Budgets Should Be Driven by Data and Instructional Goals

2. Budgets Should Be Driven by Dataand Instructional Goals Align Resources Develop Action Plan Set Educational Goals Complete Needs Assessment • Each year, principals set goals and develop action plans for improving their students’ achievement. These goals and action plans are always based on student needs and build towards a strategic alignment of resources. • The CRAFT tool is aligned with the various processes associated with each step, but focuses primarily on Aligning Resources. It takes principals through the first three steps quickly to show how the results of their work can be used to best build their budgets.

3. How To CRAFT Your Budget • Context: What are the overall strengths and weaknesses of my school (based on Quality Review, Progress Report, and other data)? What goals do I have for the coming year? • Required: What do I need to serve my students at a basic level? What commitments has my school already made? • Account: What resources and flexibility do I have left after meeting initial requirements? • Focus: What needs and priorities remain? What people, services, and materials would I ideally purchase for my school? • Trade-offs: What are the different ways I can meet my needs and priorities given the resources I have?

4. The following work is best done with your School Leadership Team • and your SSO. • Blank worksheets are at the end of this document for you to use for your individual school.

5. Timing:How The First CRAFT Steps Align With School Planning Processes In order to provide schools with a single integrated blueprint for 2008–09 school planning, we schools are advised to begin developing goals, objectives and a plan immediately – before the C4E Appendix and Galaxy budgets are due at the end of June. Early planning will relieve school leaders from having to replicate the same series of planning work-streams in response to the CEP, PPR and Quality Review processes in the Fall and thereafter. The calendar of planning events below are intended to help principals develop a single, integrated approach.

6. Context, Part I: First, Identify Your School’s Key Data Points Below is a sample school for illustrative purposes. Replace it with your school’s key data.

7. Context, Part I: Assess Needs Based on School’s Strengths/Challenges • Replace the sample data below with your school’s identified strengths and challenges based on the various data and planning processes you have done with your school community. • As you analyze the information, what patterns or trends do you see? What needs emerge?

8. Context, Part I: Set Goals and Priorities • As you frame your school’s needs and priorities, involve your school leadership team.

9. Context, Part I: Prioritize and Finalize Goals and Objectives • Due to the projected budget reductions, you will have to make targeted choices as you develop your budget, so after identifying a variety of important goals and objectives, choose your top priorities for the 2008–09 school year. For example: • Reduce class size by 4 students/class in 7th and 8th grade math as well as ELA to improve instruction over the next three years. • Expand the after-school program to support the improvement of 7th grade achievement over the next two years. • Build internal professional development to improve classroom management this school year. • Implement a conflict resolution program for the 8th grade by October of this year. • Hire an additional attendance teacher for the start of the school year. • These top three to five goals are not meant to be to the exclusion of others, but resources should first be focused in these areas.

10. Context, Part II:Your School’s Action Plan • Based on your needs assessment and your resulting key priorities, you will map out your instructional plan for the coming year through the CEP and other process you and your SLT, instructional staff, SSO network leader will be doing. • This is a crucial process to go through at least in part before starting your budget planning. The following are recommended pieces of the action plan to complete before June 30th: • Using preliminary goals as a guide, work with your SSO and SLT to identify major actions to take to lay the groundwork for implementing instructional plan in the fall • Example: Hire an additional ESL instructor to collaborate and team-teach with ELA classroom teachers • Consult resources including “Mapping CEP Goals to Contracts for Excellence Funding” and the “2008-09 Class Size Planning Memo” • Prepare tentative 2008-09 staffing plan • Compile list of anticipated expenses or needs that differ from last year

11. Context, Part III:What Is Your Existing Table of Organization (T.O.)?

12. Context, Part III: How Does Your T.O. Align to Your Goals? • It’s helpful to ask these questions to be sure your existing T.O. is directly aligned with your goals and fits into your action plan: • Due to register changes, will I have to hire (growth in registers) or excess any teachers (decline in registers)? • Due to the budget reductions, do I have to eliminate any positions? • If reducing class size is one of my top priorities, how will I find the dollars to fund the additional positions? • Did I reexamine the out-of-the-classroom positions? • Finally, how does my Staffing Plan explicitly support our educational goals?

