The Purpose of EthicsTraining

The following article was recently published by the Alternative Press, a local paper serving out community following a recent Board of Education Meeting.  

 

Bob Faszczewskihttp://thealternativepress.com/

Friday, September 20, 2013 • 4:01pm

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SUMMIT, NJ - When does a parent cease being an advocate for his or her child?  The answer may be when they assume responsibility for policies affecting all of the school children in a community.  The assumption of responsibility for policies affecting the entire school community comes when a citizen becomes a member of the board of education.  (see the above link to read more on this article)

While this training is mandatory in New Jersey, it goes beyond explaining critical issues such as confidentiality, conflicts, chain-of-command, claims and commitments such as attendance at Regular Board Meetings; it provides clarity and awareness for Administrators and Boards of Education to hold their members accountable and enforce appropriate behavior.

In New Jersey, school board  members must undergo the training sessions but they may choose to do them privately or in public.  Failure to comply can result in removal from the board. 

Removal may also happen if a Board Member misses three or more Regular meetings in a twelve month period according to attorney Anthony P. Sciarrillo of the Westfield firm of Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper.  This action must come from the School Ethics Commission.  Interestingly this is not the case for missing Workshop meetings.

The School Ethics Commission is a nine-member body with the power to issue advisory opinions, receive complaints, receive and retain disclosure statements, conduct investigations, hold hearings, and compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents as it may deem necessary to enforce the School Ethics Act.   School Ethics Commission Members are appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the Governor.  The Commission is established in the New Jersey Department of Education.

The attorney noted that certain board matters, such as negotiations, personnel, contracts and litigation are protected from public disclosure while they are under discussion and the board must hold such discussions in private sessions in order to protect the confidentiality of parties involved.  He said board members are bound to protect this confidentiality even after they leave a school body.

What's So Affordable about the Affordable Care Act?

The real irony here is the word "Affordable" as it certainly does not take into account the facts surrounding the impact on small businesses over 50 employees and certain industries such as public education, which in many states like New Jersey is funded by the taxpayer. 

FAQ on Notice of Coverage Options

Q: Can an employer be fined for failing to provide employees with notice about the Affordable Care Act's new Health Insurance Marketplace?

A: No. If your company is covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act, it should provide a written notice to its employees about the Health Insurance Marketplace by October 1, 2013, but there is no fine or penalty under the law for failing to provide the notice.

The notice should inform employees:  About the Health Insurance Marketplace; that, depending on their income and what coverage may be offered by the employer, they may be able to get lower cost private insurance in the Marketplace; and that if they buy insurance through the Marketplace, they may lose the employer contribution (if any) to their health benefits
The U.S. Department of Labor has two model notices to help employers comply. There is one model for employers who do not offer a health plan and another model for employers who offer a health plan or some or all employees:

THIS GUIDANCE IS TAKEN FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR'S WEBSITE:
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-noticeofcoverageoptions.html

• Model Notice for employers who offer a health plan to some or all employees
• Model Notice for employers who do not offer a health plan

In many instances, the cause and effect in education will result in reduced hours for substitutes and aides along with added administrative and clerical time on implementation, monitoring and compliance.

Eligibility is triggered at 30 Hours or more per week

or an avg. 130 Hours a month;

 for a minimum of 120 days in a year

 

Add to this very little clear information with a myriad of links, time lines, scenarios and unanswered questions that are left to interpretation with a healthy dose of threats and fines...

Below is an article that appeared in the Suffolk News Hearld:

Schools weigh Affordable Care Act cost

suffolknewsherald.com/2013/07/02/schools-weigh-affordable-care-act-cost/

Annual fees approaching $180,000 and the possibility of penalties is the cost of the new health care law on Suffolk Public Schools, its finance director says.

