EDLD 5342, Week 5, Part 1

Week 5, Part 1 I unfortunately have seen some good people (and good administrators) make some really poor choices that have caused themselves and their districts serious problems. One of the worst examples was when a superintendent for a district in which I was employed misappropriated school funds and when caught was fired, convicted of theft by a public servant, and had his teaching certificate revoked. Seldom will a case go to the full extent of the law as this one did, but there was already bad blood and the superintendent played into the hands of his detractors by committing a serious error in judgement. Standard 1.2 clearly states that misappropriating school funds is not tolerated. I have also seen a situation in which a superintendent used school personnel on school time to work on his property. Once again, Standard 1.2 specifically names the use of personnel for personal gain. This superintendent was reprimanded, but evidently didn't get the message as he later was caught committing an even more serious crime. The use of school vehicles for personal travel has been done at several districts where I worked. One was even so blatant as to allow his wife to drive the school's suburban (with the school's name on the side) to a non-school event. This resulted in the superintendent losing the use of the school vehicles except for very specific events. The use of the vehicle was bad enough, but the superintendent filled out the fuel request stating school business for the reason. Standard 1.3 covers fraudulent requests for reimbursements. Standard 2 covers ethical conduct towards professional colleagues and is sometimes more difficult to prove than financial improprieties because their is usually not a paper trail to follow. I've seen supervisors speak to coaches about playing their children or on one occassion pressuring the One Act Play director to cast their child in the lead and when it didn't happen speaking ill of the director.This violated Standard 2.2 by making false statements about a colleague. The case mentioned above concerning the superintendent's misappropriation of funds also led to a violation of Standard 2.7 when he retaliated against the person who discovered his misconduct. As I mentioned in the first case, serious issues with money can and should lead to the loss of a job, criminal charges being filed, or even the loss of the teacher certification. Less serious issues will mean at least the loss of credibility, difficulty in finding other employment and damage to the reputation of the district. I think all of the violations above could have been avoided. Each of the superintendents or supervisors mentioned above created a isolated environment for themselves that lead them to believe that they were not doing anything wrong or that they were owed something. The best way to avoid such a situation would be to surround yourself with people to whom you are accountable. Also, set up a system of checks and balances that will make it more difficult to make wrong decisions in secret. Always be transparent in everything, especially when dealing with money. Never be in a situation in which you are the sole person in charge of counting or accounting for money such as gate receipts, fund raisers, etc.

EDLD 5342, Week 5, Part 3

EDLD 5342, School Finance, was a difficult course for me because it addressed the area of educational leadership in which I have the least experience.  It proved to be a challenge well worth the effort as I learned multiple concepts that will benefit my future career as a superintendent. As I completed the Competency 8 self-assessment, I was aware that I had grown in several areas.  One of the greatest areas of growth was in the ability to establish district procedures for accurate, effective, ethical purchasing and financial record keeping and reporting.  Prior to the assignment covering FIRST and the readings about school financial audits, I really had no idea that there was a standardized procedure for helping schools keep their finances in line.  I had obviously seen budgets and been involved in budget meetings, but to actually see the standards and requirements was an eye-opener.  I also learned a great deal about revenue forecasting and the importance of WADA as it applies to funding.  The crucial coding for PEIMS and its impact on WADA and funding was an important lesson to learn. I always enjoy the lectures because the topics that are most important are discussed so I can zero in on the most relevant areas of the week’s lesson.  Week five was interesting to me because of the assertion that it is almost impossible to embezzle funds from a school district.  I’ve personally seen several instances in which employees attempted to take school funds illegally and they’ve been caught at a great cost to not only themselves, but the trust that a community puts in its school’s leaders.  Week four’s lecture brought the concept of “economy of scale” to my attention.  I knew that there were advantages and disadvantages to schools depending on the student population, but I did not realize that it could be quantified.  This finding helps me understand the push for consolidation that comes from Austin from time to time.  Other lectures also proved beneficial, from Week one’s history of school finance to the more “nuts and bolts” topics of budgets and the TEA Summary of Finance discussions in Week 2.  Week 3’s lecture was the heart and soul of the course, in my opinion.  Understanding the sources of funding and actually seeing and comparing two districts was a great learning experience. My interviews with my superintendent during this course basically confirmed my belief that funding for education in Texas needs a complete overhaul.  As a property poor district, we are not able to provide the same level of education as a rich district which can pay their teachers more, provide better training to teachers and aides, and be on the forefront of technology and best practices.  I came to admire administrators and school boards who must make tough decisions concerning school finances in these difficult times. Weeks 3 and 4’s assignments were real back breakers.  I learned more about the workings of school finance by looking at FIRST and the comparisons of the districts than in any other part of this superintendent’s certification program.  By having to look at real situations faced by administrators, discussing these problems with my Wiki group, and reading other Wiki groups reasoning I came away with a powerful sense of how difficult school finance really is.  In talking with Dr. Creel in my  conference I believe he was right in saying that only a few people really understand the system for educational funding in Texas….it is just that complicated. My Wiki group turned out to be a real learning experience.  Each of these educators was outstanding in their work ethic and dedication as well as their insightful comments concerning each week’s lesson.  Because we were a mixture of large and small schools, wealthy and poor districts, I was able to get a perspective I could not have seen without their contributions.  I appreciated their generosity in explaining issues that I didn’t understand and learned that networking will be a great tool that I must have if I hope to be an effective superintendent. This course, EDLD 5342, was difficult for me, but I know that I will draw from what I learned in these 5 weeks throughout the rest of my career in administration.

