Question:

In looking back over the last half of this course and looking back over the last 50 years of American literature, explain for me whether you think American literature is getting better or worse. Is your answer based on whether you think it is more optimistic or pessimistic or neither? Develop your answer using examples from at least three of these writers or poets from the last half of the course. There is no right or wrong answer. I am looking for answers that are well defined and well argued.

you have done a lot of work for me in this class so hopefully you can remember what you have read or done.If you have questions please ask

Here are some more suggestions about how to improve your postings.

–Use the words of the question in your response.

–Use your mind, not your feelings.

–If the question has a quotation, focus on it. And analyze it.

–If the question does not a quotation, find an appropriate one and focus on it instead. And analyze it.

–Always, always stay focused and stay textual.

work on your revising and sentence structure

Always site your work

Development of School Budget including priorities, budget development, and salary decisions for student’s context. Directions for Budget Development for New Orange Elementary School.

Write a 6 page report that includes a budget. The paper must combine the details required in the instructions with these minimal elements:

1. Develop a short vision and mission for your brand new elementary school regarding how children are to be educated. You may use a similar vision and mission statement from the schools you went to or worked at or are in your neighborhood as a guide to help you create your own vision and mission.

1. Design an educational program that you and the school’s staff feel will cater to the educational development of all students such as magnet performing arts or STEM, the choices are limitless. You may use the curricular program at the school you attended or or worked at as a guide to help you create your educational program.
2. Develop a budget showing exact detailed dollar amounts for your school that identifies all (revenue/income) generated by Full Time Equivalent (FTE) income and all (expenditures/spending) for salaries of admin, faculty, staff, supports, and supplies necessary to run your building and deliver the educational program. Be sure to balance the budget to zero/$0 (that is, the Income/Revenue [FTE generated by students] minus Spending/Expenditures must balance to zero). Think of this like balancing your checkbook to zero…make it balance to zero in the end, what comes in is completely spent and no negative spending and no surplus rainy-day/slush funds left over. You might decide to start by using the budget at the school you attended or worked at as a guide to help you create your budget program and/or you may use the information from your Principal/CFO/CBO Interview as well to guide your writing.

Instructions – for brand new Orange Elementary School (OES), located in Orange County FL:

Congratulations, you are the newly hired principal of OES! The superintendent has the school board’s approval for her new plan of site based management. As such, you are now instructed to develop a budget for your school. The superintendent gives you the following information. You are to follow the procedure and MUST include clear details of each item below:

The following is a description of the school and guidelines you must follow in budget development.

OES student population/FTE by grade levels are:

• 18 full time PreK students
• 73 full time Kindergarten students
• 68 1st graders
• 74 2nd graders
• 71 3rd graders
• 62 4th graders
• 73 5th graders
• 69 6th graders

This total is 508 full time equivalent students (FTE). Remember, 12% of your overall student population are Special Education Students (SPED) and 30% of the total student population are English Language Learners (ELL). Both of these types of categorized students each individually authorized an extra $1,000 of FTE funds, per student. So, don’t forget to add this amount.

INPUT / RESOURCES / REVENUE / INCOME The district (you) receive $4,925 per each full time equivalent (FTE) general education student. You must add an extra $1,000 per each SPED and ELL student. Of that total, the superintendent will definitely deduct 15% to cover central office costs and your building’s utilities. Therefore, you do not need to itemize or show electric/water/gas/cable/phone/etc…utilities costs in your budget, but you must show that you deducted 15% for the central office to cover it.

The superintendent also says she will pay for your transportation costs, but may need to assess you an additional 2% to balance the transportation fund. You must develop a contingency fund for this transportation two percent so that if the superintendent decides not to charge your budget at the end of the year, then you have a quick contingency plan ready to spend it. Remember to calculate this 2% from the total initial FTE, do not calculate it after you have subtracted the other 15%. If other schools do not have their own transportation contingency planned/budgeted, OES will get the money first! The district has a “use it or lose it” policy. Be creative how you might spend it if she decides not to take it from you. Because this is an existing, already refurbished building (used construction), you do not need to buy furniture for classrooms or maintenance equipment or anything like that. The total you subtract from the total budget initially, will be 17% (15% plus 2% as stated above).

OUTPUT / EXPENDITURES / SPENDING (the above 17% are considered expenditures because they take away from your total FTE funds). Additionally, All expenses for your building operation are to identified and listed in great detail (broken down sufficiently and clearly, no bundling amounts or combined amounts) in your budget and are to be itemized and enumerated according to the Uniform System of Financial Records (USFR) codes. Think of it this way…if it is not listed in your budget, you do not get it.

