2023-2024 Projected School Finance Act Funding: The 2023-2024 Proposed Budget Charter transfer will use the following revenue projections based on the draft school finance bill SB23-287 :
Per Pupil Revenue (adjusted): $9,970
Online PPR: $9,554
Mill Levy override per pupil: 1,174
At-Risk: $1,197
ELL: $798
2021-2022 School Finance Act Funding: The Supplemental Bill HB22-1186 was passed. Funding changes will be reflected in the March charter transfer:
Per Pupil Revenue (adjusted): $8546.56
Online PPR: $8,195.22
PPR at-risk: $1,026.04
ELL factor: $684.02
The one time at risk funding passed with HB22-1186 will be distributed once received. I do not have a projection of the amount yet and will share that information as soon as possible.
Mid-Year SPED projection
The Mid-Year SPED projection is complete with a forecasted reduction from $525 to $492 for SPED costs for 21-22 school year. This represents a $33.00 decrease. Colleen Doan Director of Budget will attend the April Charter DLT meeting and provide information on programming and staffing changes contributing to the reduction.
As in years past we will allow you to elect to reduce SPED cost in your purchased service for the remainder of the year to $500/FPC. Please notify me if you would like to adjust before March 20th. A final calculation based on actual expenses will be completed and reflected in the Final True-up in September and incorporated in the 22-23 Charter Transfer.
2022-2023 Projected School Finance Act Funding: The 2022-2023 Proposed Budget Charter transfer will use the following revenue projections:
Per Pupil Revenue (adjusted): $8984
Online PPR: $8615
Mill Levy override per pupil: 1209
Reminders about the 2021-2022 School Finance: Welcome back to School, there are a few School Finance Act changes from the spring we'd like you to be aware of for the new school year. The 2021-2022 School Finance Act expanded At-risk funding to include both Free and Reduced lunch students. English Language Learners will be included at a .08 weight. The budget stabilization factor is $571M for 21-22 SY a reduction from $1.13B for 20-21 SY. The rescission was removed from the funding formula for the 21-22 SY. These changes have all been taken into consideration for the Per Pupil Revenue included within your charter monthly transfer. Any adjustments for actual at-risk counts will be factored into your funding after October Count.
Updates on 2020-2021 School Finance Act Funding: As we navigate the financial landscape of these uncertain times due to the COVID-19 crisis, we are planning on a lowered Per Pupil Revenue. In February we communicated a projected 2020-2021 Per Pupil Revenue for DCSD of $8,431. This is no longer a reality and we are now looking at most likely flat funding for next year (Per Pupil Revenue for DCSD remains at $8,208). As we evaluate the economic state and as this crisis continues the funding may decrease further which is a cut from current year funding. For more information on the revenue projection please review the presentation to the Board of Education on Tuesday, April 7th. As of today, the Board of Education has not made a decision to delay the May 12th Proposed Budget presentation which is why the due dates for charter school proposed budgets have not changed. Business Services staff will communicate to charter schools if there are any changes. The next update to the Board of Education on the financial state and projected revenue will be on April 21st.
Updated Projection for 2019-2020 Special Education Purchased Service Amount: The Budget Office updated the Special Education purchased service forecast and we are currently projecting $445 per funded pupil count for the current year. This is a slight decrease from the estimated $450 per funded pupil count provided to charter schools in the early fall. Please note that as there are still four months remaining in the fiscal year this is subject to change. Building from this information, we will provide the 2020-2021 Special Education purchased service amount for next year's purchased service agreement in time for the District Leadership Team meeting on Thursday, March 5th when it will be added into the purchased service agreement. Colleen Doan will be available at DLT if any charter leader would like to discuss either the 19-20 updated projection or 20-21 budgeted rate for the Special Education purchased service.
Please take note of a few items we on we are passing along from CDE:
Financial Transparency: The July 1, 2019 charter school template is linked here.
1. The School home page must show the financial transparency icon, or show the words “Financial Transparency” as the link to the financial transparency webpage. Do not bury the link.
