What’s really going on behind the scenes of public school budgets?

In this episode, host Lisa Hill pulls back the curtain on the often confusing—and sometimes downright absurd—world of school spending. Through a mix of humor and firsthand experience, she shares stories that highlight the gap between what schools need and what budgets actually prioritize.

From overflowing closets of unused supplies to questionable purchases that leave teachers shaking their heads, Lisa explores how small decisions can add up to big financial consequences. Along the way, she unpacks the bureaucratic challenges educators face and the frustrating reality of trying to do more with less.

But this isn’t just about funny stories—it’s about accountability. Because when school spending misses the mark, it’s not just educators who feel it—it’s students, communities, and taxpayers.

If you’ve ever wondered how funding decisions are made in education—or questioned where those dollars actually go—this episode offers a candid, thought-provoking look at a system that deserves a closer examination.

🔑 Key Takeaways

1. School budgeting can often feel chaotic, with purchasing decisions that don’t always align with classroom needs
2. Everyday items like supplies and tech can reveal deeper systemic inefficiencies
3. Teachers frequently navigate a disconnect between limited resources and questionable spending choices
4. Outdated or unnecessary purchases can lead to wasted taxpayer dollars
5. Greater transparency and accountability are essential for responsible school funding

🔗 Mentioned in This Episode

1. Amazon
2. BlackBerry
3. Palm
4. iPhone

🎧 Why Listen?

This episode blends humor with a serious message: how schools spend money matters. Whether you’re an educator, administrator, or taxpayer, you’ll walk away with a sharper perspective on the realities—and responsibilities—of managing public funds in education.

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1. Create a short YouTube description + title + tags (SEO optimized)
2. Write social posts for LinkedIn/X/Facebook
3. Or format this directly for Captivate, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts
4. I prefer this response

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Join me, your host, Lisa Hill, as I explore the strange world of school purchases, where every item is supposed to be tracked, tagged and accounted for in theory.

But somehow things get bought that nobody remembers ordering items disappear, and occasionally someone treats the school budget like it's their personal Amazon prime account.

So turn up the volume and let's get laughing and learnin'.

Attention students.

I mean listeners.

The stories in this podcast are told from the host's personal and farcical point of view.

All names and identifiers have been omitted or altered to protect identities.

Now get to class and enjoy the show.

Hello folks.

Happy Spring.

Yes, spring is finally here, and if you ask me, not a moment too soon.

I hate how the end of winter teases us.

It's 80 degrees one day and the next we're under a blizzard warning like Mother Nature just hit shuffle on the weather app.

Does Mother Nature not understand that drastic weather swings send kids behavior into overdrive and pushes teachers to the edge of insanity or early retirement?

Which is exactly why I'm convinced K12 schools invented spring Break, that magical week of the school year where students reset, teachers recharge and administrators pray, meditate, perform interpretive dances, or do whatever ritual is necessary to beg the great God of Calm for a peaceful fourth quarter.

Of course, anyone who's ever worked in a public school knows that is not how this goes.

Pandemonium is inevitable.

Parents will suddenly become very concerned about which day is the actual last day of school, while showing significantly less concern about their child's academic performance.

Teachers will start planning extra student reward days, anything to curb questionable behavior, while simultaneously wondering if the new teacher contract will include a raise or at least enough money to buy classroom essentials.

You know, like sticky notes.

Because God forbid a teacher run out of sticky notes.

I think the TV show Hoarders could do an entire episode on teacher supply closets.

Every teacher has about 10,000 sticky notes and stuffed in their classroom supply cupboard right next to 20,000 dried out markers.

All save for that just in case day that never comes.

At this point, the markers, still in the original packaging, are so dried out, they're being used to prop up books in the supply cabinet.

Meanwhile, the sticky notes, they don't even stick anymore.

And yet, every month, like it's a subscription service nobody signed up for, school secretaries keep ordering more sticky notes and markers.

So at the end of a school year, when the principal asks if their school can really afford to buy $15,000 worth of sticky notes and markers, secretaries respond with a simple yes.

Because don't you know, teachers use sticky notes and markers all the time.

School principals then grant the sticky note and mark a request while sweating and fretting as they try to be good financial stewards of taxpayer dollars.

Indubitably, this is also the time of year when district level officials announce that money is tight.

So be mindful when spending.

Oh, and plan on absolutely no extra money for the upcoming school year.

Yet strange shit still gets purchased.

Which is why I called this episode.

Wait, that came out of the school budget.

In all reality, I really wanted to call this episode.

Public school budgets have existed for over 100 years, yet each year district leaders proclaim there is never enough money to go around and make cuts to the building budgets while creating district level jobs for special people.

