John T.

Davis
February 19th 2017
EDAD 616 B (02)- School Finance and Resource Allocation 1
Assignment # 7: Budget interview

Reviewing what you have learned in assignments 1-6, interview a principal, supervisor,
chief business official, or board member regarding the schools or districts budget. Sample
questions may include: What is your role in budget development? How is the budget
development process transparent for all stakeholders? How is the budget monitored after it is
approved? Where is the greatest area of opportunity for improvement to the budget process?
What advice do you provide new educational leaders as they enter into assistant principal,
principal, and other key school leadership positions?

Post at least a 700 word summary of the interview including main points discussed, key
information learned, and one area of alignment to a reading from any module. Make sure
to include citations as necessary.

For this assignment, and as part of my field study, I sat down with my principal Mr. W. and
discussed how the budget is created and the school is funded. Mr. W. has been in education for
27 Years, 23 years of that as an administrator, and he has worked for 17 years in the Catholic
school system. In addition to being the principal of my school, he is also an Associate
Superintendent with the Dioceses School Department (DSD) and the Regional Director for the
North Valley Cluster of Catholic schools. In these positions, Mr. W. is directly responsible for
the budget of 2 schools and he oversees, along with the clusters School Board and the Financial
Department of the Dioceses School Department the budget of all of the other Catholic schools
in the North Valley.

As the school is a non-profit Catholic school, the budget is not tied to government funding, with
the exception of a small amount of Title funds that the school receives through the local public
school district. While this makes funding of the school an ever-pressing concern, it also means
that the school is not tied to state policies and programs that direct how money is allocated. This
is not to say that that public schools are hindered in how funds are used, it simply means that as
an administrator, Mr. W. has a greater amount of freedom and autonomy to reallocate and spend
funds as needed. This concept originally came up in a discussion I had with Mr. W in December
for an EDAU 616A paper. It was one of the reasons he wanted to work in Catholic Schools, he
felt (referencing NCLB) that working in a private school he (among other things) could utilize
funds on policies that would benefit students directly without being caught up in red tape. The
interview conducted with Mr. W. back in December scratched the surface of the topic of the
schools budget and how funds are allocated and used. In addition, this initial interview and
working extensively with Mr. W. and others in the School Department has provided me with a
better understanding of just how different a private school budget is from the public-school
budgets and funding that I have been studying in this course.

From the interview, I had with Mr. W, I gleaned that due to the nature of how our school works,
as well as its lack of government funding, the principal must work with a great deal of autonomy
with regards to the initial development of the budget. This is not to say that there are not
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February 19th 2017
EDAD 616 B (02)- School Finance and Resource Allocation 2
requirements from the DSD or that input from stakeholders is not utilized. However, as the
schools in diocese receive the bulk of their funds through tuition, each school requires the
principal to estimate the number of students attending in the next school year, the number who
will be attending on financial aid, the number of discounts given for items such as parent hours,
multiple students from one family, etc. This number is then put into a budget sheet (which was
recently introduced) that was designed by the DSDs Financial Department. The sheet in
question then provides a budgetary number which is then compared to the estimated cost of
educating the students. This cost is comprised, (like all other schools), of salaries (one of the
only standard costs set by the DSD), benefits, supplies, facilities/operating costs, and other
miscellaneous items. As the cost of educating the school population is generally higher than the
income generated by tuition, the remaining deficit must then be made up through fundraising,
endowments, and an annual donation from the Diocese itself. Once Mr. W. and the schools
bookkeeper have worked through these numbers, he submits a draft (usually by the end of
February), to the Finance Department at the DSD for review. If the draft budget is found to be
sound, it is then returned to the school for review and then to then to local Parish for review. At
this point, Mr. W. presents the projected budget to the Parent Club for input. However, as Mr.
W. points out the funds are not public monies like in public schools so the information
provided to the Parent Club and others is somewhat limited. Once the budget has been reviewed
by the attending Parish Priest, it is sent to the School Board (which Mr. W. chairs due to his
position as Associate Superintendent and Regional Director) that oversees the schools in the
North Valley. The School Board must then sign off on the projected budget before it is finally
submitted and signed off by the DSDs Superintendent.

