Citizens deserve the right to know the inner- workings of their government, and public institutions; which includes our school districts. This is an important feature of school and community relations because school boards are elected locally to ensure that the schools in that community are governed and operated properly both fiscally and academically. This is why it is admirable that the State of Arkansas has determined that each school district within that state should ensure that each district website include;
“(A) Minutes of regular and special meetings of the school board;
(B) The budget for the ensuing year;
(C) Financial breakdown of monthly expenses of the district;
(D) Salary schedule for all employees;
(E) The school district’s yearly audit; and
(F) The Annual Statistical Report.” –
Furthermore, since school districts rely on public funding, school boards and districts should be accountable to the public for how they spend district funds, and regularly publish these item for the public to access.
I juxtapose my findings from Arkansas with those in my local community in Florence, South Carolina, and found that we also have state regulations that govern what information must be transparent to the community. This information can be found in the South Carolina Education Finance Act of 1977; which requires school districts to compile a transparency report that features; school board minutes, district financial statements, and district expenditures (South Carolina Education Finance, 2014). According to my school district website, this report is featured for the public to easily access, and obtain a copy for their review.
With this in mind, I interviewed the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, the director of t...
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...nce of having a good relationship between the school and the community, and that transparency is the best way to articulate that message. Therefore, I believe that my school district is following in the sprite of the Arkansas State Law, and South Carolina law being as visible to the community as possible. However, there are areas that they surely can improve in such as using technology to better communicate with parents and community, and getting more of the public involved in surveys and feedback. I believe that the district should make their own website and individual school websites more user friendly to allow them to better understand what information is available. Finally, I believe that it might be important for the district to invest in live stream board meetings so that the community can better see and hear the message that the school board is displaying.
I had the pleasure of being able to shadow Superintendent Shirley Hall of the Maplewood School District. Ms. Hall took the reins of the district over in 2012 from a very popular superintendent who was credited with making great strides within the district. Although Ms. Hall had very large shoes to fill, she seems to be doing it with grace and enthusiasm. She credits the previous superintendent with making systemic changes and establishing the overall forward momentum of the district, but recognizes that she cannot rest on past success. Her goal is to take the district to the next level of educational excellence by focusing her and her administrative team's efforts on the P.E.L.P. coherence model from Harvard University.
My assignment is a combination of two interviews. I interviewed an Assistant Principal, Ms. Katis Romig, as well as, our Curriculum Director, Mrs. Maria Petkanas. They are both responsible for the curriculum development and instruction for the school where I work, P.S. 811Q. I also learned a fair amount from Ms. Romig and Mrs. Petkanas including that District 75 Citiwide Special Education’s Deputy Superintendent, Ms. Barbara Joseph, had given the school feedback and suggested writing curriculum and textbooks. This was the only feedback she gave our principal during her observation last week.
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.
our school district never faces a problem as big as the ones presented in this
School boards now and days are corrupt and only care for personal financial gain. The problem persists throughout the entire nation. We need to find the right people to control our schools if they are going to be productive, and help re-establish educational...
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.
By having school board meetings, it helps to see what the school’s needs. This is very important for the reason that this may be the only time that a concern parent or person voice might be heard. From this meeting, it was learned that the school board members are willing to help people that have concerns. An example, of this, was when the concern Pre-K parent was worried that she heard that Pre-K has been just a daycare. However, someone from the board mentioned to her that she would personally go with the parent the next day and show her how Pre-K is running during the day. This made the parent so happy because her concerns were being met. I have learned that school board members look out for the students and that they are the number one source that community members should go to if they have a concern or a suggestion to better their children’s
School funding for public schools has collectively been cut by $7.6 billion since 2002, forcing schools districts in Georgia to a tipping point. The 2001 recession had a major effect on Georgia’s fiscal condition, which consequently had a major effect on the financing of K-12 education in Georgia. School budgets are used to describe a district’s plan for the upcoming year as pertaining to anticipated revenues and expenditures. Each district’s budget heavily relies on the amount of money they receive from the state’s general fund and since that number has significantly dropped in recent years schools are not able to provide the best education for our students. The budget for public schools in Georgia should be increased because teachers are losing their jobs and schools are being forced to eliminate valuable programs that are instrumental in the education of our youth.
