Reflection for EDLD 5342 Week 4 Part 1 As stated in the Week 4 Lecture by Dr Lu, "the FIRST (Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas) is for the accountability of the school district's business and financial operations. It is designed to encourage Texas Public Schools to manage their financial resources better in order to provide the maximum money possible for instructional purposes. It monitors the processes and procedures used at all levels of money management in a school district" (Dr Lu Stephens, 2012). Provisions for FIRST(Texas Administrative Code (TAC), Title 19, § 109.1001) started in 2002 and is one of two accountability systems that was started by the Texas Education Agency for the purpose of holding school districts accountable for financial resources. This is a very important part of the superintendent’s job to monitor, analysis, and implement improvements to this rating system and the district’s financial processes and procedures to improve education and efficiency for all students and staff.

Week 3 Assignment and Collaboration of Wiki Group 5

http://brendaavance.wikispaces.com/Week3+EDLD+5342+Cohort+5+Wiki+Group+5+Collaboration

Check the above site out on School Finance as it was looked at through the eyes of two very different district's Summary of Finances and Snapshot.

http://brendaavance.wikispaces.com/Week3+EDLD+5342+Cohort+5+Wiki+Group+5+Collaboration

http://brendaavance.wikispaces.com/Week3+EDLD+5342+Cohort+5+Wiki+Group+5+Collaboration

Check the above out...great information regarding school finance as we see it through this assignment for EDLD 5342 Week 3

School District Stakeholders Input in Budget Process: How Important?

EDLD 5342 Week Two Assignment, Part 5 – Additional Stakeholder Input in the Budgeting Process

Summary and Reaction

I asked the question, “What types of input do you receive for budget development from each of the following individuals or groups?”, and received the following answers for each bulleted category that are in blue font from the assistant superintendent of business operations:

Ø       Central Staff --department budgets

Ø       Principals--Campus budgets

Ø       Site Based Committees--None directly

Ø       District Improvement Committee-- None directly

Ø       Teacher Organizations --None directly

Ø       Key Stakeholders  None

Ø       Board of Trustees --Whatever is communicated to the Superintendent is passed on to staff to develop the budget

These with a specific response other than “None directly” are the individuals and groups that touch the assistant superintendent of business operations directly and those with the response of “None directly” are the responsibility of the assistant superintendent over educational operations in our district and she gets those responses and shares accordingly.

In the EDLD 5342 School Finance Performance Outcomes on page 2 of the Week 2 Assignment, the question is asked, what types of input could you receive for budget development from each of the following individuals or groups?, with the individuals and groups being the same as mentioned above. Input from central staff will come in many forms, review of non-allocated requests, review of personnel staffing needs, forecasts ad analyses to name a few. Principals will give input from the resource planning group (RPG) and Campus Improvement Committees (CIC), enrollment projections and staffing needs. Site Based Committees will give input to the principal on parent concerns, student concerns, and committee review of preliminary budget and non-allocated funding. In our district the District Improvement Committee meets at least 4 times a year and has access to input information by surveys and emails to the assistant superintendent of educational operations and she shares it appropriately. I am unaware at this time how the input from Teacher Organizations is processed, but I will be on the look out for information regarding this group. Key Stakeholders give information to all superintendents and central administrators throughout the year and many sit on Resource Planning Groups, Campus Improvement Committees, District Improvement Committees and other district advisory committees. The Board of Trustees gives input many ways to the superintendent through personal conversations, emails, work sessions, executive sessions, board meetings and dinners. All stakeholders input is valuable to be heard and considered. 

Superintendent Is Most Important in District Budgeting!

EDLD 5342 Week Two Assignment, Part 4 – Superintendent’s Roles and Responsibilities in the Budgeting Process 4-20-2012

Summary

In preparing for this assignment I chose to send my superintendent and his assistant superintendent over the business operations of our district nine questions regarding the budgeting process and the superintendent’s role. I looked at the performance outcomes on page 2 of the Lamar University EDLD 5342 Week 2 Assignment – Involving Stakeholders in the Development of the School District Budget to create my questions. I also attended the board meeting where the assistant superintendent presented a power point presentation titled “General Fund Budget Transition” that detailed the preliminary budget for 2012-2013 and spoke with him regarding this matter after the meeting. In my district they use the Texas Education Agency Summary of Finance (SOF) to determine the expected cash flows from TEA. The budgets are built using the District’s assumptions, not the assumptions on the SOF. As stated in the TEA Resource Guide January 2010 p 27-28, our district assistant superintendent of business operations complies all school budgets into the district budget and communicates any revisions to appropriate administrators and bodies and leads the budget review teams. He collaborates with the superintendent of schools while the superintendent of schools is responsible for the development and communicating the budget process guidelines and calendar to the board of trustees. The superintendent of schools communicates the status of the budget with board of trustees and all stakeholders, listens to the public during the budgeting process, oversees the work of the assistant superintendent, conducts final review of all budget items including proposed district budget. “Beyond transparency and full disclosure in all expenditure transactions, the wise superintendent hires only the most competent business staff and personally ensures the integrity of financial affairs”, (Harris, S. (2009).Valenti p1699).

Reflection

In visiting with the superintendent of schools and assistant superintendent of business operations who are the top two administrators that deal with the district budget and funds to support teaching and learning, I am reminded of the grave responsibility to all the community stakeholders to use every dollar of the local, state, and federal funds to benefit the future of our world, our students. As stated in the textbook (Harris, S. (2009). Learning form the best: Lessons from award-winning superintendents. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.), “the superintendent’s role is to provide professional guidance and educational leadership to promote student success”. 

