Heritage Elementary School Budgeting Report

I interviewed Dan Carter, principal at Heritage Elementary School to gain a better understanding of how Heritage Elementary School’s budget is determined, how funds are allocated, and the timeline in which a budget has to be developed and finalized. In referring to School District Budgeting (Hartman, 2003), I concluded that my district uses a centralized approach to budgeting. Many decisions are made at the district level by our Business Manager, Steve Summers and Superintendent, Randy Guttenburg. The budgets for personnel costs, utilities, maintenance, technology, and textbooks are planned at the district level or by specific departments. Heritage’s budget is calculated based on a per-pupil rate by Mr. Summers. This year Heritage was estimated
Carter, I learned how estimates are made and problems are solves so that the budget is balanced and resources are allocated to support the vision of the school. Heritage’s population has remained the same for the last few years because we have reached the school capacity and can not accept many new students. There has been little no change in the amount of money allocated to Heritage. Mr. Carter has only have to make minor adjustments to the budget due to the lack of growth. One adjustment Mr. Carter has made to the budget is the classroom teachers general supply budget. In the past, each teacher and grade level budgets varied. For example, it was determined that kindergarten would require more supplies than fourth grade and as a result were budgeted more money. Mr. Carter decided to allocated the general supply fund equally to all classroom teachers. In doing this, some teacher gain money and some lost money. Prior to making the change at Heritage, he communicated with the other elementary schools in the district to make sure that his teachers’ budgets were comparable to the budgets at the other schools. Then he introduced the change to the teachers and encourage them to stay within their budget. He made sure to explained that if there is a supply essential to learning and a teacher or grade level did not have enough funds he would find the necessary funds. When looking at the final totals, there was very little change in grade levels
Carter, I learned a lot about the budgeting process. I found it very interesting that staff members did not have the same budget. This is an adjustment that I feel was important to make. All staff members should receive equal support. When think about this even further and understanding our school's vision of working “collaboratively to help all students and staff attain high achievement”, I might even adjust the budget so that individual teachers do not have a budget. Instead, I would allocate all funds into a grade levels team budget to help ensure equal educational opportunities for all. This was a issue I encountered this year. Teachers were looking into ordering RAZ Kids with their budgets. In fourth grade, all teachers but one decided to purchase RAZ Kids. This creates an imbalance in reading opportunities for that grade. Another topic I found interesting was how Mr. Carter is planning for the future. Over the past couple of year, Heritage’s budget has been very consistent. Next year we will be increasing from a three track school to a four or five track school. Mr. Carter has been planning for this increase by saving a portion of the budget and rolling it over. The ability to roll over a portion of the budget is new to the district’s budget policies, but I can assume has been put in place to help schools fund the growing population. Even though the district will cover the textbooks, furniture, and staff required due to the