BUDGET

DEFENSE
C A R O L A N N C A V A L L O
E A D - 5 1 0 : E D U C A T I O N F I N A N C E
D R . L E C O N T E M I D D L E T O N
M A Y 2 5 , 2 0 2 2

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 School district’s
override initiative
failed

P RO B L E M
S TAT E M E N T
Principal must cut
one teaching
position and 10%
from the site
budget.

In this scenario, the school district’s override initiative failed, and as principal, I need to
make decisions about the sudden reduction of funds. The district has notified the school
that the principal must cut one teaching position and cut 10% from the site budget.

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S T R AT E G I C
PLANNING
AND BUDGET
D E V E LO P M E N T
P RO C E S S E S

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 Guidance from Board Policy 3110: Preparation of Annual
Operating Budget
1. “The District seeks to adopt an annual General Fund budget
that is structurally balanced.
2. The District shall make student-centered decisions. Budget
decisions should be based on what is best for students.
P R E PA R AT I O N
OF ANNUAL 3. The District’s Strategic Plan shall drive the budget process,
BUDGET expressing clear goals for how resources are allocated.
Tracking progress or making tough budget decisions to
prioritize programs and strategies is impossible without
specific goals.
4. Decisions should be data driven whenever possible” (Washoe
County School District, 2021).

The first place that I would turn for guidance would be the school board policies on
preparing an operating budget for a school. Board Policy 3110 outlines the policies the
district uses in order to make decisions for funding. The policy realistically discusses that
not all programs can be funded, and a few of the most prominent policies are highlighted
on this slide. When restructuring the school budget, it will be important to ensure that the
budget is “structurally balanced” (WCSD, p. 1, 2021) and that all decisions are student-
centered. Additionally, the school performance plan should drive decisions made when
funding must be cut. We will prioritize funding that supports the goals of the school. Finally,
decisions will be data-driven when possible.

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 PREVIOUS BUDGET REVENUE
Operating Travel/Mileage Professional Development Custodial Supply

25%

3%
1%

71%

In the 2021-2022 school year, a quarter of funds was spent on custodial supply. These
custodial supplies are required to keep the school clean and safe throughout the school
year. About 1% of the total budget was allocated toward the travel/mileage fund for the
principal to make any required trips. Only 3% of the budget was allocated to professional
development, and 71% of the budget was allocated to operating costs. In the next slide, we
will more closely analyze the operating costs portion of the budget.

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 Operating Budget

$500 , 3%
$2,000 , 12% $500 , 3%
$450 , 2%

$203 , 1% Library Books

Substitute Teachers
Printing
General Supplies
$5,000 , 29% Warehouse Supplies

$7,000 , 41% Textbooks

IT Supplies
Computer Hardware

$1,500 , 9%

The operating budget was allocated the most funds of any other budget by far, so this
budget has been broken down further to analyze where money is being spent. Small
amounts are spent on library books (3%), substitute teachers (2%), printing (3%), and
general supplies (1%). 9% of the Operating Budget is allocated to replacing textbooks or
parts of the curriculum. A combined 41% of the budget is allocated to information
technology costs and computer hardware costs, and another 41% is spent on warehouse
supplies that teachers can use to supply furniture or other teaching materials in their
classrooms.

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 MAKING DECISIONS ABOUT COST
R E D U C T I O N : FA C TO R S TO C O N S I D E R

The School Performance Plan The Budgetary Needs Assessment

When making decisions about what to cut, it is important to consider the goals of the
school (Sorenson & Goldsmith, 2018). Both the school performance plan and the budgetary
needs assessment were taken into consideration when making decisions about what needs
to be cut due to a reduction in the budget.

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 SCHOOL PERFORMANCE PLAN
GOALS
School Goal 1:
By June 2022, increase overall student
performance by ELA and Math by 10
percentage points by the administration of
the 2021-2022 SBAC test. ELA to increase
to 53% and Math to increase to 46%
School Goal 2:
By Spring MAPS, grade K-3 will increase
the percentage of student achieving 61st
percentile and above by 10%. By May, each
grade level will reduce the number of
students who require targeted
interventions through Read by Grade 3
(40th percentile and below) by 10%.

School Goal 3:
By June 2022, chronic absenteeism rate
will be reduced by 7%, from 17% to 10%.

The goals from the school performance plan goals indicate the needs to increase student
achievement and decrease chronic absenteeism. Many of the action steps and
improvement strategies include specific tasks for the school counselor, ELD Site Facilitator,
and Learning Facilitator. Their tasks include communication with families as well as seeking
and providing professional development for teachers to increase their knowledge about
strategies to support all learners.

