Running head: SCHOOL BUDGET SEA 1

School Budget Structured External Assignment

Wilmington University

Shannon P. Roberson
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I had the opportunity to interview the principal of my school, a classroom teacher and a

community leader about the budget of my school. My school is a very small private school, and

we do not have many of the resources that are available to larger schools. The principal is the

person who is in charge of the budget. Teachers have very little input, and the community has no

input.

Part 1

What is your role in the budget process for your school?

Principal

What is my role? I basically have exclusive role in the supply budget, capital outlay

requests and how Title I money is spent. I of course, include my parent team and the building

level team on how this money is spent.

Effective administrators will make the final decision with all of the best and most

relevant information at hand. Administrators who employ input from as many areas as possible

seem to be trying to bring about a level of consensus necessary in a high achieving organization.

The effectiveness of modern schools requires input from all areas involved. Education today is

no longer a small and simple role in society, it has requirements which have overburdened the

current funding system and are causing problems in many areas of public education.

I actually took the past principal's budget and started with that the first year and adjusted

as I saw fit. I allow first year teachers and teachers who have switched position a little more

money than anyone else.

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By entering a new position as a freshman principal, I can see the benefits of this

approach, especially if the previous principal was in the leadership role for multiple years and the

demographics of the neighborhood remained steady. By using past information, one may be able

to see discrepancies in prior years that were not apparent to the previous administrator or

possibly the priorities have changed. As a freshman administrator one can learn many ideas and

necessary protocol requirements from asking others who know. Your peers or fellow

administrators.

The building has specific allocations from the district. Allocation is given to the school

and the principal is responsible for maintaining a healthy and frugal approach to the budget. I

am responsible for making sure that the materials, supplies and printing are all used in a

responsible manner. Most of the supplies for the building are held in a supply closet.

Teacher

Each teacher is asked to be responsible with the amounts of materials used and to not be

wasteful. As a teacher in this building we were able to come to the supply closet and gather

necessary supplies for activities and multi-modal lessons. Teachers were simply asked to take

what you need and replace what you do not use. Every now and again, you would have to ask the

secretary to order you something tangible like a stapler, hole punch etc.

Community Leader

As a member of the community I do not have a role in the budget of the school. My role

is mainly to be a liaison between the school and the community.

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What needs does the school have?

Principal

Need is determined usually by the absolute needs and the testing results, we try to look at

test data provided by the teachers and determine which supplies, if any, are needed to achieve

our staff determined goals. We show how much past years materials, printing, etc. have cost and

try save on bulk items in order to divert some of the funds to much needed supplies. There is

always an area of higher need, some years the needs go unmet. Education funding can be tricky

when too many people get involved, but when it is donation and tuition money being spent

everyone is entitled to observe, calculate and criticize any areas they feel are not meeting their

own personal expectations.

Oftentimes, principals of private schools are faced with the grim reality of dealing with

little or no money to provide research-based methods to face the current challenges in education

today. Modern education cost more than ever, society needs to be aware of the needs and

challenges our current student body faces in order to truly change what is happening with

education funding.

Teacher

A main challenge for educators today in my opinion is they are not cohesive with their

priorities or objectives. Every schools needs and therefore every school’s principal will see a

different need or priority, just like every teacher in a school may have their own agenda. When

this happens, growth is much slower. We need a modern dialog of the benefits and pitfalls of

research-based learning programs. As educators faced with today’s problems, we do not need to
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throw money away, we just need to focus its use and target areas where collective groups

identify needs.

What should be the priorities?

Principal

This really depends on what new programs we will be implementing which come from

the building level team.

Again, this approach, by including numerous entities for information regarding the

decision area represents the courage to listen to the people who are most highly involved.

Professionals who feel validated will spend as many hours as possible being the best in their

profession. When they feel their leader actually listens and internalizes the information, they feel

respected. Sadly, chasing test scores does not always lead to feeling respected by the public and

media sectors.

Would you prefer to have your budget laid out for you or would you prefer to have more

discretion over spending and allocation funds to areas you believe are a priority?

I enjoy using our own discretion to decide how monies are spent.
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Part 2

Budget Analysis

Short Term Long Term

Personnel/ Human Capitol Receptionist to sit at the frontCreate an action plan to

door and monitor the people support
entering and leaving the social/emotional/behavioral
building. needs of students that
incorporate consistent
Special Education teacher and teaching of expectations, use
Paraprofessionals in the of data, identification of in
classroom. school support services,
identification of outside
agency support services and
referral procedures.
School Operations Explore additional class To change current
offering opportunities at all educational practices by full
grade levels. (i.e. foods, auto implementation of
mechanics, web design, professional learning
foreign language) communities and teacher
leadership cultures to
transform delivery and
assessment practices in our
classrooms.
Safety/ Security Staff will develop new New security door will be
routines for students traveling purchased to ensure the
through and working within continued safety of staff
the new school. members and students. The
staff and two parents of the
students will be issued key
fobs’ to enter the school.
Technology Chromebooks for every Intercom system throughout
student to use. the school.

Facilities On-site maintenance crew for New School Building that

the building. would support expanding to
the 8th grade.
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Part 3

School Name

AMOUNT BUDGETED

SALARIES 2,565,950
INSTRUCTIONAL COSTS (MATERIALS) 1200000
SAFETY/SECURITY/SRO 142000
TECHNOLOGY 90000
EQUIPMENT PURCHASE 225000
INTERNET, MAINTENANCE ,& REPAIR 9000
EXTRA CURRICULAR & ATHLETIC PROGRAMS 15000
OFFICE & GENERAL SUPPLIES 35000
UTILITIES 420,000
BUILDING MAINTENANCE/REPAIRS 225000

SURPLUS/RAINY DAY FUND 1073050

TOTAL ANNUAL BUDGET 6000000