Week 5 PDP

As I developed my 3 year professional development plan I thought about what my superintendent attended to gather more experience and knowledge.  I looked at other district to see what their superintendents were doing to further their skill set and wanted to develop something that was realistic and that I would be able to use in the future.  Most of the trainings are done by the Region Centers and local Universities and that is what I based my plan on.   

Week 5 Site Supervisor Conference

From my conference I have learned many things beyond what I can express in writing and more things that go beyond the domains and competencies.  Much like I garnered so much knowledge from my professors in face to face classes I have learned many things from my superintendent.  As we reflected back on the past 9 months there had been so many on the job experiences such as with personnel and budget that I was allowed experience.  Learning by fire is what my superintendent calls it.  Because my district is small I was able to be a part of a bond issue, budget development, personnel issues, contact the attorney, write a grant for a School-Based Health Clinic for the district, bring a YMCA to the district, develop a district-wide CSCOPE implementation plan, and many more moments where I was allowed to be a part of.  I was able to see the big picture and help with the overall system that I know will give me the ability to know where my weaknesses lie so that I can improve.  I feel confident that I will learn from on the job experiences and even by developing the professional development plan I found some areas that I can develop. 

Reflection

· Describe why reflection is an important skill in leadership.

Reflection is the most important skill for any leader.  It forces you to stop and think about the entire situation and how it affects the entire system.  It helps shape a leader to in becoming more aware of the needs of the organization and to even be cognitive of their own strengths and weaknesses.  I received my masters in education from Lamar and we used this same book and it was really interesting to reflect back on the notes that I took in my book three years ago.  I highlighted the section on page 106 about the Limits to Experience.  As a young administrative prospect I knew that my major weakness was lack of experience, but I was determined through my internship plan and opportunities in my district to put myself in a position to gain experience. This is now my third year as a Principal. Too often leaders feel that weaknesses are negative.  When the reality is that by defining these you are putting yourself in the situation to achieve greatness.  By challenging your weaknesses and reflecting on them a great leader develops these areas through professional development and experiences.  There is so much knowledge in asking for help.  I have surrounded myself with experts in their fields and rely on this knowledge to become my own.  I enjoy the devil’s advocate and the perspectives of others and expect nothing less from everyone on my campus. The greatest task that a leader holds is problem solving and decision-making. Without being a reflective leader one could not develop adequate problem solving skills to move their organization forward.  The common quote “learn from your mistakes” becomes the commonplace in the vocabulary of reflective leaders.  Einstein stated “anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”  Everything in education is a work in progress. New information is being mandated at us each every day.  As we move our districts and campuses to being successful we must get used to making adjustments and never accepting the status quo. 

Provide examples of reflective practices throughout this program citing examples from:

· Course assignment activities

Through the assignments and even the readings I found this information to be so practical for my understanding of the role of the superintendent.  I keep a binder on my desk of information that I may need at arms reach and have many articles and readings from our assignments in it.  Notes on budget and laws are among the most critical to maintain information on. 

· Blogs

Through my blogging experiences I have taken this knowledge and expanded it to my campus.  We are in the process of creating a blog for my campus that allows everyone to share information and ideas at a more rapid pace. It is a constant board for feedback from oneself as a leader and possibly others.  The ability to share information from experts is so valuable in expansion of knowledge.

· Course and campus supervised logs

Through the internship plan and activities I found that many overlapped some of my previous work but that this time I had more in depth and specific questions to seek out.  Looking at the bigger picture leaves you with a perspective that helps you think globally and about the system that your campus is a part of.  Building relationships with other people in the district has been tremendous for me to better my campus and to be a vital part of the district. 

· Assessments

I enjoyed the assessments as they were a comfort zone for me and my ability to recall the information from each class.  I found that they were the most helpful in preparing me for the Comp and hopefully for my Texes exam. 

