Campus Budget assignment   Objective: In EDAD 5384, Resource Management in Education, you have learned about school finance, methods of budgeting, and procedures for resource acquisition and allocation

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Campus Budget assignment

 

Objective:

In EDAD 5384, Resource Management in Education, you have learned about school finance, methods of budgeting, and procedures for resource acquisition and allocation. For the campus budget project (course final), you will demonstrate your mastery of these concepts by developing and coding a plan for addressing an academic problem on your campus. Your evaluation of Texas Academic Performance Report (TAPR) or other longitudinal campus data, along with your approach to strategic problem solving for the challenges described below, will formulate the basis for your budgeting decisions.

Instructions:

Part 1: Identifying and Addressing the Problem

You have been offered a budget of $250,000 specifically for targeted improvement on your campus.

1. Identify longitudinal data to address a targeted area of growth on your campus for either reading or math performance. What longitudinal student data would you use to identify the problem? Provide examples of data used and describe the problem that you are addressing.

2. Identify resources you would use to address the problem. Describe your plan to address the problem. Provide a planning document (including timeline, checkpoints and specific action steps) of your overall plan to address the problem.

3. Describe how you would address your stakeholders to include them in your planning process. Include a sample agenda for a stakeholder meeting.

4. Explain how much of the budget would be allocated to personnel (i.e. tutoring, content specialists) or materials (technology supports or instructional materials for students).

5. Make a chart of how you would code at least 5 expenditures for this task using the 20-digit coding structure provided by TEA.

Part 2: Reporting Progress

Imagine that you made significant progress on this issue. Write a brief follow-up report to be shared at your stakeholder meeting. In your narrative, explain your problem-solving process and your rationale for the budget. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample Budget Scenario Project

 

 

 

 

Jane D. Doe

The University of Texas at Arlington

EDAD 5384

Summer 2021

 

 

 

 

Jane D. Doe, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, The University of Texas at Arlington.

[Type text] [Type text] [Type text]

 

Running head: SAMPLE BUDGET SCENARIO PROJECT 1

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jane D. Doe, E-mail: jane@doe.edu

Sample Budget Scenario Project

This section introduces the scenario by describing what you have been asked to accomplish with this report. You should begin by stating your objective for the report and describe the parts of the report in this section (see below). Since this part of the report is fairly generic, you are welcome to copy and paste the sample introduction shown below directly into your own paper to serve as your introduction to the assignment. You will not lose any points for doing so. You should not copy the rest of the paper, but you will find that it will serve as a good example to help you move quicky and smoothly through this project. Read through the whole sample paper before you begin.

As the principal of Sample Elementary School, I was notified that our campus had been awarded $250,000 specifically for the use of targeted interventions and accelerated instruction for the 2021-22 school year. In the pages that follow, this report will accomplish the following objectives:

Part 1, Section 1: The report will identify the problem our campus will be addressing through the use of these funds, and it will provide examples of longitudinal student data to justify the selection of this focus for improvement.

Part 1, Section 2: This report will identify resources our campus will use to address the problem and a plan for how those resources will be used. Included in this section is a planning document (including timeline, check points and specific action steps) of our campus’s overall plan to address the problem.

Part 1, Section 3: This report will identify how we will include stakeholders in the planning process, along with a sample agenda for a stakeholder meeting.

Part 1, Section 4: This report will identify the portion of the budget that will be allocated to personnel (i.e. tutoring, content specialists) and materials (technology supports or instructional materials for students) and other related expenses.

Part 1, Section 5: This report will outline a line-item, coded budget to provide specificity in how these funds will be divided across funds and functions.

Part 2: In the second portion of this report, I will provide a brief follow up report that can be shared at our upcoming stakeholder meeting. This section will explain our problem-solving process and our rationale for the budget that has been developed for the allocation of the $250,000 for targeted interventions.

Part 1: Identifying and Addressing the Problem

Part 1, Section 1: Identifying the Problem

In this section, you will first make a few general statements about some of the challenges that have impacted teaching and learning at your campus over the past year or two. You might talk about the impact of the pandemic response, such as remote or blended learning challenges, unexpected quarantining of entire classes or grade levels/departments, absenteeism and dropping out, issues with staff going on leave or quitting with no notice, the impact of school improvement requirements, and so forth. It is fine to write in first person for this scenario (I, we, our campus, etc.), and you should write as if you are the head principal of the campus. This discussion might take a paragraph or two. Try to use terms like challenges, barriers, and obstacles to keep the focus on the belief that your campus can use these supplemental funds to help overcome the instructional impact caused by these issues. (Otherwise, why should they give you this money?)

