1

Schoolwide Budgetary Needs

Reyna D. Preciado

College of Education - Grand Canyon University

EAD 510: Education Finance

Richard Rundhaug

November 3, 2021
 2

Schoolwide Budgetary Needs

Collaborate

Due to the fact that Maryvale is a Title I school that has salaries tied to the budget I was

unable to see the budget. However through speaking with both my principal and my assistant

principal of instruction, who is in charge of the the Title funds, I was able to gather how the

budget is used to support the Integrated Action Plan (IAP). Throughout the school year the

instruction leaders on campus as well as the program directors meet biweekly to discuss data and

school progress. Through reviewing quarter, semester grades as well as district, and state test

results they try to identify the areas of need and make a suggestion to help student growth.

During the summer, the group meets again for 3-4 days to review the years data and finalize their

analysis and create the IAP. Because of Covid district technology requirements come from

district funding and not the individual school funds. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to discuss this

in great detail because my daughter got sick and I was out for a week, all this information comes

from discussion held early in October.

Schoolwide Budgetary Needs Assessment Summary and Reflection

Maryvale High School is one of 22 school in the Phoenix Union High School District

(PXU). Built in 1963, Maryvale is one of the largest schools in the PXU portfolio, home to

nearly 3,000 students and nearly 200 certified and classified staff. Maryvale High School has a

variety of programs that students can participate, including: mariachi, touring guitar, Advanced

Placement classes, AVID, JROTC, and the Gifted and Talented small school to name a few. The

ethnic break down of the school consist of 90% Hispanic, 1.2% Native America, .4% Asian, 4%

Black, 2.8% White and .9% other. All of PXU students in all 22 school are on a free meal

program where they receive breakfast, lunch, and an after school snack if they stay for tutoring.
 3

Most of the students do come from low income, multigenerational homes. Maryvale Village, the

community that houses the high school, consist of roughly 75% of it population living under the

Federal Poverty Line (FPL) with 57.4% living 200% below the FPL (Arizona Department of

Health Services, 2021).

The inability to get to see the budgets from last school year and this school year make it

very difficult to speak on how the budget is supporting the IAP and how they differ from year to

year. The needs assessment survey did give important insight to how some staff members

perceive the IAP initiatives and whether they felt that they were fully informed about the

initiative and whether or not they are being met. Through the survey, I was able to get an

understanding of how two counselors, and four teachers (two from core content areas, one from a

CBT classroom, and one from an elective course) viewed the IAP. From the survey it was

apparent that not all fully understood or felt like they have received adequate training on all the

programs that are being put into place. One felt that the term “Universal Design for Learning,”

had only been used in the introduction of the IAP and not heard of since. Although both core

content based teachers used Evidence Based Grading, they both felt that having it as a school

wide mandate would help in student understanding of the grading system and lead to a more

cohesive system. Both counselors also made similar comments in regards to the use of a more

common grading system so that both students and parent could fully understand the

methodology. The areas that were seen as strengths for Maryvale was through their after school

tutoring and Saturday programs, the use of technology on campus, and their staff - student

connectivity and relationship building.

The results of the needs assessment would lead me to suggest that their needed to be on-

going professional development on the use of “Universal Design for Learning,” so that all
 4

teacher have the same understanding of what that phrase means and what it looks like. This

professional development could be done through the departments, voluntary dates and times, or

whole school rotation. I also believe that professional development would also need to be done

for the whole campus on Evidence Based Grading. Since both the district and school seem to be

insinuating this is the direction that the district will be leaning it is important to start the process

of getting everyone on board. Even if the task of getting everyone to agree may not be an easy

one or one that will happen in its entirety, letting departments and teachers know that this is the

way grading will be done will get them to start learning, even if reluctantly. This will help

students and parents understand the new grading perimeters and give a more sound practice

school wide. My last suggestion would be adopt a grading program that was aligned to Evidence

Based Grading. Another issue found was that our current grading program does not function

properly or easily with the grading system, which again can make it difficult for students and

parent to understand their grades.

Creating and conducting the needs assessment was crucial to my understanding of how

important it is to ensure that the areas where support is most required receives adequate funding.

The Professional Standard for Educational Leaders directly speaks to the importance of a leader

to “strategically acquire, and manage fiscal, physical and other resources to support curriculum,”

in Standard 9: Operations and Management (2015). An Integrated Action Plan cannot be fulfilled

if the allocation of funds is not done in a manner that is equitable to the needs of the campus.

This experience will truly help guide me not only in determining the right question that need to

be asked in a needs assessment, but to also consider how to create a CIP or IAP that will meet

those needs most clearly. After reviewing our IAP numerous times, I feel that in order for an IAP

to be truly effective it needs to be student driven, and although one can argue that the IAP at
 5

Maryvale is student driven it seem to me to be more focused on the teachers improvement than

students. I think that through data collection and understanding of student need can help in the

creation of a student driven IAP and will help when determining the allocation of funds in the

proper areas.
 6

Resources

Arizona Department of Health Services. (2021). Maryvale Village Primary Care Area - 2020
Statistical Profile. Bureau of Women’s and Children’s Health. 2/1/2021.
https://azdhs.gov/documents/prevention/health-systems-development/data-reports-
maps/primary-care/maricopa/36.pdf

National Policy Board for Educational Administration. (2015). Professional Standards for
Educational Leaders. http://www.npbea.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Professional-
Standards-for-Educational-Leaders_2015.pdf