June 9, 2006 Letter to School District Administrators

Date: June 9, 2006

To: School District Administrators

From: David Carlson, Director

School Financial Services Team

Re: Calculation of Remaining School District Aid Payments for 2005-2006

Public School Open Enrollment Participation Summaries

School Finance Reporting Portal Update

2005-2006 PI 1505 AC (Aid Certification) Report – Due August 25

2005-2006 PI 1505 Annual Report – Due October 2

2005-2006 PI 1505 SE - Special Education Annual Report – Due September 1

2005-2006 PI 1524 State Tuition Claims – Due October 2

Upcoming Events and Mailings to Districts

Routing of Information in this Mailing

Please route this information to appropriate district staff. This cover letter can be found on the School Financial Services Team website under “Mailings” on the left hand scan bar and under “Late Breaking Information.”

Calculation of Remaining School District Aid Payments for 2005-2006

Enclosed is a worksheet entitled, "Calculation of Remaining School District Equalization Aid Payments for 2005-2006." This information is also found under “Late Breaking Information” on the team’s website. Your worksheet explains your district's June and July equalization aid payments and adjustments due to the public school open enrollment program, revenue limit penalty, if any, and for some districts, the Youth Challenge Academy and Second Chance programs. It is also designed to assist your bookkeeper in the proper transaction coding of this payment. Questions about this worksheet can be directed to one of the school finance staff listed below.

Public School Open Enrollment Participation Summaries

Also included in this mailing are summaries of your district's participation in the 2005-2006 public school open enrollment program. These summaries identify the number of resident students who were attending other school districts and the non-resident students who were attending your school district under open enrollment or “additional year” tuition waivers. These summaries can be found on the School Management Services Team website at http://dpi.wi.gov/sms/oeaid.html. Questions about these summaries should be directed to Scott Eagleburger at (608) 267-9101 or toll free at 888-245-2732, ext.2 then 2. In addition, we are sending a list of students who transferred into or out of your district due to open enrollment or tuition waivers.

School Finance Reporting Portal Update

As presented at the spring finance workshops, the finance team reporting portal has undergone a number of improvements that will assist districts in the timely filing of required and optional school finance reports. Below is a brief summary of those changes.

All required and optional finance reports can now be accessed by the district within the “School Finance Reporting Portal” link on the team’s home web page. Districts should enter the portal and then go to their reporting home page. Select the “Financial Data Home” or “Non-Financial Data Home” link to access the various reports.

Instructions to file various reports including tutorials and report updates are now located within the reporting portal and they are accessed by clicking on the specific report after selecting the “Financial Data Home” or “Non-Financial Data Home” link. Please review this information carefully and contact one of the school finance consultants should you have questions.

The “Status and Deadlines” link on the district’s reporting home page (same page as the “Financial Data Home” and “Non-Financial Data Home” links) has been significantly revised. This page acts as a “report card” by not only identifying the various reports and their due dates but also when reports have been actually received by the department. It is recommended that the district review the “Column Explanations” link on the page which explains the various sorting options available on the page.

On the team’s home page and next to the “Status and Deadlines” link are green box icons. These icons represent reports that districts are required to submit and are open for district data entry. Icons will not be displayed for optional reports. Scroll over the green box and the name of the required report appears. A yellow icon on the district’s reporting home page will indicate that a required report is overdue.

2005-2006 PI 1505 AC (Aid Certification) Report – Due August 25

School districts will again file two reports to comply with Wisconsin State Statute 120.18. The first report, PI 1505 AC, will be filed electronically using an Internet based reporting program. School district financial data collected on PI 1505 AC will be used to calculate each school district’s October 15 aid eligibility. School districts submitting PI 1505 AC data after the Friday, August 25 due date will receive their September 18 equalization aid payment not earlier than October 16.

It is important that district auditors agree with the data submitted on the PI 1505 AC prior to district submission of that data. Auditors will be required to electronically verify the data submitted by the district using an Internet based reporting program entitled, “PI 1506 AC (Aid Certification) Report.” The auditor report is due no later than September 8.

2005-2006 PI 1505 Annual Report – Due October 2

The PI 1505 Full Financial Annual Report is the second required report and is also located in the reporting portal. The data collected on this report will be used to calculate district final aid 2006-2007 eligibility in the spring of 2007.

As part of the district’s audit process for the current year, many of the school district auditors will be asking districts to create and upload their district’s strip file into the SAFR Annual Report program before the audit begins. This will enable the district and auditor to identify errors that exist in your general ledger before any audit adjustments are made. Once your auditor identifies any potential adjustments, they will ask you to make those adjustments in your general ledger. After those adjustments are made, you will go into the SAFR Annual Report program and ‘Delete and Start Over’ thereby allowing a new strip file to be created and uploaded. The new strip file will be created using your district’s adjusted general ledger thereby reducing the number of errors in the Annual Report program. We encourage you to perform this step as it will save the district time and help the auditor identify adjustments during the early stage of the audit.

