Citizens deserve the right to know the inner- workings of their government, and public institutions; which includes our school districts. This is an important feature of school and community relations because school boards are elected locally to ensure that the schools in that community are governed and operated properly both fiscally and academically. This is why it is admirable that the State of Arkansas has determined that each school district within that state should ensure that each district website include;
“(A) Minutes of regular and special meetings of the school board;
(B) The budget for the ensuing year;
(C) Financial breakdown of monthly expenses of the district;
(D) Salary schedule for all employees;
(E) The school district’s yearly audit; and
(F) The Annual Statistical Report.” –
Furthermore, since school districts rely on public funding, school boards and districts should be accountable to the public for how they spend district funds, and regularly publish these item for the public to access.
I juxtapose my findings from Arkansas with those in my local community in Florence, South Carolina, and found that we also have state regulations that govern what information must be transparent to the community. This information can be found in the South Carolina Education Finance Act of 1977; which requires school districts to compile a transparency report that features; school board minutes, district financial statements, and district expenditures (South Carolina Education Finance, 2014). According to my school district website, this report is featured for the public to easily access, and obtain a copy for their review.
With this in mind, I interviewed the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, the director of t...
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...nce of having a good relationship between the school and the community, and that transparency is the best way to articulate that message. Therefore, I believe that my school district is following in the sprite of the Arkansas State Law, and South Carolina law being as visible to the community as possible. However, there are areas that they surely can improve in such as using technology to better communicate with parents and community, and getting more of the public involved in surveys and feedback. I believe that the district should make their own website and individual school websites more user friendly to allow them to better understand what information is available. Finally, I believe that it might be important for the district to invest in live stream board meetings so that the community can better see and hear the message that the school board is displaying.
Local school boards must know and completely understand the basis of legal responsibilities and restrictions. These responsibilities and restriction include overseeing the operation of local public schools. The school board is held accountable for creation of policies, rules and regulations that provides guidance for the administration and operation of schools. The school board is perceived as a corporate body, which means an individual member of the board do not have more power than the overall power that is given to the board by the legislature. Therefore, individual school board members do not have the freedom to formulate policy, or act self-sufficiently of the school board as a whole. School board members are known to be public school officers, and are given powers by the legislature that help them fulfill their responsibilities.
My assignment is a combination of two interviews. I interviewed an Assistant Principal, Ms. Katis Romig, as well as, our Curriculum Director, Mrs. Maria Petkanas. They are both responsible for the curriculum development and instruction for the school where I work, P.S. 811Q. I also learned a fair amount from Ms. Romig and Mrs. Petkanas including that District 75 Citiwide Special Education’s Deputy Superintendent, Ms. Barbara Joseph, had given the school feedback and suggested writing curriculum and textbooks. This was the only feedback she gave our principal during her observation last week.
our school district never faces a problem as big as the ones presented in this
School boards now and days are corrupt and only care for personal financial gain. The problem persists throughout the entire nation. We need to find the right people to control our schools if they are going to be productive, and help re-establish educational...
In order to develop a better job with school finances the administrator had to dedicate time, and consider many factors not just the monetary aspect, but also, an administrator has to have are where to allocate the funds, the amount available, and resources provided. Also, the importance that the financial system sees public education as an important source for the future of the children and their investments are guide tours the education (Rose, 2013). Finances at schools allows them to obtain programs to enhance the education and encourage to keep a good attendance. All schools and districts need to be somewhat strong financially in order to provide students with a higher quality education as well the technology advantages.
According to standard two of the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (2015), educational leaders should act with integrity, fairness, and in an ethical manner to promote the success of every student. In the scenario, a new assistant superintendent in a school district is head of curriculum and instruction. The school district services 15 schools, 12 elementary schools and 3 junior high schools. The assistant superintendent has prior experience in a previous school district with curriculum and instruction, but seemed much happier in the new district’s atmosphere. The district seems to be more goal-oriented and focused on the upholding the vision and mission of the district. There is also a strong value on self-evaluation
School funding for public schools has collectively been cut by $7.6 billion since 2002, forcing schools districts in Georgia to a tipping point. The 2001 recession had a major effect on Georgia’s fiscal condition, which consequently had a major effect on the financing of K-12 education in Georgia. School budgets are used to describe a district’s plan for the upcoming year as pertaining to anticipated revenues and expenditures. Each district’s budget heavily relies on the amount of money they receive from the state’s general fund and since that number has significantly dropped in recent years schools are not able to provide the best education for our students. The budget for public schools in Georgia should be increased because teachers are losing their jobs and schools are being forced to eliminate valuable programs that are instrumental in the education of our youth.
