Week Two

My second week of service learning went quickly. I talked to Kristi a little about her opinion on the school budgeting. She said that she didn’t know too much about how the money was distributed although she did know that the state has a formula they use when money is to be passed out. Funds are distributed in a variety of areas in the school district. A large portion of the bills are from food, gas, and electric companies. School supplies are also frequently purchased. Teachers often turn in reimbursement forms for a variety of materials. The funds are spread among a lot of things, but it seems to be in the interest of providing a better education. I am not absolute on this, but I think that the funding from the state is based on test scores as well as size. Next week I will try to figure out what exactly is looked at in the distribution.
I didn’t get to do too much besides filing again this week. It is surprising to see how many bills are paid in the school districts. Many of the bills are paid to repeat customers, such as Hiland Dairy, School Specialty, and Farmer’s Grocer. I know that the Hiland Dairy and Farmer’s Grocer companies provide food for the students, and the School Specialty company provides a variety of school supplies. There are a lot of bills piled up, and I am not sure how long they have been building to the stack.
There are also forms that teachers have to fill out for funding. They are called Advance Trip Expense Request forms, and they look difficult to fill out. Teachers fill these out if they want to take a group of students somewhere for some kind of school activity and they want the money before the trip. Teachers can pay for things themselves and receive reimbursement; however, they seem to prefer getting money in advance for larger expenses. There is also an Athletic Director’s form that coaches can fill out. The difference between the two forms is the reason for the trip. Sports have their own category. It seems to me that sports get a lot of attention in high school. Academic programs are forced to sit squished together at the kiddy table while sports programs each have their own buffet sized table. I find this interesting considering that the academic quality of a school is what looks good to the state, where the funding comes from, and the athleticism is really just one way to show off in front of neighboring schools. I could be biased, but I think that sports should become less of a focus point for schools. The better a school is academically the better they usually are as a whole.
Anyway, I thought it was interesting to see how many bills were associated with individual companies. The majority of the bills pay for food and supplies with extracurricular activities taking third place in the hierarchy of bills. The school spends a lot of money on things I had not really thought about before.