2. The financial transparency webpage needs to follow the Financial Policies and Procedures (FPP) approved template as closely as possible. Visually the webpage should look as close to the template as possible.
a. Present all bulleted links in the order they are shown
b. Each bulleted item (link) should access the required documents: current year, and previous two years
i. Do not list each required document under the bulleted item – the bulleted item needs to be a link to the required documents
c. Every bulleted item must be shown, and if the item does not apply to the district or charter, indicate “N/A”
i. List of Waivers Received by the Charter School
ii. Standardized Description and Rational for Each Automatic Waiver
iii. Federal Form 990, 990-EZ or 990-PF and any associated schedules
3. Disclaimers and Charter Informational Summaries are optional
4. Please ensure the charter school’s primary business official is listed, with an email address and phone number
5. Please ensure there is a link to the Colorado Department Of Education’s School Finance Division
6. Please ensure all links are live/up to date, and take webpage users to the required documents
Job class codes: CDE has updated/removed a few Job Class Codes on the CDE Chart of Accounts, you can review the summary of changes here.
READ: READ act will have a new grant code of 3259 for the current fiscal year. The old grant code (3206) will continue to be used to track the spend of READ act funds from prior years; however, all new money will use grant code 3259 for both revenue and expense. Refer to CDE's website for additional information.
True-Up on Full Day Kindergarten FF&E Grant: The true-up of FDK FF&E grant for charter schools is still on hold. The CDE is actively reviewing October Count data, but has encountered some complications preventing them from finishing the recalculation by the previously committed timeline. We apologize for the delay and will update charter schools as soon as we receive the updated information from the CDE.
School Finance Legislative Updates: HB20-1260 School Finance Adjustment to 2019-2020 Total Program passed on February 13th. This finalizes the Total Program formula for the current fiscal year.
The CDE hasn't updated the District Funding Calculation Worksheet this month and Business Services staff will review the soon to be updated worksheet before the March charter pass through and communicate to charters if there are any changes. The School Finance Act for 2020-2021 has not been introduced in the legislature yet, but DCSD is currently planning on $8,431 Per Pupil Revenue according to the preliminary number runs from CDE. We will communicate updates to the 2020-2021 revenue forecast and other legislation with a financial impact to charter schools next month.
True-Up on Full Day Kindergarten FF&E Grant: CDE has not yet completed the recalculation of the FDK FF&E Grant based on actual kinder funded pupil count from October Student Count. They hope to complete the update before the end of the month, but it may take until the first week of February. If CDE is unable to complete the recalculation before the January charter pass through deadline then charter schools will receive their updated FDK FF&E grant allocation in the February charter pass through. As a reminder, charter schools with FDK programs received 50% of the estimated grant allocation based on projected kinder funded pupil count in August. The remaining allocation will not equal the amount received in August depending on the variance in kinder funded pupil count between projections and October Count. The January charter pass through will include the update for 2019-2020 ELL Count as noted in the at-risk funding calculation.
2020-2021 Governor's Budget Request and 2019-2020 Student Count True Up: Last month the Governor released his budget request for 2020-2021. Please note the Governor requests the budget, the budget is set by the Legislature. There is still the opportunity for many changes to the budget between now and the end of the legislative session in May. The budget request includes a 2.4% increase to Total Program with a statewide buy-down of the Budget Stabilization Factor of $52M. For Douglas County School District, this would result in a Per Pupil Revenue increase of $206 which is one of the smallest increases in years. More information will be shared through the Business Office Bulletin as legislation is introduced and CDE calculates the financial impact to DCSD revenue.
The 2019-2020 Student Count was finalized in late November. We will share enrollment, FTE and FPC with charter schools early next next week in order to assist schools with preparation of their Revised Budgets. The December charter transfer will be updated to account for the official student count data. As a reminder, the charter school revised budgets are due December 15th.
