Public Schools – FiscalShare

Category: Public Schools

When Special Education Doesn’t Cost Everything plus the Kitchen Sink

At fiscal year end we sometimes see that actual costs are significantly below budget and one of the causes can be “savings” in Special Education. I put “savings” in quotes because this does not usually reflect a reduction in costs. It often reflects improper budgeting, which can lead to a number of unfortunate consequences. Other priorities may have been

August 11, 2015 Short URLBudget, Government, Procedures and Practices, Public Schools, Uncategorized, Working Together

Contracts in a Nutshell

I shouldn’t keep being surprised when I run into ill-defined processes for contracts. My experience is that clarity in this area is the exception rather than the rule. Small districts may have no purchasing department. In such cases the Chief Business Officer (CBO) owns the process directly. In larger districts he or she will have a purchasing supervisor, manager or director. The CBO

August 10, 2015 Short URLaccountability, best practice, CBO, contracts, purchasing, technologyBasics, Laws and Regulations, Procedures and Practices, Public Schools

Lottery Budgeting Basics (California)

This post, another in the “Basics” series, is designed to fill in some of the gaps that can exist for new employees in school finance. I remember when I first started at a school district and was confused by the fact that the attendance data used in Lottery revenue calculations seemed to bear no resemblance to actual ADA. Also, the

April 3, 2015 Short URLCalifornia Lottery, school fundingAccounting, Basics, Budget, Finance, Public Schools

Procedures – or Not?

When I started my first “real” job at a California bank I was shown volumes of procedures manuals. Once, when I didn’t know what do next, I called someone at head office and was icily informed “It’s in the manual.” Then I switched jobs to different bank, one that prided itself on being small, regional and customer focused. I

February 28, 2015 Short URLAccounting, Government, Management, Procedures and Practices, Productivity, Public Schools

Gossip: Good Sign, Bad sign, or Just a Sign?

The Harvard Business Review just came out with an article “Stop Enabling Gossip on Your Team“. Yet in 2013 that same magazine published an article entitled “Go Ahead and Gossip.” As a consultant I spend a month or two at a school district and then move on. The level of gossip in an organization is immediately clear to

January 11, 2015 Short URLdysfunction, dysfunctional organizations, gossip, systemsGovernment, Management, Productivity, Public Schools

This is the Way We Have Always Done It

I learned a new expression recently. “Jumping the shark” means holding on to an idea that has run its course. It originally referred to the TV show Happy Days where one particularly silly plot device is now viewed as the moment when the show’s writers officially ran out of ideas. Rather than give the show a dignified send off, they

January 10, 2015 Short URLcreativity, employee engagement, innovation, problem solvingGovernment, Public Schools, Technology

An Authoritarian Education

I saw an author describing the J curve on TV a few years back. I couldn’t find reference to the concept in an internet search, so I cannot give appropriate credit to the original author. The gist of it is that to move from a dysfunctional to a functional government, an authoritarian system will only take you so

January 1, 2015 Short URLCharter Schools, curriculum, dictator, education, motivation, students, success, user experienceGovernment, Public Schools

Indirect Costs: The Basics

What are indirect costs? Imagine your district has received a reading grant. The grantor is providing funding for a teacher and instructional materials. Indirect costs are all those additional costs associated with running the grant. These will be hiring costs for the teacher, including recruitment, fingerprinting, and credential analysis. When the teacher puts in an order for

December 31, 2014 Short URLindirect costsAccounting, Basics, Cost Accounting, Procedures and Practices, Public Schools

Bank Reconciliation

Continuing my occasional series on “the basics” this post addresses something I almost skipped, thinking it was perhaps too basic. Then I worked with an employee who reconciles the district’s clearing account, cafeteria account and student body accounts. I realized that the concept of bank reconciliation might be foreign to younger employees. Growing up in the era of

December 25, 2014 Short URLbank reconciliation, best practice, public schools, reconciliation, school financeAccounting, Basics, Daily Work, Excel, Procedures and Practices, Public Schools

Indirect Costs When Revenue is not Fixed

I wrote about the so called magic formula for budgeting indirect costs on a fixed amount grant. This calculation uses the grant revenue amount to determine how much of the grant you can budget to spend and how much needs to be set aside for indirect costs. However it is important to remember – actual indirect

October 1, 2014 Short URLindirect costsAccounting, Basics, Cost Accounting, Procedures and Practices, Public Schools