EDLD 5342 School Finance WEek 5 Part 3 Final Reflections

I believe that reflection is the key to continuous improvement.  I do a mental reflection daily, but at the end of any major task, I will typically take time to write down what didn’t work and what worked well.  I may not look at it until the same task rolls back around, but it serves as a great improvement tool. This is a practice that I have my campus do frequently. 

When I think about my strengths in administrative leadership, I find that regardless of the topic, I am clearly more comfortable in certain areas.  For example, as I review competencies 8 – 10 in regards to budgeting, personnel, resource utilization, etc., competencies that involve collaboration, basic management, policy development and implementation, and organization are strengths.  If I review other competencies that have these characteristics, that is a strength within them as well.  My weakest areas are the areas where I have a lack of basic knowledge or specific procedures.  In finance, that would be account auditing and monitoring that complies with legal requirements and revenue forecasting and enrollment forecasting to address personnel and budgetary needs accurately.  I can see how that would be fairly simple in smaller districts, but in a large district, especially a transient area (like a military area), forecasting would be quite a challenge.  I feel competent in many areas but will continue to strive to make them a strength.  If I have procedures for budget planning and management, I have the ability to follow the procedures.  The way this will become a strength is to not only follow these procedures, but understand them and work to improve them.  I can best do this through collaboration and teamwork. 

As I reflect on this course, I find myself thinking of many descriptive words!  How about I just say,  “WOW!”  (I know, not the word you were expecting!)   I knew that the world of school finance was very involved and tedious, however, it is more than that.  It is not just a bunch of numbers dedicated to certain programs and areas.  A superintendent must develop a budget that has focus, one that aligns to the district goals and provides processes and action plans to help achieve these goals.  He or she must have a deep understanding of day-to-day financial resource activities, and continuously monitor this goal driven budget in order for the district to improve. 

Financial integrity is also vital to the success of a superintendent  and the district which he or she serves.  In week 4 lecture, our professors state that, “The superintendent has to be equally concerned about district ratings by both AEIS and the FIRST systems.”    The superintendent has such a vast amount of varied responsibility, he must carefully surround himself with highly qualified, ethical staff who offer support in many specialty areas.  Some of these areas are finance, human resources, public relations, curriculum, maintenance, and the most important, staff who maintains a focus on student learning.

I think the most frustrating part of this class was glitches in the technology and misunderstandings. I think the most challenging part of this class was grasping an understanding of the crazy variables that determine the amount of revenue allocated to the school districts by TEA.  I am very thankful that there are ready made templates that help figure the WADA, compressed WADA, revenue target, projections, and so on.  I am also thankful for my classmates, especially my GROUP 4!  The calls, emails, and amazing collaboration helped solve problems and create teams.  I feel confident that as we all venture into the world of the superintendency, collaboration and networking are vital skills to have.

I look forward to my next learning adventure and working closely with a fantastic cohort.

EDLD 5342 School Finance Week 5 Part 1 - Code of Ethics for School Leaders

One of the primary goals of the State Board of Education is to protect the safety and welfare of Texas school children and school personnel.  A part of this protection is the expectation of ethical behavior. 

Standard 1.2 states that the educator shall not knowingly misappropriate, divert, or use monies, personnel, property, or equipment committed to his or her charge for personal gain or advantage.  During my first year of teaching, my eyes were opened to some of the sneaky things school boards and superintendents can accomplish when they work together.  I was amazed to discover that one of the school board members was actually having his yard redone, including a swimming pool, utilizing district maintenance staff.  Out of curiosity, I found out the address and actually drove by the house.  Sure enough, district vehicles were there and employees were busy at work.  This was only one of many ethical violations that I noted during my tenure with this district.  This district School Board was made up of many diverse, and for the most part, uneducated citizens.  It took several years, but eventually the state did become involved.  While much of these ethical violations were focused on the school board as was the blame, the superintendent was knowledgeable of the violations and did not intervene.  Consequences ranged from removed board members, warnings, suspensions, and eventually the district was assigned a Master by the Texas Education Agency.  Other damaging effects of situations like these are longer lasting and cut much deeper in the community.  There was very little trust, a great deal of rivalry and anger, however, the biggest loss was to the students and their quality of learning.  In the long run, I wonder, how many of these students lost out on a strong enough education, and eventually dropped out of school ending up in gangs and/or in prison.  Now that’s a long term consequence!