Language Translation Suppliers: As you may know, DCSD neighborhood schools contract with Argo Interpretation and Language Nexus to communicate with families in a language they can understand. As charter schools, and per the charter purchase service agreement, it is your school's responsibility to determine how you will communicate with families in a language they can understand. Through the RFP process, we chose Argo Interpretation for written translation and telephonic interpretation for the following reasons: their agreement is at will, the charges are mid range and affordable, the number of languages is expansive, and they do not have a minimum charge per month (this was a major consideration). We use Language Nexus for face to face, planned / scheduled parent meetings that would benefit from a face to face person. When determining interpretation and translation vendors, charters must contact and negotiate with vendors directly. Language Nexus has already worked directly with a number of charter schools, and Argo will simply assign an access number to your school and bill your school directly. Please contact the vendors directly for more information. If you would like to connect about options for your school, please contact Remy Rummel (Remy.Rummel@dcsdk12.org ). She will be happy to help!
READ Act Funding added to September Monthly Transfer: The September Charter Monthly Transfer will include as a direct pass through to eligible charter schools the READ Act funds for students with a Significant Reading Deficiency (SRD). The READ Act funding is approximately 22% less this year than it was last year. This is due to the new law passed by the legislature last spring (SB19-199) to redesign READ Act and set aside funding for the Colorado Department of Education to implement changes to the early literacy program.
Uniform Budget Summary Required on Charter Schools' Financial Transparency Sites: The 2019-2020 Uniform Budget Summary is required to be posted on each individual charter school's financial transparency website within 60 days of budget adoption. Please mark it as ready for review in the new Charter Tools program implemented this year. Please see the CDE website HERE if you are in need of the template or require additional information.
Budget Reporting Deadline Reminders and 2019-2020 Per Pupil Revenue: Please note that the 2018-2019 Final Revised Budget is due in Excel from all charter schools on Monday, May 20th and the 2019-2020 Adopted Budget is due in Excel from all charter schools on Friday, May 24th. If your school did not elect to amend the budget after the Revised Budget in December 2018 then please submit the data from your Revised Budget using the Final Revised Budget template. The 2019-2020 DCSD Proposed Budget was presented to the Board of Education on Tuesday, May 14th. The Proposed Budget included a Per Pupil Revenue of $8,195 used in the calculation for the charter transfer. This is an increase from the $8,168 PPR estimate provided in the April 12th issue of the Business Office Bulletin due to the buy-down of the statewide Budget Stabilization Factor increasing from $77M to $100M. The full 2019-2020 DCSD Proposed Budget is available to view HERE if you would like more information on district revenue. Please remember that charter schools are funded on the adjusted PPR in the actual transfer in order to fund actual at-risk separately. The adjusted PPR will vary slightly from the PPR used in the Adopted Budget.
Full Day Kindergarten Funding: Now that the free Full Day Kindergarten legislation has passed (see text of HB19-1262), the charter pass through file will need to be updated to differentiate kindergarten students between full time and part time. As the state will only fund kindergarten students registered as full day with full funding (1.0), we still need to document which students are half day because they will continue to receive half day funding with the kindergarten supplemental factor (0.58). Even if schools only offer full day classrooms and staff only full day teachers, if a student only attends for half day and has a modified schedule to reflect half day, then that student will be funded for half day. In order to capture the accurate kindergarten funding in time for the 2019-2020 Adopted Budget, please enter your school's projected number of half day and full day kindergarten students for 2019-2020 in this Google spreadsheet by Thursday, May 16th. Thank you for your assistance!
Charter MySchoolBucks Training: There will be a MySchoolBucks training session for charter schools on Thursday, May 2nd from 8:30 am - 11:00 am at the DCSD West Support Center (Telluride Room). This will be a training for additional MySchoolBucks functionality including Invoicing, MSB Anywhere/Rambler usage, and WebForms. The first 1-1.5 hours will be scheduled training followed by open lab time to work through your items and questions.
