1. What is your role in development of the budget? What percentage of its development is at your discretion?
Cy-Fair’s Business and Financial department develops the budget for school administrators. Once the budget summary has been developed the Principal then can decide within the budget how he would like to spend the money given by the district. Certain areas of the budget are to be spend on specific items, for example the budget for “GT/Horizon Supplies” can only be spend on GT instructional needs. On the other hand the budget for “Instructional Supplies” is more flexible. Primary example the after the Principal analyzes what are his campus needs, he then may decide on the materials he would like to spend the money on as long as it supports the needs of his campus. Although the principal is limited on how he
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can spend the schools budget, he has full control of how he would like to spend Title 1 money as long as it also supports the needs of the campus in order to improve students learning. 2. What is the most challenging aspect of your budget? The most difficult aspect of the schools budget is the limitations a principal has when wanting to transfer money from one budget to another in order to fit the needs of the campus, since the budget is created by the Business and Financial department. The process in which a principal can borrow money from another budget is that he can only borrow from the top items to the bottom items, for example “Staff Hospitality” can borrow money from the “Employee Travel” budget, but the not the other way around. Principals are not allowed to borrow from the bottom items in order to transfer money to the top items on the Budget Summary list. This action can potentially get a principal in trouble. 3. If there were a budget line that you felt/sensed was not effectively invested, how would you confirm that, and what would you do about it? The principal would call the director of finance, Karen Smith. He would ask the following questions: how much was needed? What created the issue? If the principal felt that the money was well spend and the district questioned it he would then debate as to why the committee needed the money if you he knows it was for the kids and what they need to have a more successful school year, basically “plead the case.” 4. How are expenditures prioritized for the budget? Is there a standardized process to accomplish this across the district, or is it on a school-by-school basis? For the district of Cy-Fair the Business and Financial department sets and develops the budget for every school. Then the principal looks at what the campus needs are, for example this year teacher development was on his priority list, so therefore he focused on that budget above everything else. He used the Title 1 money to target this need since he has full control of how he would like to spend it. This action is taken after teacher salary is set in place. He spend a lot on consultant services in order to strengthen our teachers in balance literacy. 5. Do you need to adjust spending over the summer to allow for start-up costs till the new budget opens? The fiscal year in CyFair begins on July 1st and ends on the last day of school. Adjusting spending can be a bit tricky, since schools are not supposed stock pile because it’s illegal to close cut the budget. Basically what the principal decides to spend the budget on needs to be for the school year. If the school has money left over it fine because it rolls over for the next school year. 6.
How are payables and receivables handled as the budget year winds down? What happens if there’s money left over at the end of the budget cycle? At Duryea Elementary Mr. Henry’s secretary handles expenditures, she keeps track of all payables and receivables. His secretary keeps Mr. Henry updated on all expenses. She places the orders and tells him from what budget is coming from. Once that is done it is Mr. Henry’s responsibility to approve the order and then finally the district has to approve it. She’s in charge of sending the invoice to the financial office. CyFair also has a great check and balances system, which is done by the principal, the secretary and the director of finance. He also has a Title 1 liaison who is in charge of the paperwork. Finally the Librarian has her own budget that she keeps track of as well along with the principal and the director of finance.