· Other intern reflection experiences

Even though I prefer to take face-to-face classes I was still able to build a network of colleagues to again take expertise from.  I think that a viable suggestion would be to allow group work in the form of videoconferences with peers in addition to weekly video chats with the professors. 

    

 

Describe how you plan to use reflective practice to improve your leadership skills – provide some specific suggestions for applying the skills of reflection.

I plan to use reflective practice to improve my leadership skills by making it a common language that I share with myself and colleagues daily. Through questioning and seeking knowledge of other experts I plan to continue to develop my reflective skills to maintain a high expectation of problem solving to lead my campus to success.  I want to do more reflecting in my meetings and with my teachers to seek their feedback through surveys and discussion.  I want to develop my skill set of reflection to become more natural and innate by getting comfortable with hearing the negative in order to find a solution to make it a positive. 

Reminder - Scheduling a Conference with the District Site Supervisor to review the SISE 

Please schedule a conference with your District Site Supervisor between now and Week 5 to review the Supervisor’s SISE (Superintendent/Supervisor Internship Summative Evaluation). 

I have a meeting scheduled with my site supervisor next week on Tuesday at 4:00.  

CARE

Concerns – Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and list at least three concerns that you have identified from these experiences – a concern may be any matter that engages your attention or interest.

1.  The Bilingual and ESL programs in grades PK-3 were not vertically aligned and teachers were not clear as to what their roles were.

2.  Campuses across the district were all following different attendance procedure and expectations.  The definition of perfect attendance was different on every campus. 

3.  CBA data varied greatly from campus to campus in both Math and Reading.  

Affirmations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research, and affirm or identify at least 3 actions that must be sustained and supported to achieve the District/Campus improvement initiatives.

1.  After this issue was presented there was an immediate task force implemented. Campus administrators have met several times and a flow chart of expectations for the district was established.  Vertical meetings have been scheduled for every Bilingual and ESL teacher in the district to communicate these expectations.

2.  This issue was discussed in our principals meeting and district established criteria are in the process of being developed along with communication to parents.

3.  Continual investigation of this issue is being discussed at each campus.  There are many contributing factors such as: teacher development of CBAs, administration of CBAs, the rigor of the CBAs, and alignment with the TEKS.

Recommendations - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and describe at least 3 recommendations you would make regarding the District/Campus Improvement plans or action research plans.

1.  Ensure that all members of the LPAC team is trained on the TEC Chapter 29 and TAC Chapter 89.  All bilingual and ESL teachers receive further training and even invite Region Center specialists to come do walk throughs to make recommendations.

2.  Ensure that all campuses are communicating to parents the attendance procedures and expectations that follow state and local board polices.  Utilize site based decision-making teams to establish this criteria on the campus and district levels. 

3. Ensure that all teachers who are developing CBAs have extensive training on how to develop them and have a deep understanding of the TEKS.  Establish district wide administrative procedures and timeline for these assessments.  Establish district wide utilization of this data and determine how this will look for each grade level. 

Evaluate - Review your participation in improvement initiatives or efforts to engage in action research and identify at least 3 strategies for evaluating the improvement plans or recommendations.

1.  To evaluate the improvements in bilingual and ESL classrooms utilize teacher and parent surveys as well as walk throughs done by administrators who are trained on what to look for. 

2.  Utilize PEIMS attendance to review the attendance data for each campus.  Utilize parent surveys to check for understanding of this information.

3. Using Eduphoria, monitor CBA data district wide and note any fluctuations or trends of data.  Use teacher surveys to check for understanding of CBAs and continue to provide on-going training for curriculum writers and teachers. 

