Everyone wants a piece of the pie at H-B's annual allocation meeting. Design via Canva.
Every year at a special session of Town Meeting, the issue of allocation is brought up. Allocation, the process by which resources are allocated to different classes and departments, is handled by administrators at other schools, but H-B does things differently; students and staff are encouraged to participate in the process.
While much of the process goes by without a hitch, discussions have gotten heated in the past. According to the 2024 Underground Student Handbook: “everyone wants to ensure their pet subject has the funding it needs.” The level of tension is also compounded if budget cuts are required, since they can cause a teacher’s allocation to be restricted or removed–in rare cases forcing a staff member to move to a different school. A smaller school means limited resources, which can leave certain departments unhappy.
“Nobody is greedy individually, but they get greedy for departments,” attests Catherine Frum, 12th grade English teacher. “No matter the motivation, changes feel personal.”
While allocation can create tension, Catherine wouldn’t have it any other way: “Casey doesn’t do it in her office with the door closed, although that’s easier and quicker.”
According to the 2017 Underground Student Handbook’s “Rumor Mill” section, there have been alleged instances of reverse ‘granny farming’ among teachers attempting to get their allocation changes passed. The Current does not endorse these rumors.
While allocation is viewed by many students as mundane, the process can have major implications for teachers. “These are people’s livelihoods,” says Christy Gill, 9th grade English teacher. “Allocation can decide whether teachers work full or part time.”
While it’s a hallmark of our free-choice model that H-B students are able to play a part in allocation proceedings, there has been discourse at recent staff meetings regarding the types of conversations that should be allowed at the allocation session.
“We decided that we would, as a staff, come up with ideas before we went to Town Meeting instead of figuring it out as an entire school community,” Catherine shared. The focus on allocation at recent staff meetings stemmed from a concern by Casey that deep budget cuts were coming. However, the changes were fortunately not necessary. While a small cut was required, the rest of the budget balanced seamlessly. “They aren’t the budget cuts that we were afraid of,” confirms Catherine.
While an occasionally contentious process, allocation is what makes H-B special. The ability of our school community to budget based on our collective priorities, rather than those of a select few administrators, is one that cannot be taken for granted.