School Finance,
competency 8, has been an area of many personal deficits. While it still
remains one the areas in which I can grow the most, I do feel now that I am
dangerous enough to enter into conversations about school finance. My studies
and explorations during this last course have been wide spread. I am by no
means ready to take over the business office, but I am much more confident and
understand better how to build a budget that is goal-driven, supported by
annotations in the needs assessment and that will ultimately assist the
district in achieving its goals. The last time I self-assessed myself on
Competency 8 I had no areas of strength, five areas I felt confident, and six
areas that I felt needed improvement. As I near the end of this school finance
course I now feel competent in all but two areas. I still feel I need to
improve in two areas, personnel management and technology effectiveness in
school district operations. I will continue to pursue all of the areas in
Competency 8 in my future studies and experiences in educational leadership.
I gained a
great deal of knowledge from the lectures, interviews, reading and resources.
As I look back on week one, I learned about the history of school finance and
that tough times are actually not new. I know that there are state funding
formulas that are intended to ensure equity, equality and adequacy in resources
to all school districts regardless of size. The intent of these formulas is
noble but in reality these efforts fall short of meeting the intended purposes.
I reviewed two different District Improvement Plans (DIP). I gleaned from this
exercise that if used properly school districts can better spend their monies
on identified needs and as a result increase the return on their investment.
Week two brought
to light the benefits of different types of budgeting. Different budget
development processes may work better for different aspects of school business.
There are two dates mandated by the state and all other budget timeline dates
are determined locally. It is up to the Superintendent to develop the process
and then facilitate the organization through it over the course of the year.
The TEA School Finance 101 manual is a very useful document full of a great
deal of information.
Week three I
found myself diving deeper into the dollars and cents of two school districts
by reviewing their financial snapshots and financial summaries. Equality doesn’t
always equate to equal funds and resources. Comparing WADA to ADA, reviewing
allocations too expenditures, noting compensatory education allotments and
developing an understanding of funding and facilities debt payment are a few of
the areas I explored.
Week four dealt with financial accountability and district discretion of
spending. Everyschool district
is required to have an external audit on their financial records and business
practices. This report is sent to the state annually. School districts are
accountable for academic achievement and financial integrity, the FIRST report.
This report is made up of twenty-two indicators and each one is scored on a scale.
The sum of all the scores is collected and then a rating is determined based on
a rating system. While school districts do not have sufficient funds, they do
have the discretion to develop a staffing pattern and set teacher pay scales.
Every district is a little different in this respect because they all have
slightly different philosophies and or student needs. The economy of scale
lesson showed me how large schools benefit from having the flexibility of
buying in bulk. Small school districts must provide the same supports but they
do not get the bulk discount and as a result have fewer resources to use in
other areas.
The assignments
for this course have taken me to many places. I have spoken with the Deputy Superintendent,
Superintendent, and Chief Financial Officer several times. They were very
willing to share their knowledge and unfold our situation in my district. After
speaking to them I began to realize that school finance is a chore even for the
three of them. To completely wrap my head around every aspect of school finance
would be impossible. I was ignorant and now after this course of study I am
barely dangerous. I know some language and that there are reports out there
with volumes of information. The next step for me is to harness this new
knowledge and integrate into my current role and in future positions of
leadership. The budget can have a tremendous impact on organizational goals and
student achievement if leveraged and used properly.
The wiki experience has been exactly that, an experience. Everyone is on
a different schedule and gathering a group consensus proved to be tough on each
individual. However, the discussion board and blog comments were enlightening.
Cohort 5 is made up of people from school districts of all sizes and people
from all aspects of school leadership. This dynamic made for interesting
comments, insights and reflections.
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