Competency Review Reflection

As I began to review all of the activities that I had participated in this past nine months I began to see that everything that I do daily in my position relates to the 10 competencies. BUT the real learning happens when as a leader you are cognitive of the expectations and make a tangible effort to achieve these high standards daily that are listed as the competencies.  I have really transition to seeing the forest and the trees this past nine months and find that I am so aware of how what I do on my campus and how it affects the district. I take for granted this new perspective and have caught myself wondering why other campus leaders have not thought about the bigger picture when making campus level choices.  I become so in line with all of the other campuses with procedures, practices, expectations, rules, curriculum, and things that are important for us all to have in common as a district.  For example, I had a student who was bitten by several mosquitos waiting for the bus. I knew with the confirmation of the west nile virus in our county that the district needed to set forth practices for communicating with the community how we are addressing it and what are the protocols for allowing students to bring OFF to school.  I alerted district officials and within hours we had the county out to spray and had a regular schedule for this established and a district procedure for OFF.  We also sent out informative flyers to parents via our web site and public posting areas.  Never before would I have seen this as a big picture issue. I would have taken care of my campus and stayed in own little world.

Self-Assessment Reflection

From looking at my responses now and the ones before I see very clearly the areas where I still need improvement and that is budget and budget forecasting.  As I review all of these competencies again I have found that I sought out more professional development in areas where I needed more training such as human resources, organizational health, and curriculum.  I am reading the book What Great Principals Do Differently and I am reminded of how no matter high up I get in a district I can never lose tough with what is the most important thing we do and that is the kids.  Whitaker writes a book called What Great Teacher Do Differently and I found myself wanting to read that so that I could address best practice in the classrooms.  As a superintendent, I will learn topics such as budget that according to these competencies is only about 5 lines in essence that is a major role of most superintendents. I would find it helpful to keep these competencies close as a reminder of where my main focus should lie – success of all students. 

5399 Week One Part 2

Position Goal

The position that I would like to ultimately pursue is that of the superintendent.  I just moved to a larger district and find that there are more positions such as directors and assistant superintendents that I can pursue within the next 5-8 years.  I am currently the principal at an elementary campus and would love to move to middle school or high school to gain that experience.  I think that the superintendent needs to see all levels in order to understand the nature of a vertically aligned district.  I know that as young as I am I need all of the experience that I can get in other positions to become a better superintendent.  I would love to one teach teachers or principals at the university level and share with them my experiences as I have had the fortune  of working with professors who have helped me learn through their experiences.

Leadership Goal

I want to lead because I have a passion for making progress in public education.  I have a drive and desire to lead a campus and a district to preparing students to enter into the world with success and knowledge that will allow them to make a difference.  I want to accomplish momentum for my campus and district that moves forward.  The educational needs that underlie my motivation are that I never settle for status quo or complacency.  Our students deserve better than that.  My personal needs that underlie my motivation to lead is that I wake up every morning and I am excited to go to work. I lay my head on my pillow at night with no regrets.  My career is what I was meant to do.  The internship has truly allowed me to become a better principal and see things one a larger scale to help my district be more successful. 

Week 5 School Finance

PART 1

1.  Upon reading this activity I thought that I was going to have a hard time coming up with examples that were personal to me.  After I read the Texas Education Code of Ethics I began thinking of several examples that have happened close to home.  (A)The first is one of our administrators whom have not submitted documentation to Human Resources for countless days when they are absent.  Last year this person missed about 50 days of work because of a family illness and this year they have missed about 15 weeks because of family illness and personal illness.  Therefore the district is paying someone a contracted salary and they are not fulfilling their contracted days.  (B) Another incident could have happened to me but thankfully when I have a gut feeling about something not being right I act on it.  I was scheduled to go to a conference for 3 days and was given meal money in advance.  I have to come home a day early because I became ill.  I called our Business Manager to see what I needed to do about the meal money and was instructed to not worry about it.  Days went on and I felt like something was off.  I contacted my supervisor with the same question and was told to turn in the meal money that I did not use to our Business Manager. I did not through our Business Manager under the bus, but instead told them that I felt like I should turn the money in.  (C)The last example is a coach that our Board hired to take us to state in basketball.  He is being paid for coaching three sports and only coaches one. All of the other coaches must coach three sports or they do not receive the stipend like he does. 

