Lesson 12 Reflection: How familiar are you with your school district, school and department budget processes? Knowing where the money is and it is allocated are the first steps to making sure that you get your share.

Presently in our school, the TL has told me that she receives about 20% of the learning resources budget to purchase learning resources for our school. This funding must be spent on learning resources such as books and may not be spent on other things such as library supplies, furniture, or computers. To supplement this funding, our TL holds an annual Scholastic Book Fair. This brings in approximately an additional $2000 in funding that in addition to spending it on resources, it can be spent on technology, furniture, or other special projects. These resources must be spent keeping the needs of the learners of our school in mind. The amount that the libraries are given varies from school to school in our district and 20% is used as a guide but principals are the ones who determine how much money the library will receive and so they can choose to increase or decrease this amount as they see fit. I have heard that it is wise to keep a wish list of resources you wish to order in case extra funding is all of a sudden provided to the TL. This will help in proving that there is a need for funding and will help in advocating for more funding in the future.