08/03/2015 – Financial Report

June 2015 Financial Report
08/03/2015 – Work/Business
eboard link icon Agenda Item – Approval of Monthly Financial Report
Before Accruals

After Accruals
.pdf link icon  June 2015 Monthly Financial Report (10/29/2015) – Includes all FY2015 Accruals
Preparatory Q&A with DeKalb Schools
Question:  The current Vendor Spends Report has a few various charges totaling $27,735 for Project/Dept Description: “HOOPER ALEXANDER ELEMENTARY-ASEDP”. Hooper Alexander ES doesn’t exist anymore. What was the ven-dor, American Book Company, paid for as it relates to Hooper Alexander ES?
Answer:  These actual payments went for the benefit of DESA – DeKalb Elementary School of the Arts (location 102). The After School Program needs to request an update to the name of the program in TERMS.
Question:  (Stan Jester) Please explain how the monthly earned retainer fees are paid. Specifically, if we have monthly retainer fees, how do we have some months with no accrued legal fees in the monthly financial report.
Answer:  Please refer to this July 2015 Letter of Engagement from Nelson Mullins. (July 2014 Letter of Engagement from NM)
Note: Letter of Engagement says “On the tenth day of each month, DCSD will forward to our firm, an advance retainer fee in the amount of $65,000.00 per month, from general funds, from which our firm will bill against for the specified services at the hourly rates contained in this Engagement Letter. In the event the monthly retainer is not expended (excluding costs), the DCSD will be issued a credit on the next monthly billing. If the monthly retainer is expended (excluding costs), the DCSD will remit funds to compensate the firm for the amount due in excess of the retainer. Monthly billings shall be reconciled by the 5th business day of the ensuing month and submitted to DCSD for payment. Said payment shall be processed by the 15th of every month.”
Q1:  (Jim McMahan)  Explain why we have $54,000,000 salary accrual in the last month of the fiscal year? Shouldn’t it be “0” since we are at the end of the year?
Answer:  No, the accrual period is July and August (per the State Auditors). When the accrual period is completed (8/31) and we know the actuals then the actuals will be moved to “Salaries” and accruals zeroed out.
Question:  (Jim McMahan)  same question for “Pupil Services” and $3.6MM for salary accrual.
Answer:  Same answer as above for Q1.
Question:  (Jim McMahan)  same question for “Inst. Staff Services” for $1.3MM.
Answer:  Same answer as above.
Question:  (Jim McMahan)  Maintenance salaries are $.5MM over budget AND there is a $1MM salary accrual?
Answer:  Yes, it appears that Facilities spent 500K over in Main. Salaries. The $1MM in salary accrual is structured based upon the same answer as above. Note the overall function is at 99.9% expended considering the overage and accrued sala-ries.
Question:  (Jim McMahan)  Why did we NOT spend all the money on capital outlays? It is almost $1MM under budget.
Answer:  Note that this is Capital for Equipment not for Buildings. The expenditure for equipment came in $1MM under; this is not a bad occurrence.
Question:  (Jim McMahan)  Why is there a significant overrun in “Supporting Services” of $1MM or 8% of the budget?
Answer:  Noted this amount represents over expenditure of Salary/Benefits in 11 areas. Largest is area of substitutes (non teach-er). Will have to research various locations where people were reassigned and budget should follow. Please note that overall GF Budget for FY2015 was under expended by $14MM.
Question:  (Jim McMahan)  Why does the Comparability Assessment have a $900,000 overrun?
Answer:  This results from the DCSD paying most of the FY2014 Assessment and all of the FY2015 Assessment both in FY2015. The Title I Office was attempting to negotiate a lower FY2014 amount with the State but they were unsuccessful. This delay resulted in most of the FY2014 amount ($2.1MM) being paid in FY2015 along with all of the FY2015 amount (97K).
Question:  (Jim McMahan)  What is the $23MM accrual in Employee benefits?
Answer:  This is the benefits component of Salary accruals, which will track the Salary accrual process.
Question:  (Jim McMahan)  Why is $1.5MM budgeted for “Debt Principal Payment” yet no payments made to date?
Answer:  This report is as of the end on June 2015. This debt service payment was scheduled to be made and was made in July 2015. The State Auditors have indicated a revised position on accruing debt service payments which should resolve this issue in the next monthly report.
June2015 Monthly Financial Report