Empowering Learners - Chapter 3 - Budget
Empowering Learners - Budget
Empowering Learners addresses the importance of the budget to the library program. The program must have sufficient funds to progress. If the money is not there, progression would be pretty much impossible. It is the duty of the librarian to show the progress being made to those who control the budget. The librarian must present a detailed analysis of how a well-funded library program impacts everyone in a positive way. The way to show progress is in an action plan with goals and objectives clearly defined.
Woolls - Chapter 9 - Managing the Budget
Although budgets are distributed by the district administration, they are generally dictated by the state, in our case, DESE. Funding is usually set up to be allocated based on the number of pupils. Woolls states that states may mandate a minimum amount that is allocated to library.
When working with a budget, the fiscal year is very important to keep in mind. I know that in my district, the fiscal year runs from July 1 - June 30. I know this because I was just visiting the administration building last week and everyone was hard at work on the budget. Woolls stressed the importance of the LMS working with the person in charge of the budget to make sure that all orders and invoices are correct. She also mentioned that many districts may not allow any order to be submitted within a certain amount of time before the end of the fiscal year.
Writing specifications is important for a couple of different reasons. The specifications make the school district and the library media specialist look credible to vendors, but also to make sure that orders are completed correctly.
Running a library is quite costly, and it is not easy to estimate the cost. Librarians generally move up on the salary schedule each year, therefore, the cost to employ the librarian rises each year. This also depends on the type of degree that the LMS obtains. A LMS with a Bachelor's will not make as much money as his/her counterpart with a Master's. One cost that never occurred to me was the cost of equipment use. Woolls said to estimate about $1.00 per hour of usage. Then you have the cost of materials. This is estimated by the cost of the replacements, which are always on the rise. Library money must be used effectively and the library takes a loss when the librarian's time is not used to collaborate with teachers, but spent on clerical tasks. I see this happening in my school quite a bit. Our librarian is constantly being pulled to complete tasks that have nothing to do with the library, like make a new early dismissal bell schedule.
A very important task of the librarian is to write proposals to expand programs. Proposals must be carefully thought out and documented and then presented. Wools states that proposals should include: a statement of needs and of goals and objectives, a plan of action or activities and procedures, an evaluation plan, comments about facilities and other resources available, and a carefully planned budget (Woolls, 153). The statement of needs must present a strong case for need. Woolls suggests comparing your library to one from a similar school district. And like all arguments, it is best to be supported. Rally support from the library patrons (students and teachers) to reiterate the need.
A carefully planned out design is a must. It is also extremely important to plan for evaluation. Woolls suggests even contacting others, such as those in test and measurement offices at colleges or state agencies, to help plan how to evaluate.
Librarians should be prepared to share the plans with the general public. The proposal should also include what local resources are available, this means describing the facilities.
The budget for the project must be put together item by item. Woolls mentions that there are two areas that may cause hiccups; fringe benefits and overhead. Fringe benefits include salary statistics and overhead is the use of staff, equipment, and facilities that will be specifically included in the proposal (Woolls, 158).
Budgets and proposals take a lot of hard work. In my opinion, this will be the most difficult part of running a library.
Actually, budgets are not set by DESE. There is a recommendation for per pupil expenditure but schools are allowed to increase the budget as much as they want (which many don't do) or to give much less than what is recommended (which happens all too often.)
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that budgets aren't already in place. In my school we had to put budget requests in by March or so.