EDUCATIONAL
SERVICES ASSOCIATION (CCSESA)
Airport
Hotel, Sacramento
1. Call
to Order
The meeting
was called to order by BASC Chair, Stan Mantooth, at 9:00 A.M.
Members/Representatives present:
Stan Mantooth Ventura
County
Jan Sterling CDE
Duane Benedict Kings
County
Barbara Dillmann, CCSESA
Superintendent Liaison Siskiyou
County
Wendy Margarita Orange
County
Bob Vedo San
Bernardino
Mike
Ottmar Monterey
County
Cathy Grovenburg Santa
Clara County
Bill Marshall Riverside
County
Don Carlsen Butte
County
Gary Pickavet Santa
Barbara County
Gene Sies Lassen
County
Kimberly Dennis Yolo
County
Carlene Naylor Yolo
County
Dennis Welsh Los
Angeles County
Ken Prosser, SFSS Chair Ventura
County
Barney Finlay Santa
Cruz County
Paul Fettig Napa
County
Additional
CDE Staff Present:
Gaye
Smoot
Gerry
Shelton
2.
Additions to the Agenda:
3.
Approval of Minutes
The Minutes from the February 9, 2001 Meeting were approved by consensus. It was noted that in the future, all Minutes will be e-mailed and posted to the BASC website, and no longer provided in hard copy form.
4. Website Update
Stan distributed
a printed copy of the BASC webpage and encouraged everyone to utilize this
tool. There was also a request to link
CDE’s School Financial Services Division and related hot topics to the webpage.
5. BASC Organizational Chart
Stan distributed a copy of the BASC Organizational Chart which has been posted to the webpage.
6.
Revised BASC/COFS/SFSS Mission, Structure and Function
Statements
Stan distributed copies of the BASC/COFS/SFSS Mission, Structure and Function Statements which will be posted in appropriate places on the BASC webpage. Stan thanked Joan Kingery, COFS Chair; Ken Prosser, SFSS Chair; and Carlene Naylor, Past BASC Chair, for their work on these documents and offered the group an opportunity to provide suggestions or changes to him by May 1, 2001.
7.
Joint BASC/PASSCo Meeting
8.
Charter Schools Committees:
a. Charter/Special Education Committee
Update -
Jan Sterling provided a brief update.
The Committee is working hard on staying on track. Jan is still trying to keep the group focused
on what can happen administratively versus what needs legislative changes. A subcommittee is working on this. Next meeting is May 15th at 1:00
P.M.
b. State Board of
Education - Jan Sterling provided a
brief update. Greg Geeting is working
on draft guidelines for the State Board for reviewing and approving locally
denied charters. Jan will bring an
update on this to the next meeting.
Deborah Connelly has been hired by CDE to oversee State Board approved
charters (Oakland and Ridgecrest).
c. Charter Schools Reporting - Caryn Becker
addressed the group regarding charter school financial reporting options. A draft proposal was shared. Four report
options are suggested for charters to choose from: SACS EZ (limited object codes with no resource or goals
reported), SACS Lite (some function fields), SACS (fully compliant with SACS),
J200 (to be used until J200 phase out).
A draft SACS EZ form has been developed and is included in the draft
proposal.
The charter
community appears to be comfortable at this time with the options presented.
Questions/Suggestions:
-
Reporting of charter loans and how they should be incorporated.
- Software for
charter – may be separate spreadsheet or part of overall software –
not known yet.
- Special Education
Reporting – not incorporated in the form.
CDE will look at this.
Jan will get legal research done on charters requirement to spend state special education dollars on special education.
d. AB 1200 – This item was covered under #16 – Update on New CCSESA Task Forces.
e. Proposition 39 - Stan Mantooth has been attending these
committee meetings on behalf of BASC.
The DRAFT regulations are posted on CDE website. CDE, School Financial Services website –
click on “What’s New?” CASH and LAUSD
are representing districts on this committee.
9.
Audit Update
The following documents were shared by
committee member Carlene Naylor:
- Monthly report by School Services of California
regarding their audit clearinghouse activities.
- URGENT CALL TO ACTION – to write letters requesting the legislature to reject the proposed $3 million in the State budget for attendance accounting audits. There is a revision to the letter sent by e-mail. Dick Hamilton (Ed. Legal Alliance) also had some changes. It was requested that BASC Region Representatives take this information back and ask their respective Districts and County Offices in their Region to send this letter to their appropriate legislators.
- Education Audit Appeals Panel – DRAFT regulations shared. Jim Thomas will request that the regulations go through a formal public hearing process.
- CDE letter regarding Education Code 41609 waiver requests (minor and inadvertent).
