Part 1 Summary Reflection

Summary Reflection:

I am not familiar with a code of ethics for Indiana educators.  So this week’s reading was especially interesting to me.  As I read through the documents, I found them very useful tools to clearly communicate the responsibilities of educators to uphold a specific code of ethics.  I am sorry to say that I have seen the results of leadership styles that do not adhere to such ideals.  It is not pleasant and not readily resolved.

The clear communication of ethical standards and the training of all staff is crucial.   This communication should include protocols and procedures.  The checks and balances we develop to monitor employee actions can go a long way to prevent abuse of school policies and procedures.   Without such guiding structures, policies and procedures can be executed in any number of ways.  Many of which, will fall short of good practice. 

It makes no difference that such a code is not apparent in Indiana, it is an ideal that should not have to required. Obeying laws, demonstrating integrity, and exemplifying honesty and good moral character must be a given.  It is not an option to behave in an ethical manner toward students, colleagues, parents, and members of the community; it is a responsibility.  Failure to do so, will have devastating consequences for the school, community, and the individual.

Part 3 Final Reflection

This has been a most challenging course.   As I worked through my self assessment, the area of finance seemed to hold the most areas I felt I needed to improve.  So I entered this course ready to dig in!  I was amazed at the number of resources available online to assist a new superintendent.  A document that I found most helpful was the Texas Education Agency’s School Finance 101:  Funding of the Texas Public Schools.  This document walked me through the many layers of funding issues that exist in Texas.  It provided detailed explanations and definitions.  This was especially helpful to me in sorting out the similarities and differences between Texas and Indiana.  The structures may be completely different but many of the components are present in both states.  The lectures each week helped set the stage for the learning that would take place over the course of the week. 

I enjoyed the opportunities to talk with our district level personnel.  I was able to spend time with our superintendent and business manager.   I learned so many things about our accounting practices and audit procedures.  I learned about the specific policies and protocols at work in our district.  These conversations helped me bridge the gap between Indiana finances and Texas finances.

In week four, I was able finally make connection with my wiki group partners.  Since we were not able to connect until we were well into the course, I was forced to deal with assignments each week on my own.  It was unfortunate and a lot a work!  It really made a difference to have others to collaborate with on the week’s assignments.

I participated in three of the four webinars.  This was a time I could ask questions and connect with others in the course.  I found them helpful.  Dr. Holmes was very personable and took time to try to connect with each person participating in the webinar. I tried to take advantage of every opportunity to learn about finances.

Through the lectures, readings, assignments, and collaborations, I find I have a better understanding of financial structures.  I find I feel confident to mark each indicator in the self-assessment as competent.  It is remarkable the amount of information that is conveyed through this course.  During one of our webinars, a classmate asked about tests, Dr. Holmes shared that we would not be taking exams.  He also stated that we would probably wish we did rather than take on the amount of work that was headed our way.  He was right.  It was a rigorous course but well worth the effort.  I appreciate the depth and breadth of information shared.  

Part 3: Final Reflection

This has been a most challenging course.   As I worked through my self assessment, the area of finance seemed to hold the most areas I felt I needed to improve.  So I entered this course ready to dig in!  I was amazed at the number of resources available online to assist a new superintendent.  A document that I found most helpful was the Texas Education Agency’s School Finance 101:  Funding of the Texas Public Schools.  This document walked me through the many layers of funding issues that exist in Texas.  It provided detailed explanations and definitions.  This was especially helpful to me in sorting out the similarities and differences between Texas and Indiana.  The structures may be completely different but many of the components are present in both states.  The lectures each week helped set the stage for the learning that would take place over the course of the week. 

I enjoyed the opportunities to talk with our district level personnel.  I was able to spend time with our superintendent and business manager.   I learned so many things about our accounting practices and audit procedures.  I learned about the specific policies and protocols at work in our district.  These conversations helped me bridge the gap between Indiana finances and Texas finances.

In week four, I was able finally make connection with my wiki group partners.  Since we were not able to connect until we were well into the course, I was forced to deal with assignments each week on my own.  It was unfortunate and a lot a work!  It really made a difference to have others to collaborate with on the week’s assignments.