The laws of the schools are to protect the students, faculty, and staff. Administrators must know the law so that everyone is treated equally and fair. With the state statutes, the school boards have the right to adopt and enforce rules and regulations necessary to operate and manage schools. Parents have to right to place their children in any institutions they feel their children will excel, whether that is a private or public school.(Essex, 2002, p. 6)
For my psychology interview assignment, I had the privilege of interviewing Elaine, who is the Director of Preschool X, which is an educational institution. She reports that she has been in this position for 13 years since its inception. Elaine is a close friend of my aunt, which was how I was able to meet her. She explained that her responsibilities include; the hiring of all personnel related to the school, submission of criminal background checks, the medical reports for all staff and children must be current, and also developed a curriculum for the teachers to execute. She has parent meetings and she deals with parents on a daily basis. For any arising issues, Elaine conferences with parents at least once or twice a week. Have weekly staff meetings regarding the curriculum. She also plays the role as the educational event coordinator, where she would “invite people from the dinosaur museum or alley pond park to come over to her preschool, to enrich the children”.
Even in this time of struggle, with billions of dollars going towards various war efforts overseas, America still has managed to keep taxpayer investments in education higher than that of funds for national defense (U.S Department of Education). In the 2004-05 school year, there was an estimated amount of 536 billion dollars set aside from taxpayer investment for education purposes. Without a doubt, education is a priority for the American government, and if these funds are used in the correct way, there is no reason why each and every kid in the United States shouldn’t be getting a quality education. However, the organization of the financial system is flawed, funds are not handled proportionately at the state level; rather, this system favors the wealthier districts and hands more funds to them while the less wealthier districts are handed a smaller pool of funds. This really affects America’s quality of education, which also reflects upon how America fairs on the world stage when it comes to competition in education with other countries. The disorganization of funds in the United States can be seen in the Hoover City School district, which has bought every student in that district an iPad for use in school. The first problem with this is that this school district does not even have a viable bus system that can transport students to and from school. Secondly, not even 20 miles from this district lies the Birmingham City School district where a little more than half the students are graduating, compared to Hoover City Schools where a bit more than 90 percent of the students are graduating. If anything, the state should be working towards improving educational standards in lower-income communities rather than debating on the log...
Proper school funding is one of the keys to having a successful school. Americans believe that funding is the biggest problem in public schools. School improvements revolve around funding. There needs to be funding not only in the successful schools but also the schools that aren’t doing as well. In documentary, Waiting for Superman, it talks about how smaller class sizes will help students. Funding is what will help the smaller class sizes. State funding mechanisms are subject to intense political and economic scrutiny (Leonard). Studies have shown that funding is inversely related to accreditation levels (Leonard). School funding needs to be increased, but there must be accountability as well.
Due to time restrictions, panel members were normally unable to meet in advance, so they build up their own self-sufficient interview questions. Although the principal chaired the interviews, they were rarely conceded out in an identical manner and there was no high level of uniformity with the questions. No official scoring system was used...
Odden et al. note that their analysis of spending patterns across the 50 states is supported by the conclusions reached by the Finance Center of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), although the results of their research did diverge in some significant ways. Odden et al. examined spending and staffing patterns at the district and school levels. They also scrutinized staffing patterns of expenditures by function and program and spending across curriculum content areas in California, Florida and New York. Their major conclusion was that while there had been considerable national investment in public education during the 20th century, as a rule the funds were distributed unfairly and used ineffectively.
In order to be an effective school, all school personnel must work together in a friendly, caring, polite, and respectful manner. There are a number of positions and employees in a school. “A school is a complex social system, and all the people in it contribute to making it run smoothly” (Kauchak & Eggen, 2014, p. 182). It’s important to acknowledge the contributions of all staff and faculty members. The principal, leader of the school is the ...