After a paragraph or two of description about some of the challenges, begin writing about how the campus data (test or benchmark scores, percentages who passed or failed a subject, academic gaps between remote and traditional learners’ end of year exam scores, reading levels, etc.) provide very specific proof of how these and other factors have negatively impacted either math or reading performance at your campus. By the time you get done describing the problem and describing the data, the reader should agree with you that your campus is smart to spend the $250,000 to fix this problem. It is OKAY to make up a fake problem and fake data for this paper because the focus here is on learning how to apply the concepts you have learned about developing campus budgets. If you are helping your campus leadership team with the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) grant, the response to HB4545 (related to accelerated instruction requirements for students who have not made satisfactory progress), or other tasks that require a great deal of planning and reporting, you will likely find ways you can include some of that information in this report.

You will need to focus on an issue that impacts more than one classroom. Remember, in this program, you are practicing campus leadership (not leadership of your own classroom), so look for an math or reading issue that impacts the whole campus, such as entrance and exit benchmark tests that show skills that are lost each year when the 4th graders leave for the summer and return as 5th graders, or how gaps in certain reading or math skills appear to have had a negative impact on STAAR EOC exams at the high school level. Word to the wise: You may be able to recycle parts of this assignment for your PASL tasks and artifacts if you use a REAL campus problem and REAL campus data.

Now you would follow the description of the problem with screenshots or tables of data (not just links to the data) to prove that we have evidence that the problem has been impacting campus instructional outcomes for a long time. Again, it is OKAY to use a fake problem and fake data for this paper because the focus here is on learning how to apply the concepts you have learned about developing campus budgets. However, if you plan to use any of this work as part of your PASL, you will need to identify a real problem and support it with evidence taken from real data. Since the PASL library of examples does not include any examples of the data they referenced in their selected problem, I am using some stand-in images and fake numbers for the data so you will have an idea of how you might format the data for the paper.

The main goal of this section of the project is to help you learn how to prove that your campus needs extra funds before you propose a plan for how to use the funds. This section is your proof that you are asking for the money for the right reasons. Don’t get too frustrated with trying to create elaborate data presentations for this paper unless you plan to submit some of this for PASL. In case you did not know, PASL limits the number of pages you can submit for longitudinal data and other artifacts, so read the PASL directions ( https://www.ets.org/ppa/test-takers/school-leaders/requirements ) first to make sure this effort won’t be wasted.

Figure 1

Sample Elementary Cohort Benchmark Data for Reading for 2016-2021

Note: The benchmark data pictured above was taken from end of year common assessments administered annually in May to all students at Sample Elementary.

 

Table 1

End of Year (EOY) Benchmark Data vs. Beginning of Year (BOY)for Following Year, 2017-2021

Year	Leaving 4th Grade – EOY Math Cohort Benchmark Grade Equivalents (GE)	Entering 5th Grade – BOY Math Cohort Benchmark Grade Equivalents (GE)	Difference between math skills at end of 4th and beginning of 5th grade
May/September 2017	Avg GE = 4.8	Avg GE = 4.6	Loss of 2 months GE
May/September 2018	Avg GE = 4.9	Avg GE = 4.6	Loss of 3 months GE
May/September 2019	Avg GE = 5.2	Avg GE = 4.8	Loss of 4 months GE
May/September 2020	Avg GE = 5.0	Avg GE = 4.7	Loss of 3 months GE
May/September 2021	Avg GE = 5.2	Avg GE = 4.9	Loss of 3 months GE

 

Note: The benchmark data pictured above was taken from end of year common assessments administered annually in May to all students at Sample Elementary.

 

Part 1, Section 2: Planning for the Use of Resources

In this section, you will identify resources your campus will use to address the problem and a plan for how those resources will be used. You do not need to get specific about the resources yet (that comes in sections 4 and 5). Included in this section is a planning document (including timeline, check points and specific action steps) of our campus’s overall plan to address the problem. You can use paragraphs, bulleted lists, charts, tables, or other ways to organize the information. The “planning document” should be part of this paper (not a separate document).

To identify resources your campus will use to the address the problem, you will first state the big ideas. For example, you might say that your campus is going to use the morning advisory period to provide targeted interventions in the computer lab to work on content area reading comprehension skills for students who scored below a certain percentage on their mock STAAR exams, or you might want to develop a fun-filled back to school camp with field trips to the trampoline park, library, and community college to build excitement for learning while reviewing the top 10 most-missed skills on the 5th grade beginning of the year math assessment. Tell briefly how you will use the resources you plan to request if it is not already evident. For example, if you plan to send teachers to training so they will know how to use the new curriculum you will purchase, then mention here that this plan will require the purchase of special curriculum for students and training for teachers. This section will be easier after you figure out your budget amounts in section 4, so you may want to come back to this section of the project.

