Dear School Business Officials,
We are planning an update to our systems. Once the update is completed, you will see a new screen when you log in to Escape. This update will not affect your ability to connect.
Regards,
School Business Advisory Services Team Santa Barbara County Education Office
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ACTION REQUIRED – Educator Effectiveness Local Plan
Dear School Business Professionals,
The Enacted State Budget included funding for the Educator Effectiveness Block Grant for eligible school districts, charter schools and county offices of Education. Allocations for eligible LEAs are available on the Educator Effectiveness Funding Results web page at www.cde.ca.gov/fg/fo/r14/edeffectiveness21result.asp. The California Department of Education plans to release the first apportionment of funds, reflecting 80 percent of the allocation for each LEA in mid to late fall 2021, and remaining funds will be released in spring 2022. These funds will have a new resource code of 6266, which has not yet been included in the SACS validation tables. Once it is updated in SACS, we can update the tables in Escape to include the new resource code. Districts will be notified when the new resource code is available to be added in Escape.
Districts must develop a local plan for the Educator Effectiveness Funds (EEF) and this plan must be heard in a public meeting of the governing board of the school district or governing body of the charter school before its adoption in a subsequent public meeting. This must take place on or before December 30, 2021.
To accommodate the plan presentation and adoption requirements, districts and charters will need to plan accordingly if they do not already have two scheduled board meetings in December. Other reporting deadlines and holiday schedules should be considered to determine if the Educator Effectiveness Local Plan will be first presented at the regularly scheduled November meeting or if a special meeting will be required. As noted above, the plan must be adopted on or before Dec. 30, 2021.
EEF may be used to support professional learning for certificated teachers, administrators, paraprofessional educators, and certificated staff. There are ten categories of allowable uses for the EFF. More information on the allowable uses of these funds can be found on the EFF program page of the CDE website: www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ee/eef2021faq.asp. The CDE will not be releasing a standardized plan template; therefore, districts and charters will need to develop its own plan format. We have attached a sample template from another County Education Office that may be used. This sample has also been shared with the SBCEO Curriculum Council. The ten categories for allowable uses of the EFF are detailed in the attached sample template.
Funds may be expended during the 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years. An annual data and expenditure report will be due each year on or before September 30. A final data and expenditure report will be due on or before September 30, 2026. Any funds not expended by June 30, 2026, must be returned to the California Department of Education (CDE).
Please contact your DFA with any questions,
Regards,
School Business Advisory Services Team Santa Barbara County Education Office
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Example-TemplateExcel-EEBG-2021.xlsxSTRS – Annual Return of Excess DB/DBS Employee and Employer Contributions
Annual Return of CalSTRS Excess DB/DBS Employee and Employer Contributions Instructions and Overview
Annually, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) looks at all of a member’s reported compensation after the fiscal year is over. Compensation earned by a member that is greater than one year of service credit in the Defined Benefit (DB) Program is moved by CalSTRS to the Defined Benefit Supplement (DBS) Program. This action results in “excess contributions” paid by both the employer and employee because contribution rates for the DB and DBS Programs are different.
Each October, CalSTRS returns excess employee and employer contributions to the County Office for distribution to districts and their employees. CalSTRS also sends employee adjustment data that the County Office converts for posting into Escape for each district. To see the employee transactions posted for your district and to correct any errors, follow the path and instructions below:
* HR/Payroll – Employment – Additional Contrib/Deduction * Select the “List” Tab and “Open” * Choose the “Employees” Tab to see a listing of the applicable employees with a return of excess contributions. * No further action is necessary for these transactions. * The adjustment batch has been posted as part of the upload process performed by the County. * The adjustments apply to the October Regular payroll. * Select the “Errors” Tab. * If there are employees listed in the Errors Tab it is mostly likely because the employees are no longer active in Escape. * Adjustments for this group of employees must be manually input by the district. Input data as deduction adjustments using Deduction I.D. “STRSECEE” to return the taxable income to the applicable employees. * For assistance on inputting these adjustments, please contact Sheng Xiong sxiong@sbceo.org<mailto:sxiong@sbceo.org>.
Employee deduction adjustments use monies held in the STRS Employee Trust Fund (9980) for the return of contributions.
* For non-Escape districts, please refer to Journal Entry CT 22-00310 dated 9/29/2021. * If your district would like a listing of the applicable employees in an Excel file, please contact Sheng Xiong at sxiong@sbceo.org<mailto:sxiong@sbceo.org>.
Employer contributions are transferred from the STRS Employer Trust Fund (9983) and placed into each district’s general fund as a lump sum.
* See attached STRS Excess Contributions 2020-21.pdf for a list of each applicable district and their respective employee and employer excess contribution refund amounts. * Refer to Journal Entry CT 22-00354 dated 10/11/2021. * The account coding is 01-0000-0-1110-1000-3101-000-0000-ADJS. * The basis for the account coding is the California School Accounting Manual (CSAM) Procedure 560 Abatement of Expenditures.
