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.
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