7. How and how often are miscellaneous expenditures monitored/evaluated/adjusted? On the daily basis, by him, the secretary, Title 1 liaison, and the director of finance. If the school goes over on of the budgets, the district replaces the money from another
budget. 8. What processes are in place during allocation of funding to assure that real needs are being met? How is the efficacy of those allocations monitored/evaluated as the year progresses? First off it needs to be on the Campus Improvement Plan. What is being spent has to show how it’s going to help out at risk students. Along with that data is analyzed to track the academics needs of our kids and how it is improving. Basically the principal has to be able to justify how the money being spent addresses the needs of our kids and data is also linked to the process. 9. What is the communication path among board, budget committee, and administration? What is the input/output process in terms of suggestions/recommendations and budgetary decisions? The Board has to approve the budget. The board then communicates the information with the departments of Business and Finance. The director of finance then communicates with the school administrator. They also have meetings through out the ear to keep principals informed and offer guidance as well. Finally on the daily basis the Principal and his team (Secretary and Title 1 liaison) monitor the finances and notify each other regarding the budget. Analysis of Responses The main theme I noticed was the effective support system CyFair has created to guide principals in their budget decisions and understanding. Teamwork is also a strength of our campus and district, like primary example the district has provided one-on-one budgeting guidance through their rookie meetings program. At the campus level the principal has the support of the secretary and title 1 liaison. An advice that my principal gave me that has stuck with me is when he said, “to always seek for guidance from the budget director and to build a strong budgeting team at my campus, due to the fact that as a brand new first year principal 90% of my time will spent on building people up. Specific insights regarding systems and processes at the campus level seemed to be well structured and highly supportive. I admired the way the checks and balances system is set up, which makes it easy to keep control of payables and receivables. I truly believe that it takes a good team to be able to effectively manage the budget, to assure that the money is being spent towards student’s achievement. Personal Reactions and Future Utility Overall what I took away from this experience is that the budget is managed based on the needs of the campus, which is always targeted towards student’s success. Basically the budget is connected to studnets academic success and data has to be tracked to support as to why the money was spent in a certain area. As a current literacy coach and reading interventionist everything I do is geared towards the success of my students. Everything I do is purposeful, therefore budgeting should have the same connection. I also took away that my district takes good care of principals when dealing with budget because of their well-structured checks and balances system. I will certainly as a future principal will make sure that my support team is established so that budgeting can be simplified instead of an impossible overwhelming task. My principal stated that the way he would rank the things that a principal in CyFair should worry about is, 1) kids safety, 2) testing, 3) special education, and lastly budgeting. Finally knowing that my district provides great support and that their priority when creating the budget is the kids success, encourages me to continue in my career path.
I attended the Saturday Lab 1 session discussing the Denison Specialty Hospital case study. In our session, we had a through discussion into the different budget terminology. I learned about the difference between accrual and cash accounting methods, which is based on the timing of when the revenue and expenses are recognized. I also learned about responsibility centers as an organizational unit under the supervision of a manager, who is responsible for its activities and results. In addition, the manager is accountable for the budget of the department that they head. Therefore, a centralized form of management in developing the budget because it makes easier to because the information for the department budget is located
Snell, Lisa. A Handbook for Student-Based Budgeting, Principal Autonomy and School Choice. Los Angeles: Reason Foundation, 2013. E-book.
Thomas Jefferson was a man who believed that all American citizens need to be educated so that they may exercise their rights. He saw public education as essential to a democracy. One proposal he made for public education would guarantee that all children could attend public schools for three years. However, much like other early school reforms, this proposal received much rejection and was never brought into being. Despite this rejection, Jefferson still believed that America needed public education. Eventually, he opened the University of Virginia. Even though his bills and proposals to benefit public education never saw the light of day, he still made many contributions to public education by providing the foundation on how a democracy should handle educating its
The Australian Budget is an annually published document which details the Federal Government's plans to affect the level of economic activity, resource allocation, and income distribution through the use of fiscal policy. It describes the framework which the government intends to follow during the next financial year which will result in the attainment of their objectives. The budget is a publication of the government's plans regarding the use of fiscal policy, and is published to parliament and the general public on “budget night”, so as to allow open dissemination about the status of public finances and to promote transparency in Australia's fiscal policy.
For government budgeting to be effective, the process that guides it must be an evolving one. As the government gets bigger, it will most likely destabilize the existing method. Therefore, it must change to keep pace with the demands and growth of the country. The process must be capable of handling the complexity of our nation and its multifaceted needs so it will always need revisions and restructuring to face these new challenges. Its ultimate goal must be to reinforce the government and strengthen the country.
Local school boards must know and completely understand the basis of legal responsibilities and restrictions. These responsibilities and restriction include overseeing the operation of local public schools. The school board is held accountable for creation of policies, rules and regulations that provides guidance for the administration and operation of schools. The school board is perceived as a corporate body, which means an individual member of the board do not have more power than the overall power that is given to the board by the legislature. Therefore, individual school board members do not have the freedom to formulate policy, or act self-sufficiently of the school board as a whole. School board members are known to be public school officers, and are given powers by the legislature that help them fulfill their responsibilities.
In order to develop a better job with school finances the administrator had to dedicate time, and consider many factors not just the monetary aspect, but also, an administrator has to have are where to allocate the funds, the amount available, and resources provided. Also, the importance that the financial system sees public education as an important source for the future of the children and their investments are guide tours the education (Rose, 2013). Finances at schools allows them to obtain programs to enhance the education and encourage to keep a good attendance. All schools and districts need to be somewhat strong financially in order to provide students with a higher quality education as well the technology advantages.