Standard 1.8 states that the educator shall apply for, accept, offer, or assign a position or a responsibility on the basis of professional qualifications.  My husband worked for a district where the superintendent hired his wife as the superintendent’s secretary.  Obviously, he was her direct supervisor, but she also was paid over twice as much as any other secretarial type employee.  The superintendent eventually lost his position, not because of his wife and her pay, but because he lied about his professional qualifications and level of education. 

Standard 1.6 states that the educator shall not falsify records, or direct or coerce others to do so.  I once worked in a small district where supplanting was the way to fund various activities around the district.  The finance director was a genie at manipulating and hiding funds and their placement.  He always managed to obtain high evaluations from auditors, which gained trust with the school board.  He was very much into self-serving in addition to his manipulation and misappropriation of funds.  His wife was a teaching assistant for the district and fell and sprang her wrist while hustling across the parking lot.  She missed five months of work and received full pay during this time.  The only thing she couldn’t do was type.  She spent much of this time visiting her grand children.  He took many days off and typically worked about six hours a day.  Eventually he did retire, and eventually the new finance director discovered many of the hiding places and revealed these to the board.  When these things surfaced, it created a general lack of trust between the school board and the community with school administration. 

Standard 2.5 states that the educator shall not discriminate against or coerce a colleague on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, disability, family status, or sexual orientation.  I know a band director who was non-renewed with stated reasons of not doing an adequate job.  This director literally doubled the size of the band, had received higher UIL ratings than they had received in over 10 years, and even started new color guard programs in the district. He was gay.  As soon as this was discovered, students wanted out of the band, he was harassed by community members and he lost his job.  If the superintendent and board had supported this man, their program would have continued to flourish.  As a result, the program began to fade, lost its pride, and many students were unable to pursue their dreams in music.  Because of fears of retaliation and bad recommendations, the band director left quietly.

 Standard 2.7 says the educator shall not retaliate against any individual who has filed a complaint with the SBEC or who provides information for a disciplinary investigation or proceeding under this chapter. I once worked in a district where a fellow administrator and the new district superintendent had many conflicts.  The superintendent struggled with women administrators and micro-managed their campuses.  It came to a head when an instructional assistant seriously violated school policy and FERPA.  The administrator officially documented the incident and placed the documentation in the instructional assistant’s  personnel file.  The assistant requested a mediation meeting between the administrator and herself.  During this meeting, the superintendent allowed the assistant to bash and grossly discredit the administrator but gave the administrator very little opportunity to respond.  Following the meeting, the administrator questioned the superintendent and ask why he allowed the meeting to proceed in that manner.  His reply was that he was mad at her and a few of the other administrators.  She filed an official complaint against the superintendent.  He then threatened to demote her to assistant principal from principal.  This is clearly a violation of Standard 2.7 and a threat of retaliation.  Many consequences came out of that one meeting.  The assistant went back to the campus and promptly discussed with everyone who would listen how the meeting went.  This damaged the culture and trust at the campus.  The school board had to obtain a lawyer to support the superintendent, his decision and the board, which cost a poor district money they did not have.  It eventually cost the superintendent his job. The administrator is still gainfully employed with the district.

Just recently, a local teacher was accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a high school student.  This relationship consisted of inappropriate text messages and pictures. Of course the teacher will have severe consequences such as her teaching license being revoked, being arrested and probably serving jail time, have a large fine and will likely become a registered sex offender.  This also caused many ripples throughout the district.  Letters were sent home with students, the media reports, and suddenly there is a wide-spread of distrust of teachers.  The school administrators at all levels become involved as does the school board.