Charter 2018-2019 Year End Deadlines and Capital Construction: The deadline to submit the firm selected for charter schools' annual audit is May 1st. Please submit your information to Suzy.mcdaniel@dcsdk12.org
As you prepare your 2018-2019 Final Revised Budget due May 20th, please check that your expenditures do not exceed appropriation and that your financials are not ending in a negative fund balance. The Final Revised Budget is a required budget report. If your school's board of directors did not formally re-adopt the budget after December, please resubmit your Revised Budget submitted in December.
HB19-1055 is under consideration for the Public School Cap Construction Financial Assistance. The current version of the bill increases 2018-2019 charter school capital construction from $25 million to $29.3 million As currently written, this bill would restore the per pupil capital construction to the original projected amount after calculations were reduced in March.
2019-2020 School Finance Revenue and Charter Impact
The 2019-2020 Proposed Budget charter transfer will use the following revenue projections:
Per Pupil Revenue (Adjusted) = $8,168
PPR At-Risk = $964
Additional PPR At-Risk = $17
Online PPR = $7,849
Mill Levy Override Per Pupil = $1,197
Once the School Finance Act is signed into law and CDE generates the "2019-2020 District Funding Calculation Worksheet" we will update PPR and Online PPR accordingly.
Please note that it is likely that the State will fund Full Day Kindergarten, but the legislation has not been passed nor signed by the Governor. If the State does fund Full Day Kindergarten, the charter monthly transfer funded pupil count calculation will be adjusted accordingly for full day kindergarten students only.
SB19-128 PPR - No Change for DCSD Charter Schools: The 2018-2019 Per Pupil Adjusted Revenue on the charter monthly transfer file will not be adjusted. SB19-128 for School Finance Mid-year Adjustments did not change the Per Pupil Revenue for DCSD from the amount already adjusted after October Count. The Per Pupil Adjusted Revenue decreased from $7,757.33 on the December transfer to $7,754.59 on the January transfer. Please note DCSD charter schools are funded on the adjusted PPR because the at-risk funding has been pulled out of the calculation for PPR and funded separately based upon the actual at-risk population of the charter school.
SB19-128 PPR Change and 2019-2020 School Finance Revenue: 2018-2019 Per Pupil Adjusted Revenue on the charter monthly transfer file will be adjusted after SB19-128 for School Finance Mid-year Adjustments becomes law and CDE updates the District Funding Calculation Worksheet.
The March 2019 economic forecasts from Colorado Legislative Council and Office of State Planning and Budgeting are scheduled to be released on Friday, March 15. These forecasts will influence the 2019-2020 School Finance Act. Based on the 2019-2020 Revised Governor's Budget Request from January 2019, DCSD Per Pupil Revenue is forecast to be $8,167.78. This is a $320 increase over 2018-2019 current PPR. The first version of the 2019-2020 School Finance Act does not include funding for the READ Act. The 2018-2019 READ Act allocation was $834.79 per SRD. Another bill under consideration in the legislature with possible financial implications for DCSD charter schools is HB19-1055 for Public School Cap Construction Financial Assistance. Please contact Colleen Doan at cadoan@dcsdk12.org if you have any questions on DCSD revenue projections.
2018-2019 At-Risk Supplemental Funding and SB19-128 Potential PPR Change:The February charter transfer will include a revision to the Additional PPR At Risk based upon CDE's recent calculation of the At-Risk Supplemental Funding. The per at-risk pupil amount will increase from $16.25 per pupil to $16.73 per pupil. The incremental increase will be spread across the February through June transfers as shown on the charter transfer sheet.
SB19-128 for School Finance Mid-year Adjustments is under consideration in the state legislature to reduce the Per Pupil Revenue for Colorado school districts based on lower than projected funded pupils and lower than projected at-risk pupils statewide combined with higher local property taxes. This adjustment is estimated to reduce Per Pupil Revenue by an average of $15 per pupil statewide. Please note the change in PPR to DCSD may be more or less than $15 and we will not be adjusting the PPR in the charter monthly transfer until the bill becomes law and CDE updates the District Funding Calculation Worksheet. As this potential reduction in state equalization revenue will occur in the current fiscal year, the adjustment to the charter monthly transfer will occur in the current fiscal year. If you have any questions 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 school finance revenue please contact Colleen Doan at cadoan@dcsdk12.org. We are still in the early stages of 2019-2020 budget development and will provide information related to 2019-2020 revenue projections in early March.
