Running head: Budget Recommendations

Final Project Paper and Memo

Shauntel Manning

Oakland University

EA 8840
Budget Recommendations

Swartz Creek Community

Schools
To: Benjamin Mainka

From: XYZ Consulting Firm

Date: April 20, 2020

Re: Budget Recommendations for the 2020-2021school year

I am pleased to present the XYZ Consulting Firm’s school budget recommendations for

the 2020-2021 school year. This document reflects four months of work from our external

consultant firm. The following are a list of recommendations for the 2020-2021 budget:

 Hiring more Counselors & Social Workers to assist with our growing need of mental

health awareness in students

 Continue to improve special education to meet state requirements

We will provide background information and research on why we need to implement the

recommendations. Each year we have a task of creating a budget aligned with our district

strategic goals to provide the best academic experience for our students. If budget cuts are

needed we need to find a way to allocate money for the two recommendations. We want to

protect the social-emotional health and well-being of our students entering our school district.

Swartz Creek School District is struggling with a very high student-to-counselor and student-to-

special education teacher ratio. Going into the next school year, if you approve the

recommendations this will cause academics to improve. Staff and students will not feel as much

pressure and all needs would be met.

Budget Recommendations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to determine budget recommendations for the 2020-2021

school year. The city of Swartz Creek is located in Genesee County. According to MI School

Data (2019-2020), Swartz Creek Community Schools serves 3,643 students. In the district

78.6% of the students are white, 9% African Americans, 52% are economically disadvantaged

and 14% with disabilities. With the 2017 cohort (MI School Data 2017), there was an 87.6%

graduation rate and 5.6% dropout rate.

After reading several articles by Gleason 2017, it states that secondary students feel

overburdened by many pressures, including social, academic, and emotional. Along with our

district needs assessment we are looking to increase support and services within our Special

Education, Counseling & Social Work Department. We feel targeted these two areas will

dramatically improve academics and culture and climate of the school from staff to students to

parents.
Budget Recommendations

Introduction

In any school district there is always the stress of trying to complete a budget for an

entire district to be successful. When planning for the budget there are several pieces involved

when deciding to allocate money to different departments. After interviewing central office

personal and working with my classmates in my cohort I have a wide perspective of how budgets

are created. In the following paragraphs I will explain how management made decisions within

their department. In the area of Curriculum, we implemented a new math and reading program

for our elementary students. This purchase was made to focus on aligning our instruction to state

standards and competencies.

We have several operating budgets like our General, Food Service, and Student Activity

Fund along with special education money. These funds are used when balancing our school

district budget. Staffing takes a huge percentage of our general fund so we begin with allocating

money to each building depending on how many students are in each building. Then the

administrator is responsible for allocating money to each teacher and/or department.

This semester I have learned a lot of how the budget is created. In our district, our

financial director allocates money to each building. At the end of the year she gives a budget to

each building principal and say this is your money and use it wisely but this is all you get. When

we implement district initiatives, our superintendent decides where that money comes from, a

percentage from each school’s budget or the district will take on the bill. Our goal has always

been to carry over money to the next year to continue to add to our surplus. We never know

when a disaster will happen, like we are experiencing now.

Budget Recommendations

This is the first time I have been in a district with a surplus of money as Swartz Creek.

When the budget gets to the individual buildings, we usually allow our departments and teachers

order what they need. It is a very small chance that items will get denied if there is a need and

it’s for students’ achievement. It makes a when staff, especially teachers do not have to worry

about resources to teach students. We make sure all of staff and student needs are met.

Recommendation 1

Swartz Creek School District is fortunate to have money to explore a few options that

would improve the mental health of staff and students in the district. One issue that has come up

with my tenure in the district is how to we meet the growing needs of our students without the

proper resources? We are struggling with a very high student-to counselor/social worker ration,

which negatively impacts the effectiveness of a counselors work and students. Swartz Creek has

five elementaries and two secondary buildings. We have a total six social workers and 5

counselors between the buildings. Our counselors and social workers provide

 Guidance for both staff and students

 Trauma services

 Scheduling/testing at the secondary levels

With that being said we want to hire more counselors and more social workers to meet the needs

of the students. Almost 50% of teenagers will deal with a mental disorder at some point during

their lifetime (National Institute of Mental Health, 2017). We need to be proactive and allocate

money in our budget to support our staff and students.

Recommendation 2
Budget Recommendations

As we continue to plan for the future, our numbers for students economically

disadvantaged and students with disabilities continue to increase so we need to be prepared with

adequate resources. We will continue to research best practices to assist students to be successful

academically and in the real world. Instead of having our special education teachers teaching a

class all day they will work on a Consultative Model where they push in/push out and work with

their caseload students throughout the course of the day.

Involvement & Communication

Swartz Creek has an advantage over larger districts due to its size. We are like a family

between our small central office and district administrators. Our superintendent, does an

excellent job in communicating with all stakeholders. He has a gift of making complicated

information like a budget sound simple and relatable to our community members. For example,

last year during our bond campaign our district went above and beyond. For several months, we

had weekly meetings in and out of the district to accommodate everyone. We share budget

information through meetings, newsletters, emails, and social media platforms. When we are

making decisions about our individual school budgets, the appropriate staff and stakeholders are

involved.

As stated earlier, we have great communication in the district. Sometimes we have too

much communication and it can be overwhelming at times. Any information that should be

shared with the community and district can always be found on our website and periodic

mailings. We live in a world of technology which creates an easy platform to access any

important information for the Swartz Creek Community.

Budget Recommendations

Efficiency & Effectiveness

In our central office we only have seven small departments that work together efficiently

and effectively. With offices next door to each other it’s very hard to have miscommunication

regarding the budget. Also, with our district being so small our finance department consist of

two people.

Conclusion

As I look back at my learning with all of my assignments I recommend that we, Swartz

Creek Community, consider hiring more counselors and social workers in the district. For

example, we have 3 academic counselors at the high school. We need a counselor who can work

with the mental health of our students and staff. Implementing this recommendation would

impact learning by allowing students would have increased access to mental health professionals

in the building. Secondly, our staff members would not be as overloaded and stressed so they

could meet with more students in the course of a day. Thirdly, our parents and families would

have greater supportive resources to help bridge the gap between home and school. With our

budget we are able to keep all of our staff members along with hiring our much-needed social

workers and counselors.