Budget Tools

A RESOURCE GUIDE FOR
UNDERSTANDING COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
Using Budget Tools at Community Schools

October 2012

Prepared by:

Iris Hemmerich
Urban Strategies Council

Using Budget Tools at Community Schools

Table of Contents

A Resource Guide for Understanding Community Schools .......................................................................... 2
Updating the Resource Guide ................................................................................................................... 4
Additional Community School Resources ................................................................................................. 4
Our Community School work with Oakland Unified School District ............................................................. 5
Community School Budget Tools: Literature Review ................................................................................... 6
Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 6
Review ....................................................................................................................................................... 6
1. Purpose and Use of the Budget Tools ........................................................................................... 6
2. Long vs. Short Term Fiscal Mapping ............................................................................................. 7
3. Promising Practices ....................................................................................................................... 7
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 7
Community School Budget Tools: Annotated Bibliography.......................................................................... 8

1
©Urban Strategies Council, October 2012

A Resource Guide for Understanding Community Schools
INTRODUCTION

Urban Strategies Council has collected and reviewed more than 175 evaluations, case studies,
briefs and reports for use by those considering or planning a community school or community
school district. Our intention is to provide interested individuals and stakeholders the
resources they need to better understand the unique structure and core components of
community schools. The promising practices, recommendations, tools and information shared
in this document have been culled from documents representing the last 20 years of research
and documentation of community schools across the United States.

We highlighted 11 content areas that we believe to be the most foundational for understanding
community schools. Within each of the content areas, you will find:

1. A literature review: The literature reviews for each content area are organized
around core questions and provide a synthesis of the most commonly identified
solutions and responses to each question, as well as highlights, promising practices,
challenges and recommendations.

2. An annotated bibliography: We gathered and annotated literature in each of the
content areas to underscore key themes, some of which include: best practices,
exemplary sites, models and tools. The annotations vary by content area in order to
draw attention to the most pertinent information. For example, the Evaluations content
area includes annotations of the evaluation methodology and indicators of success.

The 11 content areas include the following:

1. Community School Characteristics
Provides a general overview of the structure, function, core elements, programs and
services of a community school.

2. Planning and Design
Explores the general planning and design structures for community schools, and
discusses the initial steps and central components of the planning and design process, as
well as strategies for scaling up community schools.

3. Equity Frameworks and Tools
Examines literature and tools that can be adapted to an equity framework for
community schools. We included equity frameworks and tools that explore
disproportionality and the monitoring of disparities and demographic shifts.

2

4. Collaborative Leadership
Addresses how to build, strengthen and expand the collaborative leadership structure at
community schools. Collaborative leadership is a unique governance structure that
brings together community partners and stakeholders to coordinate a range of services
and opportunities for youth, families and the community.

5. Family and Community Engagement
Explores how community and family engagement operates as well as the challenges for
actualizing it at the site level. Family and community engagement is a unique
component of community schools in which the school, families, and community actively
work together to create networks of shared responsibility for student success.

6. Data Collection and Analysis
Addresses the outcomes measured at community schools, methods for collecting data
at community schools, and short and long term indicators.

7. Assessment Tools
Includes tools used to measure outcomes at community schools.

8. Community School Evaluations
Provides evaluations of community school initiatives with special attention paid to
methodology, indicators of success, findings and challenges.

9. Community School Funding
Explores how to leverage revenue streams and allocate resources at community schools.

10. Budget Tools
Includes tools that support the process of budgeting and fiscal mapping.

11. Community School Sustainability
Explores promising practices for creating sustainability plans, partnership development
and leveraging resources for the future.

3

UPDATING THE RESOURCE GUIDE

Urban Strategies Council will continue its efforts to update the Resource Guide with the most
current information as it becomes available. If you know of topics or resources that are not
currently included in this guide, please contact Alison Feldman, Education Excellence Program,
at alisonf@urbanstrategies.org. We welcome your ideas and feedback for A Resource Guide for
Understanding Community Schools.

ADDITIONAL COMMUNITY SCHOOL RESOURCES

National:

The Coalition for Community Schools
http://www.communityschools.org/

The National Center for Community Schools (Children’s Aid Society)
http://nationalcenterforcommunityschools.childrensaidsociety.org/

Yale University Center in Child Development and Social Policy
http://www.yale.edu/21c/training.html

Regional:

The Center for Community School Partnerships, UC Davis
http://education.ucdavis.edu/community-school-partnerships

Center for Strategic Community Innovation
http://cscinnovation.org/community-schools-project/about-cscis-community-schools-
project/community-school-initiative-services-coaching-and-ta/’