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 R E S U LT S
F ROM TH E
B U D G E TA RY
NEEDS
ASSESSMENT

Many of the teachers surveyed for the budgetary needs assessment indicated that smaller
class sizes, additional intervention training, and research-based interventions would be a
better way to spend the budget than the way that the school is currently spending it. This
was taken into consideration when developing a plan for reduction in funds for the
upcoming school year.

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J U S T I F I C AT I O N
OF
EXPENDITURES
AND BUDGET
CUTS

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 P RO P O S E D B U D G E T W I T H 1 0 %
REDUCTION

PREVIOUS BUDGET REVENUE Proposed Budget with 10%

Operating Travel/Mileage Professional Development Custodial Supply Reduction

25%
28%

3% 3%
1% 1%
68%

71%

Operating Travel/Mileage Professional Development Custodial Supplies

A 10% reduction to the total budget would mean that $2,402 would need to be cut. While
all parts of the budget are important, I analyzed the previously presented data and the
portions of the budget that least impacted the goals of the school and the needs of the
teachers. Knowing that our school will be receiving additional support from the Title I
budget in the next school year, I decided to make the cut to the warehouse supply budget
from the operating fund. The above chart shows the effect that this has on the total
operating fund in comparison to the total budget.

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 P R O P O S E D O P E R AT I N G B U D G E T
WITH 10% REDUCTION

Operating Budget Proposed Operating Budget with

10% Reduction
$500 , 3%
$2,000 , 12% $500 , 3% Library Books
$450 , 2% 3%
1% Library Books
Substitute Teachers
$203 , 1%
Printing 14% 4% 3% Substitute Teachers
Printing
General Supplies
$5,000 , 29% General Supplies
Warehouse Supplies
$7,000 , 41% 31% Warehouse supplies
Textbooks 34%
Textbooks
IT Supplies
$1,500 , 9% IT Supplies
Computer Hardware 10%
Computer Hardware

The 10% reduction is directly seen in the Warehouse Supplies line item. While this decision
was difficult to make, it was the area that had the most funds allocated to it, and a
reduction in access to furniture and other materials had the least impact on the goals in
the school performance plan and the results of the budgetary needs assessment. All other
areas are needed in order to support student achievement, and this area has the least
negative impact.

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P RO P O S E D
TE AC HE R C UT
AND
A LT E R N AT I V E
SOLUTION

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 P RO P O S E D
TEACHER CUT
A N D A LT E R N AT I V E
SOLUTION

Cut allocations for intervention

teachers
Increase professional development
for classroom teachers in research-
based interventions

Losing a teacher allocation is a difficult decision, and while the school would want to keep
all allocations, this scenario makes it necessary to use the data to make the best decision
for cutting a position. I would decide to cut the allocation for an intervention teacher.
Currently, the school has two allocations for intervention teachers. These intervention
teachers are typically pulled to fill in as substitutes if there is a substitute shortage. This
means that the intervention teachers cannot provide the interventions to students.
Additionally, there is lost instructional time during the movement from one classroom to
another. In order to support the goals of the school, teachers would be provided
professional learning to understand how to provide research-based interventions to
students in their classroom.

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 P RO M OT E C O N T I N U A L
A N D S U S TA I N A B L E
S C H O O L I M P ROV E M E N T
UPHOLD VISION/MISSION

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 SCHOOL
MISSION AND
VISION
“An outstanding feature of our school is the very strong sense of
community that prevails. Teachers and parents share joint responsibility
for helping each child develop his or her talents and abilities and
consequently, strong partnerships are forged between the home and
school environments. Parental involvement in all facets of the school is
always welcomed and valued.
A highly dedicated and professional band of teachers works tirelessly to
ensure that a rigorous and relevant curriculum is brought to life on a daily
basis in all classrooms. Student achievement is monitored closely by each
teacher and developmentally structured classroom programs cater to the
individual needs of students within a culture of academic excellence.
Students at Hidden Valley Elementary are taught how to care for and
support each other, as well as to respect everyone’s individual differences.
Our focus on social-emotional awareness teaches our children how to
get along, how to be persistent and confident, as well as how to be
organized and resilient”

The budget reduction aims to make no negative impact on the mission and vision of the
school. By maintaining the budget for any student materials and technology, the school is
maintaining its promise to create strong partnerships between home and school.
Technology is needed for many of the at-home portions of the curriculum, and library
books are necessary to provide additional reading material to families each week.
Maintaining funds for professional development ensures that teachers can provide a
rigorous and relevant curriculum, as stated in the mission and vision of the school.
Additionally, making a cut to interventionists and providing interventions in the classroom
creates a more inclusive environment where individual needs can be met by the classroom
teacher.