If your district will be entering its general ledger manually into the SAFR program, you should still enter your unadjusted balances into SAFR before your audit begins, thereby allowing your auditor to assist you in correcting any identified errors. Any adjustments made by your auditor would have to be made both in your general ledger and in the SAFR program.

The Wisconsin Uniform Financial Accounting Requirements (WUFAR) including updates for 2005-2006 (Appendix B) can be found under the left hand scan bar link, “WUFAR” or directly at http://dpi.wi.gov/sfs/wufar.html.

The DPI Aids Register lists all payments made by the Department of Public Instruction to the school districts. Districts are required to reconcile Federal and State aid received by the district to the DPI Aids Register in order to submit the PI 1505 Annual Report. An edit will check the aid reported by source against the DPI Aids Register. Districts should pay special attention to the break out of receivables from other governments when completing the addenda. The DPI Aids Register is available on line under the left hand scan bar link, “Aids Register” or directly at http://dpi.wi.gov/sfs/online_ar.html.

School Districts should have received a summary of commodities from DPI School Nutrition Programs. The value of donated food commodities as identified by DPI should be recorded by crediting source 714, donated commodities and charging object 415, food.

2005-2006 PI 1505 SE - Special Education Annual Report – Due September 1

Districts will again be required to submit their special education fiscal data using the PI 1505 SE report program that has already been installed on a district computer. A desktop icon should have been created upon installation. If you do not have the program installed, it can be downloaded and installed from the Internet at http://dpi.wi.gov/sfs/se_report.html. Please contact a finance consultant if you need to reinstall the program on a district computer.

.Again this year, your district’s special education teacher and staff licensure information is available on the team’s website. Click on the “School Finance Reporting Portal” link and input your district name or number. Click on the “Special Education Licensure Information” link under “Related Links” on the left hand scan bar. Input your district ID and password. There you may find three listings of licenses for your district: “School Age Parent Educators,” “Educators without Valid Licenses,” and your district’s “Educators with Valid Licenses.” This information is important for special education aid eligibility and is used by your district’s auditors in the PI 1506 AC process.

On the current version 4 PI 1505 SE, Special Education Report, record the school guidance counselor and school nurse salary/fringes (objects 100/200) in the summary function 299 999 under Project “019” and identify these costs in the cover e-mail with the BH and AH upload file attachments as follows:

For (LEA Name), the “011-state aidable” guidance counselor and school nurse salary/fringe costs reported in function 299 999 under Project “019” on the PI 1505 SE are:

1. School Guidance Counselor

a. Object 100 – Salary: (Amount)

b. Object 200 – Fringes: (Amount)

2. School Nurse

a. Object 100 – Salary: (Amount)

b. Object 200 – Fringes: (Amount)

Districts will be required to submit their 2005-2006 special education annual report data file electronically as an attachment to an e-mail message. Send the special education data file to *DPIsfsreports@dpi.wi.gov. Indicate on the subject line the name of the district and the title of the report, “PI 1505 SE Annual Report.”

2005-2006 PI 1524 State Tuition Claims – Due October 2

The 2005-2006 state tuition claims (PI 1524) must be submitted to the department by October 2 as a file attachment to an e-mail message. Send the PI 1524 State Tuition data file to *DPIsfsreports@dpi.wi.gov and mail the signed signature page to Beverly Kraus. Indicate on the subject line the name of the district and the title of the report, “PI 1524 State Tuition Claim.”

Upcoming Events and Mailings to Districts

Date	Event
June 12	State EEN Payment
June 19	State Equalization Aid Payment
June 19	Special Transfer Aid Payment
June 19	Special Adjustment Aid Payment
June 19	CCDEB Aid Payment
June 19	SAGE Aid Payment
June 19	High Cost Special Education Payment
June 26	SAGE Debt Service Aid Payment
June 30	Mailing of July 1 2006-2007 General Aid Estimate
June 30	Due Date for Group/Foster Home Adjustments PI 1589
July 3	Due Date for Transfer of Service Requests
July 24	Delayed Equalization Aid Payment

For any additional questions, contact one of the following School Financial Services Team staff.

Brad Adams bradley.adams@dpi.wi.gov (608) 267-3752

Lori Ames lori.ames@dpi.wi.gov (608) 266-3464

Karen Kucharz karen.kucharz@dpi.wi.gov (608) 267-9707

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Enclosures: Calculation of Remaining School District Aid Payments for 2005-2006

Public School Open Enrollment Summaries

For questions about this information, contact dpifin@dpi.wi.gov (608) 267-9114

Last updated on 2/25/2008 12:03:59 PM