State Board of Education to Meet via Conference Call to Follow Up on Topics from the July Board Meeting

August 11, 2016

DOE Press Office
850-245-0513
DOEPressOffice@fldoe.org

State Board of Education to Meet via Conference Call to Follow Up on Topics from the July Board Meeting

Tallahassee, Fla., August 11, 2016 – The State Board of Education will hold a conference call tomorrow, Friday August 12, to appoint members of a financial emergency board that will oversee Jefferson County School District’s expenditures to ensure there are sufficient funds to operate properly the district’s public school system.

Florida law requires each school district to notify the Commissioner of Education any time its general fund ending balance is projected to fall below the designated threshold. Jefferson County’s monthly financial report, dated May 31, 2016, provided evidence that the district’s financial condition was not acceptable based on Florida Statutes.

In accordance with s. 218.503(3) and s. 1011.051(2), F.S., on July 1, 2016, the Department contacted the district to determine what actions have been taken to prevent or avoid a financial emergency and requested that the district provide a plan to outline these actions.  When no plan was received, the State Board of Education ordered the district to submit a financial recovery plan at its regularly scheduled meeting of July 20, 2016.  On July 27, 2016, the Department received a plan and on August 5, 2016, the Department received a second plan from the Jefferson County School District. 

This call is necessary because neither of the plans propose actions that can be reasonably anticipated to avoid a financial emergency in the school district.  Specifically, the following deficiencies in the plan have been identified:

• While the district has proposed to cut staff positions in the amount of $172,945, these cuts were all to instructional positions, and no reductions in district administrative positions were proposed.
• The district failed to fund costs of $296,928 associated with improving its low-performing schools, which Jefferson officially presented to the State Board of Education on July 20, 2016.
• The district improperly included energy savings of $68,972 from a new HVAC (projected to cost $2,300,000) that has not yet been purchased or installed.
• The district included budgeted savings of $22,577 related to fuel efficiencies based on buses not yet purchased and eliminated bus routes with no documentation.
• The district included $28,540 of budgeted savings with no explanation or supporting documentation.

• The district failed to reconcile discrepancies regarding audit findings related to federal grants.

Additionally, the Board will discuss approval of Duval County School District’s revised turnaround option plans for two elementary schools, Hyde Grove and Oak Hill. An emergency meeting is necessary because the district did not reassign students from these low performing schools to higher performing schools, as required by law under the State System of School Improvement, and must do so before school opening on August 15.

The conference call materials are available here: http://www.fldoe.org/policy/state-board-of-edu/meetings/2016/2016-08-12/index.stml.

What: State Board of Education Conference Call

When: Friday August 12, 2016
11:00 a.m. Eastern Time

Call-In: 1-888-339-2688; code: 72099134

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