July 31, 2012

On Monday, August 6, 2012, TEA will open the expenditure reporting (ER) system to allow corrections to ARRA Section 1512 Quarterly Reports submitted for the quarter ending June 30, 2012, for the following grant programs the Education Jobs Fund (Ed Jobs) and ARRA Title I, School Improvement Grant (SIG) (Texas Title I Priority Schools). The correction period will end on September 7, 2012 when the ER system closes.

July 30, 2012

TEA announces the 2010-11 actual financial data available through the PEIMS Financial Standard Reports page now includes fund balance information (for school district reports) and net assets information (for charter school reports). These can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=2147495078&menu_id=645&menu_id2=789

July, 26, 2012

Chapter 41 Guidance has been posted on the TEA website for those subject to wealth equalization. The 2012–2013 Manual for Districts Subject to Wealth Equalization along with laws, rules, and the list of chapter 41 districts can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=6796&menu_id=645

July 25, 2012

In the event of Sequestration, the USDE has announced the 2012-13 grant award amounts will not be impacted. TEA has reversed previous action to reduce planning amounts and  has begun the process of calculating revised planning amounts, incorporating the amount previously withheld for the possible sequestration, and will release the revised planning amounts by program on a rolling basis over the next few weeks as they are completed. Details can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147507725

July 24, 2012

The 2012–2013 Student Attendance Accounting Handbook (SAAH) is now available on the Texas Education Agency website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=7739&menu_id=645&menu_id2=789

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147487354&menu_id=934&menu_id2=941

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 2011–2012 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 open-enrollment charter school if you are not responsible for reporting this information.

The TEA has created a web-based survey for you to use in reporting bus accident information. It opened June 29 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 additional information on bus accident reporting requirements and on the survey on the TEA Bus Accident Reporting System web page. If you have further questions, please contact Rob Caudill in the Office of School Finance at (512) 475-3925 or rob.caudill@tea.state.tx.us.

Source: Email

The 2012 Tax Information Survey is open for submission and will close August 17, 2012.

 Please ensure that your district has completed and submitted the Tax Information Survey using the online FSP System, accessed through the Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE), by August 17. If your district does not submit the survey by the deadline, your district's state funding could be adversely affected. Please double-check your data before submitting the survey.

 Completing the survey is especially important if the agency has overestimated your district's collections in the legislative payment estimate (LPE) column of the Summary of Finances (SOF) for the 2011–2012 school year. If we do not receive more-accurate collections data, we will not be able to calculate settle-up payments for your district when we produce near-final estimates in September 2012. Your district will not receive additional state revenue to compensate it for lower collections than those shown on the 2011–2012 SOF until April 2013, when we incorporate the J1 schedule information from your district's annual financial audit.

 If you have questions about the survey, please contact Al Johnson, state funding consultant, by phone at (512) 463-9260 or by email at al.johnson@tea.state.tx.us. If you have questions about TEASE access, please contact Nicole Schuessler by phone at (512) 475-1632 or by email at nicole.schuessler@tea.state.tx.us.


Source: Email

TASB Governmental Relations has produced this district summary template (doc) to help schools answer some of the most frequently asked questions about school district characteristics. This template is designed so that any district can simply insert readily available data from the Academic Excellence Indicator System and other TEA databases into a standard form similar to the now-defunct TEA Snapshot. AEIS District Reports provide a wealth of district information that may be included in the district summary template. Districts are encouraged to share the information captured in this template with legislators so that they have a better understanding of their legislative districts' schools when considering legislation this session.

Source: http://www.tasb.org/legislative/legislative/reports/2012/2012-06-15/7template.html

June 5, 2012 - A new Electronics Reports Submission manual has been posted to the Division of Financial Audits web pages (http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=3968 ).  Revised naming conventions for districts submitting district and campus improvement plans. Other guidance related to the annual financial report are provided in the manual.

June 4 2012 - TEA releases information to districts and charters schools that use the Alternative State Compensatory Education Allotment funding count method for the 2012-13 school year. Guidance is provided to those not participating in the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) or School Breakfast Program (SBP) in this letter http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147506998

Reductions in Federal Grant Planning Amounts are announced by TEA. Due to federal sequestration, there will be a 10% withhold reducing the planning amounts for federal formula grants. Maximum entitlements will not be calculated until later than usual in January 2013.  For details, see http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147506886

School Transportation Route Services Report for 2011-12 is due to TEA on July 1, 2012. Instructions for completing the report are on the TEA School Transportation funding website http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=2147484107&menu_id=645

Districts with unspent 2010-11 Technology Funds have until August 31, 2012 to spend funds. 
For more information from TEA, see http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147506754

AUSTIN -Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott announced today that he will resign his office, effective July 2 on the fifth anniversary of his appointment to the state’s highest public education post.

