ANALYSIS OF OCS 2019-2020 BUDGET PLAN YIFANG SHI

In the current education market where private education encounters severe competition, in

addition to the competition of disordered prices, internal finance management is also a problem

faced by many private schools. In order to become bigger and stronger, and even survive, it is

necessary to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. Especially for the current fully

competitive market, annual budget preparation is particularly important to private school.

At Oakland Christian School, annually, the board will approve a budget for the fiscal year

which shall run from July 1 to June 30 in order to manage finance efficiency. The Finance

Committee announces to the Association projected tuition rates and payment schedule for the

coming school year by the first week of February. This year, The Finance Committee has held

several meetings to review the proposed budget before finally send to the Board for approval.

During the 2019-2020 budget preparation, they mainly work on recommendations for the

Budget Usage. For the meeting held in early March, they worked on adjustment of the 2019-

2020 school year financial budget plan. The meeting participants were the Head of School,

Elementary Principal, Secondary Principal, Executive Director and the Finance Controller. The

biggest topic is the student enrollment for next year. The Finance Controller-Tracy stated that

everything is determined by next year student enrollment number which will be known till the

end of June or even the beginning of August. As a private school, enrollment is carefully

monitored by the Administration to determine if income will be commensurate with the

projections. If income looks adequate, expenditures for the coming school year may begin in

May. They confirmed that purchases will be approved by the department heads and checked

against budget by the Financial Controller. For the coming school year, the head of school

mentioned that financial management, as an indispensable part of the management of private

ANALYSIS OF OCS 2019-2020 BUDGET PLAN YIFANG SHI

schools, plays a unique role in the survival and development of private schools. Because private

schools have significantly different goals and management modes from public schools, their

financial management is more difficult, procedures are more complex, and financial personnel

face greater pressure from all sides. In particular, with the continuous growth of for-profit

private schools and the shrinking enrollment number requires schools to constantly reform and

improve their management systems and processes to adapt to the current market environment.

Oakland Christian School is funded by more than one person. Therefore, it must be

managed through a solid financial policy. Personally, planning and budgeting should follow

the principles of "overall consideration, focus on key points, focus on practical results,

diligence and frugality", pay attention to the priorities and put the limited funds to good use.

The Board and the administrators are responsible for budget target, the annual budget

should be paid attention to analysis in the process of budget implementation, timely adjust, find

the problems in the process of budget implementation and some special situation, especially

when there is a shrinking enrollment number. The Finance department should be timely

providing feedback and taking corresponding measures to make the best adjustment for the

budget plan based on the student number. If possible, the school should focus more on student

recruitment. Private school’s student recruitment is completely different from public schools,

but also different from enterprises. It requires schools to dig into extensive research, to

understand the parents and students’ requirements, to build their own symbolic advantages, to

introduce the school service as a "bright spot", to spread the school brand, and to improve the

school internal management.

Every school has its own specific target public and interpersonal resources. For Oakland
ANALYSIS OF OCS 2019-2020 BUDGET PLAN YIFANG SHI

Christian School, they have all different resources from churches in town. To explore, activate

and make good use of these resources is conducive to optimizing and expanding the school's

development space and winning more development opportunities for the school. To achieve

this, on one hand, the quality of school education and teaching should remain continuously

high, the school spirit and discipline should remain high quality; On the other hand, school

should always interact with the public. With all of these efforts being put into student

recruitment, the school may get increasing enrollments. And finally, it will help the private

school to improve the school’s financial health in order to provide efficiency and high quality

services to the students.