Question Description
Assignment: Achieving the Vision and Budgeting
As a professional, you have likely created various plansperhaps plans for learning experiences or plans for family involvement. As an administrator of an early childhood program, you will engage in planning that requires you to analyze the needs of your early childhood setting and develop strategies for meeting those needs. Part of making a plan as an early childhood administrator involves simultaneously developing your vision and planning the budget. As this week’s Learning Resources explain, budgeting and vision are intertwined as is love with marriage. In both cases, you can’t have one without the other.
For this week’s Assignment, you will examine the relationship between the budget and program vision, mission, and goals.
You will use the following scenario to guide you as you complete this Assignment:
You’ve been hired to be the director of a new program. This is a dream come true! You will be charged with developing the mission, vision, and goals of the program. The board has instructed you to begin by developing the budget. You know that the best way to proceed is to develop the mission, vision, or goals and then develop the budget. How might you help the board understand the benefits of establishing the vision, mission, and goals before developing the budget?
Submit a 1- to 2-page response to the board of directors explaining why early childhood programs cannot be driven by budget alone. Considering what you have learned about vision, mission, and goals and their relationship to budgeting, what other factors need to be considered as you develop the budget? How might the information presented in this week’s Learning Resources help you develop your vision and budget? Use specific examples to support your responses.
