This Business News article provides a listing of recent Texas Education Agency communications on financial management topics that were released prior to July 4, 2015.
The topics in this Business News article cover the following:
- Compressed tax rate adjustment
- Procurements from purchasing cooperatives
- eGrants and Expenditure Reporting (ER)
- Reporting bus accident information
- Instructional Materials Allotment
- New Compliance Requirements for Special Education Grants
- Fund Code 282 added for consolidated Title I, Part A schoolwide program funds
The recent communications include:
The deadline is September 1, 2015, to submit a written request for an adjustment to the compressed tax rate for school year 2015-2016 - On July 2, 2015, TEA released information on the process to request an adjustment of compressed tax rates (CTR) for school districts that had 2005 maintenance and operations (M&O) tax rates below the maximum allowed M&O tax rate of $1.50 per $100 of valuation. Adjustment of compressed tax rates (CTR) will increase the Foundation School Program state aid funding amount for some (but not all) school districts. The following must be in place to be eligible to take advantage of this provision in House Bill 7, 84th Legislative Session:
- The school district’s CTR, which can be found on line 16 of your district’s Summary of Finances (SOF), must be below $1.00.
- The school district’s current year M&O tax rate must be higher than your current CTR plus $0.06.
- For the 2015–2016 and 2016–2017 school years, the school district must request that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) make this adjustment.
For more information, click on the link below.
http://tea.texas.gov/interiorpage_wide.aspx?id=25769821838
Procurement guidance related to purchasing cooperatives - On July 2, 2015, TEA announced that the Division of Grants Administration will be adding a question and answer related to purchasing cooperatives in version 3 of the New EDGAR FAQ document to be released later this month. The TEA announcement stated,
“However, due to the frequency of this or similar questions being asked we are sharing this information by email.
Question:
Under the new EDGAR regulations, are LEAs allowed to purchase items from our existing purchasing cooperatives or must we follow the new regulations and make individual procurement decisions for each item that we would normally purchase from a purchasing cooperative?
Response: 2 CFR 200.318(e) encourages non-federal entities to enter into state and local intergovernmental agreements or inter-entity agreements where appropriate for procurement or use of common or shared goods and services in order to foster greater economy and efficiency. State and federal procurement rules must be followed by the purchasing cooperative the same as if the local LEA made the procurement. Once it has been verified that the purchasing cooperative has followed the most restrictive of the state or federal procurement rules (see question 53 for detail) the LEA may purchase goods and services from the purchasing cooperative directly without any additional procurement activities or documentation.”
To access the currently posted TEA EDGAR FAQ, click on the link below.
http://tea.texas.gov/Finance_and_Grants/Grants/Administering_a_Grant/The_New_EDGAR/
eGrants and Expenditure Reporting (ER) will be unavailable From Friday, July 3, 2015, until Monday, July 6, 2015 - On July 2, 2015, TEA announced that “the eGrants and Expenditure Reporting (ER) systems will be taken offline for upgrades at 10 a.m. on Friday, July 3. The systems are expected to reopen for use on Monday, July 6, at noon. eGrants and ER users who are working in those systems before 10 a.m. on Friday, July 3 should save changes regularly to avoid losing information. The Division of Grants Administration will send a message to subscribers when the systems become available on Monday, July 6.”
The deadline is August 31, 2015 to report information on bus accidents for school year 2014-2015 - On July 1, 2015, TEA announced the 2014-2015 Bus Accident Reporting System is open for reporting information on bus accidents during 2014-2015 for all school districts and open-enrollment charter schools.
The TEA announcement stated:
“This message is to notify you that, per statutory and rule requirements, your school district or open-enrollment charter school must report information on bus accidents that occurred during the 2014–2015 school year to the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Please forward this message to the person who is responsible for reporting bus accidents to the TEA for your school district or charter school if you are not the person responsible.
The TEA has created a web-based survey for you to use in reporting bus accident information. It will open July 1 and will close August 31. The survey, as well as a PDF that allows you to preview the survey questions, is available on the TEA Bus Accident Reporting System web page.
Every school district and open-enrollment charter school must use the survey to submit its own individual report by August 31. If no accidents meeting the reporting requirements occurred during the school year, your school district or charter school must submit a report showing zero as the number of bus accidents.
A note on what to report: If an incident involved a citation, your district or charter school must report the incident as an accident. For an incident that did not involve a citation, your district or charter school has discretion over whether to report the incident as an accident.
You can find more information on bus accident reporting requirements and on the survey on the TEA Bus Accident Reporting System web page. If you have questions, please contact Rob Caudill in the Office of School Finance at (512) 475-3925 or rob.caudill@tea.texas.gov”
Instructional Materials Allotment for fiscal years 2016 and 2017 - On June 30, 2015, TEA announced the 2016‒2017 instructional materials allotment (IMA) allocations for each district and open-enrollment charter school are now available at http://tea.texas.gov/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=25769805667.
For more information, click on the link below.
http://tea.texas.gov/interiorpage_wide.aspx?id=25769821809
New compliance requirements for special education grants for school year 2015-2016 – On June 29, 2015 TEA announced new compliance requirements for special education grants relating to advisory councils and travel costs.
The TEA announcement stated:
“On June 29, 2015, Errata #1 was posted for the 2015–2016 Special Education Consolidated Grant Application.
Page 24 of the Program Guidelines states that ‘Advisory Councils will require a written justification form. To access the advisory council justification form, refer to the Administering a Grant page.’ The errata deletes that requirement. Advisory councils do not require written justification.
Page 25 of the Program Guidelines states that “Travel Costs for Officials such as Executive Director, Superintendent, or Board Members will require a written justification form. To access the travel costs for officials such as executive director, superintendent, or board members justification form, refer to the Administering a Grant page.” A written justification form is not required, because travel costs for officials are not allowed under the grant.
For details, refer to the full errata notice posted on the TEA Grant Opportunities page. (Select the grant from the Application Name dropdown menu, then scroll down to the Application and Support Information section to see all errata notices and other documents posted for the grant.)”
For more information, click on the link below.
http://burleson.tea.state.tx.us/GrantOpportunities/forms/GrantProgramSearch.aspx
Financial accounting Fund Code 282 added for Title I, Part A schoolwide programs for school year 2015-2016 – On June 25, 2015, TEA announced that fund code 282 has been added to record expenditures related to Title I, Part A schoolwide program that are consolidated into a pool of funds. Fund code 282 will be useful to identify schoolwide program expenditures from schoolwide consolidated funds to make those expenditures easy to identify in an LEA’s general ledger, which can help ensure that auditors and monitors apply the flexibility provided under schoolwide program consolidation guidelines to those expenditures. The TEA announcement also stated, “Fund code 282 must not be used to report data in the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS).”
For more information, click on the link below.
http://tea.texas.gov/interiorpage_wide.aspx?id=25769821715