A school budget is not a spreadsheet. It is a system. Music educators who learn how that system works are best positioned to serve their students.
That was the through-line of the Music IS Education Coalition’s October 1 webinar on school budget cycles. Hosted by Anne Fennell of Music for All and Mark Despotakis of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, the session featured two leaders who work inside district budgets every day:
- Christopher Moseley, Education Specialist for Performing Arts at Henrico County Public Schools (Richmond, Virginia) and Program Leaders Council Chair for NAfME
- Dr. Dori Martin-Pitone, Elementary Humanities and K–12 Student Supports, Lower Merion School District (Pennsylvania), and a longtime federal programs coordinator
As Chris put it, his job is learning “how to make a school system work for my students.” Here is what he and Dori shared. None of it requires being a finance expert, only getting curious about how decisions actually get made.
Five lessons from inside the system
Chris was clear up front: he is not a CFO or a purchasing director. He is a performing arts administrator whose desk collects budgets, instruments, repairs, uniforms, facilities, technology, and contracts. Every district differs, so his goal was to hand you the right questions to ask about yours.
- Timeline is everything
Decisions about next year’s budget may be happening right now. In Henrico, fall enrollment data informs the following year’s staffing, resources, and equipment. The fiscal year may start July 1, but if you want new marching band uniforms on students by the next season, sizing, design, approvals, vendor lead times, and shipping must start long before. The date the money becomes available is not the date planning should begin.
Questions worth answering now:
- When does my principal begin planning the school budget, and when are requests due?
- What enrollment or participation data are decision-makers looking at?
- When is the last day to place purchase orders?
- Does unused money carry over, or is it swept away?
Administrators should consider building an annual budget calendar — when data is pulled, when requests go out, when inventory is evaluated, and when funds must be obligated. And use the quieter months to review inventory and listen to teachers. “If you wait until the problem is urgent, you’re often already late.”
- Don’t just divide it — prioritize it
Split $250,000 evenly across 21 secondary schools and each gets roughly $12,000. Everyone got something, but did anyone’s problem get solved? That won’t replace a set of aging instruments or fix a theater lighting system. Equal slices can feel fair while guaranteeing that large needs never get addressed.
Chris strongly believes in cyclical replacement plans: know your inventory’s age and condition, what’s due now, what’s next, and what can wait. Then layer in equity. Two orchestra programs may each have 100 students, but if one relies heavily on school-owned instruments, its repair burden is far higher. A per-pupil formula would treat them the same. Equal does not always mean equitable.
The data that should drive priority: inventory condition, number of school-loaned instruments, participation, equipment age, safety, projected growth, and replacement history. The goal is to avoid budgets driven by the squeakiest wheel and to explain why a priority rose to the top.
- Budget literacy is relationship literacy
When theater joined Chris’s portfolio, his most important new relationship was facilities leadership. The same goes for whoever manages Title IV-A in your district, purchasing (who enforces thresholds, cooperative contracts and approved vendors) and, above all, your principal, who may hold significant site-based discretion.
Don’t get hung up on job titles. Map the functions instead: who controls school-level funds, manages contracts, understands federal funding, approves technology, owns facilities — and who can tell you the real deadline.
“Sometimes advocacy is simply knowing who to call before you need to call them.”
- Be ready — opportunity moves faster than a committee meeting
“If I call you and say, ‘I have $5,000, can you use it?’ I need you to be able to answer before I close the business day.” Chris has 74 other places that money could go.
Keep a living needs list, not a once-a-year wish list, but a prioritized spreadsheet with items, approximate costs, vendors, and links to recent quotes. Know what you would do with $500, $5,000 and $50,000; those should be different requests. And learn your local purchasing rules before the opportunity arrives: thresholds, contracted vendors and “approved equal” substitutions.
- Let them see the investment
Henrico pairs a student performance with every school board meeting. When a high school drumline was scheduled to perform, Chris advised wearing the new uniforms the division had purchased a year or two earlier — heat and all. Board members got to see students performing at a high level in the very resources they helped fund.
That is not a sales pitch; it is stewardship of public money. Visibility can be a board performance, a program report, a newsletter, photos, data or an invitation for the principal to walk through rehearsal. The cycle Chris described:
- Identify a real need
- Make a strong request
- Receive the investment
- Create student impact
- Make the impact visible
- Build trust — and talk honestly about the next priority
“Budget advocacy should not begin when you are afraid that you’re going to lose something. It should happen all year long.”