No one has any idea what they do and continue to spend money on stupid initiatives that will soon be gone as soon as the new shiny expensive learning learning concept is announced.

Because that's what happens, people.

Schools spend money on some strange stuff that leaves everyone scratching their head saying, you can't make this up.

Lisa Ann, you're making me rethink my motherhood.

Ah, come on, mom.

You were a bookkeeper for a law firm for almost 20 years.

You know exactly what I'm talking about.

You handled me millions of dollars every year.

Your job was to make sure the firm stayed balanced, turned a profit, and didn't blow its earnings on crazy stuff, right?

Here's my point.

Public schools are technically a business, but sometimes they operate more like a buy now, panic later system.

It's spend a little, a little borrow, and then why not spend again?

The bill always seems to find its way back to the taxpayers anyway.

And trust me, when it comes to school budgets, I've seen some things.

In my first year of teaching, I made $15,000.

That's right, $15,000 for the whole year.

And after taxes, that came out to about $450 a month.

And somehow, somehow I paid my half of the rent and a car payment.

Now, was I thriving?

No.

Was I eating well also?

No.

My roommate and I basically lived on ramen noodles and cheap drinks at the bar.

But we made it work, which is wild because I could manage my own $450 a month, but had absolutely no idea how a school budget worked.

My college courses never once mentioned a budget.

Honestly, I think budget information doesn't show up until you decide to become a superintendent, and by then, it's a little too late.

Now, keep in mind, I got hired four days before school started.

So I was scrambling to see set up by cleaning out file folders, digging through desks, organizing shelves, just anything to survive.

And everywhere I looked, there was money.

$20 here, $47 there.

$106 at the bottom of a desk drawer.

At this point, I'm basically running a side hustle, delivering cash to the front office.

I think I made 55 trips.

The secretary kept saying I had no idea, and I kept saying, me either.

And honestly, I still don't know what that former band director was thinking.

Students were probably paying for supplies, but why stash money like it's a buried treasure?

I guess he was hoarding because of a limited budget.

Which could explain why my prince principal, the one from episode eight, you know, the mutual dislike situation.

Yet he wasn't volunteering budget information, and I wasn't about to ask him for anything.

So when my superintendent told me I needed to spend some money on band supplies, I created a list and handed it to my principal.

He glared at me and asked me why I was spending money.

Money.

My response?

Because the superintendent told me so.

My principal was not thrilled, but fulfilled my order.

My first week of teaching taught me everything.

To be accountable, to be transparent.

Because my parents would have killed me if I was not.

But clearly, not everyone grows up learning accountability, because some adults end up being making decisions about school money that leave you wondering, is this ethical?

Because if we're talking about ethics and money, let me tell you about the district office shower.

I Once worked in a district where the top leaders thought it would be a great idea to install a shower.

Yes, a shower in the district office.

Why?

So the current superintendent could go for a run in the middle of the day, come back, shower, and then finish the workday while the rest of the staff were just, you know, working through lunch like normal people.

Duh.

I don't think the taxpayers ever got a memo about that one.

And that wasn't the only upgrade.

There were several, which is what makes this next part even better.

A few years later, the district decided to sell the building and build a brand new district office.

The new owners of the old district office tore down the building.

So those upgrades done on taxpayer dollars?

Gone.

Just gone.

Nothing says strong financial planning like fixing up a building just in time to tear it down.

But what do I know?

Apparently not enough to understand why frozen turkeys became part of a staff appreciation.

Some school districts like to give holiday gifts to show their appreciation of their staff.

You know, something thoughtful.

A book, a few school supplies tucked into a coffee mug, maybe even a wear jeans on Friday coupon.

Yes, a coupon for jeans.

I've received many over the years.

I still don't know why jeans are such a big deal.

People in the business world don't have to sit with snot nosed crazy kids all day.

So getting rid of the no jeans rule is the least school districts can do for their employees.

But hey, district leaders, you pick your own battles.

Wearing jeans to work is not one I choose to use any amount of energy on.

Now wait, where was I?

Oh yeah.

One of the most comical staff appreciation gifts I ever received.

Wait for it.

Was an 8 pound frozen turkey stuffed in a bag with a nifty little handle.

Now, some people might think a frozen turkey, how wonderful.

Free food to feed your family.

And normally they'd be right.

But when those turkeys come off a truck that may or may not have had anything resembling a proper cooling system, that gift hits a little differently.

So what do teachers do with a hundred frozen turkeys handed out in the middle of professional development day when there are no students in the building?

They bowl.

That's right.

We held a full blown hallway bowling tournament using our bagged bonus birds.

Why?

Well, for a couple of reasons.

First, those bagged and tagged toms arrived right around lunch and were tossed off a truck operating under a very loose interpretation of refrigeration.

