¶ … School Principal Budgetary Reform

This work intends to address the situation of budgeting problems within the context of a fictitious school for purposes of this work, which will be called Highbridge Day Care. This is a school that receives State allocations for funding in part as well as allocations from other sources. The school budget is set and fixed prior to budget submission to the board each year.

Too many times waste in the school budget can be traced back to abstract and poorly defined expenditures allocated to poorly defined functions of administration. However, the realization of this has some district resolving the problem.

Resolution of School Budget:

Streamlining administration / support-service expense.

The school principal is ethically as well as administratively responsible to oversee budgetary concerns, not only in preparation, but as well in the carrying out of those allocations approved by the governing committee for the school. The key for streamlining administration is to eliminate those positions that are not performing a vital function. Secondly, new positions or personnel should not be added without having first eliminated positions that are vague and non-productive in terms of the budget.

II. Policy Contribution to Budgetary Difficulties:

Problematic in many schools is adhering to the State policies which will cut funding for the following year if all the funds for the present year are not applied effectively hurting the school, in terms of funding and budgeting if the school saves money.

A problem to be addressed at another time is the fact that District Level makers of policy need to broaden both the authority as well as the standard of accountability of the school principal. Too many mandates within a school result in the limitation of performance and also effectively...

Committee of Economic Development Recommendations:
The Committee on Economic Development (CED) has stated that adherence to the following will aid the school boards and superintendents in ensuring "that sufficient funds get to classroom(s) to improve learning. "

District policies should induce schools to reallocate expenditures for more effective uses within current real spending levels.

Individual schools must have greater control of resources.

Increases in real resources should be tied to progress toward agree-upon achievement goals in a school investment plan or performance contract with the district.

Such investment plans should take the different costs into account for schools to educate students of different backgrounds and needs.

Recommendations for those who govern schools at the District level are:

Ensure that all policies support learning and achievement and are "well-coordinated and coherent"

Set goals for and monitor students achievement, using state and national standards

Ensure that adequate resources are provided to schools to meet such goals.

Delegate responsibility and authority, as well as accountability, for making progress toward achievement goals.

Provide incentives to teachers, students and administrators for rewarding achievement

Establish methods for "dealing with teachers and administrators who perform poorly"

Stated by the Committee on Economic Development is that:

"Local school boards should abandon their penchant for micro-management and concentrate on education policy," giving consideration to special interest groups at the "expense for the…