Case Study on "Leadership in Administration"

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Leadership in Administration Case Study

The work of Davis, Darling-Hammond, LaPointe and Meyerson (2005) entitled: "Developing Successful Principals" published by the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute that principals, "...in today's climate of heightened expectations...are in the hot seat to improve teaching and learning. They need to be educational visionaries, instructional and curriculum leaders, assessment experts, disciplinarians, community builders, public relations experts, budget analysts, facility managers, special programs administrators, and expert overseers of legal, contractual and policy mandates and initiatives." (2005, p. 6) In other words leaders in today's schools must be well-prepared and in many areas of leadership and administration. Just as well, today's school leaders must be educated and trained in leading schools forward regardless of the environment in which the school is operating whether it be a time of plenty or a time in which expenses must necessarily be kept to a minimum in order for the school to continue operating.

I. SCHOOL ADMINSITRATION: BUDGET & FINANCE

It is commonly acknowledged among school superintendents who are successful in leading their school district that the only method that is sure in gaining support of all stakeholders in educational administration is a method that ensures the involvement of all of the various stakeholders in the decision-making process and this is especially true when it comes to administration of the school finances and school budget.

The work of Joynt (2002) states that a successful planning strategy is one that "...illustrates the roles and relatio

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nships of programs and services" which serves to "minimize the emotional charge of the cutting process." (p.1) Howley (2003) states that when "the community is ignored" leaders are not able to access the support that communities desire to give their schools." The work of Almack (1970) states that budgets are not 'made' by school boards or business managers, they are 'developed' by combined efforts of large numbers of school workers, and when the budget it complete it is not a mere financial instrument but is an embodiment of the policies and plans and programs of education that are to be carried throughout the year." (p.238)

II. RESPONSIBILITIES OF SUPERINTENDENT IN BUDGETING PROCESS

Almack states that the school superintendent's responsibility in the school budgeting process includes but is not limited to the following responsibilities:

(1) Preparation, presentation, and administration of the school budget;

(2) Seeking that all revenue to which the schools are entitled come into the school coffers and ascertaining new or additional sources of revenue;

(3) Knowing the reasons for mounting school costs and the explanations of them;

(4) The ability of the people to support schools and why they should support them and how to secure this support;

(5) The hundreds of opportunities for waste and the necessity for eliminating them and the methods for eliminating them;

(6) The purposes and standard methods of financial accounting including preparation of monthly and annual financial statements and balance sheets;

(7) Planning, construction and finance of school buildings.

(8) Equipping school buildings and the community use of school buildings;

(9) The maintenance of the school;

(10) The school janitor and his work;

(11) Insuring school property;

(12) Taking equipment inventories;

(13) Handling school supplies and textbooks;

(14) Safeguarding teacher-student ratios;

(15) Pupil transportation; and (16) Merits of fiscal dependence and fiscal independence. (Almack, 1970)

The work of Burkey (1984) states that budgeting is the "key to financial control. Proper budgeting requires care, thought, and adequate information. It involves a number of areas indirectly related to finances including philosophy, mission statement, organizational structure, communications and reporting." (p.274)

III. BUDGETING PROCESS

The budgeting process begins with "a clear understanding, on the part of both the school board members and the administration, of the philosophy and mission statement of the school." (Almack, 1970, p.274) It is important that the priorities which are generally "established in a five-year planning process...be articulated by the school board in advance of the annual budgeting process." (Almack, 1970, p.274) It is those priorities which should serve as the basis for the initial expenditure budget which the school superintendent establishes and which should follow some general guidelines stated as follows:

(1) Budget figures should be realistic and not padded and a contingency account established for meeting needs that are not anticipated;

(2) Realistic allowances should be made for inflation;

(3) Projected expenses should have supporting documentation to justify the planned expenditure;

(4) Projected income items should have a supporting plan to ensure that the income can be realized;

(5) The budget should reflect the priorities of the board and administration;

(6) Budget carefully for all expenditure items. (Almack, 1970, p.274)

IV. NECESSITY OF BUDGET CALENDAR

The work of Ciriello (nd) entitled: "Principal as Managerial Leader" states that "a regular, schedule approach to budget preparation through the use of a calendar can provide the necessary structuring to the budget process for a school." (p. 305) This calendar will specify what steps are taking in the budgeting process for each month of the year. As well, the budget calendar informs stakeholders of the steps in the ongoing process of budgeting for the school and enables stakeholders to become actively involved in the school budgeting process. The planning for the school budget should take place in both terms of long- and short-range planning. Ciriello states that a logical activity in which to include board members is that of "continual work with annual and long-range goals, together with a written plan for their implementation." (Ciriello, nd, p.306)

V. THE SCHOOL BUDGET PROCESS AND THE COMMUNITY

The community connection to the school budgeting process is one that is critical in nature. There are specific methods that the school superintendent can use to integrally connect the community to the process of school budgeting. Some of those methods are as follows:

(1) Conduct consistent explanations -- This includes taking opportunities which present for providing an explanation of the school budget process.

