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FRIT 7331/Group 4

Sarah Penn
Krystle Leanza

Section V: Budget Sources


System: Valdosta City Schools
Facility: Sallas Mahone Elementary
Budget: $16,259.22
Full Time Equivalent students (FTE): 1,062
2015-2016 School Year
Current Source of Funding
Sallas Mahone Elementary currently has a budget of $16,259.22 for the media center.
This money is from the Quality Basic Education (QBE) fund that is given to the schools
based on the Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) count. State funding for the operation of
instructional programs are generated from the FTE data reported by local school
systems (Georgia Department of Education website). The current FTE count at Sallas
Mahone Elementary is 1,062 students. The dollar amount per student based on the FTE
count for the media budget is $15.31. This amount is determined by taking the budget
for the media center and dividing it by the total number of students according to the
FTE count.
The actual amount the media center receives is $8,855.00 because part of the media
center budget is used to cover the cost of photocopies and a subscription to
BrainPOP/BrainPOP Jr. that teachers use in their classrooms. The total dollar amount
allotted for photocopies is $5,109.22 and for the BrainPOP/BrainPOP Jr. subscription is
$2,295.00. This is a drastic amount that could definitely be used for purchasing new
books.
The media center is required to keep 15 books per student available for checkout.
Sallas Mahone Elementary currently has 16,547 books in the media center which means
it only has 617 more books than required for the 1,062 students.
Fundraising Resources
The main source of extra funding comes from the annual book fairs held in both the fall
and spring of each year. Both of these book fairs usually raise between $2,500 and

FRIT 7331/Group 4
Sarah Penn
Krystle Leanza
$3,000 each year and these funds are used to purchase new books from Scholastic
Book Company.
Other fundraising efforts include Read with your Sweetheart and Take a Picture with
your Pet in which a fee of $1.00 is charged to take a photo in front of a special
backdrop. The Birthday Book Program is another fundraising effort in which parents
purchase their childs favorite books to donate to the media center in honor of their
childs birthday. The childs name and birthday are listed inside the front cover of the
donated books.
Adequacy of Funding
The funding received keeps the media center running, but does not allow much
growth. The funds are enough to add new books while replacing older, lost and
damaged ones.
With only 617 books over the required limit, Sallas Mahone Elementary definitely needs
more funds. Due to the fact that every year around $7,500 is taken from the media
center budget to pay for photocopies and subscriptions for the teachers, the budget
takes a drastic hit. That is a lot of books that are not purchased due to this funding
issue. Also, many books are damaged or lost each year by the students. This total
ranges from 200 to 300 books per year and it greatly affects the media centers
collection.
With the focus on 21st century media centers, Sallas Mahone Elementary definitely does
not have the funding available for the technology that is required to promote 21st
century learning. The school does promote the Bring Your own Device (BYOD) initiative,
but teachers are not always equipped with the knowledge required to connect and
work with all the different types of devices the students are using. It would be very
useful to have the funding available to purchase more technology, possibly with mobile
carts, for the students to use in the classrooms. Both the teachers and students would
be able to use more EBooks and Web 2.0 tools to move into becoming 21st century
learners.

FRIT 7331/Group 4
Sarah Penn
Krystle Leanza

References:
Georgia Department of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved October 31, 2015, from
http://www.gadoe.org/Pages/Home.aspx
Our Funding History and its Impact on Georgias Media Centers. (n.d.). Retrieved
October 31, 2015, from http://www.glma-inc.org/wp-content/files/advocacy/Funding
History Chart for School Libraries.pdf
Roesch, E. (2014, June 9). Tentative Budget Board of Education - City of Valdosta, GA
Condensed Summary of Proposed Budget. Retrieved October 31, 2015, from
https://d2ct263enury6r.cloudfront.net/ve7KS6NNjwgXBbSF37hJwJnL4zl5CUACbEotJzVX
wgl4mQcG.pdf

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