MEMORIAL MIDDLE BUDGET

MEDT 6461: Administration of School Media

Budget Project
 Proposed Three-Year Budget for 2019-2020 / 2020-2021 / 2021-2022

Memorial Middle School is one of four middle schools located in Rockdale County. The

school is located in a well-established neighborhood with diversity in economic status. This is

the only middle school located east, in the county. It is less than one mile from the high school,

and less than 4 miles from I-20. The school has a population of 967 students; 85% African

American, 10 % Hispanic, 4% Caucasian, and less than 1% Asian. This is a Title I school with

74% of students receiving free and reduced lunch. The school serves a 3% population of English

Language Learners and 13% population of Students with Disabilities. After reviewing the

Georgia Milestone results, only 46% of the students are at or above the reading level.

In an interview with Dr. Anderson, the current school media specialist, she anticipated a

budget of $4,000. This number was based on the budget of the previous school year. Dr.

Anderson has worked as the media specialist for five years, and in her first year received $7,000

in funds for the school library. She knows that the budget is supposed to be $6,000, but over the

years of change in administration, the principal has taken some of the funds and leaves a final

budget of around $4,000. Anderson received additional funds from late fees, book fairs, and

PTA, totaling about $1,800. She does make requests to the bookkeeper, Ms. Downs, for

additional supplies, but these instances are very rare. Anderson uses funds from petty cash to

support events such as reading bowls and the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

This school has gone through several administrative changes, functioning with three

principals within three years. Anderson stated that the media functions differently based on the

principal, and having this amount of change in a short period can make operations very difficult.

Dr. Anderson stated, "as long as it's managed, they don't care". With a new practicing principal,

she is disappointed in not being invited to any meetings to discuss a collaboration or school
improvement. Because there is no media committee, all input comes from digital surveys and

just talking to the school community about what they want and need. She wants feedback from

the technology specialist, department chairs, and any potential members at least once a month.

Since her last inventory check within Destiny, she is aware that there are too many books that are

out of date that need to be removed. The science and social studies departments have

complained about not having access to the hard textbook and would like access to alternatives.

Anderson will continue to support the school and its initiatives by receiving the same training as

teachers like having administrative rights to Schoolnet and maintaining the PBIS. When

utilizing the budget, she wants to make sure the supplies are being used by all students and staff.

She has experienced ordering supplies and teachers not using what was requested or available.

Anderson is committed to making the school library relevant and up to date with students that

already have one-to-one access in their classes.

Pending the feedback of student and teacher surveys and projected budget amount, the

following suggestions have been made: review data from school survey, meet the administration

and school bookkeeper, re-establish the school media committee, create a schedule to for the

media committee, increase school collaboration, maintain an interactive student “make and

take”,update and weed books according to Destiny inventory, create a students news team, and

create a new virtual reality space. The SMLS will consider changing the school media mission

statement: The mission of the Memorial Middle School Media program is to grant the entire

learning community-relevant resources and space to collaborate, create, and learn at the highest

level. The Media Specialist will continue to adhere to all Georgia standards when supporting

inquiry-based learning for all subjects. An addition to any assistance, the Media Specialist

suggests the following model budget to be addressed by stakeholders, as follows:

 2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022 Total
Print Materials
Books ( $3500.00 $1630.00 $2850.00 $7980.00
fiction/nonfiction)
Periodical and $400.00 $300.00 $400.00 $1100.00
subscriptions

Technology
Equipment
Mirrorless Camera $800.00 $800.00
Microphone $100.00 $100.00
Tripod $50.00 $50.00
Headphones $80.00 $80.00
HTC VIVE VR $3200.00 $1600.00 $4800.00
system

Software
Subscriptions $270.00 $270.00 $300.00 $840.00
E-Books $800.00 $600.00 $700.00 $2100.00

Training
Conference $300.00 $300.00 $350.00 $950.00
Registration and
travel

Supplies
Printer ink, paper, $500.00 $500.00 $600.00 $1600.00
“make and take”
supplies, posters,
pens, etc.
Original Budget +$5000.00 +$5000.00 +$5000.00 +$15000.00
Additional project + $1800.00 + $1800.00 + $1800.00 +$5400.00
funds from PTA,
fee collection,
book fair.

$6800.00 $6800.00 $6800.00 $20,400

Print Materials: According to the Destiny software, several books were out of date and need to

be removed from the library, some materials dating back twenty years. The media should be a
place of reliable and current materials for teachers and students. Providing new books or the

media center will create a welcoming and supporting environment. The review of surveys and

inventory will give a large picture of the specific material needs to help the students. This new

selection will support access to all fiction, non-fiction books, and any collections to support

specific content. Ordering the right book could aide the collaboration of subjects across the

curriculum. STEM support material will be used to support the STEAM program at the school.

Software: The appropriate collections of digital print materials and subscriptions will be attained

to support students as they read information text. Science and Social Studied department will

receive an E-book access to compensate the presence of hard books in the classroom. Providing

students with these materials will allow student engagement and the integration of background

knowledge. Studies have shown that chunking text allows for greater comprehension of the

content and provides the practice of reading content information. Providing a level of

differentiation to students can aid in launching a new lesson, provide background knowledge, or

play a part in inquiry-based learning.

Supplies: The media center will continue to support students as they learning and provide an

environment that helps in their creativity as they learn. This part of the budget with support any

office supplies not covered by the bookkeeper, including printer paper and ink. The majority of

this budge with support the “make and take” space. This will allow students to be creative while

they learn and create and invent projects for other classes.

Technology Equipment. The headphones will be used to help update the desktops located in

the Media center. The vision of the SMLS is to support students as they create a daily newscast,

completely operated by students and shared with the school for broadcasting. Creating a student
new show directly ties to the AASL by students creating content-based content and sharing their

reports throughout the school. The second and third year of the budget will be used to create a

virtual reality lab. Virtual reality can give students enriched experiences that are not normally

available in a classroom setting. Having a space for virtual reality readily supports the mission

of the media center by creating an empowered learner, a supporting ISTE standard.

Conference. The portion of the budget is to support the continued learning of the SLMS.

Providing continued training will increase collaboration, with teachers, appropriate technology

use and techniques, as well as provide the proper training for the virtual reality for appropriate

content application. Regularly attending conferences will support the AASL standard describing

growth.