business – Page 3 – FiscalShare

Tag: business

“Dog Person” Gets Cat: Surprised by Level of Dissastifaction

I am working on a proposal to present at a professional conference next April. The topic I have chosen is career development. Thus, my blogging volume is both: 1) Temporarily reduced, and 2) HR related Why the topic of career development? Well, frankly, it is on the list of proposals they are seeking. And also,

October 24, 2013 Short URLbusiness, career development, Disgruntled Cat, employee engagement, employment, hiring, job description, job satsfaction, public educationCareer Development, Management, School District Jobs, Working Together

When School Districts Borrow

This an outstanding guide to school district debt financing by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP. While the guide references California law, it is useful in understanding public school finance in general. School district administrators in California function in a complex financial universe that increasingly requires familiarity with and use of sophisticated tax-exempt public finance techniques to finance

October 20, 2013 Short URLanalysis, bonds, borrowing, business, California, data, debt, debt financing, education, education business, education finance, finance, finance techniques, government, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Management, Orrick, public education, public finance, public school finance, public schools, school district, school district administrator, school district administrators, school district debt financing, school districts in CaliforniaFinance

Classroom Dollars and Bad Teachers

Start with a graphic representation of a dollar bill. Divide it up to show how many cents are spent in which categories. Not a bad way to represent expenditures. Except when it is done this way: Why? Because this cartoon is not just wrong, it is dishonest. The categories of expense are a bit hard

October 17, 2013 Short URLbad teachers, business, cartoon, classrom, classroom dollars, education, education dollar, firing teachers, Management, public education, school district, school district administration, school district business, teachers, unions, wasted dollarsManagement, Public Schools, School District Jobs, Working Together

Arson

FIRE ACCOUNTING Click on the link for my manual on school arson. I have dealt with three major school fires in my career. And believe me, there was no manual. The first thing I did ten years ago when confronted with my first school fire was to Google “accounting for school fires” and couldn’t find anything terribly useful. I

October 12, 2013 Short URLaccounting, arson, best practice, burning schools, business, computers, fire, fire accounting, Management, peocedures, school, school district, school firesDaily Work, Risk Management

Stages of Grief at Work

Much has been written about Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. I am thinking about this, because a family member is currently dealing with cancer. He spent some time in denial (delayed seeing a doctor). He spent months bargaining (if I become a vegan, this will go away). I

October 10, 2013 Short URLacceptance, anger, bargaining, business, consequences, denial, depression, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, five stages of grief, Management, next step, problem solvingWorking Together

How to Take a Break

CaveGirlMBA’s post about the guy who plays online games at work really struck a chord with me, because here’s a second post about it. For me, the story is explained by one of two possibilities. 1. He is thoroughly disengaged and doesn’t give a s**t 2. He is engaged, but takes breaks inappropriately You’ll know

October 6, 2013 Short URLbusiness, computer games, expectations at work, inappropriate work behavior, Management, mental breaks, problem solving, taking a breakSchool District Jobs, Working Together

Stepping into a Pile of Management

My boss told me that the only difference between management and non-management is that managers get to hire and fire (so you’d better get good at it). Truth be told, she said this during a somewhat negative performance review. That’s a blunt way of saying non-managers are responsible for tasks while managers are responsible for people.

October 5, 2013 Short URLbusiness, discipline, employee engagement, firing, health issues at work, hiring, job description, Management, performance review, problem solving, progressive discipline, reprimand, verbal warning, written warningDaily Work, School District Jobs, Working Together

We Don’t Need No %@# Standards?*

Imagine comparing two school districts’ test scores, where each district uses different tests. That would be meaningless, right? Yet, this situation exists on the business side of things. Legislation will require a calculation, but the implementation is unclear. Subsequent guidelines and regulations (if any) sometimes just cite the statute verbatim. For example, prior to the new funding formula, conversion

October 3, 2013 Short URLaccounting, analysis, business, data, Education Code, Excel, fiscal, government, problem solving, SARC, School Accountability eport CardAccounting, Analysis, Data, Excel

Creativity versus Rules

As I was preparing to leave a former position I spent most of my time writing instruction booklets. I knew that the new incumbent might be newly promoted or new to the business of education. This person might need a few guidelines. I have never regarded these instructions as rules. At best they are helpful

September 30, 2013 Short URLaccounting, boxes, business, creativity, customer service, Education Code, GASB, Management, outside the box, problem solving, productivity, rules, school districtAccounting, Working Together

Learning Through Stories (Cocktails Optional)

A lot has been written recently about storytelling as a teaching tool. We don’t remember facts well, but we do remember stories. In this blog I relate stories of my experiences working at a school district. I do this because I hope that they are instructive. The danger is that I may inadvertently embarrass a particular

September 29, 2013 Short URLbanking, business, cocktails, employee engagement, institutional knowledge, learning, Management, problem solving, sharing, stories, workDaily Work, Working Together