Budget, PD calendar, APT
By UAPCS
Rick Veasey
Budgets
• Revenue
• Local: Parent organization, donations, school fees
• State: WPU
• Federal: Title funds
• Expenses
• Every dollar you spend is shown on your state reporting. July 1 to June 30.
• Net Income
• Revenue minus Expenses
Revenue
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Full Enrollment is crucial
Setting appropriate fees for upper grades
Setting reasonable expectations for parent organization to reach
Learn the demographics of your students and what State and Federal funding you
qualify for
• Grants and donations
• Prepare a budget that underestimates income
• Does your income sources support the charter?
Expenses
• Largest expense is typically employee, building, supplies, benefits, and
professional services (in that order).
• Prepare a budget that over estimates expenses (cushion)
• If your budget is tight remember where you spend the most and look for
opportunities there first. Some nickel and dime the smaller areas and miss
more obvious opportunities
• Are your expenses charter specific?
Net Income
• This is a really important number! :o)
• Most of you will have bond covenants that must be met and this NI will be a
part of those. Usually some ratio number that is spelled out in the bonds.
• Use NI to help meet cash reserve goals in your early years.
Strategies to consider:
• Start with your big areas first when building the budget (building and wages).
• Keep in mind funding streams and how the budget is built. Reading money,
Title 1, Title 2a, Land Trust, Special Education, etc.
• Build with cushion!
• Review and understand the budget often, so you can direct the work of the
school.
Public Hearing
• Don’t forget to hold a Public Hearing about the next school year budget
before the board meeting that the board will vote to approve that budget.
• The Public hearing can simply be an agenda item in your April or May board
meeting, as discussion, not an action item to vote on.
• Then your board can vote on the budget in the next board meeting.
Budget proposal
• Remember that the school budget is one of the few items they must oversee
in a charter school.
• Make sure they understand the budget as well as you do (Make sure you are
as expert as anyone in the room too.)
• Know that this is a projection and that it will need amending during the
following year.
• Be conservative on enrollment projects
• Be conservative on expenses (don’t be naively under budget from the start)
Approving Final Year budget
• In addition to approving the next year budget, make sure your board
approves your final year budget for this year
• They need to be correct in each line item within 5%, not just total budget
• Do make sure to cut off spending in a timely fashion.
• No POs signed after this date
• Only you and Business office can use school purchase cards after a certain date, etc.
PD Calendar
• Main areas to include on this calendar
• Summer Training
• Back to school orientation week (days)
• School year professional development days
• School year professional development blocks of time
Summer Training
• What training do you expect teachers to attend over the summer
• What training/planning do you expect teachers/staff to do over the summer
• Year long employees with year long expectations?
• Summer work schedule?
• How will you support and follow-up on these trainings
Orientation week
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Decide how many days you need and can afford to ask for
Keep a mixture of fun, class preparation time and PD
Don’t forget the big ones that involve school procedures, policies and HR
Protect collaboration time (team lunches, ice breakers, events, etc.)
Think about agendas and minutes for each meeting (Track who was trained
in what and when, what teams and teachers did and when, etc.)
Year long
• Do you have planned training time during the school year? Early release days
for students? Long work days for teachers?
• Do you have a set plan for those days? Maybe not exact topics for all of
them, but at least who will meet where and when and for what general
purpose? Saves you last minute prep and the feeling from staff of wasted
time.
• If arrangements for outside trainers are needed, this calendar helps you be
ready for this early and not have to stress over details last minute
APT
• What is it? The latest in ways to be considered a licensed educator in Utah
• Who can get one? Anyone with a 4 year degree in any subject
• What is it good for? This approach can help you certify the right person for
the least expense to them and you
• What do you need to do?
Expections
• What are the key goals you would want a new teacher in your building to
become expert at?
• What will it take to get them there? College courses? Mentors? Praxis scores?
In House growth plan?
• Consider this and your EYE plan as one in the same
• State license is ever changing so hold on…