MySchoolBucks Traings: This course is for all school level bookkeepers (including charters) and/or athletic secretaries who are interested in utilizing MSB Anywhere through MySchoolBucks. Participants will be trained on how to set up products, run a point of sale, and look at reports related to MSB Anywhere.
It is recommended that attendees get their rambler and ipad set up prior to attending this training. Please bring rambler, ipad (with MSB Anywhere app), and a laptop to the training.
Trainings will be held at the West Support Center in the Telluride Meeting Room.
If interested, please sign up for one of the classes offered below:
Course: My School Bucks Anywhere Training
Session: 2104-2, School Bookkeepers ONLY
Start Date: 02/04/2019 (1:00 pm - 3:00 pm)
Course Link: https://pd.dcsdk12.org/course/view.php?id=11849
Course: My School Bucks Anywhere Training
Session: 2104-3, School Bookkeepers ONLY
Start Date: 02/15/2019 (8:30 am - 10:30 am)
Course Link: https://pd.dcsdk12.org/course/view.php?id=12106
January Transfer Updated for PPR and At-Risk: The January charter transfer will include small adjustments to the Per Pupil Revenue based on CDE's revision to funding for school districts. Statewide, school districts saw a reduction in at-risk funding included in the Total Program formula based on actual free lunch counts for October Count 2018. The ELL count for each charter will also be updated this month based on CDE provided counts. Finally, please note that the 2018-2019 2nd quarter financials are due in Excel on Monday, Jan 21.
December Transfer Updated for Student October Count and 2018 Mill Levy Override: The December charter pass through was updated to include official Student October Count enrollment data. As a reminder, the funded pupil count and mill levy override are passed through on funded pupil count and the per pupil purchased services are withheld based on full time equivalent (FTE). The free lunch count used as a component of the at-risk funding was also updated to reflect the free lunch count reported in the Student October Count.
The December transfer now includes two sections for the mill levy overrides. The top section (existing prior to the December transfer) includes the $544 per funded pupil from the $33.7M prior to the November 2018 election. The additional MLO per pupil associated with the November 2018 election for $40M is included in a new section for $646 per funded pupil. Eligible charters will receive half of these new funds in the December transfer. In the remaining six months of the fiscal year (January to June), charters will receive an equal 1/12th share of the total per month.
The January transfer will include the updated ELL count (other component of at-risk funding) and updated Per Pupil Revenue and Per Pupil At-Risk to reflect changes to the Total Program formula from CDE. Please note that 2018-2019 2nd quarter financials are due on Monday, January 21st.
Charter Funding Update from Budget Team: If there are any questions on the November charter transfer file, please direct them to Colleen Doan at cadoan@dcsdk12.org this month. Business Services has been working to clean up a lot of the cell formula inconsistencies across the new monthly allocation columns with the change to the new template effective this fall. Kristen Haneke, our new Charter Accountant, will be the best point of contact after the December transfer.
As a reminder, the December transfer will include all the changes to the charter pass through and charter purchased services associated with October Count student true-up. The existing mill levy override per funded pupil will be adjusted to $544 per funded pupil ($33.7M prior to November 2018 election) and the additional mill levy override per funded pupil associated with 5A (November 2018 election) will be $645 per funded pupil. As outlined by Scott Smith in his email to charter leaders on November 9th, charters will receive half of these new funds ($323 per funded pupil) in the December transfer. In the remaining six months of the fiscal year (January to June), charters will receive an equal 1/12th share of the total or $54 per funded pupil per month. Please contact Colleen if you need assistance calculating your school's total amount in order to finalize your 2018-2019 Revised Budget due Friday, December 14.