Name of Artifact: Needs Assessment Survey
Date of Artifact: August 15, 2024
Course #: EAD510
In order to create a Continuous Improvement Plan and effective budget, school leaders must get the input from a variety of stakeholders. This Needs Assessment Survey is designed to get feedback from faculty and staff to inform the effectiveness of various programs, instructional materials, and professional development. The data collected in this survey was used to create a proposed hypothetical budget.
Name of Artifact: Budget Alignment to Vision, Mission, and CIP
Date of Artifact: August 20, 2024
Course #: EAD510
ELCC 3.1: Candidates understand and can monitor and evaluate school management and operational systems.
ELCC 3.2: Candidates understand and can efficiently use human, fiscal, and technological resources to manage school operations.
Budget Alignment to Vision, Mission, and CIP
As a school that was only opened in 2022, the school identified areas for improvement in its Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP). For this assignment I chose three budget categories that align with the CIP.
The first area of focus is Operations. The operations team at my campus coordinates all logistical and operational functions of the school including lunch and recess. Purchasing ball/equipment bins for each play area of the school was a minimal investment that increased the operational efficiency as well as safety of play areas. Rather than relying on playground staff to carry play equipment to and from play areas, placing these bins ensured that staff were able to better use time to supervise students. This also helped reinforce our value of fostering responsibility in students by requiring students to put away equipment at the end of each recess. Because of lack of cafeteria seating our school needed to implement three lunch periods. By purchasing five additional tables, this significant investment allowed us to run only two lunch periods. This created efficiency in[JH1] student schedules as well as lunch staffing. The table cleaner devices listed also increased efficiency by reducing time needed to clean lunch tables.
The next area of improvement is community building and community events. This last year the school invested funds to host Lunar New Year and Diwali Festivals. Because our school demographics have large populations of East and South Asian families these two cultural celebrations were identified for community building. These events were hosted for both students and families and were very effective at building deeper community connection on our campus.
The final category of focus is Instruction. This year the school invested in small robots that the students can program with simple code. As our mission focuses on educating students to the highest international levels, we have purchased textbooks and novels for all our classes including the Grade 4 novel and the Grade 5 math textbook. Having classroom copies ensures that the school reaches its CIP goal and that each student has access to the curriculum and has few to no barriers to achieving their academic potential.
Principal’s Responsibility
The responsibility for ensuring that the school’s budget aligns with the school’s mission, vision, and CIP because the principal has the “on the ground” experience and the “30,000 foot view.” The principal understands the nuanced needs of the school and can balance that with the big picture goals of the CIP and district needs. Aligning the budget with the school’s mission, vision, and CIP ensures that the school’s funds are used for areas that directly impact student success and school improvement.