Schoolwide Budget 1

Southside Academy Charter School is an urban, public, charter school located in Syracuse, NY. It

has 681 students in grades K-8 with a student-teacher ratio of 17 to 1 (NHA, 2020). The school is

situated in a low-income, predominately black community in the heart of the city. Southside is a

federally, locally and state funded program. Southside’s budget comes from a combination of a federal

Title I grant, state funding and local district funding to cover necessary expenditures. This money is

dispersed between different categories in the areas of staffing, instruction, supplies, pupil services, media

and those additional areas that fall under the miscellaneous category.

Each year the budget is reassessed based on the school’s current needs as well as any needs

identified from the previous years budget. I modeled my school-wide budget based on the conversations,

research and knowledge that I have gained from this course as well as my field experiences. The budget

that I created mocked my school’s budget and used the current improvement goals as well as the

expenditures that are included in our annual budget. The most important component of the school’s

budget is to include the necessary funding to help reach our School Improvement goals. Money towards

a new attendance program, increased funds for community outreach and additional resources for a

stronger intervention and instruction program were factored into my budget. Funds were increased on

average $10,000 from the previous year’s budget to amend the necessary changes. From the 2018-2019

school year funds were decreased in the areas of grade level supplies due to a large surplus leftover and

the abundance of materials acquired throughout the school year. The need decreased significantly, and

the funds were allocated towards improving curriculum and instructional programs. In addition, the

money from the Title I grant was increased by $100,000 from the previous year and those funds went

directly to our invention programs and support staff to improve quality of services for our struggling

students.

This assignment was definitely challenging for me. I have always struggled in the area of

budgeting even in my personal life so when given the opportunity to experience a schoolwide budget, I

was definitely impressed with the knowledge and information available to me through my principal

mentor as well as the research available through this course. I am realistic in the fact that I probably did
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not create the most perfect budget and my funding is most likely a little more in excess than available but

using the previous school budget and information from local schools in the areas, I was able to create one

that fit the needs of my school including the goals of the School Improvement Plan. I am so appreciative

of this opportunity and feel that my knowledge of school budgets is definitely increasing, and I look

forward to the continued experiences and learning opportunities.

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References

National Heritage Academies. Southside Academy Charter School: Who We Are. April 21, 2020.

Retrieved from https://www.nhaschools.com/schools/southside-academy-charter-school/en