I participated in three of the four webinars.  This was a time I could ask questions and connect with others in the course.  I found them helpful.  Dr. Holmes was very personable and took time to try to connect with each person participating in the webinar. I tried to take advantage of every opportunity to learn about finances.

Through the lectures, readings, assignments, and collaborations, I find I have a better understanding of financial structures.  I find I feel confident to mark each indicator in the self-assessment as competent.  It is remarkable the amount of information that is conveyed through this course.  During one of our webinars, a classmate asked about tests, Dr. Holmes shared that we would not be taking exams.  He also stated that we would probably wish we did rather than take on the amount of work that was headed our way.  He was right.  It was a rigorous course but well worth the effort.  I appreciate the depth and breadth of information shared.   

Finance: District Leader Interview @Audits

It is amazing how different each process discussed in this class is from state to state.  Audits, as it turns out, is no different.  In my former position as Director of Federal Programs I had the opportunity to be audited by two groups, The Indiana State Board of Accounts and the State Title 1 Program.  According to the lecture, Texas districts advertise for firms to conduct the audit.  Applications are reviewed and interviews conducted.  The Board has final approval of the firm.  This is an annual process.  In Indiana, State Board of Accounts audits occur every two years.  The district does not select an auditor.  Depending on the size of the district, one or more auditors are assigned to review financials.  Seymour has two auditors.  They arrive in September or October, and like Texas, are with our district for several months.  All those involved with finances produce documents as requested by the auditors.   The auditors are provided a workspace and keep themselves separated, for the most part, from district staff.  District staff are expected to make themselves available to answer any questions or to clarify procedures.  In Texas, the summary report of findings all areas of the school district’s financial procedures and activities are addressed.  Indiana’s audit process also results in summary document that identifies any discrepancies that exist in the district’s financial accounting and documenting process, also called internal controls.  When I participated in the audit process, a meeting was held at the conclusion of the audit process.  It was called the exit interview.  Participants included the lead auditor, superintendent, business manager, president of the school board, and financial directors.  The lead auditor went over the report, line by line, describing findings.  Findings must then be addressed and a follow-up report is sent to the State Board of Accounts to document the changes made to address the concern.  The Texas process appears to have much more of a public disclosure than is currently taking place in Indiana.

I spoke with our business manager about the audit process to see if there were any points she would add to this basic description of the process.  She said that while we do not receive a label or rank, the response to our audit is either an unqualified (good) or a qualified response.  She also stated that upon the notification of a finding, it makes a difference if it is a Federal finding.  Federal findings require a response.  In other words, action must be taken to address the discrepancy.  The final bit of information she shared about the audit process was the location of each school corporation in Indiana’s audit results.  These are posted on the State Board of Accounts webpage, www.in.gov/sboa.   I have attached a copy of Seymour Schools most recent audit on the discussion board.

Finance: District Personnel/Budget

The lecture discussed the pressure to provide annual salary increases as being an ever present part of the budget development process.  In our school district, our staff has not seen a salary increase for the past four years.  It builds quite a bit of stress among all employee groups.  Our district is planning on offering stipends to staff rather than a percent increase this school year.  The stipend amounts or lack thereof, will correspond with evaluation total scores.  This is new to our district.  The process in our district usually starts with the certified teacher salary percentage or stipend level.  Based upon this determination, amounts for other administrators and non-certified staff are determined. 

I spoke with our business manager to get a list of the expenses for our district.  She provided me with the information in the charts below:

Seymour School Corporation 2012 General Fund Expenses
Item	Total	% of Expense
Certified Salaries	13,724,267	57%
Non-Certified Salaries	2,970,839	12%
Benefits	5,850,077	25%
Outside Services	457,192	2%
Supplies	258,851	1%
Utilities	603,228	3%
Other	81,518	0.03%
Total	23,945,972

I spoke with our business manager to learn about our process for determining percentages of raises for our district.  She said she builds a scattergram with every employees salary.  She has a spreadsheet that calculates the impact of various proposed wage increases.  A great deal depends on the type of additional funds being proposed.  If it is a one-time expense, such as a stipend.  This can be funded through the general fund or even the rainy day fund.  If it is a percentage of increase to the salary, a district must be sure this increase can be funded from year to year.

