Assignment

In an era of change based on 21st century solutions to educational problems inherited from the previous century, educational leaders need to serve as the school’s visionary, as well as its planning coordinator, and budgeting manager. From a budgetary perspective, school leaders are responsible for establishing “the big picture” (i.e. – “the plan” for meeting all the needs of a school) in order to successfully provide optimum learning for all student subgroups within the school. 

For this Final Project, imagine you are a principal of a public school. You have been tasked with devising a campus budget plan proposal based on establishing budgetary goals and objectives that are connected to utilizing data, a digital system and fiscal, human, and material resources. This Final Project requires that you apply all you have learned about organizational leadership and budget formation throughout the course, thereby demonstrating your mastery of each course learning outcome. Drawing support from what you have learned in the Sorenson and Goldsmith (2013) and the Daresh and Daresh (2013) texts, as well as other resources presented from Weeks One through Five of the course you will develop the plan for a campus budget proposal.

Writing the Final Project

Create your Final Project to meet the content and written communication expectations below.

Content Expectations

·         Leadership: In one to two pages, discuss your personal leadership style and how it will facilitate the process of devising a campus budget plan proposal. Include consideration of decision-making, collaboration, and the involvement of stakeholders.

·         Campus Budget Plan: In one to two pages, discuss the need to include the following five components of a Campus Budget Plan, and support your analysis with scholarly sources: School culture, School safety, Assessment and accountability of student learning, Monitoring behavior systems, and Recruitment, hiring, training of new school staff.  In an additional one to two pages, analyze the goals and objectives of the Campus Budget Plan Proposal and the resources (human, material, and fiscal) that are necessary to realize the benefit to the school. 

·         School Culture: In up to one page, analyze the following two characteristics of school culture, supporting your analysis with scholarly resources: The components of school culture and how the school reflects them; and, how functional the school culture is. In an additional page, formulate a plan to change the school culture so that all students can successfully learn. Support your plan using scholarly resources.

·         School Safety: In up to one page, analyze the shortcomings of school safety. In an additional page, propose changes that would create a safe school. Refer to data that would be used in determining these changes. Support your analysis and proposed changes using scholarly resources. 

·         Recruitment, Hiring, and Training New Staff: In one to two pages, explain the process used to recruit, hire, and train new school staff to support the school’s improvement plan. In an additional one to two pages, analyze the role staff members play in promoting a positive learning climate including their own demonstration of effective and nurturing practices that support success for all students. 

·         Optimum Learning Results: In one to two pages, explain how the achievement of the goals and objectives can result in successfully providing optimum learning for all student subgroups within the school.

Written Communication Expectations

·         Page Requirement: Your project must be 10 pages, not including title, abstract, and references pages.

·         APA Formatting: Use APA formatting consistently throughout the paper. It is recommended you use the content area labels as headings for each section of your content for the paper. Include an abstract per APA style guidelines. For information regarding APA, including samples and tutorials, visit The Ashford Writing Center.

·         Syntax and Mechanics: Display meticulous comprehension and organization of syntax and mechanics, such as spelling and grammar. Your written work should contain no errors and be very easy to understand.

·         Source Requirement: Use at least seven scholarly sources, in addition to the course textbook, all of which provide compelling evidence to support your ideas. All sources on the reference page need to be used and cited correctly, following APA guidelines, within the body of the assignment.