Question: One of my districts received a letter dated December 11, 1996, from the School Transportation Coalition. Within the letter is an invoice to become a member. This district asked my advice about whether they should join, what type of operation was this, etc. Since I see Kelly Blanton is an officer, I thought that FCMAT could provide me with some information.
Response: The School Transportation Coalition serves as a lobbying group to improve the level of funding for educational transportation services. During the past year, this group was instrumental in AB2972, Olberg, which included $35 million of additional funding. The governor's proposed budget for this year plans to continue the support. The coalition had approximately 80 school districts as members last year, and as you have indicated, is in a renewal and membership drive at the present time. Each district in the state will benefit from advances that are made in the area of transportation encroachment, member or not. However, membership in the coalition does support efforts with funds, letter writing campaigns, and increased contacts with legislators to help increase funding.
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Question: What is the statutory time period for final payment to a terminated certificated temporary employee? (24 hrs., 48 hrs., 72 hrs.)
Response: This question is frequently asked by terminated school district employees who understand that the labor code requires payment within a specific time period. Local education agencies do not fall under the provision of the labor code requiring payment within 72 hours. Ed. Code 45040 states "in the event any employee leaves the service of the district by death or otherwise before receiving such moneys as may be due him, the amount due him shall be paid within 30 days to him or to any other person entitled thereto by law. "
FCMAT would advise you contact legal counsel to verify your position and check to be sure that the district bargaining agreement does not contain any language to the contrary. If no conflict is involved, try to pay the terminated employee on the upcoming payroll cycle.
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Question: Does the 15% carryover still apply for the Adult Ed. Fund?
Response: FCMAT contacted two sources at the Department of Education who have both said that the 15% limit no longer applies.
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Question: What are the final figures for block grants? Is it $66 - or the rumor mill has it at $63 on Jan 27?
Reply: The final figures for the block grant haven't been released as of today, January 29, 1997. Districts are best advised to go with a very conservative estimate of $60 per ADA. Additional items of expenditure should be considered if, with official notification, the amount increases to the original estimate of $66.
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Question: I would like a complete list of elementary (K-3) schools in the San Fernando area (from Moorpark to Pasadena along the 118 and Moorpark to Glendale along the 101 and 23).
I currently have my son enrolled in a Montessori and I would like to find a better school. I am interested in private and public schools. This is in Los Angeles county CA.
Response: FCMAT has a complete list of all public schools in California. You can access this list by going to the FCMAT Home Page on the Internet, at <http://www.kern.org/fcmat>.
Under the heading of Related Resources you will see a link called "COE, K-12 Sites." Click on this link and a map of California will appear. This map is divided into regions. Click on the map on Region 11. This represents Los Angeles County and includes a list of all public K-12 schools in the county. The list shows the name, grade level, and city where the school is located.
FCMAT does not maintain a list of private schools in California.
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Question: Is there shareware available for the cohort survival calculation and/or enrollment projections?
Response: In 1992, FCMAT developed a spreadsheet template that allows a user to enter enrollment data into an "entry area," then view the resulting projected enrollments calculated using a variety of projection methods. The team discontinued use of the spreadsheet template after School Services of California introduced its Enrollment Master Software. The SSC product was inexpensive, easy to use, offered the user more calculation flexibility, graphing capabilities, and built-in support for developing feeder school relationships within a projection. To obtain a copy of the spreadsheet template, please contact FCMAT. To obtain a copy of Enrollment Master, contact SSC.
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Question: We are a non-profit, public agency established by a joint powers agreement between LEAs, the California State Board of Education, CSU and UC. Several LEAs and computer vendors have approached us about setting up a buying co-operative that would allow schools and LEAs in California to purchase equipment without going to bid. Some county offices do this on behalf of their districts. What statutes are relevant? Would our agency qualify to provide this assistance to schools? Who else might be able to answer this question for us?
Response: The following section of the Public Contract Code addresses several areas of your question. FCMAT suggests that you contact the legal counsel involved in the establishment of WestEd in order to determine if your agency qualifies as one that can provide this service to members.
20118. Notwithstanding Sections 20111 and 20112, the governing board of any school district without advertising for bids, if the board has determined it to be in the best interests of the district, may authorize by contract, lease, requisition, or purchase order, any public corporation or agency, including any county, city, town, or district, to lease data processing equipment, purchase materials, supplies, equipment, automotive vehicles, tractors, and other personal property for the district in the manner in which the public corporation or agency is authorized by law to make the leases or purchases. Upon receipt of any such personal property, provided the property complies with the specifications set forth in the contract, lease, requisition, or purchase order, the school district may draw a warrant in favor of the public corporation or agency for the amount of the approved invoice, including the reasonable costs to the public corporation or agency for furnishing the services incidental to the lease or purchase of the personal property.
