1    Something that many school districts have in common these days is budget challenges.  Successful school officials are immersed in budgetary issues and have a keen understanding of the districts financial position, but what about the general public?  Obtain a copy of a monthly financial report of a board of education.  From it, develop an interpretation of that could be understood by a reasonably perceptive layperson.  Please share what that interpretation might be.  

1.       It’s no secret that schools are facing great budgetary challenges.  As a result, school leaders are faced with difficult decisions when it comes to appropriating funds.  Today’s principals often have great influence with these decisions as per their site-based budgeting responsibilities.   From the principal’s perspective - What is the value of staff development for school site and system-based custodial personnel?  How should these programs be evaluated? 

It seems that one cannot pick-up a newspaper, watch the TV news or even go the coffee shop without being exposed to the issue of privatization and/or subcontracting for jobs that have been historically part of the public sector.  Since our course deals with site-based business and operational functions within public schools, please answer the following question from that vantage point.  How should decisions be reached regarding use of contracted versus system-supplied operations/maintenance services?

Motivation

Many educators suggest that current economic conditions and legislative initiatives within our states and nation have lead to low morale and lack of motivation for school employees.  Using Herzberg's Hygiene theory and Maslow's Needs theory, please share your views on how and why current conditions may impact teacher motivation and share strategies that a building principal might employ to build morale and increase motivation.  

Force-Field Analysis

Describe Lewin's Theory of FFA and explain how it might be helpful for a school leader's successful implementation of a new initiative.  

School Change - Response for Module 3

Researchers (Katz & Kahn 1978) suggest that schools are open systems and as such they have inputs, transformation processes, outputs and feedback loops which correlate with organizational change.  How and why might knowledge of the open systems model be useful to a school principal as it relates understanding the  the characteristics of school change?