- Community School Enrollment Requirements/CDE clarifying letter regarding the ability of the court to delegate authority to the County Probation Department to serve as a representative for community school placements.
10. FCMAT Update
No report.
11. CDE Report
Legislative
Update - Gerry Shelton provided a summary of pending legislation proposed
by CDE (School Fiscal Services Division):
v
AB 804 - Change suggested relative to the calculation of the State
match relative to deferred maintenance.
The current calculation requires use of current and prior year ADA. Timing issues make calculation difficult so
CDE has proposed that current year ADA not be used. AB 804 was amended on 3/27 – struck the proposed language.
v
AB 1132 - (Charter Funding Technical) – (a) PERS and unemployment
add on. Districts with block grant
funded charter schools should exclude PERS for the charter and unemployment for
the charter. (b) Supplemental
instruction clean up – requires minimum number of hours in school day before
after school hours can be claimed.
v
SB 675 – (Charter Audits) - Adding a due date of December 15th
and clarifying that both CDE and the chartering agency should get a copy of the
audit.
v
AB 1102 - (Fiscal
Oversight) - Clarifies CDE’s role relative to County Board budget issues
(Education Code Section 42120). For
example: If the County Board willfully
neglects to act on budget issues, CDE can take measures. Education Code Section 3540.2 relative to
COE disclosure of collective bargaining agreements.
Attendance
Accounting for online classes – A DRAFT memo to the field was shared. Online course work can be done through
independent study or classroom setting under the immediate supervision and
control of an employee of the district or county office. Considerable discussion ensued about the
definition of immediate supervision and control of an employee. This issue remains unresolved relative to
distance learning applications.
Instructional
Materials Audit Finding in 1999-2000 - A significant number of districts
representing $16 million had an audit finding relative to the public hearing
that sufficient materials were available.
(Findings ranged from no hearing, hearing was done late, ten-day public
notice may not have been done, etc.)
The State Board is not currently approving waivers. One district applied to the SPI for “Minor
and inadvertent non-compliance waiver.” CDE determined that, under Education
Code Section 41609, their authority for this type of waiver only extended to
attendance accounting issues.
Legislation has been proposed to provide for waivers in this area. CDE is very supportive of this.
CDE is working
on audit findings relative to probation referrals and community school
enrollment requirements. CDE has determined
that a student is required to be assigned to a probation officer. However, there is no requirement beyond that
(e.g., meet regularly, etc). CDE will
be communicating this to the SCO and will share this with BASC when complete.
API Discussion:
- Amended FTE for API
awards. Some districts/COEs wish to
file amended FTE reports. The timing of
certification and disbursement of funds make this difficult.
- School Services has
advised that statutory benefits CANNOT be deducted from the API
payments. Most County Offices present
advised districts to follow this advice.
- County
Office employees in FTE calculation. If the district claimed the FTE, the
district will transfer amounts to the COE; COE then pays the employee.
12. Principal Apportionment System Rewrite (PASR)
Update
Gerry Shelton
discussed the status of the project to date.
It is progressing, but not as quickly or smoothly as expected. CDE is working diligently with the
contractor to keep to timelines and specifications. Still to be determined is whether parallel systems will be run
when the PASR becomes operational. Data
collection software is anticipated to be live in 2001-2002. Full operation in 2002-2003 is the hope. The
working group for PASR (34 people)
appears to provide sufficient representation from all constituencies.
13. Suggestions for CDE Charter Schools
Website
Gaye Smoot
shared a copy of the CDE Charter School website with the group. () The site contains a wealth of information regarding charters. A suggestion was made to also include
information about revoking a charter.
Additional links to other charter work in progress was also suggested.
14. County Office CBO Conference
Kimberly Dennis,
Past COFS Chair, shared feedback from the conference with the group. There were very good responses on the
conference; and BASC thanked Kimberly for a job very well done.
15. County Treasurer’s Investment of School
Funds
Stan distributed
a copy of the Whitmore versus County of Shasta court decision relative to
school district approval of County Treasurer’s investments. After discussion, the group reached
consensus on a “wait and see” approach to this issue.
