Alludo Professional Learning Platform for K-12

How to Create, Fund and Achieve Strategic District Initiatives

Achieve Your District Initiatives with Effective Budgeting Strategies

School district budgets provide an overview for the district’s vision and goals by allocating resources to the most important and impactful initiatives. Beyond that, your district budget is a promise you make to everyone in the district, including teachers, teaching aides, paraeducators, administrators, and office and support staff, as well as students and their parents.

The issue for most school districts is that funds are limited, necessitating the prioritization of goals. With proper prioritization, you can be sure that your most important initiatives are taken care of.

The keys are understanding how to create an action plan for your school district goals, how to create a budget, and where to find the funds needed for new teacher onboarding, induction, and ongoing professional development for teachers and staff. When all of these elements fall into place, you’ll find creating and achieving district initiatives a breeze.

What is a School District Action Plan?

A school district action plan acts as a roadmap to help any school district achieve its most important objectives, whether they relate to student outcomes, teacher retention, or equity, diversity, and inclusion.

Specifically, your plan should contain the following things:

Goals for each school and for the district as a whole
Actions to help you achieve the stated goals
Resources needed to take the specified action

Ideally, your school district action plan should serve as a tool to bring everyone in the community together in the common pursuit of educating students and helping them excel in and out of the classroom. Everyone from the superintendent and school board to parents and students has a stake in the action plan.

A plan on a page is precisely what it sounds like: a one-page document that provides a high-level overview of the major goals you’ve identified for your school district. It should include the following things:

Your school district's mission statement
Your most important goals
The metrics you will use to measure each goal
The parties involved in each goal
A timeframe for the goal
Tactics to be used to achieve each goal

Remember that every objective should be a SMART goal, meaning that it is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

VMOSA stands for Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies, and Action Plans. To use this model, you’ll start with your vision for your school district and work your way down, getting more specific as you go.

Your vision should be inspirational and it doesn’t need to be specific. Your mission should be more specific than your vision. Your objectives, strategies, and action plans should spell out the specific steps and initiatives you’ll use to turn your vision into a reality.

A five-step action plan starts with questions that can help you make concrete plans to achieve your goals. The five steps are as follows:

How are we doing?
How much better do we want to be?
How might we achieve our goal?
Planning and Action
Implementation and Review

The answer to the first question should inform the second, and so on. The planning and action section should spell out how you plan to achieve your objectives, and the implementation and review section should explain how you will carry out your actions and measure their success.

Step #1: Analyze Available Resources

To begin, look at your available resources, including funding, supplies, technology, and labor. Make sure to include volunteers in your labor when it makes sense, including parents and students.

Step #2: Review Metrics & Set Targets

You'll need numbers to track your results, so include current measurements and target measurements for each initiative in your plan.

Step #3: Create a Strategy

Decide on a strategy for each part of your plan. Your strategy should include high-level statements about which resources you’ll use to achieve your goal.

STEP #4: DEVELOP & ASSIGN TASKS

You’ll need to break down each initiative or action into smaller, actionable steps and assign them to the appropriate parties.

STEP #5: MONITOR & EVALUATE PROGRESS

On an ongoing basis, you’ll need to track the selected metrics to monitor your progress. You may need to revamp your action plan based on your measurements.

What Does a School District Action Plan Look Like?

Action plans don't need to be complex but they do need to be detailed. You can use any of the models we've discussed to create your action plan.

Here's an example of a one-page action plan to help you.

Goals

What Are Effective School District Budgeting Strategies?

A school district budget is an essential tool in educating students. Regardless of the size of your district or the resources available, it’s necessary to prioritize spending and initiatives. Budgeting can help you make the best possible use of the money available to you to make sure that teachers in your district feel supported and students are getting the best possible education.

What does school district budgeting entail?

Creating a budget requires a combination of practicality and smart decision-making. It’s unlikely you’ll have enough money to support every idea to improve education in your district, so that means you’ll need to prioritize everything and choose where and how to allocate funds.

Labor makes up the largest part of any school district budget, often coming in between 80% and 90% of funds. For that reason, you’ll need to choose the right strategy to make the best use of whatever is left in your budget. You’ll also need to keep an eye on fluctuations in property taxes, enrollment, and state funding for your district.

Strategy #1: Functional Budget

A functional budget focuses on the way a school district functions to determine where to spend money. Since so much of a school district budget goes to labor, it may also be helpful to think of a functional budget as a labor budget.

Labor needs to include those doing the direct work of educating students, which would include teachers, teaching aides, paraeducators, and school administrators. Indirect labor would include anybody doing work to support direct laborers, including office and maintenance workers.

Strategy #2: Zero-Based Budget

A zero-based budget requires each expenditure to be justified and approved from year to year. There’s no reference to previous budgets. If you’re concerned about overspending, using a zero-based budget is useful in identifying areas of unnecessary spending or overspending.

Strategy #3: Multi-Year Planning

If your school district has long-term initiatives that will span multiple school years, then a multi-year planning budget may be the best choice for you.