2. (A) The short term consequences on this example was suspicion by our HR director and by the staff on campus.  Once news broke that this person was not being docked pay there was a huge crisis. The long term consequences have been that this person had to pay back about $10,000 to the District.  Trust was lost and it has taken lots of recovery for administrators to keep order on their campuses with teacher absences. (B)  Short term consequences would be paying back the meal money.  Long term consequences could be never being given meal reimbursement to termination.  (C)  Everyone on staff knows that this coach does not coach three sports and is being paid for it.  Everyone has lost respect for him and now the kids have too.  Long term consequences have been slow but he is finally being exposed for his poor work ethic and the Board no longer supports him. 

3.  (A) If we had a better checks and balances system for absences this would prevent this from happening.  When are now using AESOP, an automated sub system to track absences.  These procedures should apply to EVERYONE from top down.  (B)  To prevent this situation it should be commonplace to remind staff of these procedures and to require receipts for transactions.  (C)  To prevent this situation is to always act with integrity in decision making and reminding the Board of these obligations.

PART 3

After much review of all of the concepts that we learned in this class and the self-assessment I know that I have a long way to go to be able to perform financial operations for a district.  I need to stay updated with the legal concepts, regulations, and codes.  I find myself reading them over and over.  They will probably be more meaningful once I am using them on a regular basis.  I still feel that I need to become more familiar with the budget procedures and management.  This area is simply something I have only experienced on paper and when I am able to gain more hands on experiences I feel that I will be able to feel more confident in this area.  I have a surface level understanding of auditing and have been able to gain much insight through interviewing district personnel.  The last piece that I find I will need the most assistance is revenue forecasting for personnel and budget.  I am going to start looking for training in this area and even ask my superintendent if I can attend some of the financial training that he goes to.  In week 1 we talked about the history of finance. These were concepts I never knew about.  In week 2 we discussed how to involve stakeholders in the budget process and the budget timeline.  We began our understanding of WADA and ADA and Tier 1 and 2.  The largest piece that I took away was how much demographics and the needs of the students play in budget.  In week 3 we learned about revenue forecasting. This brought a lot of issues with our current Texas school finance system to light by comparing the two districts.  In week 4 we explored more about expenditures and how this can tell a lot about a district and their needs.  Overall, I am only beginning my adventure in becoming the chief financial officer of a school district and have lots of growing to do. I look forward to this experience and I am conscious of my short comings so that I may look for opportunities to better my self.

Week 4 Assignments

Week Four – Part 1

FIRST is the Financial Integrity System of Texas.  According to TEC 109.1001 the purpose of this system is to give a rating to each district in Texas based on a rubric of financial and academic information that provides motivation for districts to improve the management of their financial resources.  The evaluation system is also designed to show the long-term effectiveness of improvement in the Texas public schools financial system. 

The process of this system is laid out in the TEC 109.1001- 109.1101.  Districts must disclose all financial information not just to the state but to parents and taxpayers in the form of an annual report.  External audits may be performed and that information must be submitted as well to the state.  There are processes for appeals, timelines, and explanations of each rating.

Through my research on this system I found several web sites such as the comptroller’s office that give ratings of school districts based on FIRST and AEIS.  I found this web site to be helpful in understanding these systems and how they provide taxpayers and the state with a rating for each district and campus.  The FIRST web site has the information from each district posted and even allows the viewer to click on the forms that the district submitted. This form helped me understand further the rubric of the FIRST.  The questions that the districts must answer are laid our simply and points are awarded based on responses.  At the bottom of the form the determination of rating and the indicators are explained for the public to understand.  These indicators include district size and this is taken into consideration as was discussed in the lecture about the economy of scale. 

The three areas that we felt as a group that were the most important components of FIRST are as follows. 

Reporting

As I was able to find districts submit or report to the state all of this information electronically.  This information must also be reported to the public in the form of an annual financial report.  If any of this data is not reported correctly then the system will give an accurate rating.  Reporting is especially important to give clear and accurate information to the public as a district is always under the watchful eye of the public.