16. Update on New CCSESA Task Forces:
a. Energy
Task Force
Kimberly Dennis and
Alan Mapalo from Yolo County attended a strategy meeting held on April 10th
with CDE, CASH, and CASBO representatives regarding the energy crisis. Several strategies were suggested, including
the designation of schools as essential public services and exempting them from
outages, deferring power outages until evening hours, conservation efforts,
advance notice of outages for schools, and a possible revamping of the rate
structure for schools. Discussion also
ensued regarding the effects of the PG&E bankruptcy; with specific concern
as to PG&E not paying taxes to counties. Many counties will not have taxes
paid. If counties are on “Teeter” plan,
district taxes not affected. Will
affect J29 reporting of taxes in 2001-2002 for districts. Lower taxes, increased State aid. Could affect State funding in 2001-2002.
b. Business
Partnerships Task Force
The Business Partnerships Task Force has been established under Wendall Kuykendall, Superintendent from Solano County. The proposed Partnership Task Force would include two BASC members. Stan also shared with the group a qualifications and experience template which could be used as a screening device to qualify potential CCSESA business partners, which he will present to the Task Force on Monday, April 16, 2001.
c. Charter Schools Task Force
This Task Force is chaired by Terry McAteer, Superintendent from Nevada County. A meeting of this group is scheduled for April 20, 2001 at the Sacramento COE. This committee will be looking at AB 1200 issues relative to charter schools as well as other charter issues. Francie Heim is BASC representative on this committee. Barney Finlay also volunteered to attend and assist in this effort.
17. SFSS Committee Report
Ken Prosser provided an overview and shared the minutes from the most recent SFSS Committee Meeting.
Items of note:
- The electronic claims processing project from
CDE and State Controller has been discontinued.
- Report module for SACS 2001-2002 that will allow
additional data manipulation (to replace other reports).
- As of April 9th, the Audit Guide still stuck at State Controller’s office and had not been issued to the field.
18. COFS Committee Report
Joan Kingery reported on the most recent COFS Meeting.
Items of note:
- COFS Mission/Structure document is complete.
- Audit call to action done and e-mail sent out to get letters sent.
- MAA dollars are coming out. Suggestion is to set aside 50% for potential audit/disallowment. (If you have transportation claims, then you may wish to set aside more.)
- Contracts with CompuWare – Be advised there are alleged Federal violations relative to their contract; and this may affect E-rate reimbursements.
19. COE Funding Subcommittee Update
Damon Smith will
be sending out a draft in the next few weeks to describe what an appropriate
model might look like and solicit feedback.
If money were to be available immediately, what would we suggest as a
mechanism for distribution? Old formula
suggested $26 million and a portion was “funded”, but a recalculation of the
old formula would indicate the price tag is still around $26 million. Mike
Dillon is still working to have COEs included in some fashion for
“equalization” dollars. Legislative
Committee is reviewing this item also.
20. CCSESA Legislative Committee Update
Michael Ottmar
provided an update on Legislative Committee activities and asked for direction
on three pieces of proposed legislation:
- AB 885 – Online Instruction. The group was generally supportive, but had reservations about what this could mean for Charter Schools.
- AB 1102 – Fiscal
Accountability Issues. There was no
opposition from the group on this Bill.
- AB 1447 - Facility Issues. This would provide more flexibility in
requirements regarding leased commercial facilities.
Stan also shared a copy of a letter written by the Ventura County Superintendent to Senator Jack O’Connell requesting support for additional funding for County Offices of Education regarding AB 1200 oversight activities.
21. Technology Committee Report
Duane Benedict
distributed copies of the most recent BASC Technology Committee Report.
Items of Note:
· Van Wilkinson
has left CDE to work on the CSIS project.
· DCP project
awards and installation are moving forward.
· New technology
dollars are not expected next year.
22. Inservice Training via Satellite
Broadcast
Barney Finlay
indicated an interest in the Academy for Business Career Development (ABCD)
provided by LACOE and whether this material could be broadcast via satellite or
shared in some other fashion throughout the State. He indicated there is a high need to have this kind of training
exported for inservice training of Business Office staff. Barney and Dennis Welsh from LACOE
volunteered to look into this possibility.
This item will be agendized for discussion at a future BASC Meeting.
23. Menu of Services Committee Report
Carlene Naylor shared minutes from the most recent Menu of Services Committee Meeting and a memorandum from Vicki Barber regarding the MOS Emerging Issues site, and encouraged everyone to provide additions to the Emerging Issues site.
24. Home Schooling
Carlene Naylor shared a letter from CDE with a legal opinion relative to home schooling. Discussion ensued. The bottom line is that parents who desire to home school can file a Private School Affidavit. That doesn’t make them legal, but there is no requirement for anyone (district or COE) to verify that the Private School requirements have been met.
25. Forest Reserve Funds
Gene Sies from Lassen County was soliciting input on how Forest Reserve Funds are distributed. It was noted that the Education Code speaks to holding the funds for one year. Lassen County is interested in formulas that other COEs are currently using.
26. Direct Service Districts (Services and
Charges)
Gene Sies
initiated a discussion regarding Education Code references that define direct
service requirements. It was also noted
that direct service districts often believe that the scope of these services
may be greater than the specific code requirements provided for.
27. API Awards
(See agenda item #11, CDE
Report, for specifics.)