While marketing tactics alone neither save nor create jobs, using them may help administrators take advantage of demographic or fiscal changes affecting school districts, say the tactics' proponents. Ward is director of the Milwaukee Public Schools' Social Work Department. In doing so, she takes advantage of a decentralized budget process that allows principals discretionary money to purchase additional services for their schools. The number of social work assistants, who have two-year degrees and are paid less, jumped from 16 to 50. Milwaukee schools' decentralized budgeting pits social workers against other mental health professionals vying for principals' interest and funding, she noted.
Principals are more like managers and are responsible for finances.
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction social work consultant Bill Berkan emphasized the need to educate school administrators about what social workers can do. A second exercise clarifies the needs of students and families, available resources and obstacles to meeting those needs. Social workers identify necessary tasks and then decide at what level those tasks must be completed. In doing so, social workers may be able to find extra time. For example, social workers may decide that in the future, necessary reports could be shorter than they have written them in the past, Berkan explained.