4

Our Community School work with
Oakland Unified School District
Urban Strategies Council has a long history of working with the Oakland Unified School District
(OUSD) to support planning for improved academic achievement. Most recently, we helped
develop and support the implementation of OUSD’s five-year strategic plan, Community
Schools, Thriving Students. Adopted by the Board of Education in June 2011, the plan calls for
building community schools across the district that ensure high-quality instruction; develop
social, emotional and physical health; and create equitable opportunities for learning. Urban
Strategies Council has worked with the school district, community members and other
stakeholders to support this system reform in several ways:

Community Schools Strategic Planning: Urban Strategies Council facilitated six School
Board retreats over a 14-month period to help develop the strategic plan. As part of that
process, the District created 14 task forces to produce recommendations for the plan, with
Urban Strategies Council facilitating one task force and sitting on several others.
Full Service Community Schools Task Force: Urban Strategies Council convened and co-
facilitated the Full Service Community Schools and District Task Force, which created a
structural framework and tools for planning and implementation, and produced a report
with a set of recommendations that formed the foundation of the strategic plan.
Community Engagement in Planning: Urban Strategies Council partnered with the district
to educate and engage more than 900 school and community stakeholders on how
community schools could best serve them.
Planning for Community Schools Leadership Council: Urban Strategies Council has been
working with OUSD’s Department of Family, School and Community Partnerships to lay the
groundwork for building an interagency, cross-sector partnership body that will provide
high-level system oversight and support, and ensure shared responsibility and coordination
of resources towards the vision of healthy, thriving children supported through community
schools.
Convening Workgroups: Urban Strategies Council continues to partner with the District to
convene and facilitate several workgroups developing specific structures, processes, and
practices supporting community school implementation, as well as informing the eventual
work of the Community Schools Leadership Council.
African American Male Achievement Initiative: Urban Strategies Council is a partner in
OUSD’s African American Male Achievement Initiative (AAMAI), a collaboration supporting
efforts to close the achievement gap and improve other key outcomes for African American
males in OUSD. Urban Strategies Council has developed data-based research; explored
promising practices, programs and policies inside and outside the school district; analyzed
the impact of existing system-wide policies; and developed policy recommendations to
improve outcomes in various areas identified by the AAMAI Task Force.
Boys and Men of Color: Urban Strategies Council is the Regional Convener for the Oakland
Boys and Men of Color site, which adopted community schools as a vehicle to improve
health, education and employment outcomes for boys and men of color.
5

Community School Budget Tools: Literature Review

Introduction

Budgeting is an important component of community school planning because it helps clarify the
fiscal needs, resources, funding gaps and projected costs of the initiative. Budget tools are
critical for not only maintaining balanced finances but for helping sustain community school
initiatives. We used three central research questions to guide the literature review of
community school budget tools:

1. What is the purpose of the budget tool and how is it used?
2. Is the budget tool intended for long or short term fiscal mapping?
3. Are there identified promising practices for budgeting?

Published research on community school and other relevant budget tools from 2000-2011 has
been included as part of this literature review. Unfortunately, while there is sufficient research
regarding funding and sustainability at community schools, there seems to be a lack of publicly
accessible budget tools aside from those published by the Finance Project. We were not able to
identify community school initiatives that had made publicly available the budget tools they
used throughout the process.

Review

1. Purpose and Use of the Budget Tools

The purpose of the “Cost Worksheet for Out-of-School Time and Community School Initiatives”
is to aid the process of creating an operating budget. It intends to help program developers
identify the range of costs that their initiative will incur1. Program developers use the
worksheet by filling in the different categories of program and infrastructure cost assumptions
and the corresponding cash expense of in-kind contribution.

The other two budget tools published by the Finance Project are intended for Promise
Neighborhood Initiatives, but can be adapted to community schools because of their similar
financial circumstances. “Sustaining Community Revitalization: A Tool for Preparing Budgets for
Promise Neighborhood Initiatives” provides guidance on how to use the attached budget
worksheets2. It should be used as a set of instructions and for how and why to complete a cost
development tool. “Sustaining Community Revitalization: A Tool for Mapping Funds for Promise
1
Langford, Barbara Hanson. “Cost Worksheet for Out-of-School Time and Community School Initiatives.” The
Finance Project, September 2002. Web. 19 December 2011.
<http://76.12.61.196/publications/costworksheet.pdf>.
2
Martinez, Laura and Jennifer Gager Holland. “Sustaining Community Revitalization: A Tool for Preparing Budgets
for Promise Neighborhood Initiatives.” The Finance Project, August 2011. Web. 14 May 2012.
<http://www.financeproject.org/publications/SCRToolforPreparingBudgets.pdf>.
6

Neighborhood Initiatives” makes the case for fiscal mapping, especially for initiatives looking to
receive federal planning grants3. It also provides an overview of the fiscal mapping process
including how to conduct a fiscal mapping study, along with worksheets for data collection.

