Elon MBA students partnered with the Alamance-Burlington School System over the fall to measure how well local residents understand the way school budgets are created. The five classmates, as part of their graduate work, reported to system leaders that few people know how public schools receive and spend annual funds.
The team of Nicole Golden, Marianne Peltier-Allison, Kevin Stuart, Sharon Amos and Greg Whitehead worked as “Phoenix Consultants for Education” and signed a contract with schools superintendent Randy Bridges to conduct a community survey on the topic.
There was no cost to the school system. The group worked under the supervision of class professor David Noer, whose course topic was on management change.
Perhaps the biggest misconception people expressed about the money schools spend is the cash available for new projects. While many members of the public believe the school system is able to freely spend its funds, in reality, most of its budget is impossible to change.
“People feel the school system has a lot of flexibility with the budget,” Peltier-Allison, said. “More than 86 percent of funding from the state is already allocated to salaries and personnel … That only gives us 14 percent for some wiggle room.”
The team suggested to Bridges that the schools consider using the local newspapers to distribute a supplement to the public that explains the budget process. Other school systems in North Carolina do this, Peltier-Allison said, and it could be of benefit to the Alamance County schools.
“The only time you hear much about the schools budget is in April and May when there is a budget proposal before the country commissioners,” she said. “People do want to hear about the budget, and this is one way how.”
Team members also conducted interviews with an assistant superintendent and two school principals to glean a better understanding themselves of how school budgets are constructed.
“This project is a great example of the benefits of engaged learning. A group of MBA students applied their business skills to help the county school system better communicate and understand their budgeting process,” Noer said. “It illustrates a couple of things: The importance of business skills in a non-profit environment, and the win/win nature of a ‘live’ case – the students learn and the client benefits.”