Reflection of School Finance

           I learned quite a bit in this course about school finance.  Though I haven’t exactly mastered the template, I got better at applying it.  The concept of overall finance and the differences between schools is what I’d say I learned the most.  I really liked when we had to compare two completely different districts and their financial situations.  This gave me a good indicator of what other districts face.  I am in a chapter 41 property rich district, so our biggest issue is sending recapture money back to the state, the Robin Hood plan.  Our tax payers are upset that their tax dollars are funding other school districts.  When I look at others; however, I can see their side of the issue.  Some districts need more money due to equity issues.  These lessons have definitely opened up my eyes on school finance.  I hope to continue to gain knowledge in this area, but I also hope to be a superintendent one day in a district like ours that has a business manager who takes care of most budget issues.

Unethical Conduct by Administrators

I have worked for and with many great ethical educational leaders in my career; however, a few that I have worked with will always stand out as unethical. One principal that I worked for early in my career was doing some great things on the job. He had helped turn around the discipline problems at a school, such as fights and tardies; however, one thing that glaringly pointed to him being unethical was the fact that he was a married man who had a girlfriend on campus that everyone knew about. I was pretty shocked when I found out and didn’t really want to believe it because I really looked up to him as an educational leader, but the more I heard about, the evidence was there. I saw how this defined his career for some and not the strides he made at the school where I worked. It taught me the important of us being role models not just to the students but also to coworkers. 

Another case that I read about recently involving unethical behavior happened during a district’s testing.  The testing coordinator was in charge of securing the testing materials.  Her location of choice was in a locked desk drawer inside her locked office.  Though this is common practice at many schools, it was a particular problem at this middle school due to the door lock being a common master key held by many on the campus.  Additionally, the desk drawer key was also being very common.  Provided at the school, but unused in this situation, was a separate, locked closet for testing materials with only one key available that was held by the testing coordinator.  During a district-led testing audit, it was discovered that a large number of students who failed the previous year’s 7^th grade writing or 8^th grade math test received a commended score on the 2009 test.  This audit led to an erasure analysis by TEA that discovered the answer choices that were erased and changed to right answers far exceeded the state average for these tests.  The state average was 0.16 erasures per answer document, and in this case the average was 17.7 where 98% of those erasures led to an incorrect answer being changed to a correct answer.  Though neither TEA nor the district was able to prove who tampered with the answer documents, they were able to conclude that someone definitely had a hand in it.  The testing coordinator and the principal were brought before the Texas Education Agency with sanctions looming.  Though the principal did not actually handle the tests, part of his job was to oversee the person who did, in this case, the testing coordinator.  Both of the educators received major sanctions from TEA, including the lost of their license for a one year period.  This taught me that as a campus administrator you have to be aware of everything and you take ethics very serious when comes to testing. 

An Interview with the Business Manager on the Auditing Process

Port Neches Groves ISD uses Gary Davis of West, Davis, and Company from Austin for our external audits.  He was selected due to his price and qualifications.  We also looked at other districts that he audits and spoke to people in their finance departments to see how they felt about the services that he provides.  He conducts the audit by sending a list to us of what he wants such as: reconciliations, checks, confirmations from the bank, and other financial documents.  We then provide him with what he asks for his review.  All of our recent audits have proven that we are following Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and doing a great job with our finances.  He has many times recommended our business manager, Cheryl Hernandez, to do trainings for other districts so they too can have good audits.  The results are communicated first to the business manager, then to the superintendent and finally to the rest of the staff and presented at a board meeting for the community. 

This interview was another good learning activity for me.  Once again, I have come away with a great appreciation for our district’s business manager.  Though she gets on me sometimes about cutting the alternative school to save money, I know that she has the best interest of the district at heart when it comes to having financial security for the future.

A Look at Personnel Finances in PNGISD

In Port Neches Groves Independent School District the total personnel salaries add up to $24,674,141, not including benefits.  The total district budget is $36,750,087 so personnel salaries account for 67.14%.  It has always been my belief that personnel expenses make up about 80% of a districts budget.  When you factor in benefits, I’m sure that is about where PNGISD is.  This really came to light a couple of years ago when we had to absorb quite a few positions through attrition.  What the employees of the district found out was that the only way to significantly reduce the budget was to reduce the number of positions.  Along those same lines, there would be major ramifications of a 5% pay increase.  For PNGISD this would be over $1 million.  At a time when the state and federal government are making massive cuts across the board, including education, a move such as this would need to be highly scrutinized before it is approved.  One thing with a pay increase is once you give it, you cannot take it back.  It increases your pay scale forever.  You have to decide whether or not it is sustainable in your district.  The only way to really get new money is to gain new students.  Otherwise, a district may have to cut back positions in order to give a raise.  A positive benefit is a pay raise can increase employee morale though many times this is short lived.