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Question: What is a county office's responsibility in regards to STRS, PERS and payroll audit functions in regards to those districts who are fiscally independent?
STRS and PERS want all districts in a county to submit the data to them on one tape. If a fiscally independent district does not wish for us to audit their data or even be the contact for PERS or STRS, does their status of "fiscally independent" give them this right?
Also, with payroll, are we required to do payroll audit on this same district?
Response: This response came from a county office who has experienced the same type of problem.
County offices do not have any control over independent school districts. Their auditing must be done internally. Even though STRS will only accept one tape per county, the county office acts only as a intermediary for reporting purposes. However, the county office has the authority to require that the reports and the deposits are reconciled.
However, if numerous errors occur that call for a penalty because of bad reporting, the penalty can be levied against the independent school district.
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Question: Records Retention Manual, compiled by the Division of Administration and Finance in July, 1993.
Response: FCMAT has forwarded a copy of the record retention manual of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office. In addition, this is the information on the record retention manual in the CASBO library:
Records Retention Manual (Kindergarten-Grade 12 and Community Colleges) Second Edition
This manual addresses records retention only. It suggests procedures and sample forms for record management. It is a quick reference to the retention period for documents. It suggests procedures as to the preparatory steps that should be taken to establish a record retention system. Examples of various statements, letters, records, inventories and storage labels are presented.
Southern Section Accounting R & D Committee, Order No. 0111, 165 pages, 1996, $14.95
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Question: As part of the county office audit process of vendor warrants, is there a specific ed. code section that refers to what specifically needs to be audited for purchase orders, contracts, and direct payments? Is there a requirement to have indicated the date the district governing board took action on approving the original purchase order, or contract or is there a requirement to indicate the date the warrant was approved by the governing board or both? We are updating our audit process and I am trying to tie our process into specific ed. code requirements.
Response: This question had been asked in June by Mary Stark of the San Luis Obispo County Office. Here is the response sent to Mary (you may want to ask her for a copy of the update guidelines for her county office):
The guidelines for county superintendent of schools offices concerning the payments of funds for district expenses are discussed in Ed. Code Sections 42630-42652. These sections cover a range of payments, including accounts payable warrants. You can access these sections on the Internet through the FCMAT Home Page and other sources.
From reviewing the code, specific parameters are not noted. Several years ago I worked in the Santa Barbara area and they had very thorough review parameters. You may want to contact your counterpart in Santa Barbara County Office of Ed. Call Gary Pickavet at (805) 964-4711 for more information.
I will also fax you a sample of a Region 8 Business Officials COE list of documentation requirements for expenditures exceeding bid levels. This document is outdated and the amounts and sections need to be updated, but will give you an idea of the process used by another county office.
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Question: 1. Is there a contradiction in the 1992 Edition of the School Accounting Manual? Page 801-2, sentence four of the last paragraph reads "...at the first 'Yes' the [item] becomes equipment...." However, the flowchart above that paragraph indicates that "at the first 'No' item is declared to be SUPPLY." Which is it? (I understand the principle, but I want to point out the contradiction.)
2. As regards Low Incidence "equipment," what should be the object coding of items which are designated for a specific student, and would follow that student if he were to leave our program or county; but which, in all other respects, has the nature of equipment? After all, in this instance, that piece of "equipment" may be with us less than one year if the student should leave. Besides, the relative cost of tagging and inventory control could represent a very high relative cost for an item which may be removed from inventory in under a year.
Do all the tests mentioned in procedure 801 of the Accounting Manual apply to Low Incidence? (I understand that if a student no longer needs his particular piece of "equipment" that it would revert to a state equipment pool for use by others.)
What do other COE's do with Low Incidence "equipment?"
Response: In response to your first question, I agree that the logic can be questioned. When the first test results in a yes or no answer, there would be no need for a further test. If you can come up with a clearer way to state the logic, please forward it to me and I will send it in to the department of education.
As to your second question on the coding of Low Incidence Equipment, this is how it is handled by the Kern Co. Supt. of Schools Office: The district of origin of the student submits a request to the SELPA for the equipment. The equipment is purchased and charged to object code 6400 with a special sub-program code that identifies it as a low incidence purchase. If the student moves to another district within the SELPA, the piece of equipment goes along too. If the student moves to a district other than within the SELPA, the old SELPA agrees to loan the equipment to the new SELPA until a replacement is purchased by the new SELPA. If the piece of equipment is so specialized and will in most probability not be used by anyone else, the equipment will go along with the student. If the equipment is permanently removed from the SELPA ownership, it is removed from the equipment inventory.
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Question: Is it legal for the student body to hold a raffle to raise funds? Are there any restrictions?
