1 Presenters: Bob Soldner Erin Fath Bruce W. Anderson School Financial Services

Review New legislation:  Act 306: Community Programs & Services (Fund 80)  Act 336: Long Term Capital Improvement “Trust” Fund  Act 257:  Eliminates the 180 day requirement  Permits districts to create Interim Sessions  Allows counting Online Courses – Summer School & Interim Sessions  Act 255: substitutes as eligible cost for State Categorical Special Education Aid 2

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 COMMUNITY PROGRAMS AND SERVICES. Establish and maintain community education, training, recreational, cultural or athletic programs and services, outside the regular curricular and extracurricular programs for pupils, under such terms and conditions as the school board prescribes. The school board may establish and collect fees to cover all or part of the costs of such programs and services. Costs associated with such programs and services shall not be included in the school district’s shared cost under s (6) 4

 The “characteristics of community service activities” has become the “criteria” school boards must use to describe Fund 80 levy expenditures.  Imposes a limit on the amount a board may levy into Fund 80 for the and school years;  Specifies a procedure for exceeding this new limit;  Requires school boards to include information on planned Fund 80 expenditures in the budget summary at an annual meeting;  Requires districts to publish this information on the district website and report the information to (DPI); and  Requires DPI to publish the information on the DPI website and submit a report to the Legislature by December 1, 2014 detailing the information reported to DPI by school boards. 5

 Requires DPI to create administrative rules defining ineligible/eligible expenditures from the Community Programs and Services (CPS) Fund (Fund 80).  Requires DPI to determine if ineligible CPS expenditures exist and if so, reduce the district’s allowable revenue limit authority the following year by the amount of the ineligible CPS expenditures; structured as a negative exemption rather than a reduction to the district’s base (first applies to Revenue Limit calculation for school year, based on expenditures). 6

 Requires that Fund 80 expenditures be audited by the school district’s auditor.  NOTE: Current law already directs DPI to exclude from Shared Costs (for General Aid purposes) any CPS expenditures.  If an audit of the CPS expenditures were to determine that a district had inappropriately coded CPS expenditures to Fund 10, those expenditures would have to be removed from Fund 10 and would decrease the district’s Shared Costs for General Aid purposes. 7

 WHAT IS A RULE? A rule has the effect of law and is issued by an agency (DPI) to implement, interpret or make specific legislation administered by the agency.  ADMINISTRATIVE RULES ACTIVITY:  The first step in the rulemaking process is preparation of a scope statement that sets forth information about the agency’s intended rulemaking, including the objective of the proposed rule, the statutory authority for the rule, and a description of all entities that may be affected by the rule.  This step has been completed 8

 Once a statement of scope has been published in the Administrative Register and approved by the State Superintendent, (it will be) sent to the Legislative Rules Clearinghouse for review,  DPI holds a public hearing before the rule is submitted to the Legislature…  Once a public hearing is held a permanent rule can be submitted to the Legislature for approval.  The Legislature is not scheduled to meet until January

 After legislative review, the final stage of the rulemaking process is filing the rule.  NOTE: Legislative review can result in changes to the permanent rule.  DPI Administrative Code: DPI administrative rules can be obtained by going to the Wisconsin State Legislature's website:   Please send the SFS Team your viewpoints and advice regarding your district’s community programs and services (Fund 80) and 2013 Act 306 to the following 10

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 In common law legal systems:  A trust is a relationship whereby property is held by one party for the benefit of another.  “Trust” as used in 2013 Act 336 is property (revenue) held for the district’s own future use at a date yet to be determined. 12

 A school board with an approved long-term capital improvement plan (minimum of 10 years) may establish a capital improvement “trust” that is funded with a transfer from the general fund.  The transfer from Fund 10 to Fund 46 is the “expenditure” that is counted as a shared cost.  This transfer becomes a shared cost in the FY in which funds are deposited in the capital improvement fund.  Expenditures from Fund 46 are NOT counted as shared costs. 13

 A school board is prohibited from expending money deposited into Fund 46 for a period of five years after the fund is created.  After the initial five year wait period is over, funds may be used only for the purposes identified in the approved capital improvement plan.  Fund 46 funds may not be transferred to any other school district fund. 14

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2013 Wisconsin Act Wisconsin Act 257 included several changes:  Elimination of 180 Day requirement (eff )  Authority for districts with year-round schools to hold “Interim Sessions” & generate membership  Modified the law to permit districts to count for membership purposes, on-line courses offered during summer school & interim sessions. 16