EDLD 5342 Week 4, Part 5

The district posts a job description and bid request for the external auditor job.  The interested auditors will present their bids and a resume to the central office.  The superintendent and business manager will present their choice to the school board for their approval. The auditor is given complete freedom and cooperation to look through all aspects of the district’s finances and expenditures.  Often, they will have questions that require school personnel to supply documentation of spending or receipt of funds.  Because we are a small district, most years the audit takes only about 5-8 days.  However, when there are concerns or a need for additional documentation the process can take longer. The audit will generally come up with a general overall rating of the district and then break it down to more specific areas of concerns or positive comments.  One major focus has been how purchase requisitions are processed and the checks and balances used to make sure all money is expended according to state law and local policy.  One example came about recently when the auditor suggested that the district change its policy on credit card use.  No longer will employees be able to use the credit card to pay for hotel rooms and travel, but must send through a check request and supply receipts.  The audit is discussed in an open board meeting and reported to local media as well as posted on the school website.  The public is invited to discuss the audit in the open session of the appropriate board meeting.

EDLD 5342 Week 4, Part 4

My district is a small district (550 students in grades K=12) and is also a property poor district.  Our total personnel salaries make up 70.63% of our budget or $3,600,000. Obviously, salaries are a huge part of the total budget.  When looking at the actual positions funded, I found that every teacher is utilized fully in each period of the day, minus their conference period.  This streamlining was even further accentuated by not replacing a fine arts teacher who retired and combining some administrative duties when one administrator left the district.  The district also got a waiver for elementary class size so we could further reduce the number of teachers on that campus.  One teacher was cut from the middle school campus and his duties covered by reducing the number of sections per grade level.  Several stipends were taken away, such as those given in the past to lead teachers, academic contests sponsors, and some small ones given to math and science teachers.  All aides, maintenance, transportation, janitorial, and other non-teachers were limited to no overtime pay in order to keep a handle on salaries even better. If our teachers were given a 5% raise it would mean that the district would be required to come up with an additional $180,000 in a very tight budget year.  The only way the district could honor such an increase would be to cut the budgets of extracurricular budgets, which have already been slashed by as much as 30%. I don’t see any possible way that the teachers can be given a raise, even if it is smaller than 5%.

Week 3, Part 4

Our district is quite small with a refined ADA of 501.284.  We are also a property poor district with a local property value of $65,851,537 (down almost $7 million from 2010).  The vast majority of our funding comes from the Foundation School Fund. Our M&O tax rate is $1.04.

 Our current funding with all adjustments from the FSP is $3,266,611. We receive funding for special education ($406,685), career and technology ($345,000), gifted and talented ($18,961), compensatory education ($414,942), and bilingual education ($663).  We do get $22,398 for our transportation allotment and another $45,379 for the high school allotment.  Our local fund assignment is $725,571.

With a yield per penny of $5,987, our district cannot generate a substantial amount of money and must rely on state funding to drive the M&O budget.  Since the M&O funds are designated for specific items which do not include buildings and facility improvement, we have passed two bonds in the last 7 years in order to replace buildings that were built in the 1930’s.  Even though the new buildings have changed the outside of our district, the lack of funding has limited our ability to meet our students’ educational needs as we have fewer aides for special education, have had to cut our fine arts programs, and now have larger class sizes in most grade levels due to teacher cuts. 

