The Special Education Fiscal Compliance Survey is due November 6, and must be completed by all Charters who receive IDEA B funds whether you receive SHARS funding or not. In the past, this report was only for SHARS participants; however, this year, the State is collecting data regarding 2019-20 expenditures in program intent code PIC … Read More
Budget Timelines and Amendments
What is the role and purpose of the school budget? The charter school budget—and accompanying process—provides charters and their leaders with an opportunity to justify the collection and expenditure of public funds. In its most simple definition, a school budget describes a charter’s plan for the upcoming year as related to anticipated revenues and expenditures. … Read More
Updated State Aid Template available from TEA
The Charter School 2020-2021 State Aid Template is NOW AVAILABLE on the Texas Education Agency website! Over the last several months, Charter School Success has been working with our client charters to help develop their 2020-2021 budget, using the 2019-2020 State Aid Template information and calculations. Now that the 2020-2021 Estimate of State Aid Template … Read More
Budget Amendments
When do you need a Budget Amendment? During the fiscal year of a charter school, the school’s board may need to amend the school charter approved budget to reflect changes in operations, the educational programs, demographics, or enrollment since the beginning of school. Budget amendments are an essential part of the budgetary process and are … Read More
The Budget Process
One important purpose of budgeting is to provide the best possible educational opportunities for every student in an educational institution. Budgets should also reflect the administration’s ability to manage the financial affairs of the school. A budget is an outline of educational programs and services with costs affixed to specific purposes to effectively direct the … Read More
More information about the CARES Act, PPP Guidelines, and FEMA’s Public Assistance Grant Program
The COVID-19 Pandemic has left schools scrambling to turn their traditional curriculum into distance learning curriculum. Texas schools have been mandated to close their doors, but they are still operating from off-campus locations. Running a Distance Learning program has caused some unforeseen costs (not to mention stress) in supplies and technology that frankly, schools were … Read More
Financial Compliance and Accountability
Because Texans trust charter officials to spend money wisely and efficiently, the state’s financial accountability systems for public charters provides a report that annually examines school funding and compliance issues to confirm that spending has been appropriate. This report is referred to as Charter FIRST. Districts and charters must also have an outside auditor examine their financial records each … Read More
Audit Firm Selection and Qualifications
In today’s Tip, we are discussing Audit Firm Selection and Qualifications. Auditing is a process of reviewing a Charter’s financial records to decide if they are accurate and align with regulations, state laws and accounting standard. Audits are conducted by third-party external auditors that are CPA (Certified Public Accountants) or by an auditing firm. External … Read More
Time to file Quarter 1 941 reports
It is that time of year to file the 941 Quarterly Payroll Reporting to the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) and report wages to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC.) First quarter 941 forms are due April 30, 2020. What is a 941? IRS Form 941 is a quarterly report of wages paid to employees and the … Read More
The Importance of a Strong Mission, Vision, and Values
What makes a charter school? Why do they exist? Why do we need them when there is an ISD where these kids could attend? Well, there is no easy answer to these questions. Each charter school is unique, born of a dream and purpose to meet an identified need not yet being met in its … Read More