13. Context, Part III:Based On Your Action Plan And Work On Your T.O., You Should Now Have A Vision Of A TO

14. Your ISC Officer (or ESO Business Manager) are your best resources to support you through the process outlined after this point. • Blank worksheets are at the end of this document for you to use for your individual school.

15. Your Budget Support Partners Will Expect That You Come to Them With: • Your school’s educational goals and the top priorities • Tentative Staffing Plan (T.O.) for the upcoming year • Clear questions and focus areas where you need additional support from your budget support partners at the ISC / SSOs

16. 4. Enhanc-ements 3.Supplemental Extended day, additional AIS, PD, etc. 2. Mandated Services Special education classes, related services, APE, ELL, guidance, etc. 1. Core—Required to Serve All Students Administrators, teachers, parent coordinator, secretaries, school aides, librarian, crucial OTPS, etc. Required: In Effectively Covering Core Services, How Are You Also Supporting Your Goals? Begin with the expenditures required to serve all students and align them with your priorities. The titles in the bottom half of each tier that are bolded are potential hires.

17. 4. Enhanc-ements 3.Supplemental Extended day, additional AIS, PD, etc. 2. Mandated Services Special education classes, related services, APE, ELL, guidance, etc. 1. Core—Required to Serve All Students Administrators, teachers, parent coordinator, secretaries, school aides, librarian, crucial OTPS, etc. Required: In Effectively Covering Mandated Services, How Are You Also Supporting Your Goals? Next, identify mandated services for your students and align them with your priorities. The titles in the bottom half of each tier that are bolded are potential hires.

18. Account: Pay for Returning Staff and Recurring Costs • From your previous T.O. , you know what staff is returning. Those costs will be on your budget. Also account for other recurring costs. • 1 principal • 2 secretaries • 2 deans • 16 ELA teachers • 9 social studies teachers • 6 science teachers • 9 math teachers • 4 elective teachers* • 6 special education teachers • 4 foreign language teacher Note: School-wide average (SWA) teacher salary is $60,000. • 2 assistant principals • 1 parent coordinator • 2 guidance counselors • 1 librarian • 1 AIDP teacher • 1 ELA coach* • 1 math coach* • Other recurring costs and needs = $100,000 • I.e. Multi-year contracts or budget deficit rollover Total recurring costs from example = $4,158,000 Please note: For simplicity of the example, we are only using tax levy funding calculations.

19. Account:How Do Your Requirements Fit with Your Budget? • Your total school budget $4,923,000 • Returning staff* –$4,158,000 • Other recurring costs –$ 100,000 • Remaining resources = $665,000 • * You can find out the costs of your returning staff, as well as your school-wide average teacher salary, from the register file provided on the Principals Portal under My Budget.

20. Account:Look at Impact of Filling Vacancies and Making New Hires Based On Your T.O. Planning *Your school-wide average (SWA) teacher salary comes from the cost and number of teachers you had in the spring of the previous year.

21. 4. Enhanc-ements 3.Supplemental Extended day, additional AIS, PD, etc. 2. Mandated Services Special education classes, related services, APE, ELL, guidance, etc. 1. Core—Required to Serve All Students Administrators, teachers, parent coordinator, secretaries, school aides, librarian, crucial OTPS, etc. Focus: Look At Your TO To Assess Vacancies / New HiresTo See If You Are Meeting Your Goals Effectively The titles in the bottom half of each tier that are bolded are potential hires.

22. Focus: Additional Priorities • Based on your analysis of the Resource Matrix, you can see how your decisions are likely to help you meet your goals. You can now focus on additional priorities, supplements, and enhancements. • NOTE: If you are facing a reduced budget, see the next slide for suggestions.

