The survey results are in, and it seems as if most visitors and members of International School Community who voted have had very easy when trying to get reimbursed for things at their international school (though ‘kind of hard’ was in a close second place).

Thank goodness that most members are finding is very easy to get reimbursed.  There is nothing worse than buying something for your school (even after getting approval to buy it) and then it being a big hassle to get your money back.

Some countries you need to really do everything by the book, otherwise there isn’t much hope for you to get your money back.

But what is it typically like for the international school teachers who are finding it very easy to get reimbursed?  These schools will most likely be not-for-profit ones.  They also will be in an excellent financial situation with great budgets for departments and for individual teachers.  When you buy something for this kind of school, all you have to do is hand in your receipt to the business department; and yes they will accept all kinds of receipts (or better said, the country that they live in doesn’t have a history of corruption amongst local businesses and the receipts that they use will be more universal and accepted).

Once you had in your receipt at a school where it is ‘very easy’ to get reimbursed, you will either get paid back straight away in cash (if the amount is under a certain amount) or you the business office manager will set up a bank transfer that day so that you can get your money back quickly in that manner instead.

Getting your money back in a timely manner is good for everyone at the school.  If you are waiting for money to be paid back to you then that most likely means that you are still thinking about getting that money back when you come to school each day.  As each day passes (without you getting paid), it starts distracting you (at times) from your work and doing the best job you can do.

Let’s share more about the international schools where it is ‘very easy’ to get reimbursed!  It would be very interesting to see which schools would show up on that list.

Luckily on International School Community, we have a School Information section in the comments and information part of each school’s profile page that discusses this very topic.

• What types of budgets to classroom teachers/departments get?

Taken from the Misr American College (37 Comments) school profile page.

There have been many comments and information submitted in this topic on numerous school profiles on our website.

One International School Community member said about working at Vietnam American International School (27 Comments): “There were no budgets. No one ever knew how much they could spend. Most of the supplies requested and ordered did not come in. Even basic supplies like teacher’s editions to lab supplies to art supplies were not purchased during the 2011-2 school year. However, there were two very good copiers and plenty of paper available.”

Another member said about working at American School of Barcelona (98 Comments): “Getting supplies at ASB can be quite the challenge as all the supplies are “guarded” by 1 person. You must go through him to request these supplies and sometimes he is not so forthcoming with them to you. If you ask for pencils, you might get 10 from him!”

Another member submitted a comment about working at Harbin No. 9 High School International Division (Songbei Campus) (45 Comments): “I was not aware of any budget process. The man financing this for profit school was Mr. Cao Ying Hua. He seemed to wield the purse strings as he saw fit. I believe that his primary intention for the school was to make money. He showed very little concern for anything else. Certainly not for the well being of staff or even long range student well being. Oligarch maybe!”

If you are currently a premium member of International School Community, please take a moment to share your experience of what it is like to get reimbursed (or NOT reimbursed) at the international schools at which you have worked. You can start by logging on here.

Stay tuned for our next survey topic which is to come out in a few days time.