Scott, 43, began his career at the Texas Education Agency in 1994 as an assistant director of governmental relations.

“I’ve been here since Jon was one and Katie was three months old,” he said, referring to his children. “It’s time.” Both children have now graduated from Texas public schools.

Scott, a lawyer, has dedicated his career to education policy matters, whether serving as a congressional aide, education aide to Gov. Rick Perry or through a variety of jobs at TEA, including serving as interim commissioner and deputy commissioner.

As a parent of public school children, Scott could see firsthand how policies he helped craft impacted the classroom. His children’s involvement in the fine arts, for example, convinced him of the importance of this area of study, causing him to be a steadfast advocate for the arts and the important role they play in the schools.

Other highlights of Scott’s career include:

• increased emphasis on early childhood and pre-kindergarten education through the development of pre-K curriculum standards and other school readiness initiatives;
• the establishment of the Texas High School Project, a public-private partnership that worked to improve college readiness and high school graduation rates;
• creation of the Texas Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (T-STEM) initiative, an idea which has now been adopted by many states;
• working with the State Board of Education to improve the state’s curriculum standards, which form the backbone of instruction in the public schools. Last month, the SBOE adopted strengthened mathematics standards on a 14-0 vote.
• creation of Project Share, a free global online learning community where educators collaborate, share resources and showcase accomplishments. Less than two years old, Project Share already has 900,000 subscribers, including about 600,000 students.

“It’s been a privilege to serve as commissioner. I want to thank Gov. Perry for entrusting me with this job. I also want to thank the State Board of Education for working with me to provide the best public schools possible for our students,” Scott said.

Scott served as interim commissioner of TEA from Aug. 1, 2003 to Jan. 12, 2004 and again from July 2, 2007 to Oct. 15, 2007, before being appointed as commissioner on Oct. 16, 2007.

Scott is the only person to twice serve as interim commissioner and is now the fourth-longest serving commissioner in the agency’s history. No one has had a longer tenure in the past 20 years.

Although there were many new initiatives begun during his tenure, it also fell to Scott to twice oversee drastic downsizings of TEA during a budget crisis. This prompted reorganizations of the agency and the way it operates.

“As someone who has risen through the ranks, I’ve seen firsthand the dedicated service provided by TEA employees. I want to thank them for their unwavering devotion to Texas children,” he said.

“I want to express my sincere thanks to the educators who work tirelessly in our schools. I can’t thank them enough.”


Source: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/news_release.aspx?id=2147506461

Summary of Finances finalized for 2010-11. See letter from TEA summarizing information included in the final SOF at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147506400

Immediate & Upcoming Changes to Grant Management Process have been announced by TEA’s Office for Grants and Fiscal Compliance http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147506398

The Property Tax Assistance division at the State Comptroller’s office has released Truth in Taxation webinar dates.  Details on the dates, topics and receiving Continuing Education hours can be found here http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/proptax/webinars.html

Do you work a July – June work schedule or contract year for your district? TRS is making changes that will impact your retirement. Retiring in June may no longer be an option. The following webinar released by Teacher Retirement System explains how the implementation Standardized School Year mandated by House Bill 2561 which was passed during the 2011 Legislative Session will impact your future retirement decisions. Click on the link to view the 14 minutes video explaining the changes:

https://trst.webex.com/trst/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=TC&rID=9700162&act=pb&rKey=3aada43444189612

Instructional Materials Allotment (IMA) updates and the announcement of the EMAT system closing for processing 2011-12 requisitions and disbursement requests has been released by TEA.  The communication also details the reopening of EMAT for the 2012-13 school year, certification requirements, and how the IMA allotment has been calculated. Settle up for the 2011 Technology funds will also be included in the 2012-13 allotment amount. Please see the letter here:

http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147506220

TEA announces a new certification process for IMA funds and  new roles  that will require Superintendent approval for establishing “ordering” or “view” access via TEASE accounts. Also announces that EMAT will be available April 2012 for ordering 2012-13 instructional materials.