Your timeline with checkpoints and action steps might look like this:

Table 2

Example Timeline, Checkpoints, and Action Steps

Timeline	Checkpoints	Action Steps
July 15	Meeting with kindergarten teachers and PTO representatives	Create plan for using literacy flashcard kits to close sight word gaps prior to first grade Identify needed materials and training Assign team roles and responsibilities Sign up for training
July 30	Order materials	Check projected enrollment Create PO, order online
August 1	Train kinder team and parent leaders	Make sure cafeteria is ready Distribute materials Pay trainers Set dates for flashcard parties Send out parent newsletter and survey (baseline to compare to end of year survey)
Week of August 10-15	Kit assembly	Kinder team will assemble home and school kits 1 and 2 with help from support staff and parent leaders
August 15	Kit 1 distribution	Distribute first take-home kits at Meet the Teacher event Notify families about flashcard party nights
1st Semester	Kit 1 utilization and progress monitoring	Beginning of year benchmark Use kits in all kinder classes 3 x per week Ask families to use kits at home 3 x per week Individual progress monitoring biweekly Pullouts for small group interventions Meet monthly with parent leaders & kinder team 4 family night flashcard parties per semester 1 kinder team group coaching session per semester
January 13-14	Midyear stakeholder meetings	Provide update for PTO leaders and central office team Bring kinder team, parent leaders, and students to present at school board meeting
2nd Semester	Kit 2 utilization and progress monitoring	Middle of year benchmark Utilize new kits in kinder classes and at home 3 x per week Biweekly progress monitoring Pullouts for small group interventions Meet monthly with parent leaders & kinder team 3 family night flashcard parties + big end of year celebration event 1 kinder team group coaching session per semester End of year benchmark
End of Year	Program evaluation	Evaluate program data with kinder team and parent leaders End of year survey for families Meet with central office team to determine next steps

 

Part 1, Section 3: Inclusion of Stakeholders

In this section, you will describe how you will keep stakeholders included, informed, and engaged in this improvement work, and you will provide a sample agenda for one stakeholder meeting. Two-way communication is important for buy-in for the ones who are doing the work, especially. Think about all of the different people who need to be part of the ongoing conversation so you can include their ideas and goals in the plan for targeted instruction. Some communication efforts will be designed to include and involve key stakeholders, and others might be to simply keep everyone informed.

This section will include a statements like “The campus leadership team will meet with the kindergarten teachers and a minimum of five kindergarten parent leaders in the summer to help establish purposes and develop the project goals and action steps, and we will continue to meet with them on a monthly basis to keep the project moving forward without a loss of momentum.” Use the chart above to find other ways the sample timeline involved stakeholders. The difference here is that you will writing sentences to tell who you are including and some of the reasons why instead of just listing the stakeholder meetings and events as action steps.

Stakeholders you might want to include are:

· Campus improvement committee

· Staff who will work with the program (get their input), plus informational meetings or updates for the staff who will not be part of the program

· Parents and possibly students, depending upon the age and program or approach

· Administration – campus leadership team plus others possibly (varies by project) - curriculum and technology department leaders, 504 and RtI specialists, instructional specialists, lead teachers or department heads, school board and superintendent

· Community Groups – think of interested parties, such as the Lions Club, newspaper, etc.

Figure 2

Sample Stakeholder Meeting Agenda with Kindergarten Teachers and Parent Leaders

Agenda

Stakeholders invited:

· Kindergarten teaching team

· Parent leaders, at least one per classroom

· Principal, AP, counselor, literacy specialist, PTO president, lead 1st grade teacher, principal intern

 

3:45 Introductions and opening remarks from principal, share data from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade beginning of year benchmark data for last three years

 

4:00 Brainstorming session to discuss potential use of flashcards in kindergarten for targeted instruction purposes

 

4:30 Activity for finding consensus for big ideas

 

4:45 Teams of 2 activity – teacher/parent teams brainstorm details for using flashcard kits at home and school

 

5:00 Share ideas from Teams of 2 with whole group, use consensus strategy to refine list, identify any needed resources

 

5:15 Reflection and conversation

 

5:30 Set dates for next meeting, training, kit building sessions, and kickoff event

 

 

Part 1, Section 4: Project Budget

In this section, you will describe how you plan to divide up the $250,000. You should plan to spend all of it in one year, and the total amount you request should equal exactly $250,000 (no more, no less). You will write statements like, “One of our biggest instructional materials expenses for this project is the cost of the two take-home and two at-school flashcard kits required for each of our 125 kindergartner students, plus 25 spare sets to cover lost and damaged sets, for a total of $15,000 ($25 per set x 4 per student x 150 students). We will set aside $2750 to pay for a trainer to come work with our team, plus $250 for a catered box lunch for participants at the kickoff meeting. “We will need to hire three part-time teaching assistants to help with small group instruction, with salary and benefits totaling $60,000.”