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 CONTINUOUS AND
S U S TA I N A B L E
SCHOOL
I M P ROV E M E N T
Funds were maintained for:

• Professional development

• Textbooks and curriculum

• Hardware and software

Maintaining funds for professional development, textbooks and curriculum, and technology
hardware and software ensures continuous and sustainable school improvement. Investing
in our teachers with professional development helps them build their capacity and improve
student learning. Additionally, continuing to provide funding for the textbooks, curriculum,
and technology students need to be successful helps them reach their full potential.

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 HUMAN, FISCAL,
AND
T E C H N O LO G I C A L
R E S O U RC E S

• Build teacher capacity to make the best of

losing an interventionist position
• All technological resources were maintained
when reducing the budget.

Standard 9b of the PSEL standards states that effective leaders, “strategically manage staff
resources, assigning and scheduling teachers and staff to roles and responsibilities that
optimize their professional capacity to address each student’s learning needs” (NPBEA, p.
17, 2015). While cutting a teacher position was a difficult decision to make, cutting the
interventionist position helps to optimize the professional capacity of our teachers. The
classroom teacher will now take ownership of their students’ learning rather than sending
them to another teacher to learn. This will help all teachers learn to differentiate and
scaffold their instruction to support all student needs. Technological resources were
maintained when reducing the budget to ensure all students have access to the technology
they need to be successful.

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 M O B I L I Z AT I O N
OF
COMMUNITY
RESOURCES

• Community donations of
furniture and learning
materials for classrooms
• Parent volunteers

The 10% reduction was taken from the Warehouse line item. These funds typically supplied
classroom furniture and other teaching materials such as pocket charts or manipulatives.
We will utilize our community resources to help with this change. First, Title I funds should
help bridge the gap created because of the 10% budget cut to the general fund. Because of
our Title I status, we cannot ask families for donations, but we can partner with community
businesses to donate any furniture to the school.
The loss of the intervention teacher will mean one less person to support with everyday
tasks around the school. We will plan to ask for parent volunteers to support with duties or
other school functions that the intervention teacher would normally assist with.

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 All decisions are
student-centered and
data-driven

STUDENT NEEDS AND

CURRENT POLITICAL
I N I T I AT I V E S A N D E M E RG I N G
TRENDS

This plan was created based on student data and student needs. The school performance
plan outlines action steps that include professional development and a rigorous and
research-based curriculum. The budget cut ensured that the school performance plan,
which is based on student needs, was not compromised. While all parts of the budget were
important, the school had to rank items from most student impact to least. Any items that
impacted students the most were maintained.
The Washoe County School District is in the process of hiring a new district superintendent.
This has caused a lot of political divide in our diverse community. However, keeping our
focus student-centered and data-driven ensures that we continue to focus on what is best
for our students above anything else. The budget plan reflects how student needs are
considered first before any other factors.

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 M O N I TO R
AND
E VA L U AT E
PLAN

• Monthly leadership team

review of plan
• Adjust line items as funds
allow

Throughout the school year, the leadership team will meet monthly to monitor and
evaluate the budget plan. If adjustments must be made, the school can move funds from
one line item to another. For instance, if the school does not need to purchase additional
curricular materials, funds from that account could be moved to the warehouse account to
cover the cost of manipulatives that students may need. The team will consistently monitor
whether or not the budget is meeting the needs of the students, as that is the highest
priority when determining funding for the school.

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 REFERENCES
National Policy Board for Educational Administration (2015). Professional standards for educational
leaders. https://www.npbea.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Professional-Standards-for-
Educational-Leaders_2015.pdf
Sorenson, R. D. & Goldsmith, L. M. (2018). The principal’s guide to school budgeting (3rd ed.).
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. ISBN-13:9781506389455
Washoe County School District (2021). Board policy 3110: Preparation of annual operating
budget. https://wcsdpolicy.net/pdf_files/board_policy/3110-Policy-
Preparation%20of%20Annual%20Operating%20Budget%20-%20v7%20FINAL.pdf

National Policy Board for Educational Administration (2015). Professional standards for
educational leaders. https://www.npbea.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Professional-
Standards-for-Educational-Leaders_2015.pdf
Sorenson, R. D. & Goldsmith, L. M. (2018). The principal’s guide to school budgeting (3rd
ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. ISBN-13:9781506389455
Washoe County School District (2021). Board policy 3110: Preparation of annual operating
budget. https://wcsdpolicy.net/pdf_files/board_policy/3110-Policy-
Preparation%20of%20Annual%20Operating%20Budget%20-%20v7%20FINAL.pdf

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