When ethical violations occur in the financial world of education, the people hurt most are the students.  Money is there to provide a better education and when it is misused or misappropriated, programs are not funded.  As these violations surface, so does a general mistrust.  It is imperative that a superintendent and his/her finance team remain as transparent as possible and always have full disclosure of any funds spent.  It was discussed in our lecture that the checks and balances of the school finance system are virtually foolproof, yet we still have school personnel that attempt deception when it comes to money.  School districts are required to maintain a remarkable amount of records.  A district should have some type of accountability system for each level that uses school funds.  Monitoring and reporting should occur regularly.  There should be checks and balances at every level.  Personnel who are responsible for any monies should be well trained and provided written guidelines. 

Educators must understand ethical expectations, apply all laws, policies and procedures fairly, and keep foremost in their minds that they are there as an advocate for the children and their learning.  Educators are employees of the people and are servants of the community who are held to high ethical standards and expected to model these standards at all times.  Educators are held to a higher standard than any other profession.  We can’t have a bad day at the grocery store and be grumpy in public, we are expected to be professional and polite at all times.  If we stump our toe and a bad word pops out of our mouth where someone may hear, we are criticized. If an educator has an affair, it is public and devastating. If the president of the United States has an affair, it is news and life goes on.  Sometimes it just doesn’t quite seem fair!

 In many cases, it is hard for an educator to ever just relax, we always have to be on alert and on our best behavior.   I went on a cruise out of the country once, and I just about fell over when I walked straight into one of my students!  There I was, in my bikini with a towel in one hand and my drink in the other… so much for my relaxing cruise!   

School Finance Week 4 Part 5: Financial Audits

LISD uses the audit firm of Maxwell Locke and Ritter LLP.  LISD has recived the ASBO Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting and the GFOA Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting (12 years running).

1. How is the external auditor selected?

            The external auditor is selected by the district Request for Qualifications – through bids.

2.  How does the auditor conduct the audit?

            This is a very tedious process.  The analysis components comprise of Government-wide financial statements, Fund financial statements and notes to the financial statements. The Government-wide financial statements provide long and short-term information about the district’s financial status.  Fund financial statements focus on individual components of the district’s operations. Notes to the statements provide additional information that is essential to a complete understanding of the data provided in the government-wide and fund financial statements.

3.  What does the audit conclude about district procedures and actions?

            The audit determines whether or not the district is in compliance with general accounting procedures as well as with Government Accounting Office standards.

4.  How are the results communicated?

            Audit results are communicated in a public meeting with the board.  They publish a C3 in the paper and also submit the audit to TEA electronically and by mail.  It is also submitted to the department of education and posted on the district website. It is very important that throughout this process the district maintains as much transparency as possible.

School Finance Week 4 Part 4: Understanding Personnel Salaries in District Budgets

Between this finance class and the current budget crisis, I have found myself inundated with budget discussions and opportunities to learn.  I have been extremely impressed with the processes our district uses in order to do what we call “right and good for all” and keep the focus on student learning.  Maintaining the focus on learning when this state induced budget crisis becomes very difficult when districts find themselves just trying to survive.

In LISD 65.05% of the budget is on instruction and related services.  If I combine functions 11-36 and 95-99 which are direct student services it comes to 83.65% of the budget.  This leaves 16.35% for school/infrastructure support (functions 41-71). If we were to give 5% raises across the board, it would cost the district around $5 million dollars. While this would greatly improve moral, it could be devastating to the district when the state has frozen so many funding avenues and not provided increases throughout the recent past.

As stated in our lecture, there is always pressure to provide annual salary increases.  These pressures fall on the superintended and board.  The pressures involved in salary increases are very diverse.  Schools are public entities and supported by public funds.  Many stakeholders think educators are already paid too much and of course those who are involved in the education world, feel simple cost of living raises are not only necessary, but due.  There is much for a superintendent and board to consider when looking at proposed salary increases.