Trenton Public School District

NEW JERSEY
QUALITY SINGLE ACCOUNTABILITY CONTINUUM
2008-2009

FISCAL MANAGEMENT
 

 A. BUDGET PLANNING

The district budget planning and preparation process is comprehensive, integrated with the instructional priorities of the district and focused on curricular improvements, student achievement, and professional development.

           
INDICATORS RESPONSE/EVIDENCE

1.       The district’s budgeting process and its allocation of resources are aligned with the district’s instructional priorities and student needs. 
a.  The district has developed written policies and procedures for the budget and financial planning process that ensures the process is integrated and aligned with district priorities and planning objectives based on statewide assessments and applicable strategic plans (such as school improvement plans, curriculum plans, a text-book replacement plan, a long-range facilities plan and maintenance plans).
 b. The district follows a budget calendar that is developed and shared with the board annually and reflects all applicable legal and management requirements.
c.  The district annually aligns fiscal goals   and budget objectives to ensure that instructional resources are sufficient to address the needs of students, develop curriculum, and ensure professional development for all staff. 
d. The district sets budget objectives and allocates sufficient resources to address the priority problems that have been identified as impacting student subgroup performance as measured under NCLB

 

2.    The adopted and certified budget is supported by detailed documentation:
a. The budget objectives and budgeted costs address the priority problems that have been identified as impacting student subgroup performance as measured under the federal NCLB.
b.  The budget objectives and budgeted costs address CAPA reports, special education and other programmatic reports, and assessed needs, as applicable.
c. A position control roster or similar document ensures accurate payroll estimates and projections.
d.The tuition estimate is based on an analysis of prior year expenditures and the current year schedule of out of district placements from existing contracts or there are no out-of-district placements.
e. Health, property, casualty, and auto insurance projections are based on written vendor projections.
f.Appropriations for capital projects based on the district’s Long Range Facilities Plan (LRFP).
g. Other appropriation lines are supported by a trend analysis of historical expenditures.

 

3. The district ‘s budget does not  include line-item transfers or appropriations of surplus for new programs and initiatives not contained in the original budget certified for taxes (excluding transfers for health and safety related items and awards of additional state aid or grants for new purposes.)

  

B.  FINANCIAL AND BUDGETARY CONTROL

The district has sufficient financial and budgetary controls to ensure fiscal integrity and accurate financial reporting.

INDICATORS

 RESPONSE/EVIDENCE
1.   The monthly Board Secretary’s report is completed with no problems and exceptions (e.g. unbalanced/inaccurate balance sheet, unauthorized transfers):
a.  The report is completed within 30 days of the month’s end.
b. The report contains a budget status report which includes for each required line item account the original budget, transfers, adjusted budget, expenditures, encumbrances and available balance. The budget status report contains an up-to-date posting of all POs and cash receipts, a monthly review of open POs for liquidation; reconciliation to payroll and all subsidy ledgers; and transfer approvals received as required. There are no line-item over-expenditures.

