One important effect of increasing localized autonomy, authority, responsibility, and accountability has been a growing yet understated recognition that effective business management is an essential component of educational leadership. The education business is expanding and becoming more complex and requires propitious oversight. As a result,…

The purpose of this study was to identify financial management strategies that school business officials have found most successful in achieving school district financial stability. To accomplish, 208 Illinois school business officials in six counties: Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties, excluding Chicago School District 299,…

Typically viewed as an academic issue, faculty development discussions too often take place between academic interests. The vice president for academics encourages deans or department heads to make their plans for enhancing the abilities in their areas. Funds are made available, and committees composed of representative faculty members decide who…

Effective leadership is on everyone's mind this presidential election year as the country's citizens look for a strong candidate to guide them through the next four years. Effective leadership is just as critical in the nation's school districts where people prepare their young people to be the global citizens of tomorrow. In most school…

Educators should be expanding their knowledge of where curriculum is going (or where it needs to go) to give students a chance at success in an increasingly challenging world and to demonstrate the value of public education. Education is moving toward differentiated instruction to meet the varied interests, needs, talents, and aspirations of…

Spending some time getting to know reporters, developing a sense of trust, and recognizing that one can meet each other's needs can go a long way toward making the school district-media relationship positive and symbiotic. Many districts have public information officers--even departments--that deal with the media every day. But it is good for…

School business officials are likely to know better than anyone else about the financial costs to districts and schools associated with teacher attrition. Perhaps less well-known, though, is what else has been learned about this issue in recent years--information that may affect how one thinks about teacher turnover. Here is some of that research:…

The leadership role of the school business official has changed during the past two centuries. Initially, a lay board oversaw the area of school business. That responsibility then moved to selectmen of the town and later to a committee of men. In 1910, the role of school business official was formalized with the establishment of the National…

Effective school business managers regularly assess themselves to ensure that they are "on top of their game" in the many facets of their jobs. One area they should not lose sight of, especially in the current economic situation, is their ability to communicate with their colleagues in the district. They may feel overwhelmed by the number of…

School business managers are in the unique position of supervising the areas of the operation that present the greatest opportunities for legal issues to arise. New construction and renovation projects are strewn with legal land mines. The possibility of lawsuits hovers like a black cloud over personnel issues. Opportunities for transportation or…

There have been many changes over the years; no organization could expect to succeed if it didn't evolve. And while Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO) will continue to adapt to changing conditions and needs, some things will--and should--stay the same. This paper focuses on research, networking, professional development…

Each summer, ASBO International conducts an Eagle Institute leadership session in the Washington, D.C., area that provides a group of about 25 participants, including Eagle Award recipients, an opportunity to network with and learn from exemplary leaders inside and outside the field of school business management. Each year, the focus of the…

The National Association of College and University Business Officers' (NACUBO's) "Guide to Unitizing Investment Pools" addresses the principles and concepts for administering a consolidated investment pool. Unitization is the mechanism by which investment funds are pooled to maximize investment efficiencies and provide information for donors,…

The development of an oath for business managers, similar to the Hippocratic Oath, has inspired meditation upon similar oaths for academics and university managers. Such oaths are concerned with formulating and asserting the professionalism of the groups that might take them. This paper argues that, while a legitimate heuristic to help university…

The everyday operations of a school district depend on a network of people, including students, teachers, staff, and administrators. However, the ancillary services staff are really responsible for making the school day run smoothly. They are often the first employees that students see in the morning, either on the school bus or in the cafeteria,…