BUDGET AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

This is the education spotlight for the University of Alaska Anchorage

pd L A 6 40 for school resource allocation and management.

I'm kristen White.

Today I'm going to be going over my learning insights and a ha's as

they relate to budget and resource management

Within the Haines Borough school district,

I'll cover the following three areas.

One provide an analysis of the school

and district budget and its connection to increased

student learning to talk a little bit about

the process of supply requisitions and three.

I'll cover the process of ensuring sufficient supplies and

equipment and provide recommendations for improving that process.

Let's begin with an analysis of the school and district

budget as defined by Richard Sorensen and Lloyd Goldsmith.

In the Principles Guide to school budgeting.

Budgeting is not a once a year event rather a process

that involves planning allocation and expenditure

of funds and a continuous monitoring

and evaluation of each of the pieces within the process.

A budget is a financial plan that reflects the

local needs of the school or the school district,

its history, its fiscal health,

it projects anticipated revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year

and it's evaluated and revised as the year progresses.

Various budgetary systems exist.

The Hands Borough School district,

which supports a K 12 single site

school and homeschool program serving 259 students uses

a school or site based system with

a codified framework according to Superintendent Roy Getchell

Haines has a 10 page budget.

The document promotes the academic success and well being of

students working towards measurable continuous

improvement that reflects and increases

student learning is the objective.

The district must report outcomes and they want to report positive ones right.

Therefore every decision regarding the budget is connected to the mission

and vision of the school and reflects the strategic plan.

As Sorensen and Goldsmith purport budgeting vision and academic success

are intertwined with each other in the planning process.

HB sts mission reads,

utilizing the abundant resources of the Chilcote

valley and in collaboration with its communities.

The HBs. D. Empower students to be contributing members of society

and critical thinkers prepared for individual success.

The vision of the school then outlines excellence

as it pertains to education, organization,

community and family engagement and school climate and culture.

The strategic plan weaves it together into several

measurable goals such as 80% of students in

grades three through eight will reach grade level

proficiency or show a year's growth in reading,

Math and science is measured on math assessments or the

district will reflect a 100% high school graduation rate.

Budgeting decisions,

help allocate the resources to reach

these goals which are established through active

participation of a wide variety of stakeholders

and it's reexamined every three years.

Well, how are these goals decided upon analyzing data sources such as assessments,

grades, attendance etcetera,

helps identify areas of need to address the areas of need investments in staff,

curriculum supplies, technology,

professional development and other items essential

to effective instruction are considered.

This is the collaborative job of administrators and haynes

specific to the principal.

Her role is to work closely with the district office to allocate resources

such as personnel equipment and supplies and direct the use of grant funding.

All federal programs.

Also,

the principle works with the activities director and

administrative assistant to handle activity funds and expenditures.

The superintendent oversees this work and manages

the remaining components of the budget.

Past expenditures are used to predict future expenditures.

A timeline for the budget is as follows.

A budget for each fiscal year is constructed

in the spring by the district administration,

which sends it for review through the school board's Finance committee.

A preliminary budget has to be passed to the local government by the end of april.

It's approved by the school board in june

budget workshops follow For those members of the finance committee.

The budget must be sent to the state by July 15 using a specific template.

An audit of the district's budget occurs annually in september

in october the enrollment count happens and the

number of students goes through the state's funding formula

adjustments and updates occur. Midwinter

H. BSD is currently building its Fy 23 budget.

Taking a look at the FY 22 budget. The first page is a summary that shows at a glance.

Revenue sources, local state and federal, including borough contributions,

base student allocation etc.

Major expenditures are listed and the general fund balance.

The rest of the document will detail expenses such

as but not limited to regular instructed instruction,

gifted and talented correspondence, special education and maintenance,

custodial

pupil activities and food service are listed at the end of the document.

As mentioned.

Each category in line item is codified,

helping to link revenues and expenditures from the

district to the state Department of Education,

80% of the budget costs are fixed.

Districts have to consider factors that influence changes

to projected revenues and expenditures such as the number

of students that are expected versus the actual enrollment

or unexpected changes in personnel or facility maintenance.

This year,

the district was very close with its student count with its student projection,

but to more intensive and 13 additional

students joined the Haine School than originally anticipated

Intensive Czar funded at 13 times other students.

The total revenue was projected at $4.7 million,

but was updated to reflect $5,308,080

expenditures were changed to reflect the hiring of additional support staff.

Finally, at the bottom of this, um,

summary page is the percentage of the budget that is allocated for instruction

76%.

This encompasses teacherssalaries,

specialist support staff curriculum and staff development

Principal lily boron pointed out recently that improving student learning

comes down to ensuring that we're able to hire and retain

the best possible people.

This includes recruiting and supporting the individuals

in a growth minded positive school climate.

Haines has 34.36 full time equivalents.

We have one teacher per grade in elementary one per subject in

the upper grades and we hire support staff based on student needs

specific. A HA has for me

in discussing the budget with the superintendent.

I learned about revenue sources such as the E rate and on behalf,

which is not part of the foundation formula

but is associated with retirements and benefits.

I learned more about state funding districts receive

a portion of funding for municipal governments,

but the largest source of funding to

Alaska school districts is a state's foundation formula

and there are different spending requirements.

I learned about maintenance of effort provisions that ensure

federal funds supplement rather than supplant state investments.

Moving on to the process of supply requisitions

the request for supplies or services follows a chain of approval.

H. BSD provides classroom teachers with a $200 annual budget

to spend these funds and any requests beyond

staff members may make a request by filling

out a purchase order or a check request reimbursement

both paper forms that are found in the main office file cabinet.

This is submitted to the principal who reviews the document

with the administrative assistant and approves or denies it.

The request goes on to the district office

where the superintendent then approves or denies it.

Alongside the administrative assistant

side note facilities and maintenance requests go directly to the district office.

The superintendents assistant records and communicates the

decision and then makes any orders.

The accountant records the transactions and cuts checks for reimbursement.

You can see Mr get close quote up there.

It's multi approved so that the public funds are spent with multiple eyes,

ensuring it's been ethically accountably spent.

My ah ha!

Here is that while I was mostly familiar with this process,

I did not know that upwards of $70,000 is set aside for teaching supplies.

Finally moving onto an exploration of

ensuring sufficient supplies and equipment.

At the end of the year,

each staff member who runs a classroom submits an inventory sheet

for auditing, legal and insurance purposes.

The school is required to keep track of all equipment and supplies.

Superintendent Getchell said here if there's a need, we order it.

That's not the case in most places.

Usually you have an office supply allotment that you can add

to or reduce but you have to cut something else.

This place is unique

to improve the requisition process.

One recommendation is moving to an electronic approval system.

The administrative assistant,

an accountant admit that they are reluctant to learn this new technology,

but this will streamline the process.

Another idea for improvement would be to put the budget process onto a calendar.

Currently there's simply institutional knowledge of what must be done and when

overall the greatest insight that I have from this experience

is that while most people say instruction,

his most important element of any budget.

It's clear to me that it's actually leadership

and effective budget is one that is developed with

the vision and the goals of the school in

mind in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders.

And it's continually reviewed and adjusted.

It takes organizational and communication skills, technical competence,

teamwork, data analysis

and knowledge of instructional practice and local,

state and federal law and policies, as well as action planning,

to ensure the academic success of each student.

BUDGET AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

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