Types of Ratings

The better your FIRST rating the better that a district is being financially responsible.  They are keeping their costs down and utilizing their money efficiently while still maintaining a high level of student success.  This is not our money.  It is taxpayer money and we are obliged to ensure that we are being frugal with this money to educate our students.  There are 5 ratings that the state gives.  After much research most districts fall into the top 2.  Superior and above standard.  The other 3 are standard, substandard, and suspended. 

Financial Solvency

This is important to understand that this evaluation system is used a first warning indicator or early alert for possible financial troubles in the future.  School budgets are forecasted annually but a budget is designed to be a 5-year plan.  If there are problems with their year’s budget FIRST will be able to see that coming so that district officials can plan accordingly.

Week Four- Part 2

Snapshot Week4	District1	District2
TotalOpertationsExpenditures	8,611	8.908
TotalRevenuePerPupil	10,529	10.316
Avg. Teacher Salary	39,771	50,307
Students	830	32,326
Total Teachers	70	2,299
Total Schools	3	45
Econ dis	43%	53%
Revenue	8,823,250	329,638,930

Economy of scale is a fundamental business principal that is indicates that there are cost advantages for expansion or business that are large in size.  The cost for their output is significantly cheaper than other competitors because of their size.  It is like Wal-Mart compared to the local store in town.  Wal-Mart is able to keep their prices “rolling back” because of their purchasing power and bulk discounts.  Small stores are unable to compete with these low prices to stay open therefore they have to charge more for the same item. In Texas, these Wal-Mart school districts have an advantage over small districts because they are able to keep the cost per student down while still maintaining a high level of student success. 

In this comparison District 1 can only afford to spend 54% of their budget on instruction while District 2 is able to spend 62%.  This is due to the revenue generated from their tax base. 

Both District 1 and District 2 have the same needs fundamentally as all districts in Texas.  We all have to maintain a 1:22 class ratio.  We all have to have administrators.  We all have to pay a competitive teacher salary to keep highly qualified successful teachers.  We all have to pay building costs etc.  Where the cost effectiveness comes is with personnel and purchasing power. 

We used to receive a small school allotment that helped our mom and pop district compete financially with Wal-Mart districts but some out of touch lawmakers determined based on inferences made from paper that small districts were too top heavy and did not need these funds.  This generalization does not hold true for all districts and I assure you that I contacted my representative.

Week 4 Part 4

83% of our M&O budget is devoted to salaries.  As such, a 5 % pay increase has not been an option for over 5 years now.  3% in the highest we have been able to give.  We have several administrators that are over paid and some that are being under paid because of when they were hired.  Teachers all feel that they we are obligated to give a raise but in truth we are obligated to the students first.  This is a hard pill to swallow for some teachers.

Week 4 Part 5

I met with our Business Manager to discuss our external audit.  Our auditor was selected because his bid was competitive, he was from a large reputable firm out of Houston, and has been our auditor for 10 years.  Every year we must open it up for bids and the board decides who they would like to use.  Our superintendent makes his recommendation to the board and then is becomes an action item for them to vote.  Our auditor comes and spends about 2 weeks in my office going through all of my files and the files from every campus.  All student activity funds and each budget is analyzed.  Our audit always tells what we can do better but we are always given a great report to give to the board.  Our auditor comes to the board meeting and presents his findings to the board.  All of this information is then put into our annual report for taxpayers.

Week Three Assignment

Week 3 – Part 1

	District1	District2
Econ. DisAdv.	93.3%	20.7%
Refined ADA	$3,893.754	$4,032.937
Weighted WADA	$5,555.815	$4,794.076

The district with larger WADA has the smaller ADA because they are servicing more students with greater needs as indicated by the number of students in special programs and that are receiving free or reduced lunch.  While both districts have about the same number of students the needs of the students in District 1 are far greater based on at-risk criteria and other demographic numbers.

