School Finance: Accounting and Auditing
End of year Financial report
According to information on the website doe.mass.edu/finance/accounting/compliance, you can google this in different ways, it is written that each city, town and regional school district is required to submit an End-of Year financial report (EOYR) to the DESE (dept. of elementary and secondary education) on or before September 30 of each year. The EOYR must be consistent with Department regulations and guidelines. The EOYR consists of several schedules as follows:
Revenue & expenditures
Assessments received from member towns
Instructional services by school
Special education expenditures by placement
Pupil transportation reimbursement
Annual school budget
Within this report, you will find the amount of the E & D or excess and deficiency fund, this was explained by a member of the school committee as being similar to a town's free cash amount. It would be interesting to see if this reported amount in equal to or more than say $600,000.00, which would be relevant to the amount that the district said they needed in the budget for FY14, which went on during the summer of 2013, ya'll remember that joint meeting of the district? Another figure to look at closely is the district general insurance account. Remember that the district, unlike a town, can move funds around without much fanfare. Where towns need a town meeting to move money, school districts can do it with ease, once they have a pile of money on the table.
In asking to see this report, you may be told it is very large and would cost a lot to copy or it is large and complex. Hopefully, one of our elected officials can get this report for free and can get some financial information out to the public concerning school finance, since the taxpayers will soon be asked to provide a sum of money to run the school, it is important and fair, in my opinion, that the taxpayers get to see how their money was spent, to include the dirty details. You know, on paper!
Jeff Bennett
I'll let everyone know as soon as this information is available. I'll post as much of it as I can.
ReplyDeleteWe have a right to know if the Town of Templeton's operating budget was eviscerated "for the children" . Or was the use of 603 CMR 41.05 which pushed the Town of Templeton to the brink of bankruptcy an exercise to increase E & D.
In my opinion, many town employees who felt the brunt of the cuts made would like an answer to that question.
Where is the cost analysis for the wood chip boiler?
Hopefully, these and other financial questions will be answered shortly.