Step One

Read through the Facilitator’s Guide for School Budget Hold ‘em. (See attachment)

1. Provide a justification for going through this game’s process.
2. Prior to playing the game yourself, predict at least one example of a school finance decision that you will be asked to make.

Step Two

Click here to get to a page where you will find “Budget Hold ‘em for Districts. (see attachment)”  If it does not take you to this directly, you will find it under “Tools and Publications” on the website.  Go through the process of playing the game in which you will make decisions about improving schools and notice the cost or savings for making each choice. 

When you are done, save your hand, print it out, or email the hand to yourself.  The point here is to do something whereby you can refer to the choices you have made.

Step Three

Choose 3-5 of what you believe to be the most important decisions you made during the game and answer the following:

1. What was the rationale for making each of these choices?  What do your choices signal about what you value in the realm of education?
2. Looking at the cost or savings of each of your choices, what is the overall budget impact here?
3. Of the choices you made, which do you believe would be the most difficult to implement?  Justify your response.