With the state wide budget crisis we are currently experiencing, small ,property poor districts will continue to struggle to provide all of the “bells and whistles” that more wealthy districts have until the state finds a way to have a truly equitable system of school finance.

EDLD 5342, Week 2, Part 1

A goal driven budget will align the budget with the overall goals of the district set forth by the Board of Trustees with other goal setting groups' plans.  This sort of budgeting will ensure that those items that are a priority will receive appropriate funding so that they will become reality. 

This week's lecture made clear that the District Improvement Committee and the Site Based Committee/Campus Improvement Committe should formulate their plans to reflect the goals of the Board of Trustees.  These individual plans will provide more detail to the broad goals formulated by the board.

My local district set forth six goals that are posted on our website.  Each of these goals are reflected in our campus improvement plans.

 First, the district wants to provide a safe, positive learning environment for students and staff.  Towards this end, the district has allocated funds for fencing, built new educational facilities, and improved the safety on and about campus through the use of money from bonds and the general budget.

The second goal is to gain a higher accountability rating.  The district solicited a grant from a local charitable foundation in order to purchase CSCOPE for the 2011-2012 academic year and beyond.

The district set a goal to support lifelong learning for students, staff and community members and set aside funds to provide GED classes and improve career and technology resources and opportunities.  The CATE funds were primarily provided through the Perkins Grant and the GED classes were funded partially by those using the class and by local donations.

We have set goals for high attendance and promoting a zero percent drop out rate.  We've budgetted for motivational speakers and have hired a full time attendance clerk who calls students who are absent and follows up on students who are at risk due to attendance issues.  We recently hired a counselor who will not be hindered by testing, scheduling and other distractions in order to focus on students in need of counseling.  These programs will be paid for through our local budget.

The board set the goal of better communication with parents.  To achieve this they used some technology money to provide a calling system so that parents can receive messages about school events and closures.

Finally, the district set the goal to institute a building maintenance program in order to meet the needs of the students.  A local charitable foundation provided the money to build an Ag Science building, bond money provided a new gym and renovation of the football stadium and local budgetary funds have been set aside for landscaping.

Each of these goals would likely have been left undone or greatly cut back if not for a goal driven budget.  We have accomplished a lot with a small tax base, due in a large degree to the committment of the community to having a quality school district.

EDLD 5342 Part 5

My superintendent believes each of the groups listed brings a unique perspective to the budgeting process.  The entities listed will represent the community in which the school is located, the professional staff, as well as the administrators of the district.

Central office administrators and staff will have a perspective that reflects the overall district's needs and concerns.  Since I am in a very small district this is somewhat limited, but larger districts will have assistant superintendents for different areas of administration and each will be able to represent his area of expertise in the budgeting process. He also thinks central office personnel will have more knowledge of revenue and student population projections as well as a better working knowledge of how the state funds education.

Principals of the individual campuses will bring insight to the development of campus culture and goals for their schools.  Principals will also bring a bigger view of their school's needs than classroom teachers because they have access to the special needs of each teacher and group on campus.

Site Based Decision Making Committees will bring in ideas from a perspective different than professional educators.  He indicated that this new insight often allows schools and districts to think outside of the box.  Often the businessmen on the committee will reflect a need for better trained employees and the district can respond with programs that will meet that need.

District improvement committees are useful in his view because they are usually goal oriented people and will be able to focus on what needs to be done to fix a problem and then also be creative enough to work on ways to fund the goals.  We are in a unique position this year as we are being mandated to work closely with the District Improvement Committee because of bad TAKS scores from one subpopulation and their input will shape the budget more than ever.

Teacher organizations can be strong advocates for not only pay and benefits, but also working conditions, each of which will effect a budget.  He believes that our local teacher organization has been very easy to work with and in fact, deals more with improving the quality of education that any with which he has worked.  He believes the small town atmosphere keeps the relationship form becoming adversarial.

Our small town takes great pride in their schools.  The superintendent mentioned several groups who have a large stake in our school system.  One local foundation has donated money in the past to build an Ag Science building, renovate our auditorium, provide technology for our high school and just this year paid $20,000 so we could implement CSCOPE in the district.  He reflected that not all "outsider" input changes the budget in a negative way.

