Budget

I have this uneasy feeling, a large pit in my stomach after reading the articles on budgeting and then reflecting on how I either make it or break it for our LLC.  I just received the budget amount as I have to make some of the funds available to me in my Shop-and-Take account by an approaching deadline. I was a little surprised by the amount and tried to question it in a round about way, to no avail.  That was my problem.  It was a round about way rather than a way with direction and purpose.  

I have up until now mainly viewed the budget as something I didn't have a lot of control over.  That being said, I am aware that different school Libraries receive varrying percentages of the main school LRS budget ranging from 20-25%.  Up until now, at my other schools, I had received the 25% and had also advocated for it as well as further funding for various needs including furniture and non-fiction resources to address the new curriculum.  I point I wish to make here is that both times I received extra funding was because money had to be spent, which is probably not normally the case.  We had an addition to the school and had extra furniture budget that I was able to take advantage of.  When I received funding for more non-fiction to address the new curriculum it was because there was a surplus of funds not normally being spent on things such as text books.  I think now that some resources are being funded by district, some schools may find themselves in an unusual position finding ways pf spending the money that was normally eaten up.  This could benefit TLs and it did for me a few times.  

It's so discouraging all the areas we lose out on when changing locations and having to again create these working relationships first before understanding what areas need funding in order to ask for it.  

I understand our district has an amount per student that is given and includes all school learning resources.  Surrey this year has given $27 per student (20-25% of it to go towards resources in the LLC)  I could have told you what my last schools' needs were, but have not looked into this as of yet.  Probably a very good thing to discuss with the previous TL prior to starting here.  I am grateful for a very involved and generous PAC, and when I understand LLC need I will bring it to them.  As soon as I am able to determine what LCC resource needs are, I will as well put it in writing for my Admin.  I know that last year the majority of School LRS funds were spent on Coding and Robotics activities and have been housed in the LLC which is a great benefit.  

I was surprised to learn that I am responsible to submit a budget proposal to our Admin.  I suppose I know that I should be advocating for funds, and do, but not that it should be a formal proposal.  Being that we are in October, I should get on it for next years budget.  Two things that would be neccessary to determine needs would be a Titalwise Report to analize the collection and teacher/student input. I once had a report done, but couldn't make heads or tails of it.  That was 6 years ago so maybe now I'd have a hope?  Something I would like to learn more about is a Curriculum Map.  I haven't heard about this before and it sounds very useful.

Some initiatives that our district has done in the last five years that are much appreciated are:

-the district does a great job of providing many bundled digital resources. This year however, they have changed the interface and I find it confusing.

-additional resources for Authentic Aboriginal Resources (20-30 books can't remember) as well as workshops to support understanding and use of these resources

-additional SEL Resources (20 Titles)

-financial support for the three Book of the Year Programs including 30 titles (Fiction and now Non-fiction)

-additional for our school but for other schools the first number of Coding/ Robotics technology as well as workshops provided to learn about them

-grant initiatives for various resources such as Learning Commons transitions ($20-25 000.00)

-pilot projects to learn about and implement various resources such as Discovery Ed Reply Quote