After the first year, you’ll need to adjust your budget to allow for inflation and any other changes in funding. Multi-year planning is particularly useful if you want to make room in your budget for ongoing teacher professional development.

Strategy #4: Performance-Based

Performance-based budgeting uses metrics to identify programs and initiatives that are working, using performance as the criterion for continued funding.

Many school districts prefer performance-based budgeting because of its transparency. If you want to try performance-based budgeting, you’ll need to identify goals first and then, set benchmarks for meeting those goals.

Why should districts allocate funds for professional development?

Whichever budgeting strategy you choose, we highly recommend including funds for ongoing professional development for teachers, staff, and administrators. Not only is some form of PD required in every state, but the money you invest in professional learning can also save you money in other areas.

The most important and impactful savings should come in the area of teacher turnover. There’s plenty of evidence to show that proper onboarding and ongoing professional development make teachers feel valued and supported—and teachers who feel valued are far less likely to leave their jobs than teachers who don’t feel supported.

How to Budget for New Teacher Onboarding & Induction

New teacher onboarding and induction can do a lot to make new teachers feel welcome in your district while reducing the risk that they’ll burn out and leave their jobs.

A robust and effective onboarding program can reduce turnover while also becoming a hiring pipeline for new teachers when it’s used to onboard substitute teachers.

Step #1: Onboarding Strategy

You’ll need to start by determining what new teachers need to learn. Some examples might include school safety procedures, curriculum, grading standards, SEL, and so on.

We suggest involving teachers in the process; for example, you might want to take a survey or conduct teacher focus groups to gather information about what to include in onboarding.

Step #2: Onboarding/PD Software

Next on the list is onboarding and/or professional development software. Software solutions are far more affordable than in-person training and can provide many of the same benefits, including opportunities for teacher collaboration.

Alludo allows school districts to onboard new teachers for as little as $8 per adult learner per month, making it a cost-effective way to provide new teachers with the training and support they need. Your best bet is to choose software like Alludo that can be used for professional development, too.

Step #3: Resource Library & Onboarding Checklist

New teachers need to have access to resources that they’ll use in both onboarding and in the classroom. Resources may include documentation, supplies, and technology.

Your onboarding checklist should include everything a new teacher needs to enter the classroom with confidence, including training, resources, and access to support.

Step #4: Weigh the Cost of Teacher Turnover

This last item might not appear in your budget but it’s something a lot of school districts overlook. According to the NEA, schools spend an average of $20,000 to hire one new teacher.

You might think that onboarding is expensive, but the truth is that it’s far less costly than a high turnover rate.

Teacher engagement is easy to measure. In fact, we include metrics related to engagement and participation in our Alludo platform.

Alludo also makes it easy to track how many hours teachers have spent on onboarding and PD. Since every state has PD requirements for teachers to maintain their licenses, it makes sense to track the time teachers spend in onboarding and PD.

After teachers complete their onboarding, you may want to survey them about their experience. Their responses can help you improve the onboarding process. To make the results measurable, ask teachers to rate statements on a scale of 1-5:

Onboarding prepared me for my time in the classroom
I was welcomed by teachers, staff, and administrators
I have the tools & technology I need to engage my students

These are just a few examples. You may want to send more detailed questions after new teachers have been in your district for three months, six months, or a year to further measure the success of your onboarding.

How does onboarding and ongoing professional growth tie into long-term teacher retention?

Teacher happiness and job satisfaction both play into long-term teacher retention. There’s evidence that effective onboarding and ongoing professional development contribute to teacher satisfaction and retention.

Teachers who feel welcome, secure, and properly trained for their time in the classroom are less likely to burn out and more likely to feel happy in their jobs.

Are There Tools for School District Budgeting & Planning?

One way to simplify the school district budgeting and planning process is to use budgeting tools, which can be helpful in creating budget categories and allocating resources.

Reason #1:

Access to Data

The right budgeting tool can integrate with other tools, pulling necessary data and making it accessible both in the budget itself and in reports.

Reason #2:

Decision Making

Prioritizing plans and initiatives can be difficult, particularly if you're pulling information from multiple sources. With the right budgeting tool, you can see everything at once and make decisions based on up-to-date numbers.

Reason #3:

Efficiency

By removing some of the obstacles to accurate budgeting, tools can help streamline the process and allow you to create the budget you need in as little time as possible.

Type #1: Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet tools allow for easy customization of budget items but may require more prep work than other tools.

Type #2: Online

Online and cloud-based budgeting tools are useful because they can integrate with your district accounts and resources, making it easy to create a budget quickly and access it from anywhere.

Type #3: Visualization

If you want to be able to visualize how your resources are allocated, a visualization tool can help you create a budget with graphs and charts.

Type #4: Analytics

Analytics tools are useful if you want to review your current spending and use that data to create a new budget.

Type #5: Data Management

Data management tools may have a budgeting feature that you can use to track your most important data and use it to inform your budget.