· For personnel costs, you might want to pay staff to tutor after school or on Saturdays, hire extra people to run an after school enrichment program, hire a team of educators to start a summer jump-start program a few days before the first day of school, hire extra subs to cover classes while teachers pull small groups for accelerated instruction, hire one or more full-time or part-time teachers or teaching assistants for to serve in support or coaching roles, etc. You can make up your own estimated costs for these salaries or extra duties, but if you ask, you will find that your district likely has a standard planning estimate for each type of personnel cost and extra duty pay.

· For materials, you can either use a cost for the whole site (which is common for site licenses for technology) or multiply the cost of individual materials by the amount needed. For example, if you are purchasing STAAR-formatted workbooks or licenses for an online test bank, you can multiply the cost of the item by the number of students who will need a copy of the book or a license for the software. You may wish to purchase a curriculum or other instructional materials used by teachers to plan for lessons.

· For professional development, list the costs to train the staff or the price of a membership to a coop that provides unlimited professional development services. You budget can include the cost of bringing in trainers, sending staff to training, hiring coaches to come in for a specific number of coaching sessions with specific staff, paying for a subscription to an online PD provider, etc. Don’t forget that you can provide specialized PD for campus leaders, counselors, interventionists, or support staff.

· Other ideas – check your campus improvement plan to get ideas for how your campus addresses interventions and accelerated instruction. You may be able to find costs and budget codes there to help you. Your plan can include student and staff incentives, field trips, celebrations and family night events, and other traditional or nontraditional methods of helping reach and celebrate targeted instruction goals.

Section 1, Part 5

Now you will make a table or chart that shows the actual expenses for your plan in a budget that totals exactly $250,000. You will need to provide 20-digit budget codes for at least five of your requested expenditures, but you are encouraged to try to code more to help yourself get more comfortable with budget codes. You can see a suggested format below, but you are welcome to use a different format as long as you list each item in your budget and the bottom-line totals $250,000. You may have lines that cost nothing (if you wish), such as small group instruction with the teacher during regular school hours. Leaders sometimes do this for special projects to help staff understand what is expected as part of their normal workload vs. what will earn extra duty pay (i.e., $25/hour tutorials before or after school, $0/hour tutorials during school hours). Here is an example of a budget with some codes. You can find more information on budget coding in the modules of this course, and you are allowed to ask for help at your campus or district as needed.

Note: For this project, you either assume that these funds are being allocated from the general fund (199) or from a special fund, such as 211, which is the ESEA Title 1 Part A fund. If you are working with someone in your district to help with learning about budget codes, ask them where they think your district might find the money to do this.

Table 3

Fund	Func	Obj	Sub Obj	Org	FY	Prog Intent	Local	Local	Description	Total
199	11	6399	00	106	2	24	0	00	Math workbooks for 5th grade intervention groups	14,300.00
199	36	6329	00	106	2	24	0	00	Brain Teasers Magazine subscription for after school clubs	500.00
									Total Request	250,000.00

Part 2: Rationale and Problem-Solving Approach

In this section, you will explain your problem-solving process and your rationale for the budget that has been developed for the allocation of the $250,000 for targeted interventions. Be sure to use those exact words (rationale and problem-solving approach) in this section so you will get credit on the grading rubric. Basically, this is just a nice summary about this project and what an awesome job you and your team have done to create something special that will make a real difference for students. Imagine that the superintendent is reading this report to the school board members so they will know why and how you have decided to spend this money.

In this section, you will need to defend your decisions to your audience. For example, if you are planning to take the 8th graders to a roller coaster museum as part of your math targeted instruction plan, you are going to need to tell stakeholders why you made this choice, as it may seem like a very strange idea to them. If you are paying staff extra duty pay or hiring more staff members, you need to tell why you cannot reasonably accomplish this work with the current staffing levels. If you are buying instructional materials like workbooks, flashcards, or software, anticipate that a person in your stakeholder group is possibly going to dislike that idea, so explain why you went with this option. You are going to want to explain how you used data and stakeholder input to help your team decide on the root causes for student performance issues. You will also need to talk about how this plan proactively solves problems that you anticipate. For example, maybe you know that very few kids will have a ride home after school, so you added in money for extra transportation costs, or you knew attendance issues might cause the plan to be less effective, so you asked students what kinds of incentives might help improve attendance and then added those costs to the project.