Total Expenses	5% Raise
13,724,267
2,970,839
16,695,106	834755.3

If I understand correctly, the salary totals are calculated and then multiplied by the percentage of raise proposed, in this case, 5%.   This total would be the amount a district must be prepared to support going forward.

For our district, I would say that a 5% raise is out of the question without substantial cuts to other programs. 

In the years raises were determined to be affordable, we were looking at 1% or less in our area. 

The lecture discussed a school district’s salary schedule as a tool that can be helpful in recruiting and retaining highly qualified staff.  Our professor, Shannon Holmes stated during the webinar this week, as superintendent, he is interested in being competitive.  He does not want to be at the top paying more than all others but he doesn’t want to be at the bottom paying less than all others.  It seems to me this is a very delicate balance.

Finance: My District Budget

From my research, Indiana does not have a Maintenance and Operation fund so I will use this week’s lecture to provide information on the source of funding for the maintenance and operations fund.  The Maintenance and Operation’s fund is supported through property taxes and general revenue funds from the state.  This happens to help make sure that school districts have sufficient funds for the M & O.  The lecture made the point that the amount of money a school district has to spend is based on the total WADA. 

As I review the artifacts presented I would say that there is a lack of relationship to the source of funds and the final allocation.  Although, it appears that effort was made to develop this relationship through WADA.  The intent, at least in the examples I had to review, did not seem to play out as the calculations were applied. 

Looking at Indiana’s budget, we fund our programs using an ADA that is not weighted.  I have a attached a copy of the 2012 State Tuition Support Worksheet and other documents related to determining the amount of funding for our district.  I have also included a worksheet to help district’s calculate FY2014 Tuition Support.  As you can see, there are no less layers in the Indiana system of finance.  I am not sure that either system has managed to accomplish the lofty goals of providing sufficient support to ensure districts have the funding necessary to meet the demands of student need.  We also have allocations for Federal Programs in addition to basic allotments.  Two such examples are special education and compensatory education.

To access documents for Indiana, I have included a link to our  Indiana Department of Education.   The documents can be found in the Learning Connection in the Finance Community in the Files and Bookmarks section.

Finance: Superintendent Interview/Stakeholder Groups

I was able to interview Seymour Community School Corporation Superintendent, Robert Hooker about his role in the budgeting process.  He summarized his role in the budget process by saying, “It is my job to predict and project approximate revenue and expenditures for our Board of School Trustees and to pray a lot.  No, really, pray a lot.”  He has been a superintendent in several different districts.  In his opinion, keeping the board informed has been a crucial piece in developing a viable budget.  I shared a bit about the goal driven budgeting concepts I had been learning about through my work with Lamar University.   He was intrigued by the concepts.  He explained that in Indiana, whatever our goals may be, expenditures are in people.  The majority of our budget pays salaries.  Indiana schools generate funds on a per pupil basis.  There are two count days one in the fall and one in the spring.  Funding is determined based on these counts.  Additional funding is generated through a December 1 Special Education count of students with Individual Education Plans (IEP).  I asked if local taxes or property taxes play a role in school funding.  Mr. Hooker shared that local taxes play a role in Debt Service, Capital Projects, and Transportation funding.  These are federal dollars.  Mr. Hooker talked a bit about planning and being prepared for unforeseen events.  For example, in Indiana, funding is received in our district through twelve payments.  Recently, notification was made to schools that one or more of these payments would be delayed.  Schools need to be prepared to make payroll during such an unexpected turn of events.  The school board, in this case, made preparations to apply for some short term loans in the event payrolls could not be funded.  Fortunately, this measure was not needed but a Plan B was needed.  To summarize his thoughts on budgeting, Mr. Hooker cited the importance of keeping the board informed and providing a structure to sequence events for the board.   He said the budget is always about determining what the board has control over.

