Government – FiscalShare

Category: Government

When Special Education Doesn’t Cost Everything plus the Kitchen Sink

At fiscal year end we sometimes see that actual costs are significantly below budget and one of the causes can be “savings” in Special Education. I put “savings” in quotes because this does not usually reflect a reduction in costs. It often reflects improper budgeting, which can lead to a number of unfortunate consequences. Other priorities may have been

August 11, 2015 Short URLBudget, Government, Procedures and Practices, Public Schools, Uncategorized, Working Together

Procedures – or Not?

When I started my first “real” job at a California bank I was shown volumes of procedures manuals. Once, when I didn’t know what do next, I called someone at head office and was icily informed “It’s in the manual.” Then I switched jobs to different bank, one that prided itself on being small, regional and customer focused. I

February 28, 2015 Short URLAccounting, Government, Management, Procedures and Practices, Productivity, Public Schools

Gossip: Good Sign, Bad sign, or Just a Sign?

The Harvard Business Review just came out with an article “Stop Enabling Gossip on Your Team“. Yet in 2013 that same magazine published an article entitled “Go Ahead and Gossip.” As a consultant I spend a month or two at a school district and then move on. The level of gossip in an organization is immediately clear to

January 11, 2015 Short URLdysfunction, dysfunctional organizations, gossip, systemsGovernment, Management, Productivity, Public Schools

This is the Way We Have Always Done It

I learned a new expression recently. “Jumping the shark” means holding on to an idea that has run its course. It originally referred to the TV show Happy Days where one particularly silly plot device is now viewed as the moment when the show’s writers officially ran out of ideas. Rather than give the show a dignified send off, they

January 10, 2015 Short URLcreativity, employee engagement, innovation, problem solvingGovernment, Public Schools, Technology

An Authoritarian Education

I saw an author describing the J curve on TV a few years back. I couldn’t find reference to the concept in an internet search, so I cannot give appropriate credit to the original author. The gist of it is that to move from a dysfunctional to a functional government, an authoritarian system will only take you so

January 1, 2015 Short URLCharter Schools, curriculum, dictator, education, motivation, students, success, user experienceGovernment, Public Schools

Three Monkeys and the Question of Evil

When we were in Bali in February we purchased a set of “Hear no Evil, See no Evil, Speak no Evil” figurines. When we got home we realized we had been given two “Speak’s” and no “See’s”. This led me to ponder – should we really endeavor to see no evil? I suppose in the Buddhist tradition one would

July 19, 2014 Short URLAction, business, Evil, see no evilDaily Work, Government, Management, Public Schools, Working Together

Grants, Entitlements, and Carryover

When I started working at a California school district one of the first things I had to learn was the difference between a grant and an entitlement. A few years ago the state accounting manual was revised to refer to funding sources (resources) as either those with a fund balance or those with unearned revenue and no fund balance.

June 14, 2014 Short URLcarryover, entitlements, fund balance, grants, unearned revenueAccounting, Basics, Finance, Government, Management, Procedures and Practices

Gift Cards Anyone?

The short answer – just say no! Here’s a thought experiment. Imagine I want to give you a bonus of $100 as appreciation for your hard work and dedication to education. I cannot just do it because: You are in a union. This payment has to be bargained. The board of education has adopted a salary schedule. If

June 6, 2014 Short URLemployee engagement, gift cards, taxGovernment, Human Resources, Management, Productivity, Public Schools

When Communication is a Problem

We all believe that communication is the key to all good relationships, whether these are of a personal or business nature. Lately, when I’ve been told that “there’s a memo on that” or asked “have you read the manual,” I am reminded that there is also the type of communication that signals that something dysfunctional is going

June 1, 2014 Short URLcommunication, financial software, governmentGovernment, Management, Productivity, Public Schools, Technology

How to Align Your Budget

Ever since I started working at a school district in 1991, there have been repeated cycles of discussion about aligning the budget to the strategic plan, board goals, or instructional outcomes. The account code structure was not designed for this task. California overhauled and standardized its codes about 15 years ago. It created an instructional

May 5, 2014 Short URLStandardized Account CodeAccounting, Data, Finance, Government, Local Control Funding Formula, Productivity, Public Schools