Budget dust

For many school districts, the fiscal year end is coming right up on June 30th. So now is the time for librarians and techs to go panning for budget dust. "What's that?" you may well ask.

• Most principals and other administrators have budgets with some discretion about how they are spent.
• Most principals and other administrators save a little money back in their budgets all year long just in case of an emergency.
• Most principals and other administrators know that if they don't spend all their budgets down to nearly zero each year they run the risk of having their funds reduced the following year.

Ergo... 

There may be some small amounts of money in your boss's budget that s/he is looking to spend prior to the end of the school year. And it is your professional obligation to help him/her spend it well.

Now is a good time to slip a list of tbings you need (projectors, extra workstations, book sets, software, etc.) to your boss. S/he'll thank you for helping make his/her job easier. 

For other pragmatic budgeting ideas click here. Or here (page 20)

Oh, if you are a Mankato school employee reading this, I have NO budget dust in any of my accounts this year. Sorry.

Comments

[Charles Ferriss]

It is indeed a time to hunt for money for simply keeping programs afloat. Sad, but utterly true. We want all children to learn, yet we do not yet have the national determination to fund the effort.(edited by Doug Johnson, April 27, to combine two comments.)

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Charles,

I've been in education for 30 years and have never been a position where one did not struggle to fund a budget!

All the best,

Doug

[Andrew Pass]

Doug,

I hope it's OK that I'm posting this, but I wanted to let people know that if they have "budget dust" available, I publish a daily current events newsletter. This newsletter always contains questions about an interesting newspaper or magazine story. The newsletter always has between eight and ten questions designed to promote discussion of the current event. It also has pedagogical suggestions. It includes a reference to a standard and a link to an Internet resource. At this time the price is only $75 for the rest of this year and all of next year. One subscription is good for every teacher in a school. If you're interested in learning more take a look at: http://www.pass-ed.com/DiscussionStarters.html
(By the way, if you've got a lot of "budget dust" I'd be happy to charge you the full price of $100. or even double or triple the price.)
On a more serious note, our newsletter has a scholarship fund. Each year we donate 15% of our profit to the five schools that refer the most new clients to us. This money can be used for scholarship funds or simply to benefit students in some way.
Doug, I"m not sure if it's OK that I wrote this. But since you review comments before posting them, I assume you'll reject the comment if it's not OK.