The second part of the assignment this week was to find out what type of input could be gathered from the following stakeholders:

1.       Central Office Administrators and Staff:  These employees can provide information to inform the budget by reporting information and needs from each person’s job responsibility.  For example, the Director of Technology can communicate technology needs for the district.  Many of these needs are funded through capital projects.  If there are expenses that would fall outside this funding source, this information would need to be communicated.  The Director of Federal Programs would share information about grant money being utilized in the district.  These additional funding sources have impact on the budget planning process.

2.      Principals:  These employees can provide information to inform the budget by communicating instructional needs in addition to physical plant needs.  For example, our district is currently in dire need of additional space for students.  We are growing at such a rapid rate that we have placed a couple of portable classrooms to give the board time to begin planning to accommodate the growing populations.

3.      Site-based Decision Making Committees:   These types of committees do not exist in our district

4.      District Improvement Committee:  This committee can provide information to inform the budget regarding goals and plans within each individual school in the district.

5.      Teacher Organizations:  This organization can provide information to inform the budget in regard to expectations for staff salaries and benefits.

6.      Key Stakeholders:  These individuals can provide information to inform the budget on specific needs.  Each superintendent would identify key individuals throughout the community from which to gather input.  For example, a key stakeholder in our community is The Community Foundation.  This organization funds many initiatives in our community.   Our school district has be a partner in several of these endeavors.  In a recent example, Seymour Community Schools partnered with the Community Foundation of Jackson County to build a facility.  This facility houses our district alternative program in addition to local college classes.  This has been a very successful venture.  It has addressed space issues, program needs, and student goals in a cost effective manner through shared costs.  Gathering input from such stakeholders can help us budget and plan effectively to meet future needs.

7.      Board of School Trustees:  The board can provide information to inform the budget by establishing goals for the district and by sharing needs as communicated by the constituents in each of the districts they represent in our community.

My reaction to this interview and these statements:

Thinking about all of the stakeholders in our community, I can’t believe seeking their input does not play a bigger role in the Indiana process.  The information that each group can provide to inform budget decisions, I would think, would be critical.  As far as I know, we are not prohibited from presenting the budget to these stakeholder groups.  I think it would be a good practice to adopt, required or not. 

For example, in my current position of Director of Curriculum and Instruction, I could provide information to inform the budget on current instructional initiatives and needs. 

The fact that Indiana does not require site-based decision makings, should not prevent us from utilizing best practice.  Collaboration and input, is key to the successful adoption of the budget.

The teachers association has strong ideas and suggestions for our district.  These are usually shared at corporation level discussion meetings.  The association could provide insight early in the process regarding expectations for salary and/or benefit increases.  Our association may be so aggressive because they have never been given a voice in the process.  They are not brought in until the end.  It really is a change in practice that I think is worth investigating.

Finally, my reaction to including key stakeholders is the same.  Establishing lines of communication can only enhance the number of opportunities a district has to establish partnerships.  These partnerships can benefit both parties freeing funds to be used to support and expand current programs and offerings.

Finance: TEA Budget Guidelines

I liked the format of the TEA Budgeting Guidelines document.  I found it easy to navigate.  One of the first things I learned from reading this document was the very simple premise that the budget is a product of planning.  Planning involves identifying needs and then trying to match needs to resources.  This explanation brought me back to one of our tasks this week, defining a goal driven budget.  This document helped me put the whole budget puzzle together.  In other works, over the course of this week, we were looking at various pieces of the budget planning process.  In reading this document, I began to see how it all fit together to result in a viable product. 

I also learned about the various types of budgeting.  In Indiana, I think we use line item budgeting.  I worked as Federal Programs Director for several years. In that position, I worked with program budgets and allocations.  It was definitely a line item system.  It was very interesting to learn that there were other budgetary approaches. 

Since this new information has been revealed to me, I wonder if Indiana has a choice in selecting a budgetary approach or if that approach is dictated.  This will require additional investigation.

