When it comes to budgeting for schools, I’m the only candidate with 10 years of experience as a principal. Here is how I built my school’s budget every year as a principal, step by step.
How I ran a school budget
- The money arrives as an allocation. Every year the district gives each school its share of federal and state funds.
- December: the data comes first. I start with a needs assessment. I look at test results and other data to see what is working well and where our students are not there yet.
- January and February: ask the people closest to the work. Before the allocation letter even arrives, I send a budget survey to all of my teachers, and I ask our parents too.
- One question guides every decision. How might we maximize our fiscal allocation to help our students learn and achieve?
- The plan is shared, not handed down. I write a proposal, take it to my teachers, then to the School Site Council: classified staff, certificated staff and parents. The council approves the budget before the numbers go in.
- Where the flexible money goes. Some school funds can only be spent on specific programs. The general fund is where a principal has a say. When declining enrollment would have cost us a teaching position, I used it to keep that teacher so our students would not end up in combination classes, year after year. I also used it to pay teachers who stayed after school to plan lessons together.
A budget is more than numbers. It shows what we choose to invest in: our students, and the educators who teach them.
What this means on the school board
A school board trustee doesn’t build a school’s budget. The board approves the district’s budget and its Local Control and Accountability Plan, the LCAP, and sets the priorities every school’s plan has to follow.
That is where this experience matters. I built a school budget every year for 10 years, and as a Community of Schools Administrator I reviewed and approved the budgets of 16 schools. I know what spending makes a real difference in a classroom, and what doesn’t.
When the LCAP comes to the board, I will go through it line by line and ask the same question I asked as a principal: does this make a direct, positive difference for our students’ learning and achievement? If it doesn’t, that money belongs back in the classroom. That is the responsible fiscal leadership I will bring to the Torrance Unified school board.
Transcript
I can walk you through how I handle school budget from a principal’s perspective. So every year we receive allocation from the district. And the process usually starts in December, that I would begin to do a comprehensive needs assessment based on summative data.
And so usually around January and February, I will do a budget survey that goes to all my teachers. I think it’s very important to listen to our teachers’ voices, because after all, they are closest to the work. And I also do that with our parents.
And what I will do is to really think about one question: how might we maximize our fiscal allocation to help our students learn and achieve?
Then I put together a proposal. So then I will present it to the school site council, made up of classified staff, certificated staff, as well as parents.
Then I will need to use general funds to purchase teaching station to avoid having combination classes. I did everything that I could to avoid that. And I also use my general fund to provide teachers with compensation. They want to stay after school beyond their working hours to collaboratively lesson plan.
I think balancing school budget or district budget is more than just managing numbers. It reflects how we put our investment in our students to promote their learning and their achievement, our investment in our educators to build their capacity.
If elected, I will bring the same responsible fiscal leadership to our school board.
See all of Jennifer’s answers on the issues.
