Read and respond to the case study below and answer the questions:

Spring has arrived, and it is time for Rhonda to begin thinking about the budget for next school year. Her fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. Her board of directors will have to approve the new budget before the beginning of the new fiscal year. Her center serves 100 children, infants through school age, and operates 52 weeks a year. She knows that her license must be renewed in the fall and one of the vans will need new tires in a couple of months. What else should she consider as she begins to write her budget? What expenses might remain relatively the same from year to year? What expenses might change from year to year?

Shalonda has been hired as the director of a center that serves about 75 children. The financial matters have always been handled in the same way. Two handwritten journals are kept, one for money that is owed to the center and one for money that the center owes. For the most part, the journals are accurate, but finding information can be tedious. A parent donated a used computer to the center's office, and although it is only three years old, it is not being used because the previous director did not know how to work with it. Can this situation be improved upon? How? What steps can Shalonda take to improve the manner in which financial matters are handled in the center?

At a recent staff meeting, staff members said they needed a way to have materials available to them for special projects. They understood that placing orders once or twice a year helped reduce the cost because of quantity buying, but it was difficult to predict everything they might need during the year. They asked the director to look for some solutions to this problem. If you were the director, what are some of the solutions you might suggest to allow teachers the opportunity to buy materials for special projects? How can costs be cut while at the same time materials ordered more often than once or twice a year? What solutions would you suggest for this situation?