(2) Make frequent contacts with the media and the public -- Included are such as scheduling budget segment at school board meeting and sending out a periodic budget report.

(3) Take note of the calendar -- Seek opportunities to communicate about school finance that coincides with the fiscal year.

(4) Keep it simple

(5) Avoid jargon at all hazards -- Included is printing copies of budget information to provide to citizens who are interest in the school budgeting process;

(6) Graphics are useful in relating information about school budgeting so these should be used to relate the budget specifics.

(7) Know the market -- The school administrator should know the market in terms of such as how many property owners live in the district that do not have children in school, etc.

(8) Make the process transparent -- This cannot be stressed enough. Furthermore since ae of every dollar spent by the school is on school salaries, the school is one of the community's largest employers and this should be expressed to the media and the community.

(9) Meet over coffee -- with the media, the local community and explain in a relaxed informal atmosphere how the budget process works. (IASB, nd)

VI. PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING PROCESS

The work of Lerner (2006) states that the participatory budgeting process is one that is "driven by and grounded in certain core principles" including those of:

(1) democracy;

(2) equity;

(3) community;

(4) education; and (5) transparency. (Lerner, 2006, p.1)

Participatory budgeting processes furthermore have several basic design features including those of:

(1) identification of spending priorities by community members;

(2) election of budget delegates to represent different communities;

(3) facilitation and technical assistance by public employees;

(4) local and higher level assemblies to deliberate and vote on spending priorities; and (5) The implementation of local direct-impact community projects. (Lerner, 2006, p.1)

Lerner (2006) states that while many of the principles and design features just stated above are known to exist in other participatory processes, in the participatory budgeting process "they are combined and implemented together." (p.1) According to Lerner (2006) participatory budgeting processes are inherently characterized by "flexibility and constant evolution and therefore participatory budgeting "can be extended and adapted to new spaces in new ways." (p.1) Lerner states that as participatory budgeting "...develops in different places, people experiment with new variations to participatory budgeting, to better respond to their local context." (2006, p.1)

Lerner (2006) states that limitations in the implementation of a participatory budgeting process are known to include the following limitations:

(1) Participants often have limited decision-making power;

(2) At the budget deliberations themselves, participation is not always representative or equal;

(3) Participation has been unequal when those who attend budget deliberations are not able to participate equally in discussions. If deliberations are not well structured and facilitated, they can reproduce class and knowledge hierarchies, by enabling those with more power and greater linguistic or technical skills to control discussions. (p.1)

Lerner states however that "even with these limitations, participatory budgeting tends to facilitate more representative and equal participation than other public engagement processes. (p.1)

VII. THE BROADER VIEW

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Quoted Instructions for "Leadership in Administration" Assignment:

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Leadership in Administration Case Study 2009

Consider that you are the superintendent of schools in a K-12 urban/suburban school district in the state of Illinois with 12,000 students. You have completed one full year on the job and are at the mid-point of your second year. The first year was a busy one, given the impact of learning a new system and the expectations related to the public relations activities expected of a new superintendent. The first year at best could be described as the traditional *****honeymoon.*****

This year, however, started out different. During the summer preceding the opening of the school year there were discussions by the legislature about a potential reduction of revenue from the state to school districts. The state had been experiencing shortfalls in its income tax collections due to the higher than normal rate of unemployment. As a result, the revenue side of the state budget was severely affected. The governor had addressed the legislature with the reality that funding to all state agencies would have to be reduced.

The history of the school district showed that in recent years the cost of education had been rising due to growth of the school district as well as many new programs and innovations. The support by the PTA and other community groups had been solid. Moreover, the district and its constituents had always been successful in gaining more funding from the state without having to raise taxes on the local taxpayers.