23. Alternative Scenario-Decreasing ResourcesAccount:How Do Your Requirements Fit with Your Budget? • Your total school budget $4,508,000 • Returning staff* –$4,158,000 • Other recurring costs –$ 100,000 • Remaining resources = $250,000 • * You can find out the costs of your returning staff, as well as your school-wide average teacher salary, from the register file provided on the Principals Portal under My Budget.

24. Alternative Scenario-Decreasing ResourcesFocus: Prioritizing To Meet Reductions • In this example, you want to decide how to meet your goals while also working with declining resources. From the previous accounting, you have $250,000 to fill your vacancies, meet recurring costs and make new purchases.

25. 4. Enhanc-ements 3.Supplemental EGRCS, Extended day, additional AIS, PD, etc. 2. Mandated Services Special education classes, related services, APE, ELL, guidance, librarians, etc. 1. Core—Required to Serve All Students Administrators, teachers, parent coordinator, secretaries, school aides, crucial OTPS, etc. Focus:What Goals are Not Being Fully Met? Which Ones Can Be Met More Richly? The titles in the bottom half of each tier that are bolded are potential hires.

26. Trade-Offs:The Challenge of Budget Reductions • As you plan for the upcoming year, the anticipated budget reductions may have an impact on your decision making. There are ways to minimize the impact of reductions. • *Some of these Strategies were suggested in the Source Budget Reduction Strategies – Leadership LSO

27. Crucial Concepts to Keep in Mind • Some recurring expenditures will have different costs in future years: • Part-time programs that are annualized could increase future costs • Staffing costs can increase or decrease based on annual salaries of staff and new hires • When vacancies occur or new hires are made, schools can choose whether to invest in more or less senior teachers, with impact on the schoolwide average salary showing in the following year’s budget. • Schoolwide average teacher salary is computed based on a prior year school payroll snapshot, and is affected by the salaries of existing staff, newly hired teachers, and teacher attrition and retirement. • (More detail is available in chapter 6 of the Resource Guide to School Budgets)

28. Crucial Concepts to Keep in Mind • Create budget flexibility by using some money on one-time expenditures as opposed to those with recurring costs. • New computers, library upgrades, professional development • Think about your school budget holistically. • Categorical and restricted programs are always subject to guidelines. • Additional School Supports—Remember what is provided or no longer provided given your selected SSO (e.g., Professional Development) • Think creatively while being methodical. • Consider new enhancements to meet school goals while accounting for core services. • FSF incremental funding must be scheduled in the following five categories: • Class-size reduction; • Teacher and principal quality initiatives; • Middle school and high school restructuring initiatives; • Full-day pre-Kindergarten; and • Increased student time on task.

29. SCHOOL WORKSHEETS

30. #1: Identify Your School’s Key Data Points Refer to sample sheet on slide #5 in the CRAFT framework.

31. #2: Assess Needs Based on School’s Strengths/Challenges (Refer to slide #6 in the CRAFT framework) • Replace the sample data below with your school’s identified strengths and challenges based on the various data and planning processes you have done with your school community. • As you analyze the information, what patterns or trends do you see? What needs emerge?

32. #3: Set Goals and Priorities • As you frame your school’s needs and priorities, involve your school leadership team (Refer to slide #7 in the CRAFT framework.)

33. #4: Prioritize and Finalize Goals and Objectives • Due to the projected budget reductions, you will have to make targeted choices as you develop your budget, so after identifying a variety of important goals and objectives, choose your top priorities for the 2008–09 school year. (Refer to slide # 8 in the CRAFT framework.) • _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ • These top three to five goals are not meant to be to the exclusion of others, but resources should first be focused in these areas.

34. #5: What Is Your Existing Table of Organization (T.O.)? (Refer to slide #10 in the CRAFT framework)

35. #6: Based On Your Action Plan And Work On Your T.O., You Should Now Have A Vision Of A T.O. (Refer to slide #12 in the CRAFT framework)