Odden et al. note that their analysis of spending patterns across the 50 states is supported by the conclusions reached by the Finance Center of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), although the results of their research did diverge in some significant ways. Odden et al. examined spending and staffing patterns at the district and school levels. They also scrutinized staffing patterns of expenditures by function and program and spending across curriculum content areas in California, Florida and New York. Their major conclusion was that while there had been considerable national investment in public education during the 20th century, as a rule the funds were distributed unfairly and used ineffectively.
The laws of the schools are to protect the students, faculty, and staff. Administrators must know the law so that everyone is treated equally and fair. With the state statutes, the school boards have the right to adopt and enforce rules and regulations necessary to operate and manage schools. Parents have to right to place their children in any institutions they feel their children will excel, whether that is a private or public school.(Essex, 2002, p. 6)
For the lead teacher interview assignment, I had the opportunity to sit down with and interview my son’s EC teacher from last year, Mrs. Hamm. Since my son started at the school last year, Mrs. Hamm has helped him in so many different ways. Mrs. Hamm has been teaching for over 20 years from her home state of Pennsylvania and more currently at Mount Energy Elementary School in Creedmoor, NC. Mrs. Hamm has been teaching at Mount Energy Elementary School in Creedmoor, NC for the last 12 years and recently awarded “Teacher of the Year”. Mrs. Hamm, up until this school year, was the main EC teacher for all grades Kindergarten through fifth grade at Mount Energy Elementary School. As of the present school year, the school district made the determination that she was over the acceptable number of students. As a result, they decided to hire an additional EC teacher and assistant to teach grades 3-5th and Mrs. Hamm would teach grades K-2. Mrs. Hamm was the teacher of 18 students until this decision was made, now with grades K-2, she has 9 students in her class.
For my psychology interview assignment, I had the privilege of interviewing Elaine, who is the Director of Preschool X, which is an educational institution. She reports that she has been in this position for 13 years since its inception. Elaine is a close friend of my aunt, which was how I was able to meet her. She explained that her responsibilities include; the hiring of all personnel related to the school, submission of criminal background checks, the medical reports for all staff and children must be current, and also developed a curriculum for the teachers to execute. She has parent meetings and she deals with parents on a daily basis. For any arising issues, Elaine conferences with parents at least once or twice a week. Have weekly staff meetings regarding the curriculum. She also plays the role as the educational event coordinator, where she would “invite people from the dinosaur museum or alley pond park to come over to her preschool, to enrich the children”.
Even in this time of struggle, with billions of dollars going towards various war efforts overseas, America still has managed to keep taxpayer investments in education higher than that of funds for national defense (U.S Department of Education). In the 2004-05 school year, there was an estimated amount of 536 billion dollars set aside from taxpayer investment for education purposes. Without a doubt, education is a priority for the American government, and if these funds are used in the correct way, there is no reason why each and every kid in the United States shouldn’t be getting a quality education. However, the organization of the financial system is flawed, funds are not handled proportionately at the state level; rather, this system favors the wealthier districts and hands more funds to them while the less wealthier districts are handed a smaller pool of funds. This really affects America’s quality of education, which also reflects upon how America fairs on the world stage when it comes to competition in education with other countries. The disorganization of funds in the United States can be seen in the Hoover City School district, which has bought every student in that district an iPad for use in school. The first problem with this is that this school district does not even have a viable bus system that can transport students to and from school. Secondly, not even 20 miles from this district lies the Birmingham City School district where a little more than half the students are graduating, compared to Hoover City Schools where a bit more than 90 percent of the students are graduating. If anything, the state should be working towards improving educational standards in lower-income communities rather than debating on the log...
Due to time restrictions, panel members were normally unable to meet in advance, so they build up their own self-sufficient interview questions. Although the principal chaired the interviews, they were rarely conceded out in an identical manner and there was no high level of uniformity with the questions. No official scoring system was used...
Because members of school administration are entrusted with the management of public funds, administrators must act ethically and with integrity to ensure school funds are utilized responsibly and that policies that affect the district’s financial integrity are closely examined. Therefore, policies, such as approval of expenditures and payroll, finance and goal setting, and the preparation of the budget, that directly impact the financial integrity of a school district should be carefully
In order to be an effective school, all school personnel must work together in a friendly, caring, polite, and respectful manner. There are a number of positions and employees in a school. “A school is a complex social system, and all the people in it contribute to making it run smoothly” (Kauchak & Eggen, 2014, p. 182). It’s important to acknowledge the contributions of all staff and faculty members. The principal, leader of the school is the ...