Braiding federal funds with your district budget
Dori grew up in a socioeconomically challenged community where every kid played an instrument — she started on a rubber practice pad, waiting for the day she’d get a real snare drum. Music gave her a way to shine beyond the other academics, and it nurtured the other academics too. That whole-child lens shapes how she approaches funding.
Her core message: district budgets and federal Title funds are separate buckets that work best in tandem. Use each for what it does well.
Know the calendar
- October: gather quotes and build next year’s plan. Find out whether your department is up on the curriculum adoption cycle — that’s when the larger dollars flow.
- January-March: formal board approval of the district budget in many districts, depending on the state. Check with your district to see when the budget is first presented for discussion, which is usually a month or two before formal approval
- January–May: get on the federal programs coordinator’s radar; needs assessments for next year’s applications typically happen by May.
- End of year: business offices often reallocate unspent funds. Have a ready answer when they ask, “Can anyone use this?”
This year’s federal grants are already written and obligated. Everything you plan now is for next year. In regular budgets, unspent money looks like money you didn’t need, and it may not come back.
Frame every request around three goals
Federal funding wants to see you expand access, improve quality, and increase student participation. Be clear on your why. Write SMART goals, because federal programs require a needs assessment up front and an impact report at the end. Participation, surveys, engagement, and behavioral data all count.
Two more rules: federal funds must supplement, not supplant what the district would normally buy for everyone. And make the grant writer’s job easy by handing them a complete plan.
What each Title can support
Title I(schoolwide programs) – Music as a schoolwide academic, attendance or engagement strategy — the plan must show how it improves outcomes for students most at risk
Title II – Professional learning, coaching, conferences, books, paid curriculum-writing time, bringing in a consultant
Title III – Language access supports and family engagement for eligible English learners
Title IV-A – Well-rounded education: adaptive and classroom instruments, composition tools, culturally responsive repertoire, guest artists, community partnerships, field experiences, after-school or summer music labs
One caution: some districts transfer Title IV and Title II funds into Title I, which restricts how they can be used. Ask whether your district keeps Title IV-A separate. Dori also advises funding equipment from the regular budget where possible, since federal equipment rules carry heavy policy requirements, then use federal funds for what students do with that equipment.
Plan for sustainability
Before asking, know your district policies, especially board-approval thresholds for equipment and contracted services. Build a preliminary budget with a Plan A and a Plan B, including hidden costs like staff hours to keep a building open. And show how the program will be sustained after federal start-up funds end, gradually moving costs into the regular budget.
“The more you can see how this can grow into something bigger that has an impact beyond just one instrument, the more buy-in and more funding you get.”
From the Q&A
How do you help faculty understand equity-based funding? Be transparent, Chris said. Share the real example: one school’s students own their instruments, another’s don’t. “Sure, I can give everybody $10,000, but nobody can get anything.”
What about a teacher’s passion project? Look for external partners first. The Henrico Education Foundation funds innovative, student-centered projects. One ensemble reframed its annual trip budget to commission a new piece, with students writing the lyrics.
Purchasing wants the cheapest trumpet. Now what? Use the “approved equal” language — and make sure you are the one approving the equal. Back it with repair data: if the slightly pricier model goes to the shop far less often, the district saves money. That only works if you track inventory and repairs. “How long does a copy machine last? They replace those.”
How can choral programs compete when band gets more funding? First compare what each actually needs. Chris has had success framing choral risers and platforms as a safety issue — missing back rails, finger-pinching hinges — which can open an operations funding stream instead of an instructional one. Dori added another model: a district-wide choir that pools resources across buildings.
Can textbook money fund music? Yes, through digital curriculum. Chris replaced outdated elementary materials containing culturally insensitive songs by reframing an $80,000 digital curriculum as about $1,500 per school, with access for every student in class and at home.
What should a request include beyond “I want this”? A need, Dori said, not just a want. A needs assessment can be as simple as “Elementary School A has a music library and School B doesn’t.” Come ready to explain the challenge, the solution and the budget — and why this need outranks others.
Take action
- Explore the new Monitoring School Budgets resources under Advocacy → Local Advocacy at musiciseducation.org. Here is the direct link to the PDF.
- Ask Karl B, the coalition’s AI assistant at musiciseducation.org. Its curated, research-backed knowledge base now includes guidance on working with school boards — including how to write a letter to your board.
What’s next
The full webinar recording is posted at musiciseducation.org and on YouTube. Worth rewatching and sharing with colleagues.
Join us November 10 for our next Music IS Education webinar, featuring post-election analysis. Register here!
Music IS Education. Don’t wait for the cut. Be Proactive!
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