You can hire as many teachers as you want (keep the ratio of student to teacher reasonable as you should show your ratio, but still stay within your overall budget). Teachers can ALL be hired at the same pay rate, the district’s average of $39,750 per year plus 20% for benefits. All calculation must be clearly detailed and shown if you choose to do this extra work). Research shows very low ratios are especially important for ‘reading’ in grades K-2, so consider lowering the student teacher ratio for these earliest grades, especially for reading. Show details/calculations/broken down. You, the principal, have a salary that is well publicized, $71,500 plus 20% benefits.

Your custodian is paid $31,200 per year ($15.00/hr. times 2080 hrs.) and is paid TIME and a HALF for all of her overtime (that is $15 plus $7.50, which is $22.50). You must give 95 hours of overtime this year to her plus benefits are 25% of her base salary. Be sure to add the overtime and detail how you calculated it, show your math.

Your administrative assistant is paid $20,800 per year ($10.00/hr. X 2080 hrs.) and he will get overtime for the work taken home. No time and a half for him, just regular salary for overtime. Give 108 hours overtime (that is about 3 hours per week during the school year). You must detail all of the overtime calculations very clearly and carefully, show your math on all details. Also, benefits are 25% of the base salary. You must list this in your budget and program description as well.

You will give the teachers a shared clerical aide ($7.75/hour + 20% benefits). You decide how many hours per year. Give No overtime to this individual.

Give the teachers at least one New Copy machine, which you can lease (that covers maintenance) for $425 per month for 12 months. Detail it in your budget, show your math.

You will buy exactly 395 New/Replacement text books at $58.00 each. Detail calculations clearly it in your budget, show your math on all details.

The teachers have been asking for a new computer in each classroom at a cost of $1,200.00 each. Give them this if you can afford it, but if you do, show your math. They also want you to establish the building’s first computer lab with at least 15 stations. You must detail these into your program description and show your math.

Additionally, teachers want a $400.00 per classroom allowance to help pay for miscellaneous out of pocket expenses and assist with field trips. You must decide if this in your program description and in your budget. On the one hand, you want to make them happy, and on the other hand, you must remain in your overall budget because the superintendent does not allow deficit spending or extra savings at the end of the year…the budget MUST balance to zero at the end. The superintendent must see the number zero at the bottom line after expenditures are all subtracted from the revenue.

A Professional Development (PD) consultant costs $600.00 per day. With a minimum of 2 days per year, at least one outside individual consultant can visit to train your whole staff in a group setting. You can have more days and more consultants, it is highly advised, if the budget allows because you can never offer enough PD. But, be sure to not offer less one consultant for 2 full days. Detail exactly how many days you will have that consultant(s) in the budget, as well as what will be trained and the benefit to faculty/staff, show your math calculations.

Food service costs about $2.35 per each meal, per each student (Breakfast and Lunch). Your instructions are that the charges and costs to purchase, prepare, and serve the food EQUALS EXACTLY the same exact amount of funds generated by the sales profits of this same food. Another words, the final total balances to zero. However, you must still calculate in detail and add it as a revenue because the food sales are income initially and then turn around and also list this amount as an expenditure and subtract that same amount because it costs the same amount of money to prepare the food. This service may be contracted out, but still must show calculations in your budget, show your math. For accountability to the citizens and the upper administration, calculate it all carefully and show it in great detail.

You may hire as many teacher assistants/aides as you want, but they each cost $13,300 plus 25% for benefits. This can be an efficient way to reduce class sizes, which is important. There is no additional pay for extra degrees for teacher assistants.

Have a table that shows all revenue minus the expenditures and that is balances/reconciles at the end to exactly = $0.

You must show calculation details in your Revenue generated vs Expenditure spending so that the superintendent and school board can keep track of how you are handling your building’s finances. You should be at $0 dollars after reconciling/balancing your Revenue and Expenditures. So, be creative and as generous to the teachers as you can, but do not over spend or under spend!

The superintendent’s last remarks to you, after your orientation session was “we care that our kids get a good education, but we also believe in zero balancing our budgets. If you want to keep your job, pay attention to both of these and we’ll get along just fine! Welcome to OES, in Orange County Florida.”I

Choose your favorite work of art from any period of Art History found in your textbook.

Embed the image of your chosen artwork. 5 points will be taken off for the missing image!

Write a 4-body-paragraph essay:

• Intro
• Paragraph 1: Visual Analysis
  • What is depicted?
  • What is the medium?
  • Discuss the work’s visual language: composition, perspective, form, shape, line, color, lighting, texture.
• Paragraph 2: Contextual Analysis
  • Who has commissioned this work?
  • Who is the intended audience?
  • How did historical/cultural/religious background affect this work?
  • What kind of message does this work project?
  • Who would benefit from its creation and its message?
• Paragraph 3: Your own educated perception/opinion of the chosen work of art – what you have learned to appreciate in a work of art after taking this course.
• Paragraph 4: How has your awareness of the role of art in your own life changed since taking this course?
• Conclusion

Option #2: Data Analytics in Auditing