I went to the school board meeting on March 21, 2016 in Kanawha. The following people were at the council: Wayne Kronneman, Leah Deutsch, Ryan Hiscocks, Ryan Johnson, Jay Burgardt, Mona Buns, Gary Chizek, Todd Hammer, and Jon Harle. The others were mainly community member which included teachers, principals, parents and supporters. Some of the West Hancock staff included Mr. Peterson, Mrs. DeHart, Mrs. Bruns, Mr. Francis, Mrs. Gast and others. The other people who were there were parents and other community members. The first part of the meeting was the revision of the budget and presentation of the budget. This was given by Wayne Kronneman. He explained the budget of this year and how it compared to last years. Also he also talked about the budget for next year. After that they had a discussion with the
You’re a ninth grader at a school in Philadelphia. The neighborhood is poor, even if not all of the students are. Your school has very little money for things like computers or technology. You walk into second period one day, sit down, and discover that the floor next to your desk is damp. The teacher explains that there is a leak in the roof, and that the school can’t afford to fix it. The school can’t afford to fix the leak or buy computers because it is inadequately funded. So the government kindly lends your school the money to not only fix the leak, but buy computers. But does that necessarily motivate you to improve your grades? Do you suddenly decide to do your homework because the leak is fixed? Probably not. The government sees that your grades remained the same, and two years later, when our school needs to hire more teachers and make the classes smaller, the government denies the school that money. They say that since money didn’t help your grades last time, why should it help you now?
A company's budget serves as a guideline in planning and committing costs in order to meet tactical and strategic goals. Tactical goals such as providing budgetary costs for daily operations, and strategic objectives that include R&D, production, marketing, and distribution are all part of the budgeting process. Serving as a guideline rather than being set in stone, the budget is a snapshot of manager's "best thinking at the time it is prepared." (Marshall, 2003, p.496) The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred.
Participative budgeting has the advantage of transferring information from the subordinate to their superior This knowledge is likely to be more reliable and accurate as the subordinate has direct contact with the activity and therefore is in the best position to make budget estimates. Participative Budgeting also gives subordinates the opportunity to discuss organisational issues with superiors, in which an exchange of information and ideas can help to solve problems and agree future actions (Nouri & Parker 1998). This transferral of information is important particularly when dealing with a matter of high task difficulty as, the more difficult a task, the greater the need for consultation with subordinates. Participative budgeting has a higher performance rate when dealing with more difficult and more volatile tasks than non consultative budgeting (Lau & Tan 1998)
I believe that all of the budget categories are extremely important to the organization. First, I believe it would be best to start with the people because grooming someone’s skills and learning to benefit from someone’s talents may take a while. Additionally, we want the clients of our group to be the main focus and it is important for the community to change their mind about passing these wonderful people over. Supplies will always be important because no one can get through a meeting without pens or paper. Space will be vital because there must be a place to meet for our organization’s development. Later on I can see things like equipment and miscellaneous
I learned a few things about my school and myself in regards to this area of leadership by participating in this activity. I learned that my school asks for very little participation from the teachers and community in regards to the budgeting process. But it could be an excellent venue to review prior year accomplishments as well as decide on future objectives with these stakeholders. If I were an administrator, involving the community and faculty would not only help in maintaining awareness, but I could also use this as a way to help those who may not be directly vested in my school, but who are helping fund it through their taxes, recognize effective administration in our efforts to reduce costs and provide needed resources to the various programs. I also feel that budget decisions cannot be solely programmatic or solely monetary. There needs
The Westminster council has to allocate money to various departments from this general fund. This money has to be allotted to the various departments, which require funding such as Education, Environment and Leisure, Finance, Housing, Planning and Transportation and Social services. Not only does the council have to simply allocate resources to the various departments, but it also has to judge how much of the allocation, education for example it chooses to spend on using its own staff and facilities to produce a service, rather than contracting out other companies to provide the work for them.
Budgetary control is not just a financial plan that sets forth cost and revenue goals but a device for coordination, control, communication, motivation and measuring of performance. In a business environment it is most valuable as a tool to control the flow of cash because a good system would monitor cash inflow and flag up any projected shortfalls so that corrective action could be taken, for example if some consumers were not paying promptly or there was a sudden and unusual need for expenditure. Additionally, such a system in place would also ensure that money was always available for essential business purposes like for example buying raw materials.