Among the tools used by successful superintendents to inform, educate, and prepare board members, staff and appropriate district stakeholders on issues confronting the district or to address matters of local concern are briefing papers and bullet points. Briefing papers provide background information, summarize the issue(s), identify accountability requirements, describe alternative courses of action, and provide recommendations for addressing the situation. “Bullet points” serve the same basic purpose as a briefing paper but do so in an abbreviated format. The latter are often used to provide school officials with “topical cues” to use when interacting with the public, especially when it is essential the district’s position be clear and consistent. For the brief which you will be drafting in this formative assessment, you will assume your task as a superintendent is to identify and obtain new and additional fiscal resources to help address the growing needs of the school district. Assume the next opportunity for a public referendum is at least two years away, and your district budget – even after multiple rounds of pruning and revising – still needs $75,000 in new resources for the next academic year. As the superintendent, you are aware of several possible strategies and scenarios (early retirement offers to senior staff, third source philanthropic funding, crowdsource programs, state and federal grants, privatizing and outsourcing current in-house services), but your board needs to survey the range of options and present a prioritized listing of the most viable options for your current need. In completing this assignment, you can have creative liberty to decide what non-negotiable strategic priority of the district is causing the need for the additional $75,000 in funding; but the area cannot simply be deferred nor can one “rob Peter to pay Paul.” You as the district superintendent need to be both creative and strategic in reviewing options for new funding sources – and fast. In your briefing paper, you will (1) provide the necessary background information (tied largely to the strategic priority you identify which has caused the need for the need funding), (2) summarize how the $75,000 will be expended, (3) identify requisite accountability or assessment stipulations for the programming and budgetary expenditure, (4) prioritize the courses and action available to address the need, and (5) recommend the one which the board should approve at their next meeting.
