.jpg)
Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Compass PD Podcast with Dr. Carrie Hepburn
Episode 60: From Zero to Impact: Strategic School Budgeting Simplified
In this episode of the Compass PD Podcast, Dr. Carrie Hepburn and Connie Holmes explore how building budgets can reflect educational values and priorities. Drawing on her experience as a building administrative assistant, Connie shares practical strategies for creating, managing, and utilizing school budgets effectively. From involving teachers in decision-making to ensuring no funds go unspent, this episode is packed with insights to help principals and their teams maximize resources to support student success.
Hello and welcome to the Compass PD podcast, where we dive into evidence-based practices and research-driven strategies that empower educators and leaders to make a lasting impact. I'm Dr Keri Hepburn, your host alongside my friend, connie Holmes. She is a former Building AA and our Compass PD colleague, who some of you may know already. She handles all of our scheduling, our invoicing and really the important details of all the work that we do. Today she is here exploring budgeting and how, as an AA administrative assistant if you hadn't heard that before and I know some people have secretaries, principal secretary, building secretary she, as an AA, had a pulse on all the things budgeting for the building that she worked in. Thank you for coming. Hi, connie, how are you?
Speaker 2:Hi, I am well. Thank you for coming. Hi, connie, how are you Hi, I am well. Thank you for having me. School budget planning was my favorite thing to do as an AA.
Speaker 1:You know what I see. You do that all the time. Now for me, many of you know I say all the time that numbers are not my friend. I don't know why, but I just like panic, and Connie helps me with all things budgeting so that it makes sense to me and so I understand it. So I'm excited to have you talk to us about this Now.
Speaker 1:Whether you're an teacher, administrator, district leader, our goal at Compass PD is to provide insights and tools that help you navigate the complexities of education and inspire student success. That's exactly what budgets do. They highlight what you value. So today, in this episode, we're going to do a kind of a high level brief explanation of the budgeting process and talk about how, now in December, not only are school districts and school buildings thinking about their budgets for the rest of this school year, but if you're a teacher, you may not know this they're actually creating their budgets for the following year. So some of you may be hearing from your principal or district leader that they don't have the budget for something that you want right now. Well, that could be really true, because they're budgeting a year to a year and a half in advance. My recommendation and advice to you is just to give them some grace. Honey today's going to give us some tips on what you can do so that you have your needs on the forefront of the mind of those who are working with the budgets.
Speaker 1:The purpose of this episode is that our principals are busier than they've ever been. The load of responsibility is heavy and many of you have listened to Anne, as Dr Niedringhaus, who's a former administrator, talk about that. You have listened to in is Dr Niedringhaus, who's a former administrator, talk about that. She's talked time and time again about the importance of delegation and building a team to support the building leader so that they can be focused. The principal can be focused on instructional and cultural things that are happening in the building, things that are happening in the building.
Speaker 1:One of Dr Niedringhaus's top-notch team members was Connie herself, so she was able to organize and support her administration with their building budget, and we thought that hearing from Connie could be especially helpful to administrators who aren't even sure how to start delegating this work to their AAs. What we do want to say we want to just have a little disclaimer for you is you have to have the right AA in place to delegate the budget to. You can't just say, hey, I have an AA, so I'm going to delegate the budget to them. When you have the right talent and the expectations, it is possible to take budgeting off of your plate and ensure that the budget's being used wisely. So I want to kick this off for us with Connie talking about what are some of the skills an AA would need in order to support their administrator with their building budget.
Speaker 2:Right. So first of all, a skill that's required would be a basic understanding of accounting just debits, credits, adjusting journal entries, a balance sheet. You do not need to be a CPA, but you definitely have to have a general knowledge of bookkeeping. In addition, organization being organized and having a system is key. The first year may be a little intimidating, but once you set up a system that works for your building, it gets easier every year. So when it was time to start creating the next year's school budget, the first thing as an AA that I did was to set up a time to meet with the building administrators to review the current budget.
Speaker 2:Budgets require planning. We would discuss what priorities, what are the goals for next year, what are the needs for each area? We would discuss if there would be new curriculum that maybe needed manipulatives or other supports. Would there be more or less sections for any grade levels? All those things made a difference in how we would prepare for the next school year. I'd also find out if there was anything needed that we could apply for an educational grant. There's so many opportunities for grants out there, but you have to be willing to look for them. I'd also ask if we needed to reach out to our PTO or student council to help cover costs for other events.
Speaker 2:Then, after meeting with the principal, the next step was to send out a Google request form for the grade level chair for each area to list their budget requests. Most areas would get together in their PLCs to discuss what was needed. I also asked that each item listed would have a priority next to it, One being most important and critical to student success. Two being something needed that would really help students, but not critical. And three items that would be extra support or just an enhancement to the learning or classroom engagement.