Week 3- Part 2

	District1	District2
WADA Compressed Rate	$5,044	$7,206
Revenue M&O Fund	$28,023,530	$34,546,111
Teacher/Libr.,Nurses, Counselors	281	307

The amount money for the M&O Fund is calculated by multiplying the Compressed WADA by Weighted WADA.  As noted previously District 1 should have more revenue than District 2, but because of local revenue they have more M&O funding.

Week 3 – Part 3

WADA

After comparing both districts it becomes very clear why we studied in previous weeks the definitions of equality, equity, and adequacy. All of these are guarantees set forth by the Texas constitution more than 100 years ago and their definitions are still challenged in the courtroom when it comes to Texas school finance. The goal of WADA (weighted average daily attendance) is to provide more professionals and funding for districts that are property-poor by utilizing a formula that considers all sources of revenue for a district. Not only does this equation take into account the number of students in attendance, but it also looks at the type of students that are being serviced. The more students that are involved in specials programs such as gift and talented, bilingual, vocational, compensatory, and special education the more funding a district will need to provide a free and appropriate education for these students. The establishment of WADA was to provide equity among all students in the state of Texas regardless of what district they are in, but the witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth best sum up the system, “fair is foul and foul is fair.” This week we are charged with comparing two districts and reviewing their snapshots and summaries of finance to look for correlations between revenue and demographics. This understanding will help us in determining funding for our future districts and begin to scratch the surface of the mystery of Texas school finance. With the combinations of areas of funding and the impending deeper budget cuts it stands to reason that our current knowledge of Texas school finance will change with the tides.

Differences

District 1 is similar to a district that we studied before, Edgewood ISD. They receive very little funding from tax revenue but have a high number of students that are being serviced in special programs. They are 100 % Hispanic and therefore have a large number of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students and a large bilingual program. It costs almost double to educate a child in both English and Spanish and without funding a district could not provide these programs. This district is also 93.3 % economically disadvantaged. This number directly correlates to the reason why there is a low amount of property taxes collected in District 1. This community most likely suffers from the effects of poverty. In an article published in Instructional Leader (May 2012) Eric Jenson discuses the effects of poverty on the brain. He describes how the brains of students who live in poverty are affected and how schools can address these gaps. This research is part of the driving force behind everyone’s favorite No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and is why the state monitors the data so carefully of children who are economically disadvantaged. Districts that have a higher number of students who are on free or reduced lunch receive more funding from the state for implementing programs to address the needs of this subgroup or in the case of some districts this majority.

In comparison, District 2 is a property-rich district. They receive less revenue from the state because they generate so much total target revenue locally. While both of these of these districts have about the same student-teacher ratio, District 2 has more professional staff. Even though the goal of WADA was to give District 1 this advantage, inadvertently District 2 has come out on top. District 2 does not have near the subgroups that District 1 has nor the amount of students in specials programs while District 1 is expected just to do more with less.

Positive Impact

The positive impact for District 1 is that without WADA they would not be receiving very much funding beyond local funds and ADA.  Clearly District 2 has many positive financial impacts from local revenue to WADA and ADA. 

Negative Impact

District 1 has many more student needs for funding than District 2.  I would wager that District 2 will have better accountability ratings than District 1 and can afford more educational opportunities for their students.  The inequity between the two districts is fierce and this battle is commonplace in districts across Texas.

Week 3 – Part 4

We are a property-poor district and therefore receive more state and federal funding than local monies.  We scrape every penny we can from every allotment and our expenditures prove that.  This year our goal has been to make sure that we are receiving all funding possible from ADA, compensatory, and the transportation allotments.  We have developed a better system for making sure that we are identifying both at-risk and economically disadvantaged students.  We have devoted personnel to Medicaid billing to maximize our return.  We calculated that we are losing about $50,000 annually by not billing for this.  We are also looking into better investments and making sure that our money is working for us.