In anticipation of the revenue shortfall you prepared a written statement for the school board with your opinion about the impending crisis. The statement included the facts and figures that showed that the district would not be able to meet its obligation at the current rate of expenditures. You further suggested in your memorandum that the public needed to be alerted to the fact that things could be different in the ensuing year. You also met with the board president and secured her support for announcing the budget crisis at the next school board meeting under the superintendent*****s report. The report would detail the fact that revenue from the state was likely to be reduced by 25%.

The board was supportive during the announcement at the public meeting and made statements supportive of what the superintendent may have to do to produce a balanced budget. A few members of the public who were present at the meeting cautioned the board and superintendent not to reduce expenditures in certain programs that marked the school district as special among other districts in the region and throughout the state.

In the ensuing development of the budget, you sent a memorandum to principals insisting that they recommend only items that a school absolutely needed. You further directed them to strip out any non-required expenditures and to bring back a bare-bones budget.

You subsequently heard through the *****grapevine***** that some of the principals were publicly complaining about your instructions and about you as a leader. There was even talk that some of the principals were personally engaged in urging members of the public to appear at the board meeting to speak against the superintendent and the budget-reduction plan.

As you became worried about the potential of widespread community opposition, you arranged to speak to the various PTAs and civic organizations. In your talks, you continually emphasized that the proposed budget represented essential expenditures that were directly related to the education of the children. You went on to discuss some of the kinds of expenditures that would be at risk. You gave examples of expenditures such as:

*****¢ The district has twice as many middle school athletic programs as the neighboring school districts.

*****¢ At a bus pick-up stop, the district provides courtesy transportation for neighboring parochial schools students who lived closer to school than 1 1/2 miles.

*****¢ The district provides all textbooks and material at no cost, while neighboring school districts charge a curriculum fee.

*****¢ The district offers a free Saturday driver education course to eligible students.

*****¢ The district*****s foreign language program starts at the kindergarten level, which is a heavy expense to the school district.

*****¢ Every elementary school has a counselor, social worker, a registered nurse, and a health aide, which is well in excess of the standards and is a high cost.

*****¢ The district provides a free breakfast program for all students rather than identifying only the economically struggling students. No reimbursement is requested from the state or federal government.

*****¢ The district offers free after-school child care for families of students who attend the district*****s schools.

*****¢ The district pays a coordinator of volunteers at each school in the district.

*****¢ Assistant principals are assigned to every elementary school regardless of size. Some elementary schools in the district have fewer than 300 students.

Throughout each meeting the public was very vocal regarding any attempt to balance the budget by eliminating the programs as described in your examples.

The board ultimately met to consider the budget. The normal meeting room could not contain the audience, and the meeting had to be moved to a larger room. There seemed to be no one in the audience who was a *****friend of the schools.***** As the meeting progressed, the crowd began to attack issues such as the high cost of teacher salaries and the district*****s practice of funding staff development when teachers could pay for their own advancement. Discussion got rather personal as some members of the public attacked you as superintendent and referred to your lack of competence to handle the crisis. The board president had to gavel the crowd to order several times throughout the meeting. One group of citizens called for the formation of a citizens***** committee to examine more closely the rationale behind each budget item.

As the last speaker finished at midnight, the president of the board asked for a formal motion to accept the superintendent*****s recommendation to approve the budget for the ensuing school year. Following the motion and the second, the board discussed the issues among themselves for a full hour. The roll call was finally requested, and the recommendation to accept the budget failed by a vote of four against and three.

Now what?

Be a problem solver

Look at this case carefully from start to finish and insert strategies that would have produced different outcomes at the various opportunities. Some areas to examine, but ones to which you are not limited, are:

*****¢ What could you as superintendent have done differently in the first year as superintendent?

*****¢ Do superintendents and building principals look at the budget in different ways?

*****¢ How could the communication with the principals have been handled differently?

*****¢ How do you assess the superintendent*****s preparation for the school board meeting on the budget?

*****¢ What could you as superintendent have done differently with school board communications?

*****¢ Were there answers that you as superintendent could have given at the meeting? Why or why not?

*****¢ Were there additional steps that you as superintendent could have taken to cope with the growing resistance of the community to the budget?

*****¢ What could you as superintendent have done differently in community relations?

*****¢ What problems or barriers would have to be overcome before any solution to the school district*****s financial problems could be successfully implemented?

Use related literature to support your proposed solution to this case.

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