Understanding TEA Budgeting Gulidelines

EDLD 5342 Week Two Assignment, Part 3 – Understanding TEA Budgeting Guidelines

Summary

In reviewing the  Budgeting Update 14 A Module of the Texas Education Agency Financial Accounting System Resource Guide published by TEA in January 2012, the one hundred forty nine pages of useful and important information is organized with three pages of contents, a page listing Exhibits and pages and pages of budgeting objectives, approaches, legal requirements, annual budget responsibilities and guidelines, annual revenue estimates, district and campus expenditure estimates, and other areas of district budgeting knowledge. It is a document that is updated as needed and available on line http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=1222. I have learned that budgeting is allocating resources based on school district needs and should reflect the goals that are based on the district’s vision and mission. This guide lays out a planning process that will help the district be accountable for the taxpayer’s money. There are three phases of budgeting (i.e. planning, preparing and evaluating). In the planning process decisions are made by the board and administrators to connect resources with needs. In the preface of this document it states that, “The budget provides an important tool for the control and evaluation of a school district’s sources and use of resources”. The budgeting evaluation should tie to educational performance because the resource allocation should be closely tied with instructional plans. The school district’s budget is made up of local property taxes and state revenue funds along with federal funds and grant supplements. Financial forecasting and planning for expenditures, revenue, construction projects, student enrollment and other issues are an important part of the superintendent’s job. There are many aspects to budgeting that are addressed in this guide with some of them being funding, monitoring, reporting, estimating, projecting, law reviewing, and communicating the features of the budget itself. There are data collection and reporting that has to be done by the district to TEA. The ultimate responsibility for developing and communicating the district budget is the superintendents.

Reflection

In reading through the TEA Budgeting Guidelines, (Retrieved from the internet on April 19 at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=1222 and in the LU EDLD 5342 Resources) and reflecting on district budgeting I realize I will never know everything but as a superintendent I will need to know where to go get resources for information. It also makes it very clear, like our professors in all of our Lamar University superintendent certification program keep says, “Superintendents must network and help each other”. 

My Personal  Reflection on Part 2 of your assignment (EDLD 5342 SU3003 Cohort 5 WG5) 4-19-12

My personal top five were as follows: 1.November - Create Budget Development Plan, 2. Between February14-25 - Distribute budget preparation documents to campuses and central offices and conduct budget workshops for both campus administrators and central office administrators, 3. May 12 - Board of Trustees Business Briefing Preliminary Budget Review and Revenue Projections, 4. June 23- Board of Trustees Meeting Tax Rate Public Hearing and Adopt New Budget, 5. August 25 - Board of Trustees Meeting Adopt Tax Rate. (Retrieved from the internet April 19 http://learn-n-lead.wikispaces.com.) These five for me are where the rubber hits the road. You have to create a plan, allow input by all stakeholders, review the plan and make projections, have a public hearing and adopt a new budget and then the tax rate determines actual local funds available. As we all know all of the budget development calendar items are very important to the whole goal-driven budget process. I have enjoyed the wiki group collaboration and learning from other cohort members. Our group’s consensus of our top five list of events and dates will be posted before Sunday night April 22 by our fearless leader, Lorissa on the wiki discussion board. 

Defining and Describing a Goal Driven Budget

EDLD 5342 Week Two Assignment, Part 1 – Defining and Describing a Goal Driven Budget

A goal driven budget is making the connection between policies, major decisions, instructional programs and services, and the allocation of funds to support them. It is the establishment of goals followed by allocating the resources to implement the goals. Goals that are based on the vision and mission of the school should drive the development of the school budget.

As Dr. Nicks stated in the lecture this week, “the purpose of a goal driven budget is to assist in the attainment of a shared vision for the district and each campus”. He also stated that we should “think about the budgeting process as part of the total planning process of the school district” (EDLD 5342 Week Two lecture template p 1).

A goal driven budget process should exist in every district in the state. A large portion of each district’s budget is fixed costs (i.e. salaries, fuel, electricity, maintenance, transportation). With this in mind it makes it more difficult to proportion a large amount of funding to meet the goals of the district. A goal driven budget is simply having a budget that reflects and funds the vision and goals of the school district. In my district the district improvement plan does not have the funds listed on it, but when you look at the budget sheets and the plan side by side you can see the direct correlation of the planning process. When budgets are not just balance sheets but are utilized as a spending plan and district improvement plans are not just written paper only but used to implement the vision and mission to improve teaching and learning credibility is established and realized for all learners. 

EDLD 5342 SU 3003 Cohort 5 Wiki 5

As of 4-16-12 our EDLD 5342 SU3003 Cohort 5 Wiki Group 5 consist of the following:


Lorissa Bailey  lbailey@lamar.edu  http://lorissabailey.blogspot.com/ http://learn-n-lead.wikispaces.com/


Marie Adams madams5@lamar.edu http://mariedadams.blogspot.com/ http://marieadams.wikispaces.com/


Jody Kotys jkotys@lamar.edu http://jody-kotys.blogspot.com/ http://jody-kotys.wikispaces.com/


Brenda Avance bhavance@lamar.edu http://bhavance.blogspot.com/2012/04/edld-5342-school-finance.html http://brendaavance.wikispaces.com/ 214-402-1583 cell (text or call)


As a group, the Wiki Group 5 will continue to use Lorissa's Wiki http://learn-n-lead.wikispaces.com/home as our collaboration point in the assignment pages she created for our group use. Feel free to check it out and comment on any of our blogs and wikis above. Happy collaborating for learning school finance!!!!

EDLD 5342 School Finance

The Lamar University EDLD 5342 School Finance Cohort 5 course began April 9 and we are off and running. This will be jam packed full of new information for me and I am excited about the learning process it will involve. Right in time for this course the GISD Board Meeting Work Session was held April 10 with an update on the 2012-2013 Budget, review of the January and February 2012 Financial statements and Tax Reports. This was a great board meeting to attend to geared up for this course.