Speaker 2:These were requests and not guarantees until the budget was approved by the principal, the finance department and, ultimately, the Board of Education, and including teachers in the decision-making process was absolutely necessary. They are in the classrooms every day and know what the real needs of the students are. I always asked my budget requester to include a justification or a reasoning for the items they're requesting. This made the request clear for all who were involved in the approving process for the budget. It was better to have that small blurb or justification and not need it than to try it and catch a busy teacher and ask them quickly to write a justification to get a request approved.
Speaker 1:Just sitting here thinking how valuable this information is. So I think the first thing that I heard from you is it's important for you and your, for the administrator and the AA to sit down and clarify what those big goals are in the district and are in the building. You had great questions like what are the goals? What are the needs of each area? What? What do we need for manipulatives? I loved when you were like we need to be thinking about it. We're going to have more of a sections. It could be teachers and a grade level. It could be more sections in a content area you're, if you're in secondary, you may be having a whole different section that's coming. And then you're really thorough as you think about who are the people that help support things that are happening in our building. You mentioned PTOs, ptas, student councils all of those organizations within our school help us in some ways. So something that they might be helping with is providing, like wish lists or books for teachers or extra supplies for events that you'll be having, and so that's really good to be thinking about when you're thinking about the budget. I love how you talk about the importance of getting teacher input, but I especially love that you had them. When they said we need these things, you had them, rank them with a one, two or three and then add the justification immediately, so that you it's a really proactive approach that you're not having to go back, like you said, when they're already busy and then say, oh, why did you need this or why did you want this, and it shows to the people that you're requesting the budget from that. There's a plan in place that it's not just a reactive kind of thing, and so it's a really nice way to help set your teachers up for success for some of the things that they're wanting.
Speaker 1:Again, we said this is not guaranteed, but you're telling your teachers. Yeah, you're telling your teachers. I'm advocating for you. I hear you when you say that, connie, and so, as the building AA, the principal doesn't have time to do that. So you're helping the principal with that and you're advocating for the teachers at the same time. It's beautiful. So, okay, connie, one of the things that you the first thing you said you did was that you talked with the administrator. How did you set up communication with the administrator? Was it you in charge or did the two of you develop a plan? Like, how did you set it up? What worked, maybe, what didn't you just like? Tell us all the things so we can set them up for success.
Speaker 2:Sure, I set up that meeting with my building administrator early in December. You have to catch those elementary principles early, before all the holiday parties, holiday concerts and all the end of the year calendar events that those principals are committed to. In our district we use zero-based budgeting. That means each area of our budget needed to start at zero and then they would add to the budget request with justifications for each item, and in my opinion, this is a great way for schools to create a budget only request what is truly necessary. Great way for schools to create a budget only request what is truly necessary. In my case, I was in charge of the budget. I came to the school district with a strong accounting background and I always felt comfortable creating the budget and asking questions or getting clarifications from the principal or even the finance department when questions arose there was a learning curve to it.
Speaker 2:So my very first year as an aa, I sent the budget request form to every person in the building. That was a fail.
Speaker 2:I received some requests, but not all requests. Some teachers thought it was an opportunity to clear their wish list. Budget dollars are taxpayers dollars. They are entrusting school districts to be good stewards with their tax dollars, so it takes time to create a budget and ensure that the most important items are included. So what really worked for me was starting to use my budget right after July 1st, after it was approved. If you wait until the end of the year to use your budget dollars, you run the risk of items either being on back order or just even being unavailable by that point in the school year, and your accounting department will appreciate that you've not waited until the last minute to try to use those budget dollars too late. They have so much work to do at the end of the school year closing out the books that you'll be appreciated making those purchases as early in the school year. Working together makes all of our jobs easier.
Speaker 1:I love how proactive you are in this approach. You set up the meeting in December, you understand what an administrator's calendar looks like, and so you are doing your job to set them up for success too. And that's very evident in this plan, and I like that. There's a value on the dollar, so we're not about just spending willy nilly. You're like these are our taxpayers dollars and they're trusting us with it.
Speaker 1:We need to be wise stewards of that, and I know what the finance department goes through, based on being having offices close by, so I am certain that they are grateful that you're thinking of them as well and all that they have to go through as they think about closing out the end of the school year. So being proactive and starting to use that budget early, to use that budget early Plus, I think using the budget starting in July means we're using the stuff, the learning either the learning or the things with kids that year. It's not like we're hoarding the money and then spending it all later. So we're being good stewards by using the budget on things that we need and then using it all school year long. Right now, december, here's what's happening Principals are living out, school districts are living out finishing out the current budget between now and the end of June and they want to ensure their funds are utilized From a building AA perspective at this time of year. What would be on your radar in helping the principal use the building budget wisely?