 
2.The monthly Board Secretary’s and Treasurer’s reports are reconciled within 45 days of the month’s end.  
3.  The district has established formal accounting policies and procedures, in the following areas:
a. Purchasing, including the acquisition process, preparation of POs and approval of all claims
b. Supervision and handling of cash and other district funds, including safeguards and procedures for petty cash funds (N.J.S.A. 18A:19-13 and N.J.A.C. 6A:23-2.9).
c.  Restricted access to personnel, payroll and other confidential data.
 d.  Work order system that tracks all maintenance requests, the worker assigned, date of completion, labor time spent, and the cost of materials.
e.  Fixed assets, including periodic physical inventory assessments, and plans for disposal of assets.
f.   Establishment and fiscal oversight of student activity funds. (N.J.A.C. 6A:23-.2.14(c))		  
4.    The district is implementing a system of internal controls to prevent the over-expenditure of line item accounts and to safeguard assets from theft and fraud.  This system includes:
a.  At minimum, a semi-monthly review of the budget status report (budget to actual) to ensure that sufficient appropriations are available.
b  The maintenance of a position control roster or similar document to ensure accurate payroll.
c.    A requirement that transfers made prior to obligation of funds (to prevent line-item over-expenditure) and only for items permitted by law and regulation.  
d. An adequate separation of duties: the purchasing agent is not responsible for accounts payable; the treasurer independently performs bank reconciliations; check signatories are not responsible for check preparation.
e.         Purchase orders are approved only by the purchasing agent and are issued in advance of goods received or services rendered and encumbered for the full contractual amount.  There are no confirming orders.
f.  Purchase orders delineate the vendor, the item or items, the quantity and the price.  There are no blanket POs.
g. The budgetary and financial software ensures that encumbrances are placed prior to the release of POs and prevents recording of a PO if the line-item account is insufficient.
h.  All check-signing devices are kept in a secured location and only used by authorized personnel.
i.  All checks are kept in a locked storage area.
j.  Manual checks represent less than one percent of the checks issued on an annual basis.  (Interfund payments are excluded from this requirement.)
k.         All cash receipts are accounted for, physically safeguarded, deposited in a timely manner, and properly recorded.
l.  All fixed assets are tagged, logged and inventoried, and the disposal of any equipment is approved by purchasing agent and board of education.                                             


 
5.  The district adheres to the state public school contracts law for purchasing:
a.The district aggregates goods and services and uses formal quotes and sealed bids for all purchases that are in excess of established bid thresholds.
b.The district uses authorized state contracts when they are in the best interest of district.
c..The district uses emergency contracts only as authorized. (N.J.S.A.18A:18A-7)
d.The district’s POs are consistent with the signed contracts from vendors providing goods and services.		  
6. In order to prevent duplicate or improper payments, the district approves payments and claims only after the submission of approved vouchers that include original invoices, receiving reports (such as bills of lading, packing slips, etc.), and vendor affidavits. (N.J.S.A. 18A:19-3)  

7.  At least monthly, the district prepares and analyzes fiscal year cash flow projections for all funds to ensure that payments can be made on a prompt basis and to maximize investment opportunities.

  
8.  Required data and financial reports are submitted to DOE in a timely manner by required submission dates:
a.  ASSA
b.  DRTRS
c.  AUDSUM
d. Budget Statement (including user-friendly budget and administrator salary spreadsheet)
e. Debt service data collection
f.  School Register

 

 C. ANNUAL AUDIT

The annual audit of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report(CAFR) indicates that the district is fiscally stable

INDICATORS

RESPONSE/EVIDENCE
1.      The district has filed the annual audit of its CAFR and filed other supporting forms and collections (AMR, Federal Data Collection Form) by the due date. (N.J.S.A. 18A:23-1)

 
2.  The district receives an unqualified opinion on the annual audit and satisfies all of the following:
A.  If required, the district has implemented a corrective action plan acceptable to the county superintendent which addresses all audit recommendations.  The district has submitted the Certificate of Implementation of the CAP by June 30th.
b. The district has no repeat audit findings of a substantive nature.
c. The district has no material weaknesses in the findings.
d. The district ends the year with no deficit balances in the general fund, the special revenue fund, the capital projects fund or the debt service fund.		  

3.  The district ends the year with no line-item over-expenditures.

 

  D. RESTRICTED REVENUES

The district has sufficient and required accountability over restricted revenues, such as federal and state grants, bonds, etc.

INDICATORS

RESPONSE/EVIDENCE

1.  The district manages and oversees NCLB, IDEA, and other entitlement and discretionary grants as required:
a. The district complies with demonstration of comparability, maintenance of effort and other federal grant fiscal requirements.
b.Grant funds are spent as budgeted.  Amendments and budget modifications are completed for changes that exceed the applicable threshold (entitlement grants – lesser of 10% or $50,000; discretionary grants – lesser of 10% or $10,000).
c.   The district spends federal and state grants funds as required and distributes non-public allocations as required.  The district does not return federal and state grants or nonpublic allocations to DOE (except for non-public allocations for schools no longer in operation).
If the district has returned funds in excess of $1000 to DOE:  On a separate sheet of paper, list the name of the grant and dollar amount refunded.  If the returned funds were for nonpublic school services, specify the date the services began and the reason the funds were not spent.
d.   At least 85 percent of the NCLB and IDEA grant funds are expended in year one.
* For Title I, a waiver to carry over more than 15% has not been requested within the last three years.
* For Title IV, a waiver to carry over more than 25% has not been requested this year.