YES – the 180 day requirement was eliminated, but …  Districts are still required to meet the minimum hours of instruction, per ss (1)(f) [School district standards]  DPI will continue to require districts to complete the Calendar Report for both hours and days of instruction The required minimum hours of instruction did not change: 17 Grade LevelMinimum Hours Kindergarten (4k & 5k)*437 hours Grades 1 through 61,050 hours Grades 7 through 121,137 hours *4k – may use up to 87.5 hours for “outreach” (0.50FTE), or may add 87.5 hours of outreach (524.5 hours – 0.60 FTE)

Act 257 permits districts with “year round” school to count pupil instructional minutes for courses taken during an interim period towards membership for General Aid / Revenue Limits, as permitted by law for Summer School. 18

What is an “Interim Session?”  “ … a period of time in a school year when school is held by a school in a school district to provide hours of direct pupil instruction in addition to the hours of direct pupil instruction provided by the school district as required under s (1) (f).” (1) (f)  “Year Round” is not defined in state law/rule  “School Year” is defined in state law: “… the period beginning with July 1 and ending with June 30.” 19

Counting pupil minutes for courses taken during an interim session:  Interim period instructional hours will not count towards the minimum required hours of instruction  Must follow all current law requirements rules pertaining to summer school (academic purposes, no tuition for residents, allowable fees, etc.)  Includes online courses offered during an interim session … another change included in 2013 Act 257 – next topic! 20

Act 257 permits districts to count online courses completed by pupils in either summer school or an interim session towards membership for General Aid and Revenue Limits, provided all the following specific criteria are met:  The online class is offered by the school district as a summer class (or interim session class)  The student is entering grades 7-12 in the fall of  The student resides in the school district.  Or, if the student is not a resident …(next slide) 21

Act 257 permits districts to count online courses completed by pupils in either summer school or an interim session towards membership for General Aid and Revenue Limits, provided all the following specific criteria are met:  If the student is not a resident of the district: 1.The student attends the school district under open enrollment and 2.One of the following applies: a.The student receives the instruction from the district’s virtual charter school, or b.the student accesses the online course within the geographical boundaries of the district. 22

Act 257 permits districts to count online courses completed by pupils in either summer school or an interim session towards membership for General Aid and Revenue Limits, provided all the following specific criteria are met :  The school board determines the online class fulfills a requirement for high school graduation  specified under s (1) (a) 1., Wis. Stats., or  established by the school board under the authority of the department. and … 23

Act 257 permits districts to count online courses completed by pupils in either summer school or an interim session towards membership for General Aid and Revenue Limits, provided all the following specific criteria are met :  The high school student receives credit for the class [OR]  The 7 th or 8 th grade student successfully completes the class. 24

In addition to the specific criteria we just covered with respect to counting online courses during summer school / interim session:  All other summer school rules apply to online courses being counted for membership (i.e., DPI licensed teachers, academic purpose, no charge of tuition to pupils being counted, reasonable fees that do not exceed costs, etc.)  Interim minutes (online or seat time) counted the same as summer minutes Quick review of how summer school is counted and general rules … 25

How we count summer school minutes:  “Membership” for any school district includes the summer average daily membership equivalent for academic summer classes or laboratory periods that are for necessary academic purposes.  This now includes:  Interim session classes and  Online courses, as permitted under Act 257  1 FTE = 48,600 minutes 26

General Over-Arching Rules – Summer School & Interim Sessions:  Open to all residents, but cannot be mandatory  Necessary for academic purposes/HS graduation; related to instruction during regular school year  Instructors are appropriately licensed teachers  No charge of tuition to residents  Reasonable fees for personal use items / “consumables” permitted – fees may not exceed actual costs! 27

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 Permits a school board to contract with private or public agencies for substitute teaching and paraprofessional staffing services,  Allows these expenditures to be claimed as eligible costs for state categorical Special Education Aid.  The change is first effective for state aid paid in the school year (for expenditures in ). 29

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THANKS TO WASBO FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK TO YOU TODAY! (ALL AREA CODE 608)  Bob Soldner, Director ……………………  Erin Fath, Asst. Director …………………  Bruce Anderson, Consultant ……………  Dan Bush, Consultant ……………………  Karen Kucharz, Consultant ……………  Victoria Chung, Accountant ……………  Gene Fornecker, Auditor …………………  Brian Kahl, Auditor …………………….…  Michele Gundrum, Auditor ……………… Phone: 608/