For questions about the return of CalSTRS excess contributions, please contact:
Sheng Xiong sxiong@sbceo.org<mailto:sxiong@sbceo.org> Myron Porter mporter@sbceo.org<mailto:mporter@sbceo.org> CalSTRS CalSTRSFullFundingProject@CalSTRS.com<mailto:CalSTRSFullFundingProject@CalSTRS.com>
________________________________ Overview of Excess Employee and Employer Contributions related to the DB and DBS Programs
* Annually, CalSTRS looks at all of a member’s reported compensation after the fiscal year is over. Compensation earned by a member that is greater than one year of service credit in the DB Program is moved to the DBS Program. This action results in “excess contributions” paid by both the employer and employee because the contribution rates for the DB and DBS Programs are different. * In September, CalSTRS notifies active members that have excess contributions with an online message of Retirement Progress Report in Special Messages. Members see this information while logged into their myCalSTRS account and may also select Services, then Excess Contributions to see the report. CalSTRS informs retirees with excess contributions by letter. * In October, excess employer and employee contributions for active members are returned to the County Office for distribution to employers. Employers are responsible for returning the contributions to their employees. * After the end of each quarter, any excess contributions accumulated for members who refund, retire, receive a disability benefit, or die are returned to the County Office and transferred to the employer for disbursement. * Interest is not paid on excess contributions as CalSTRS has no legal requirement or authority to pay interest on the return of excess contributions. * Returned pre-tax contributions are taxable income in the year employees receive them regardless of when the contributions were initially paid. * If there is an adjustment that reduces a member’s excess service credit from a prior year, employer or member contributions may be due back to CalSTRS. * January 2, 2001 * Moving of contributions into the DBS Program from the DB Program began. * No adjustments to contributions were necessary because the contribution rates for the DB and DBS programs were the same. * January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2010 * One-fourth of a member’s 8% DB retirement contributions were moved into the DBS program. * January 1, 2011 to present * DBS Program receives contribution funds based on: * Earnings in excess of one year of service credit. * Special limited term payments. * See attached CalSTRS Employer Information Circular on Creditable Compensation Regulations Effective Jan. 1, 2015 (Volume 30; Issue 5, Dec. 10, 2014). * July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2022 * Contribution rates for the DB and DBS Programs are not the same. * This occurred with the passage of AB 1469, the CalSTRS 2014 Full Funding Plan<www.calstrs.com/plan-funding> (Ctrl + Click to connect to the link to see the plan). * More information on excess contributions can be found on the CalSTRS website. Type in “excess contributions” in the search box. * The attached CalSTRS Welcome to CalSTRS booklet, welcometocalstrs2021.pdf, page 9, provides an explanation of excess contributions to new members.
________________________________
Regards,
School Business Advisory Services Team Santa Barbara County Education Office
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welcometocalstrs2021.pdfVeteran’s Day 2021 Holiday AP Schedule
Good Morning Everyone,
On Thursday, November 11th, our office will be closed in observance of the Veteran’s Day Holiday. In order to ensure that your payments are audited by SBAS and printed in time for your holiday scheduled trucking day, please submit your accounts payable backup according to the attached schedule.
Please let Todd Humphreys at extension 5372 or email thumphreys@sbceo.org<mailto:thumphreys@sbceo.org> know if you have any questions or concerns.
Regards, School Business Advisory Services Team Santa Barbara County Education Office
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ACTION REQUIRED – Annual Governing Board Organizational Meeting, Authorized Signatures, etc. with fillable attachments
Dear Presidents, Superintendents and School Business Professionals,
Please see the communication below (and attached) for guidance regarding the upcoming Annual Governing Board Organizational Meeting and collecting Authorized Signatures for your organization. Feel free to share this email communication with others as necessary (Executive Assistants/Secretaries, Administrative Assistants, etc.). If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact us as we are here to help you with the process. Thank you very much.
Kind regards,
Denice
Denice Cora Administrator, School Business Advisory Services Santa Barbara County Education Office 4400 Cathedral Oaks Road Santa Barbara, CA 93160-6307 Office (805) 964-4710, ext. 5237
Change to Financial Reporting Calendar web page 2021-22
Dear School Business Officials, We have been asked to forward the following information regarding Financial Reporting Calendars available in the SACS2021ALL software. If you have any questions, please contact your District Financial Advisor. Regards,
School Business Advisory Services Team Santa Barbara County Education Office
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From: SACSINFO <SACSINFO@cde.ca.gov> Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2021 1:07 PM Subject: Change to Financial Reporting Calendar web page 2021-22
The following issue has been identified in the 2021 Financial Reporting Calendars and may affect your county office, and districts and charter schools within your county.
Affected Users All users Issue The 2021 financial reporting calendars included with the SACS2021ALL software release are not up to date. There were legislative changes July 9, 2021 and September 23, 2021 to annual audit report due dates that are not reflected in the calendars. Cause Sections 18 and 19 of Assembly Bill 130 (Chapter 44, Statutes of 2021) and Section 7 of Assembly Bill 167 (Chapter 252, Statutes of 2021) extended the following due dates contained in Education Code (EC) for the 2020-21 annual audit:
* EC 41020(h)(2) and (3) – 2020-21 audit report filing is extended from December 15, 2021 to January 31, 2022. * EC 41020.3(b) – LEAs review of their 2020-21 annual audit and corrective action is extended from January 31, 2022 to February 28, 2022. * EC 41020(j)(2)(B) – LEAs deadline to provide corrective action to COEs for their 2020-21 audit is extended from March 15, 2022 to April 15, 2022. * EC 41020(k)(2) – COE deadline for the annual certification for 2020-21 audits to SCO and CDE is extended from May 15, 2022 to June 15, 2022 Resolution/Workaround The updated calendars will be posted to the CDE Fiscal Calendars web page<www.cde.ca.gov/re/ca/fc/>. Note that the SACS2021ALL software will not be updated with the revised calendars.
Please distribute this information to the appropriate county office, district, and charter school staff. If you have any questions regarding this information or the SACS software in general, please contact the Office of Financial Accountability and Information Services by email at sacsinfo@cde.ca.gov<mailto:sacsinfo@cde.ca.gov>.
California Department of Education School Fiscal Services Division Office of Financial Accountability and Information Services SACSINFO@cde.ca.gov<mailto:SACSINFO@cde.ca.gov> 916-322-1770