Speaker 2:So before I would meet with my principal in December, I would really scrub through that current year budget. I would check to see what was still needed that maybe we could transfer funds from an account that wasn't utilized totally into a. That maybe we could transfer funds from a fund, an account that wasn't utilized totally, into a fund that we could use to buy something. Yeah, that's so great. A little bit of time to fill out the transfer request paperwork and have it signed and wait for accounting to make the transfer, but it was great. Utilization of the budget funds I mean I don't think there are any schools that want any part of their budget to go to waste by not using the funds. Every student deserves every opportunity that the budget will allow in their school districts.
Speaker 1:That's a great motto right there I think that's a t-shirt, connie. Our students deserve every opportunity the budget will allow, so we want to be really wise stewards of that. What information do you have to help AA staying on top of the budget?
Speaker 2:Um, you know you use a P card, but those transactions don't get posted for 30 to 60 days, so you don't really know what might be in that account. I would keep a listing on each of those P card transactions so that I knew the exact account balance of each of my budgeted accounts. Um, another great, great tip would be be a great listener in the copy room.
Speaker 2:As an AA, you can learn a lot by listening. So hearing those teachers talk with other teachers and then letting your building principal maybe know what really is needed in a classroom is so helpful. It's a great opportunity to maybe pull off a surprise that they weren't expecting, because we had a few dollars that we could move into a different account. Make a difference in that classroom.
Speaker 1:I love that. I recently did a study and they call it listening for heart drops where you find things that people really want or they really need and then you surprise them with them with something like that and that really does let them feel seen and feel valued and feel appreciated. So when we talk about building that building, building that building culture so if I couldn't add building in there anymore, creating that building culture in our schools what a beautiful way for you to be able to help be a part of that and help lift up your principal so that they can be seen as somebody who is supporting the teachers and the work too. Now, planning for next year. We're going to talk just for a couple of minutes talking about how can they plan. We talked a little bit about.
Speaker 1:Okay, here we are this year. Now're going to talk just for a couple of minutes talking about how can they plan. We talked a little bit about. Okay, here we are this year. Now let's talk about we're thinking about next year right now too. What should AAs be thinking about? Gathering for their administrators right now to help them plan for next year's budget.
Speaker 2:Right now have that current year budget available with current balances. That way you can help point out to that administrator hey, this area maybe didn't use what they thought they were going to. This area they really need it more than they asked for. Totally helps them planning for the next school year.
Speaker 1:Oh great, I know the administrators would appreciate that. One less thing they have to worry about and somebody staying on top of it. They will. This is, this is golden. Something we love to do on the podcast is we love to share a couple tips before we sign off. Do you have any tips for principals and AAs as they begin to revise and use their budget right now?
Speaker 2:My best tip would be to always know your account balances and don't be afraid to ask your finance department for help. They can help you transfer balances. They can tell you what funds can and can't go into which accounts. They are always happy to help you and they make it proactive. If you can ask before you meet with your principal, I was never afraid also to ask for discounts from your vendors. Sometimes I would even contact other AAs in my district to see if there was an item I thought maybe they needed in addition to what I needed and we could get a quantity discount by ordering that item together. So smart.
Speaker 2:Most importantly, don't leave budget dollars unspent.
Speaker 1:I know Connie Holmes and I know her very well and I will tell you she is the best at finding a deal. If there's a coupon code, she's found it, and so I love your idea of asking vendors for a discount. I don't feel like we do that in education very often and they're happy to do it and will do it if we ask Otherwise. They're also happy for us to pay full price. That's right, and the thought of if other AAs are buying this and we could get a discount together is really smart. Like every year, we know we're going to buy books. Every year we know we're getting copy paper or we're getting construction paper or paint or there's so many things. So what a great way to again go back to what you said earlier being a wise steward of those taxpayer dollars. People appreciate that, and something I learned I did not understand this my first couple of years in curriculum is that if you don't spend the money, somebody else gets the money and they spend it for you and it's not always on things that are as necessary with kids and in the classrooms.
Speaker 1:Connie, I wanna say this was amazing. I really want everyone to take some time to think about. We have a lot happening right now in this time of December, and we're thinking about how are we going to spend our money this year. How are we going to spend our money? How are we going to plan for money for next year. I'm super hopeful that administrators will be listening to this and that they and their AAs will sit down and listen to it together and create a plan. Connie, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us and your tips with us. This is going to be so helpful for people. Thank you, it was fun. We just want to say thank you to everyone for joining us on the Compass PD podcast. Remember, at Compass PD, we believe that every educator has the power to inspire, change and transform student learning. Stay focused, stay inspired and keep making a difference.