upcoming school year. Now, as good as this sounds, there are some stipulations. Technology purchases are not included in the grade level/content area budget. There is a separate budget that teachers don't have input on when it comes to technology, which is one of the biggest downfalls. With our standardized testing moving to being online, many teachers wish they had the technology in their classrooms necessary to prepare students.
I would suggest that our school leader practiced involving other stakeholders into developing the school budget. Making decisions about the budget should be a collaborative process. Working collaboratively with the school leader, representatives of the learning community begin determining the educational needs of an organization in relation to the allocated funds. Sound budgeting theory dictates the involvement of all stakeholders serving in a representative capacity. If my school leader worked collaboratively with all stakeholders while developing the budget, he would be aware that there needs to be more money allocated to purchasing technology vs classroom resources because at the end of each year, there are thousands of dollars left unspent.
Including as many stakeholders as possible will ensure that a school leader has ultimate buy-in when it comes to school budget and funded programs and initiatives (Sorenson & Goldsmith 2013). Keeping all stakeholders in the know will help to continue to build trust.
Over the course of my internship I've had the opportunity to gain knowledge and training in the following areas of resource management and budgeting:
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Learning the process for budgeting, and how funds are allocated to different accounts
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Gaining knowledge of budgeting procedures and steps for the current school year,
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Reviewing of the district/school budget
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Assisting a teacher with completing a purchase requisition
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Completing a Mock Budget for coursework
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Assisting with analyzing purchase requests from teachers for the upcoming school year
Experience