Finally, the board of trustees can be a big help or a big hindrance, according to this third year superintendent.  He expressed that his first two budgets went through with no issues, but this year's budget process became contentious as the board and administration dealt with the funding cuts from the state.  Some individuals disagreed with budget cuts in extracurricular activities and even with some of the personnel moves that were made in order to keep a workable budget.  The superintendent did say that the board represents the community and that their input should be valued because they are the districts eyes and ears in the community.

Reaction

Each group mentioned is an important part of the budget process, even if it is in an advisory role.  The central office people should be the experts on school finance.  They know the special programs, funding for those programs as well as rules and regulations that drive them.  Principals are generally more focused on their own campus and tend to be somewhat territorial.  Too often they do not see the overall district's best interests as clearly as they see the campus for which they advocate.  Site based committee's can be beneficial, but only if they represent a broad range of the school's demographics.  Too often they are the power players who are also involved in other groups such as PTO and booster clubs.  The district improvement committee wields great power as the budget must respond to the goals they set.  Teacher organizations in Texas aren't as powerful as other states, but it would be wise for any budget process to get as much input from those who are closest to the students.  Community stakeholders can make or break a superintendent and need to be included in the budget process.  They will often find a way to fund their favorite program, whether it is an extracurricular team or an educational program that they hold dear.  Finally, the school board will have the final say in approving the budget, so obviously they need to be involved in the process, even if informally, from the beginning.  Letting them know of projected issues with funding or student population growth or even potential major expenditures looming in the future will allow them to prepare for them and help inform the community of the issues.

EDLD 5342, Part 4

My superintendent was very open about the budgeting process at our small district.  He was also cognizant of the fact that each district views the role of the superintendent in the budgeting process differently.
At our district, with a student population of around 550 in grades K-12 and a very low tax base, budgets can get very personal.  The superintendent indicated that because we have so few employees, the decisions made concerning budgets are often viewed as more than just monetary decisions, but reflective of the worth of each program or employee affected by the decision.
He tries to get started as early as possible with the process by including the campus principals and department heads in meetings immediately after the Christmas break.  He leads these administrators through last year's budget and looks at the current year budget to see if the previous plans were working.  He then gives budget planning documents to each principal and department head so that they can take them back to their campuses for input from teachers, coaches, and other employees.
When he gets these proposals back, usually before spring break, he gets with the business manager and begins working on revenue projections and student populations anticipated for the upcoming year.  At this time he will usually begin formulating a tentative budget based on the requests from the campuses and other entities.  He will then meet again with the principals and department heads to see where cuts can be made from their proposals.  Because we are a poor district, he stresses to each administrator that we must prioritize spending so that it has the most impact on student learning.  This sometimes means that extracurricular activities have to go an extra year or two without new uniforms or non-safety equipment so that the educational programs can be fully funded.
He then takes the agreed upon budget to the board for their input.  This is usually done during May.  He reminds them that the budget was agreed upon by those who will actually be using it and that any changes would have to take that into consideration. 
This year was unique in that the state cut our allocation significantly and the board had to make some difficult decisions in the summer because of the late notification of the cuts.  The superintendent said that keeping the board informed was key this year more than most.
Once the board approves the budget, it is submitted to TEA via PEIMS and the process starts over again immediately.

REACTION:
I do not envy the position in which the current funding crisis has placed superintendents.  I truly believe our superintendent does the best he can with the limited funds which he has available.  He includes everyone who will be involved in the process very early on and keeps us all informed throughout.  He has proven to be an advocate for academics and technology in his three years in our district and the budgets have reflected that drive. 

EDLD 5342 Week 2, Part 3

It is with increasing anxiety that I learn more about budgeting and school finance.  This is an entirely new world to me and one that I am finding daunting.  I have learned numerous concepts that will eventually allow me to develop and/or contribute to the development of a district budget.

 Everything that I’ve read and through conversations with central office personnel, the budgeting process requires comprehensive planning by a wide group of people.  One must not only look forward to the next year’s budget but must also look back to see if the previous year’s budget had been successful. 

I found the different types of budgets very interesting.  I have used the zero base budget in athletic budgets and now as a campus principal. It has proven to be more effective in getting the most “bang for the buck” as opposed to the line item budget in which money is generally allocated based on historical use, not necessarily what is actually needed.

The very exacting projections needed to complete a workable budget will encourage me to include as many people as possible in the process and will ensure that I have a very competent business manager on staff.

I feel that surrounding myself with talented people, collaborating with all appropriate people, and keeping some basic financial rules in mind will allow me to prepare a budget that will meet the needs of the students and community.