So no one with even a hint of common sense was taking that thing home to feed their family.

Salmonella, anyone?

And second, we still had three to four hours left in the workday.

What in the exact hell were we supposed to do with our gifted bird?

Walk around all afternoon carrying an eight pound frozen turkey in a plastic bag with a handle, set it on our desk like some kind of protein paperweight, slide it into our file cabinet next to the lesson plans?

Because let me tell you, nothing says professional development like sitting in a training with a slightly questionable turkey resting at your feet.

Not the turkey standing in front of the staff trying to sound like they knew something about education.

Anyway, it wasn't cold enough to leave them outside, so naturally bowling the birds sounded like a great option.

And it was a blast.

We laughed, we cheered, we got in a little exercise, and somehow we appreciated that staff gift more than any other gift we'd ever received from the district.

The taxpayers didn't know about the decision district leaders made for the turkey take home.

Thank you.

Which is probably for the best, because some people might say it was wasted money, while others might say it was research and development on redefining what a frozen turkey can do Now.

Not every budget idea was as questionable as the turkey situation.

Some were actually meant to help us work smarter.

They just didn't exactly age well.

Speaking of not aging well, this next story supports my belief that that K 12 public schools are always about 10 years behind the rest of the world.

Why?

Because in one district I worked in, the district leaders thought it would be a good idea to buy Palm Pilots for every administrator.

Of course, this was right when blackberries were taking off.

Perfect timing.

For those of you too young to remember, a Palm Pilot was basically a handheld calendar.

You could sync it to your desktop computer because laptops back then weighed about 10 pounds and weren't exactly portable.

So Palm Pilots it was.

The only problem was that the Palm Pilots were fading faster than a kindergartner in the afternoon.

BlackBerry phones were all the rage.

Email, messaging and actual communication.

And of course, everyone wanted one.

And for those of you too young to know what a BlackBerry was, a BlackBerry was a phone people had before iPhones took over.

It had a tiny screen, tiny keyboard, and somehow people could type full emails on it like it was no big deal.

If you had one clipped to your belt, you meant business and thought you were very important.

The superintendent at the time got a BlackBerry while we all had Palm Pilots.

And yes, he clipped it to his belt and acted like he was very important.

He wasn't.

Eventually, our chief financial officer was tired of listening to the administrators complain about the Palm Pilots, so he decided to fix the problem and Bought all the administrators cell phones.

Not BlackBerry's?

No.

He bought the cheapest phone he could find.

And from day one, the phones didn't work right.

So what happened?

His emails, phone calls, meetings were all about the cheap phones.

Our CFO spent more time dealing with problems from the phones than the phones were supposed to solve.

He'd lecture the administrators at every meeting about how the district had spent money to help us stay organized and that we needed to figure it out because he was busy.

Which would have been great, except the district held the contract for the phones, so the phone company wouldn't talk to any individual administrator.

Nah, you get what you pay for.

And here's the scary part of this story.

Around that same time, it was reported that K12 schools spent about $310 million on technology like this, only to replace it a few years later.

Again, you get what you pay for.

So now our CFO had a problem.

The cheap phones weren't working.

Everyone wanted an upgrade.

And by the time the district started looking at better options, technology changed again.

And before you knew it, the BlackBerry bites the dust and along came the iPhone.

But here's the thing about public schools.

Nothing happens quickly.

Purchasing decisions don't take a week.

They take meetings, committees, approvals, and more freaking meetings.

So by the time a decision finally gets made, the technology is already outdated.

And at that point, you're not buying something new.

You're buying something that used to be new.

So what did our CFO do?

He came up with a new solution.

Instead of buying phones, the district would pay administrators to use their personal cell phones.

And honestly, the administrators were all fine with that because now we were getting paid extra.

It boosted our income and retirement.

I actually made more money from the stipend than my phone bill cost.

Which means, for once, the school system accidentally worked in our favor.

Crazy, right?

And if you think these stories are something, just wait.

Because sometimes the problem isn't the budget, it's what people decide to do with taxpayer dollars.

And over the years, as you can guess, I've seen some things.

There was a teacher who taped his P card, which is basically a school credit card, to his desk.

Just taped it.

His reasoning?

Easy access.

Well, a student accessed it, and then the family accessed it.

And before anyone realized what was happening, and thousands of dollars later, we were all sitting there thinking, yeah, maybe don't tape your credit card to a desk.

Then there was the teacher who decided to clean out his classroom, which on the surface, sounds responsible.

We love a good clean out.

Until you find out he Put school equipment on Facebook Marketplace.

He didn't tell the district.

He didn't ask.

He just listed his classroom equipment, like gently used, taxpayer funded.