Mistake #1: End of Year Spending

If you avoid spending during the school year, or put off necessary purchases, it can be detrimental to the district. Ways to avoid include:

Ongoing monitoring of spending
Monthly budget check-ins
Prioritizing expenditures that benefit schools and students

Mistake #2: Ignoring Your Budget

Your budget might be complete but that doesn't mean you should ignore it until next year. Failure to review your budget periodically can lead to over- or under-spending. Ways to avoid include:

Monthly budget reviews
Budget updates as needed

Mistake #3: Allocation of Resources

Every school district has priorities and one of the most common budgeting mistakes is the improper allocation of funds. Ways to avoid include:

Prioritize district needs before budgeting
Allocate fund based on priorities

Mistake #4: Inaccurate Forecasting

Creating a school district budget requires the ability to look ahead and anticipate factors that may impact your resources, including enrollment and state funding. Ways to avoid forecasting mistakes include:

Take a conservative approach to budgeting
Revisit and amend your budget based on changes in funding and enrollment

Mistake #5: Incorrect Prioritization

A failure to prioritize your most important spending categories and initiatives can lead to budget shortfalls. Ways to avoid include:

Prioritize every spending category and initiative before creating a budget
Allocate funds to your most important priorities first

Mistake #6: Lack of Transparency

Transparency may not impact the accuracy of your budget but it can affect how your budgeting choices are received. Ways to avoid this mistake include:

Communicating district and school priorities with all stakeholders, including teachers, staff, and parents
Share your hopes for what you expect to accomplish with the budget you've created

How Much Should You Budget for Professional Learning?

Part of creating a school district budget involves finding sufficient funds to pay for new teacher onboarding and ongoing professional development.

Why Invest in Professional Learning for Teachers?

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1. It sets new teachers up for success as they enter the classroom.

Alludo-Icons-engaging

2. It increases teacher and staff confidence.

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3. It encourages discussion and collaboration among teachers.

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4. It increases teachers' knowledge and skills.

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5. It improves student outcomes.

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6. It reduces teacher burnout and turnover.

How Much Does Professional Development for Teachers Cost?

Costs for professional development may vary greatly depending upon the size of the school district and the type of professional development being offered.

According to the National Council on Teacher Quality, school districts who require teachers to attend in person, synchronous professional development courses can expect to spend about $18,000 per teacher per year on professional development.

By contrast, online asynchronous PD platforms, including Alludo, charge far less than that while providing teachers with the flexibility and choice they want and deserve. At Alludo, our prices start at just $8 per adult learner per month, meaning you can provide PD to all teachers, administrators, and staff in your district at an affordable price.

Step #1: Assess the Situation

The first step is to review your resources to find out how much is available to spend. If your current budget doesn't have a bucket for professional development, you may be able to find funds in other buckets, including:

Teacher onboarding

Teacher Mentoring

Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion

Innovation in Learning

PBIS

MTSS

Curriculum

SEL

Step #2: Identify Goals

Identifying goals for your professional development program can help you find funds, too. For example, if one of your goals was to get all teachers up to speed on new classroom technology, you might be able to pull funds from your technology budget. Remember to make each goal specific and measurable.

Step #3: Pick a Provider Like Alludo

Choosing a partner like Alludo can help you by keeping the cost of professional development affordable. Our learning platform, Madagascar, provides online, asynchronous training at an affordable price, and can be used for both new teacher onboarding and ongoing professional development.

Step #4: Update Processes with Technology

Keep in mind that technology can make PD far more accessible than it used to be. Asynchronous learning allows teachers to fulfill their PD requirements at a time that's convenient for them and costs far less than in-person training.

Sample Professional Development Budget

Here is a sample professional development budget that you can use to create your own budget.

Item	Description	Quantity	Unit Cost	Total
Alludo Enrollment	Online, asynchronous learning environment	500	$35/year	$17,500
Teacher buy-in	Communication to drive teacher buy-in and engagement	1	$2,000	$2,000
Training Supplies	Necessary equipment and materials to help teachers learn	500	$50	$25,000
Collaboration	Encouraging teacher collaboration and cooperation	1	$10,000	$10,000

Conclusion

Creating an accurate budget for your school doesn't have to be difficult. Using the tools and tips here, you can make room for all of your most important priorities and make good on your promises to your district's students and parents.

MADAGASCAR

Alludo offers a unique platform for professional learning. Madagascar provides teachers and staff with online, asynchronous training that they can access when it’s most convenient for them. We deliver high teacher engagement that can reduce burnout and turnover, increase teacher satisfaction, and deliver the best possible results for your district’s students.

A Complete Guide to Budgeting for Strategic District Initiatives

Create, Fund, and Achieve Strategic Initiatives in Your School District

How to Create, Fund and Achieve Strategic District Initiatives

Achieve Your District Initiatives with Effective Budgeting Strategies

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How Do You Create an Action Plan for School District Goals?

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