2. Long vs. Short Term Fiscal Mapping

All of the budget tools address both short and long-term fiscal mapping, although more
worksheets and checklists are provided for short-term fiscal mapping.

3. Promising Practices

The Financial Project identified the following promising practices for fiscal mapping: (1) clarify
what an initiative needs financing for; (2) estimate an initiative’s fiscal needs; (3) identify an
initiative’s current resources; (4) assess an initiative’s funding gaps; and (5) identify appropriate
funding sources and financing strategies4. There were also seven specific steps identified for
successfully completing a fiscal mapping study. These steps include: (1) determine the goals for
the study; (2) identify roles and responsibilities; (3) design the study approach; (4) gather
needed resources; (5) collect data; (6) analyze data; and (7) communicate results5.

Conclusion

The documentation of a community school site or initiative’s current financial status is an
integral part of developing realistic financial projections. Developing a budget also helps
facilitate the development of an accurate program cost estimate, which is needed to sustain
community school initiatives. Moreover, a balanced budget is critical at community schools
because it can be used to show funders that their investment is being used wisely and
responsibly.

3
Joseph, Mathew H. and Lori Connors-Tadros. “Sustaining Community Revitalization: A Tool for Mapping Funds for
Promise Neighborhood Initiatives.” The Finance Project, August 2011. Web. 14 May 2012.
<http://www.financeproject.org/publications/SCRToolforMapping.pdf>.
4
Martinez, Laura and Jennifer Gager Holland. “Sustaining Community Revitalization: A Tool for Preparing Budgets
for Promise Neighborhood Initiatives.” The Finance Project, August 2011. Web. 14 May 2012.
5
Joseph, Mathew H. and Lori Connors-Tadros. “Sustaining Community Revitalization: A Tool for Mapping Funds for
Promise Neighborhood Initiatives.” The Finance Project, August 2011. Web. 14 May 2012.

7

Community School Budget Tools: Annotated Bibliography

Cost Worksheet for Out-of-School Time and Community School Initiatives
Langford, Barbara Hanson. The Finance Project, September 2002. Web. 19 December 2011.
<http://76.12.61.196/publications/costworksheet.pdf>.

The “Cost Worksheet for Out-of-Time and Community School Initiatives” describes how to
develop an operating budget for community schools and provides sample worksheets to aid the
process. The document identifies two main cost areas: program costs and system-wide
infrastructure costs. In order to make the initial case to potential funders, the document
suggests the school document its current financial status and develop realistic financial
projections.

Tools: Operating budget worksheets

Sustaining Community Revitalization: A Tool for Preparing Budgets for Promise Neighborhood
Initiatives
Martinez, Laura and Jennifer Gager Holland. The Finance Project, August 2011. Web. 14 May
2012.

Although intended for Promise Neighborhoods, the Finance Project’s budget tool can also be
utilized for fiscal mapping at community school sites. Both Promise Neighborhoods and
community schools are built on the same core principles and focus on quality education, family
and community engagement and a continuum of supports. Furthermore, community schools
and Promise Neighborhoods face similar financial circumstances such as time-limited grants,
narrow, categorical funding streams and overall inconsistent revenue. The budget tool
identifies five key steps for building a stable support base:

1. Clarify what an initiative needs financing for;
2. Estimate an initiative’s fiscal needs;
3. Identify an initiative’s current resources;
4. Assess an initiative’s funding gaps; and
5. Identify appropriate funding sources and financing strategies.

Sections I and II provide guidance for calculating different costs and discuss how to use
budgeting worksheets.

Best practices: See five steps above

8

Sustaining Community Revitalization: A Tool for Mapping Funds for Promise Neighborhood
Initiatives
Joseph, Mathew H. and Lori Connors-Tadros. The Finance Project, August 2011. Web. 14 May
2012.

Although intended to help Promise Neighborhood initiatives, the Finance Project’s fiscal
mapping tool can also help community schools identify and leverage funding. Section I explains
how to conduct a fiscal mapping study through seven key steps, which include:

1. Determine the goals for the study;
2. Identify roles and responsibilities;
3. Design the study approach;
4. Gather needed resources;
5. Collect data;
6. Analyze data; and
7. Communicate results.

Section I also discusses the special challenges of fiscal mapping for Promise Neighborhoods and
provides checklists to help guide the mapping process. The following section provides tools for
data collection, including worksheets covering a number of budgetary and fiscal concerns.

Best practices: See seven steps above
Tools:
1. Worksheet A: What Funds Currently Support the Cradle-to-Career Services?
2. Worksheet B: Analyzing Funding Streams
3. Appendix B: Potential Federal Funding Sources

9

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