I mean, at what point do you think to yourself, this might not be mine to sell?

And then this story still gets me.

We had a secretary leave the district.

So we're cleaning out her desk and we find an iPad.

Not our schools.

Not our districts.

It was another school districts.

The damn thing still had the barcode on it.

Which means at some point, that iPad switched districts without approval.

No paperwork, no transfer, just relocated itself.

And this is a good one.

The superintendent's car.

Yes, the school district bought a car for the superintendent, which sounds like a nice perk until the phone call started.

Apparently, the superintendent liked to drive fast.

Very fast.

So now board members were fielding complaints about the superintendent speeding around town in a district owned vehicle.

And at that point, it's just not about the budget issues anymore.

Let's just say the whole situation didn't end well for that superintendent.

And when the full story of that hire finally comes out, it's going to highlight how a school board approved a decision that wasted a whole lot of taxpayer money.

Basically, a Netflix documentary waiting to happen.

Now, to be fair, there are good things that happen with school money.

Schools invest in students, they create opportunities, they build programs that make communities proud.

And sometimes the community steps up.

One such instance meant I had to wear my pink hat.

Yes, that pink hat.

The one from my vice principal.

Unofficed photo.

A local company offered to fund upgrades to one of our facilities.

Great news.

The only catch, I had to dress up for a Kentucky Derby themed event and attend a party to thank the company and its donors.

And no, I didn't get to go to the actual Kentucky Derby.

I went to a warehouse and stood on a cement floor for what felt like forever in dress shoes, which, by the way, I hadn't worn since my knee surgery.

So now I'm standing there smiling, trying to be gracious while my knee is screaming, and I'm questioning all of my life choices, including, including the pink hat.

But we got the money and the facility got upgraded.

The school district supported the project and actually helped get it done.

And in a timely manner, which, honestly, might be the most impressive part of this whole story.

But here's the twist.

Not long after that, same company was questioned about how their money was being handled and there was a change in leadership.

Ironic, isn't it?

So what have we learned?

Schools don't always have a money problem.

They have a decision making problem.

Because I've seen money used to build opportunities for kids and boost teacher knowledge.

And I've seen money used in ways that make you stop and say, wait.

That came out of the school budget.

But here's the part that really matters.

When those decisions go wrong, it's not their money on the line.

It's taxpayer money.

Which means it's yours.

Well, kids, the dismissal bell is ringing.

So until next time on Vice Principal in Office.

Push in your chair, put your name on your paper, be kind to your classmates, put your phone away, and use your indoor voice.

Or not.

Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed the tales from Vice Principal and Office as much as I enjoyed sharing them.

And it is also my hope that you were not only entertained by this episode, but that you walked away with a little nugget of knowledge that gave you some insight on how working in a school is not for the faint of heart.

And as I've said before, four, life is short.

So you gotta do the best you can to leave the world in a better place than when you got here.

And of course, for the love of God, see the humor in life.

It's a lot more fun and a little easier to get through the ickin life with a smile on your face.

Catch you Next time on Vice Principal and Office.

Next time on Vice Principal in Office.

I'm pulling back the curtain on the real power players in every school.

School.

The secretaries.

They answer the phones, manage the chaos, calm down parents, track down students, and somehow know everything before anyone else does.

If you think the principal is in charge, think again.

But with that power, well, sometimes it gets a little misplaced.

So join me on April 7 for secretaries, the gatekeepers of everything.

Until then, keep laughing and learning.

Hey, students.

I mean, listeners, thanks again for tuning in.

And if you've enjoyed today's show, please leave me a review.

It really helps grow the show.

And don't forget to hit the follow button so you don't miss an episode.

Trust me, you don't want to be late for this detention.

And listeners, if you've got a school story of your own that you think would fit Vice Principal unofficed, I'd love to, love to hear it.

Just head to my podcast website and send me your story.

And who knows, your story might even get a shout out in a future episode.

Thanks so much for listening and for your support.

Vice Principal and Office is an independent podcast with everything you hear, done by me, Lisa Hill, and supported through Buzzsprout.

Any information from today's show along with any links and resources are available in the show's notes, so if you want to do a little homework and dive deeper into anything I've mentioned, head over to my podcast website and check it out.

And a big thank you to Matthew Chiam with Pixabay for the show's marvelous theme music and of course, a huge shout out to my mother.

This podcast is for the purpose of entertainment only, like the recess of your day, and not a platform for debates and about public education, though you never know you could learn something.

And just a reminder that the stories shared in this podcast represent one lens which is based on my personal experiences and interpretations, and also reflect my unique perspective through humor.

Names, dates and places have been changed or omitted to protect identities and should not be considered universally applicable.

Until next time, keep laughing and learning.