Major Change in Local Code Review Signatures

NJASBO has been lobbying for elimination of duplicative and cumbersome steps in the paperwork side of school facilities projects for the past five years since the inception of RODS I in 2008.  Our work through the RODS committee has streamlined the application and filing process that improved life for all districts.  Now another welcomed break through outlined in the notice below is the newest step forward to aid in stream lining the process to act on certain projects without the unnecessary pre-approval from DCA:

From: Codes and Standards Information [mailto:cstandards@dca.state.nj.us]
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2013 12:19 PM
To: Codes and Standards Information
Subject: Change in Process for Review of Plans for Projects as Schools

 

Dear Construction Officials,

 

In the past, only projects involving "educational adequacy" had to be submitted first to the Department of Education (DOE) for review and then to DCA for plan review or for approval for local review.  These were projects of some consequence, those impacting instructional space. Intervening changes, significantly the passage of the Educational Facilities Construction and Financing Act, caused all projects undertaken at public schools to be reviewed by DOE and then forwarded to DCA for approval for local review.  This includes the replacement of boilers, roofing projects, etc.   There is no compelling reason to require that boards of education continue to come to DCA for permission to take these plans to the local construction official for review.   Accordingly, attached please find a letter stating that local enforcing agencies may perform plan review for school projects (other than new construction or SDA projects) without the prior written approval of the DCA.  These projects will be treated the same as other projects subject to local review, thus eliminating one small, bureaucratic step in the process.  This streamlining was undertaken with the cooperation of staff at the Department of Education.  The Department of Education will be returning approved plans to the design professionals for submission to the local enforcing agency.

 

Corrections to the language of the rules (NJAC 5:23-3.11A) and of Bulletin 00-3 will follow in due course.  The Act supports review by appropriately classified municipal code officials.  (See NJSA 52:27D-130.)

Validating Payroll to Budget



Staffing is one just one of many critical tasks performed throughout the year at every district with a significant upsurge in the summer.  There is perhaps no greater impact on budget than the outcomes of these staffing decisions and as such require effective communication and coordination between the Superintendent and or Director of Human Resources and the Business Administrator.  This is necessary to gauge the effects on budget from the hiring decisions by validating payroll to budget. 

Sample Excerpt Comparison from Excel Spreadsheet consisting of over 60 positions

To ignore this crucial analysis puts the budget at risk; opening the school year blind only to find out in the months to come whether you're under or over budget.  Remember, salary and benefits command upwards of 70% of all budgets.

Many people outside of Education see summer to be a time slow to no activity for schools, they could not be more wrong!  Summer comes with a plethora of challenges in a compressed time frame for all within central office requiring such tasks as curriculum revision, staffing, grants management, training, professional development and many other functions.  While all offices remain busy, it is the Business Office that must oversee and undertake a variety of assignments that are critical to the successful operations of a district that begin in June with end of year purchasing, budget close out ("Roll-overs" vs. Accounts Payables), project management and construction, facility cleaning and preparations, transportation, and my favorite, the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report... aka. the Audit.  All of this in addition to the regular day to day responsibilities of meetings, correspondence, phones and email, despite the fact that on any given day someone is on vacation and that someone is the one needed to resolve or accomplish one of those tasks.

If it sounds like a lot to juggle your right; however, that is what BA's do and they do it well with a lot of help from their staff, other district administrators, colleagues and a strong support system through their professional associations.  In New Jersey that group is the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials (NJASBO) currently led by John Donahue, Executive Director and Derek Jess, Immediate Past President and Tom Fanuka, President.

While every aspect of summer operations is important and all require detailed analysis, oversight and leadership - the focus of this post is on validating payroll to budget.  It is as simple as keeping track of the employee changes in real time as they happen instead of waiting months to see where you actually are.  While simple, it requires coordination of data and input from personnel in payroll, benefits and human resources as well as direction from key administrative personnel.  Many of us begin this task at budget time somewhere between October and December with November's payroll a typical starting point.  The analysis includes comparison of salaries budgeted (encumbered) vs. actual (payroll) employees to determine true availability of cash balance in each of the salary account lines.  This analysis carries through each program and function of the district to include leave replacements, resignations, non-renewals, retirements and new programs/additions.  Keep in mind, the budget for September 1 to pay all employees was finalized back in March/April almost 5 months prior.  A lot can and does change in personnel during this time and the larger your district... the larger your budget and the opportunity for major variances.

Often hiring decisions net new employees based on upward changes in enrollments or new program demands that result in new positions not even in the budget which can be anywhere from $70,000 to $90,000 on average including benefits that must be covered from other line items or absorbed by other personnel gains such as "breakage" resulting from a senior person leaving and a lesser experienced person being hired.  Keep in mind this must all be accomplished within the current 2% CAP.

Bottom line..... Don't Wait to find out your short!  Plan ahead by working with your team to monitor your true position prior to September.  Often this means crunching numbers before they are in the system or your departments are ready for this task; however, a better estimate allows for a more informed position in other decisions related to budgetary resource availability.