Please see link for the entire letter http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147505632

The 2011–2012 financial solvency survey for school districts and open-enrollment charter schools is now available. Please respond to the survey before it closes on Friday, February 10, 2012. Please note the due date posted on the TEA website is different than the date sent in a recent TEA letter announcing the survey. TEA has confirmed that the February 10^th due date can be used

Information can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=2147487027&menu_id=645&menu_id2=789

Superintendents and other district  administrators are reminded of their obligation to report educator misconduct to TEA in a letter released from the Division of Educator Leadership and Quality. Failure to report such behavior can result in negative consequences.  http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147505078

The TEA Division of Grants Administration has released additional information regarding Federal Grant fund reductions for 2011-12.  The impact to Title I & II grants and IDEA, Part B has been estimated to be limited and/or minimal. The new maximum entitlements will be released for Title I & II programs on December 2, 2011 and IDEA, Part B will be released on January 16, 2012.  The Title I Carl Perkins reallocations will be released on January 9, 2012.

Education Jobs funding has been increased for Texas by $18.9 million.  The increased award amounts are expected to be posted on the Division of Grants Administration Federal Entitlements page no later than December 16, 2011.

View the letter from TEA here http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/grantsadmin112911.html

The Office of Grants and Fiscal Compliance have released a communication discussing the prevailing issues found during this past year’s desktop monitoring of ARRA and non-ARRA federal formula and discretionary grants. – Issues noted are failure to maintain appropriate time and effort documentation, failure to comply with appropriate account coding and budgetary monitoring, failure to maintain source documentation supporting expenditures, failure to follow requirements related to ARRA infrastructure projects, and failure to calculate excess cost for educating students with disabilities.  For further details see http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/fedcomp111811.html

Mon, 21 Nov 2011

TEA will reopen the Expenditure Reporting system to allow corrections to American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) Section 1512 quarterly reporting data submitted for the quarter that ended September 30, 2011. The continuous corrections period will close Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. TEA will host webinars on Thursday, Nov 10th and Wednesday, Nov 16th to review the ARRA Section 1512 reporting guidance.  The link to register is http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=5286&menu_id=934&menu_id2=941

The Division of Financial Audits has released guidance related to accounting for the Instructional Materials Allotment (IMA) funds.  Fund 410 should be used to record all IMA transactions. The reports needed for recording the funds can be accessed through the EMAT system via your district’s Textbook Coordinator. The information can be accessed via this link:  http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=1222

Based on recent communications from US Department of Education, TEA has posted news regarding decreases to various federal grants including Title I, IDEA and Carl Perkins for 2011-12.  However, an increase of $18,900,000 for Education Jobs Funding for Texas has been announced.  TEA will release updated NOGA's for the impacted grant funds and the reallocated Education Jobs funding for each districts within the near future.

For additional information, see http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/grantsadmin110111.html

Mileage and Reimbursement Rates applicable to State and Federal Grants are detailed in a recent communication from TEA. Please see the attached link for further details: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/grantsadmin092111.html

The final 2011 School FIRST Ratings have been released for districts and charter schools.  The 2011 ratings are based upon analysis of staff and student data that was reported for the 2009-10 school year and the actual financial data for fiscal year 2009-10. Districts were assessed using 22 indicators and their final ratings can be found at http://tuna.tea.state.tx.us/First/forms/main.aspx Charter schools were assessed using 3 indicators and their final ratings can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=6491

As part of the budget negotiations at the federal level, Congress recently eliminated all funding for the Title II, Part D – Enhancing Education Through Technology program of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), better known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). As a result of this loss of funding, there will be changes to several programs that relied on Title II, Part D technical assistance funding.  The link below will help explain the changes to Title II, Part D, STaR Chart, ePlan, and eRate.  Please share this information with your district’s Technology Coordinator.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/stanprog071511.html

A final Summary of Finances (SOF) and other related reports for the 2009–2010 school year are now posted to the School Finance website of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/school.finance/funding/sofweb7.html. These reports reflect all changes made to the SOF since fall of 2010.  More information can be found at the link below.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/finances05022011.html

The Texas Education Agency will no longer provide an automatic 10-day extension of the grant application deadline for grantees that miss the original deadline.  Advisory letter will not be sent to LEAs that miss the application deadline to inform them that they missed the deadline.  For further information, please visit the link below.

http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/taa/formfund042911.html