Response: The Penal Code prohibits lottery, games of chance, and other forms of gambling. It also includes the definition of a raffle in that of a lottery. Penal Code section 326.5 provides that even bingo must be licensed to an adult group and student body organizations are prohibited from being involved in the activity.
However, there is some flexibility at the local level in allowing such activity. The local law enforcement agency should be contacted to see if a specific activity can be conducted in that area.
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Question: Is the apportionment for the Teacher Reading Instruction Development Program (AB3482, Ch.196, St. of 1996) fiscal year 96/97 restricted or unrestricted?
Response: According to state guidelines received by KCSOS, the income for this program is to be posted to income object code 8419, restricted.
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Question: I had heard that the unused class size reduction program money from 1996-97 that was earmarked for facilities (approx. $141 million) will not be directed to facilities after all. Any truth to that rumor?
Response: Until school districts and county offices receive the May revision to the governor's budget, we can depend on hearing all kinds of proposals for class size reduction dollars as well as plans to impact other funding sources. The Legislative Analyst's Office recently prepared a review of the proposed 1997-98 budget. Class size reduction is a major component of the report. Here is a section of the CSR component:
Analyst's Recommendation: We recommend the Legislature maintain the current CSR per-pupil funding level, adjusted annually only for the cost of living. For 1997-98, this is the same as proposed by the governor's budget, which provides $666 per pupil. Based on our data, a per-student amount of $666 for CSR adequately covers the statewide average costs of the program-if districts have the flexibility to keep class sizes at 20 students.
The budget contains at least a $300 million increase in district revenue limits. In our K-12 Priorities section above, we recommend that $149.7 million in additional funds be added to district revenue limits. Together, these discretionary funds would provide more than enough ongoing funding for the CSR program for virtually all districts. Districts with lower CSR costs could spend the funds for other purposes.
If new funds are added to districts' revenue limits rather than CSR, districts will continue to argue that CSR encroaches on their general funds. Despite that, the Legislature needs to send a signal to districts that they are responsible for prioritizing their revenues. Adding available funds to revenue limits instead of CSR would increase district responsibility for determining the local cost of CSR and prioritizing funds for that purpose.
Increasing per-pupil funds for CSR would free districts from having to prioritize these funds through the collective bargaining process, but class size reduction should be part of collective bargaining because it represents a workload reduction for K-3 teachers. Just as teacher contracts often compensate teachers when class sizes exceed a certain level, contracts could recognize the workload reduction and improvement in working conditions when classes are small.
You can review the entire article on the Internet at http://www.lao.ca.gov/class-size-297.html.
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Question: Does Gov. Code 53060 include architects as it relates to bidding exemptions? That is, can a school district employ an architect under this section?
Response: According to the FCMAT legal resource:
A 1955 court case, Cobb v. Pasadena City Board of Education 134 Cal App.2d 93, 285 P.2d 41, makes it clear that architects come within the scope of Government Code Section 53080. However, the hiring of an architect is subject to Government Code Section 4525 et seq., which do not require competitive bidding but do establish some other requirements.
Please review the code sections and contact your district legal counsel prior to hiring an architect.
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Question: What is the ed. code section that authorizes transfer of sick leave for certificated employees between districts?
Response: 44979. Any certificated employee of any school district who has been an employee of that district for a period of one school year or more, and who accepts a position requiring certification qualifications in another school district or community college district at any time during the second or any succeeding school year of his or her employment with the first school district, or who, within the school year succeeding the school year in which employment is terminated, signifies acceptance of his or her election or employment in a position requiring certification qualifications in another school district or community college district, shall have transferred with him or her to the second district the total amount of leave of absence for illness or injury to which he or she is entitled under Section 44978. The State Board of Education shall adopt rules and regulations prescribing the manner in which the first district shall certify to the second district the total amount of leave of absence for illness or injury to be transferred. No governing board shall adopt any policy or rule, written or unwritten, which requires any certificated employee transferring to its district to waive any part or all of the leave of absence which he or she may be entitled to have transferred in accordance with this section.
44980. Any certificated employee of any school district who accepts a position requiring certification qualifications in the office of any county superintendent of schools; or, or any certificated employee of any county superintendent of schools who accepts a position requiring certification qualifications in a school district or office of another county superintendent of schools; or, any person employed by the State Department of Education in a position requiring certification qualifications or an employee of the office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges who accepts a position requiring certification qualifications in any school district or office of any county superintendent of schools; or, any certificated employee of the Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing who accepts a position requiring certification qualifications in any school district or office of any county superintendent of schools; shall have transferred with him to the second position his accumulated leave of absence for illness or injury. The amount of such leave to be transferred shall be determined in the same manner as provided in Section 44979. All other provisions of Section 44979 shall also apply to the employees and employers described in this section.