  

2.  The district submits its applications for NCLB, IDEA, Perkins and Evening School for the Foreign Born (EFB) in a timely manner:
 a.The district submits its NCLB consolidated application and applications for IDEA, Perkins and Evening School for the Foreign Born (EFB) by the due dates.
b.The district submits its revision requests for NCLB, IDEA, Perkins and Evening School for the Foreign Born (EFB) in a timely manner.
c.       The district submits its entitlement final reports, carryover applications (if applicable) and closeout reports by the due dates.

  
3.  The district follows proper accounting procedures for restricted federal grants and restricted state grants and aid, including ECPA and DEPA, consistent with Edgar and OMB Circular A-87, including:
a.  The district accounts separately, by grant and location as required (DEPA, Title 1, etc.), and/or consolidates accounts for approved school-wide programs as allowed in accordance with the approved budget.
b.  If applicable, the district has submitted an acceptable corrective action plan that has addressed all findings from Office of Compliance Investigations monitoring.
c.The district expends federal funds consistent with the allowable in OMB Circular A-87.
d.  If applicable, the district expends federal funds consistent with its approved indirect cost rate.
e. The salaries funded by federal grants are approved by the board as documented in the board minutes.
f.  The district maintains the required time and activity reports.		  

3.       The district  provides proper oversight and   accounting by capital project of Bond  Referendum and other Fund 30 capital projects, including:
a. The district maintains separate accounting by project.
b.The district regularly monitors detailed accounts and oversees change orders (e.g. voter approval if a bond referendum) to ensure/certify funds are available.
c.The district spends within the authorized amount, unless proper approvals have been received to raise additional funds to augment the authorized amount.
d.The district conducts the proper fiscal close-out of completed projects.

  
4. d.The district conducts the proper fiscal close-out of completed projects. This includes proper transfer of interest earned annually to the debt service and/or general fund.  

 E. EFFICIENCY

The district participates in programs and implements operating measures to promote the efficient expenditure of funds.

INDICATORS

RESPONSE/EVIDENCE
1.  The district participates in a minimum of four of the following programs:
a.  Federal E-rate program
 b. Alliance for Competitive Energy Services (ACES), or documented rate better than ACES
c. Alliance for Competitive Telecommunications (ACT), or documented rate better than ACT
d. Transportation Jointure
e. Shared services arrangements with other districts or municipalities for items such as snow removal, ground maintenance, administrative positions, etc.
f. Cooperative/joint purchasing arrangements with other districts or municipalities for goods and services other than those listed above, such as supplies.
g.Sending/receiving relationships with neighboring districts to provide educational programs to individual students with special needs.
h. Other: 		 
2.  The district operations include four or more of the following circumstances:
 a.  Every general (K-12) instruction classes has 15 or more students.
b. Overtime for any given function represents less than 10% of actual expenditures on base salaries of that function.
c.The child nutrition program operates without a general fund transfer or subsidy.
d.District is at or below the median spending for administration as reported (actuals) in the most recent Comparative Spending Guide.
e. Prior to each renewal, the district receives alternative quotes for health plan for maximum savings, including a demonstration of savings greater than participation in f. a Joint Insurance Fund or NJ Health Plan
The district receives alternative quotes prior to any annual award of a contract for professional services.
g. The district offers distance learning, virtual classrooms, and/or allows students to share educational services with other educational entities where more efficient.
h. Other:

 

3.  The district participates in the Special Education Medicaid Initiative (SEMI) or the Medicaid Administrative Claiming Program.

  
4.  The district has reduced the number of out-of-district segregated placements by developing appropriate in-district programs and services or there are no out-of-district placements.  
5.     The district does not incur extra charges or fees for late payments or other operational actions.