Despite so many entities overseeing the final draft of the budget, the overall creation,
monitoring, and implementation is generally the responsibility of the principal and the school
bookkeeper. That being said, the School Board is made aware of the status of the current budget
on a quarterly basis. As well, the School Board, the schools, and administration have an open
working relationship with regards to input and overseeing of the budget when and as needed.
Should a need or issue arise with the budget, it is usually handled by the administration of the
school with the input and oversite of the DSD Financial Department. If issues persist, the School
Board will work with the Financial Department to rectify any possible issues and/or problems.
Information in this regard is generally disseminated as need to stakeholders through postings and
announcements on the school webpage, emails, as well as presentations at faculty meetings and
Parent Club/CSAC meetings.

Mr. W. identified the greatest need for improvement with regards to the budget and funding
process as advertising and marketing. Again, as the school relies on tuition and fundraising to
establish its budget, there is an almost constant need for advertising and handling of logistics
associated with fundraising. Traditionally, this has been part of the basic duties of principals
within the Catholic school system. However, the DSD has found that these duties in some cases
require a significant amount of time and effort and therefore either take principals time and
attention away from their other duties, or are not being completed in an efficient manner. The
solution is that starting in the 2017-2018 school year said duties will be transferred to a
regional/cluster Marketing Director. Said director will work with the DSD, school
administration, the school board, and parent groups and will be responsible for the promotion
and advertising of the Catholic Schools as well as recruiting potential students. The Marketing
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February 19th 2017
EDAD 616 B (02)- School Finance and Resource Allocation 3
director will also be responsible for the organization, promotion, and logistics for all fundraising
activities for the schools. Mr. W. expects this position to help administration create a more
robust budget in coming years, as well as allowing administrators to focus more on students and
staff than on planning for fundraisers, etc.

The advice that Mr. W. has given me with regards to my transition into administration has been
to always put the students needs first and to fully understand the budget. This echoes the
interview I had with him in December as well. He told me that one of the reasons he returned to
Catholic schools was because he felt that there was not as much financial or political pressure to
pressure to implement programs, testing, and policies that he felt was not always in the best
interest of the students or the schools themselves. He specifically indicated that programs like
NCLB and school reforms werent always in the students best interest even when they might
have intended to be. Much like Larry Cuban indicated in his 1990 article Reforming Again,
Again, and Again, Mr. W. feels that reforms might not always work as intended and that progress
comes from addressing the root cause of issues. Specifically, Mr. W. indicated that a good
administrator never forgets why they are doing what they are, its to ensure that students get the
best education possible. Working in the system that I do, budgets tend to be small, but the
expectations of the stakeholders are not. According to Mr. W, that is why it is important to fully
understand the budget in order to stay focused on what is best for the students.

Resources

Cuban, L. (1990). Reforming again, again, and again. Educational Researcher, 19(1), 3-13.

doi:10.3102/0013189x019001003
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February 19th 2017
EDAD 616 B (02)- School Finance and Resource Allocation 4
Respinse to Rebecca Rose.

Thank you for your posting Rebecca. I found the posting and the replies/conversations about it
very informative and interesting. Being at a private school there is a considerable amount of
information, entities/groups, and culture that I am learning from everyone elses post.
Specifically, in your post you addressed the role of the School Site Council. Because my school
is a private nonprofit we do not receive government funds, and therefore most of the stakeholders
do not have a say or even fully know and understand what our schools budget is. At first this
may seem clandestine or shady, but given the religious nature of the school, the fact that it is a
nonprofit that is always on a tight budget, and the oversight of our School Board very there is
rarely any discussion or need for stakeholders to know what is contained in or to oversee the
budget. The only time I can think of there actually being a need for stakeholders to know what
was in the budget was a few years ago, when the schools were losing a lot of students due to the
economic downturn and teachers salaries were frozen and in some cases cut. However, when
the new super intendant and my principal/reginal director came on board they both made it a
point to have transparency with budget and actively explained the budget and asked for input
from the stakeholders. Still, I wonder if there could still be a need for some type of SSC at the
school. From your post and from the responses I gather that SSCs power and purpose can
change from school to school, but I can understand the value of it.