From reading the document it became clear that there are layers upon layers of tasks to be accomplished in preparing a budget.  I especially appreciated the explanations of the various revenue streams.  For example, Tier I and Tier II sections explained the purpose and ingredients for calculation.  Indiana does not describe funds available in these areas in the same way but it is similar.  Each district in Indiana receives tuition support for students that fall into the categories described in these tiers.   Texas calls this a weighted average daily attendance.  Indiana includes it in a membership count on specific days throughout the school year. 

According to my superintendent, Indiana does not include property taxes.  I learned from reading the guidelines that Texas does.

The number of sections in the document that were devoted to estimations, projections and forecasts was substantial.  It really underscores the amount of preparation that is needed to prepare a budget.   The superintendent needs access to accurate data in a timely fashion to be able to make projections for the budget. 

How will I use the information obtained from this document in contributing to the development of a district budget?  

It has helped me realize that budget preparation is about asking the right questions and getting accurate answers to these questions.   The budget is identifying needs and then managing resources to support those needs.  Being armed with accurate information on past actions, budgets, and information is useful in developing future plans.  Enlisting the input and assistance of various stakeholders is also key to the development of a viable district budget.  I also appreciated the charts, sample letters, and definitions provided in this document.  I would use them in the budget development process.

I think it is also important to seek out training and to utilize the resources provided by your state to ensure you are following all the requirements to remain compliant with the law. 

Finance: Goal Driven Budgets

The practice of goal driven budgeting was a new concept to me since I live in Indiana.  After greater study, I have come to realize that much of what is put into practice with goal driven budgeting is also evident in Indiana.  According to Dr. Arterbury, the purpose of a goal driven budget is to assist in the attainment of a shared vision for the school district.  In other words, goals are established and the budget is structured to support these goals. Of course, we know that each school district has fixed costs that restrict the amount of money that can be devoted to goals.  Salaries, fuel, electricity, and maintenance are a few examples of costs that must be addressed.  

As I have said, Indiana does not proclaim to use a goal driven budgeting process but I can see the similarities between Indiana and Texas.  In Indiana we are not required to have site-based improvement committees or a district improvement plan.  Each individual school has an improvement plan and our school board establishes goals.  Therefore, to describe how goal driven budgeting is utilized through our district improvement plan, I will need to share information with you about our district goals.  This year district goals for Seymour Community Schools include the following:

1)    Focus on student learning, achievement, and opportunities.

2)    Focus on increasing teachers’ and administrator’s knowledge and skills.

3)    Seek and facilitate meaningful participation of families and community as supportive and informed partners in the education of our students.

4)    Increase the capacity of our facilities and ensure the safety, comfort, access, and security of students, staff and the community.

5)    Maintain a financial balance when budgeting for school programs for a stable corporation during unstable financial times

6)    Create a school corporation administrator transition plan

Examples of how our budget is driven by these goals can be found in recent board action to begin a study to determine facility needs.  Since one of our goals is to increase the capacity of our facilities, the board is now engaged in reviewing various proposals for additions, reorganization, or redistricting to meet the needs of our students.  The budget is supporting the engagement of various architects to provide information and direction.   Another goal supported by the budget deals with safety and security.  Our school corporation has sought grants and will use budgeting to support the implementation of multiple school resource officers stationed in buildings. 

In Indiana, and I would assume the same is true for Texas, a large portion of the budget is set aside for people or salaries.  During my superintendent interview, this point was made very clear.  He stated that whatever our goals may be, the bulk of our expenditures are for people.  We accomplish our goals through human resources.

To conclude, one big difference between Indiana and Texas can be found in the amount of communication sought from stakeholders.  From my experience in Indiana, this has not been an area of focus.  The budgeting process takes place between the superintendent, school board, and business manager in our district.  There are required public meetings but rarely does anyone attend let alone participate in the budgeting process.  I really liked the idea shared in the book, Learning from the Best:  Lessons from Award Winning Superintendents, of forging a strong coalition of the school board, administration, staff, parents, and community.  If I have learned anything so far in my study of the superintendency, communication and collaboration are key to the success of any budget or initiative in the school setting.