Hitchcock INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Hitchcock INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT"

Posy Cook
5 years ago
Views:

1 Hitchcock INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 8117 Highway 6, Hitchcock, TX (409) Office, Fax Barbara Wilson Superintendent September 12, 2005 To Parents of Students of Hitchcock ISD and Taxpayers of Hitchcock ISD: Hitchcock Independent School District has received its State Financial Accountability Rating for The District is proud to announce that it received a Superior Rating rating. If you are interested in reviewing this report, they are available at each District campus, HISD Central Administration office located at 8117 Highway 6, and various locations throughout the City of Hitchcock including City of Hitchcock City Hall, Hitchcock Public Library, Texas First Bank Hitchcock, Prosperity Bank, and the Hitchcock Chamber of Commerce. The report can also be obtained through our website at A public hearing to discuss this report has been scheduled for 7:00 PM, Tuesday, September 20, 2005, at the Hitchcock ISD Boardroom and Conference Facility located at 8004 North Railroad, Hitchcock, Texas. Sincerely, Barbara Wilson Superintendent

2 Hitchcock Independent School District Barbara Wilson, Superintendent Elsie I. Schiro, Business Official FIRST Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas Annual Financial Accountability Management Report For the Year Ending August 31, 2004

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction... 1 Overview of Worksheet District Status How Ratings are Assessed Glossary

4 Hitchcock Independent School District Barbara Wilson, Superintendent Elsie I. Schiro, Business Official FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY MANAGEMENT REPORT Introduction (For the Reporting Period 9/1/03 8/31/04) Senate Bill 218 of the 77 th Legislature (2001) authorized the implementation of a financial accountability rating system, which is officially referred to as School FIRST. The School FIRST rating is based upon an analysis of staff and student data reported for the school year, and budgetary and actual financial data for the 2004 fiscal year (the fiscal period ending June 30, 2004 or August 31, 2004, depending upon the ending date of the school district s fiscal year). HISD s fiscal year ends August 31 st annually. The primary goal of School FIRST is to improve the management of school districts financial resources. HISD s School FIRST rating was received on August 9, Within two months after receipt of the final School FIRST rating, each school district must announce and hold a public meeting to distribute a financial management report that explains the district s performance under each of the 21 indicators and the district s rating. HISD s public meeting will be held on September 20, 2005, at 7:00 p.m., HISD Board Room, 8004 N. Railroad, Hitchcock, Texas. The School FIRST worksheet consists of 21 indicators, each weighted equally with the exception of the Critical Indicators. A No response in criteria #1, #2, or #3, or to #4 and #5 together automatically result in a rating of Substandard Achievement, so these first five criteria are of utmost importance. Hitchcock ISD proudly received a rating of Superior Achievement, scoring 20 out of a possible 21 on the financial accountability worksheet. The worksheet itself and a discussion of its salient points follow. 1

5 Overview of the Worksheet Critical Indicators Indicators #1 through #5 are the critical indicators. Any NO response in this category is a signal indicator of fiscal distress. These five criteria revolve around the audit report, fund balance, and the auditor s findings. If General Fund Balance is greater than zero and the auditor issues a clean opinion, a District will pass the critical indicators. For the fiscal year, Hitchcock ISD had a General Fund Balance of $3.014 million and passed all the critical indicators. Fiscal Responsibility Indicators #6 through #10 concern fiscal responsibility. Indicator #6 looks at the percentage of total tax collections being equal to or greater than 96%. HISD s total tax collections totaled 100% in Indicator #7 addresses whether the District s PEIMS data submission matched the hard copy of the audit report, which it did. Indicators #9 and #10 are very similar to the Critical Indicators, which looks to material noncompliance disclosures in the district s annual audit report and whether the district had full accreditation status as to financial management practices. HISD passed all the fiscal responsibility indicators. Budgeting Indicators #11 through #14 concern budgeting, management, and cash flow practices. The District received a Yes response to each of these indicators except for Indicator No. 11, which determines if the percentage of operating expenditures expended for instruction was more than 54%. HISD s percentage was 50.55%. This indicator is driven by the amount of special revenue funding the district obtains from local, state, and federal grants that by nature of the grants are required to be expended in some other function rather than, or in addition to, Function 11. The numerator of the equation for this indicator is made up of Func. 11 expenditures in both general and special revenue funds, while the denominator is made up of Func. 11 Func. 61 expenditures both in the general and special revenue funds. Many of the special revenue funds are functionally specific to be spent for social work services, community relation services, curriculum development, instructional leadership, health services, etc., which benefits Hitchcock ISD and its community as a whole, but drives down the overall percentage of Func. 11 services. For indicators #12 - #14, the district adequately funds its budget and has not overspent any capital project funds. Most importantly, as addressed in Indicator #14, the District does not spend cash it cannot afford to spend or cannot recognize as revenue. 2

6 Personnel Indicators #15 through #17 address staffing patterns and the cost of administration. For the year, the District passed all of these indicators. This reflects that HISD has maintained its administrative costs of operation within the cap for districts its size and that the ratios of students to teachers and students to overall staff were within the prescribed ranges for district s the size of HISD. Cash Management The final four indicators deal with cash management practices. Indicator #18 concerns the fund balance figure and whether it is too high or low. HISD s General Fund Balance for the year is within the TEA-calculated optimum fund balance. Indicator #19 deals with any decrease in General Fund Balance over two years. Over the last two years, HISD has experienced a net increase in fund balance. Indicator #20 looks to the amount of cash and investments, which must be greater than $0. HISD easily surpassed this indicator as its cash and investments totaled $3.946M in August of Additionally, investment earnings per student equaled $44.23, which easily exceeded the minimum standard of $15.00 per student set forth in Indicator #21. Summary In closing, HISD is very proud of its Superior Rating under the Texas Financial Integrity Rating System. Its central administration staff works diligently to follow state and federal guidelines in the operations of its business office and to fall within compliance in all areas. It should be noted that the Texas Education Agency has proposed amendments to the School FIRST rating system by specifying new provisions that would be implemented beginning with the school year, including the addition and enhancement of indicators, along with a new worksheet and calculations; establishing a change to the types of district ratings based on a point system; and delineating certain disclosures that must be included in the district s annual financial management reports. Therefore, next year s School FIRST rating will be established on new criteria and enhancements and changes to the current Indicators. 3

FORT BEND ISD FIRST Report to the Community. October 14, 2013

FORT BEND ISD FIRST Report to the Community. October 14, 2013 FORT BEND ISD 2012 FIRST Report to the Community October 14, 2013 Schools First Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas Developed by Texas Education Agency in response to Senate Bill 875 of the 76 th