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| MCPS FY17 Operating Budget |
The revenue that is not being reported in the Montgomery County Public Schools Operating Budget is the millions (?) of dollars collected from students, parents and guardians for class fees.
We know that the Board of Education allows local schools to collect class fees because we have obtained a list of the fees every year since 2008. The fees are not a secret.
When we asked where the fees are accounted for in the MCPS Operating Budget, we learned that the fees do not show up in the public budget documents.
Lots of other student fees do show up in the budget. For example, summer school fees, student activity fees, and lunch purchases. Yet, when a student pays $40 to take a class at Thomas Edison High School of Technology, that $40 never shows up in the MCPS Operating Budget. Some would say those payments are being "made under the table."
How much is the Board of Education collecting in class fees? How is the money that is collected spent?
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| Some of the 2016 class fees being charged at Edison HS |
What else is the Board of Education hiding?
Now you can understand why the Board of Education voted to support legislation to get rid of the mandated state audits of MCPS.
Creative accounting and fancy footwork.
ReplyDeleteHere is another way to obscure money trails. I received this response to my inquiry about a refund after 120 students paid $375 each for a 3-night club trip to Washington, DC:
ReplyDeleteAfter a field trip is concluded and all expenses have been paid, the field trip account is closed out. If there is a surplus, a refund is automatically generated to every participant if the per person amount exceeds 25% of the cost of the trip. Since field trips are an educational opportunity not a money making endeavor, a surplus of only $10 per person would be considered for refund for the [] trip due to the number of participants. The surplus in the account does not meet the $10 per person threshold. Therefore, the money will be transferred to a general field trip account and used for a field trip that may experience unforeseen expenses and close in a deficit.
Michelle -- Please ask the principal to point you to the BOE policy that states that a school is allowed to retain these overpayments. I haven't been able to find anything that says that overpayments can be retained by the school. Also, which school is this?
Deletenot there yet. This is one of the W high schools.
DeleteI received two 2004 links and a 2016 memo updating them with permission to share all three documents.
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ipd.pdf
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/ipdra.pdf
2016 field trip memo
From: "Ikheloa, Roland"
Date: March 15, 2016 at 14:48:33 EDT
All documents I gave you are public documents, feel free to share them.
Ikhide Roland Ikheloa
Chief of Staff-Ombudsman
Montgomery County Board of Education
Page 5 of the Memo refers to MCPS Financial Manual, Chapter 20, Independent Activity Funds, for important field trip accounting requirements and audit guidelines.
Questions
• Please contact Ms. Ruschelle Reuben, executive director to the deputy superintendent, Office of School Support and Improvement, at ...
No word yet on who might propose changing the current policy that allows teachers to mandate that same-sex high school students share beds or sleep on the floor. That question is what prompted me to figure out whether there was a surplus after the trip that funded 120 students and 3 (or 4?) teachers at the Hilton.
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In looking around for links to school district field trip policies, I came across a Seattle parents' blog that describes what happens when students are housed in tents etc.
The author appears to be well versed in bureaucratic terminology:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/When-Doubt-Mumble-Bureaucrats-Handbook/dp/0442209266
Thanks-- a few more quotes are at wikipedia and a whole genre on https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bureaucracy. Who knew that so many people would be involved in my son's request for a $10 refund for the non-performance of "porterage" that the Hotel offered after his food funds went missing.
DeleteThis is theft. You might want to go to small claims court.
ReplyDeletelol!!!
DeleteNo. Theft was probably the missing change purse. The Hotel instructed the teachers to tell the students to leave all their belongings unattended in the lobby. I have now received word from Mr. Ikehola that a $10 check is on the way. The Hotel charges a $10 per person porterage fee. How often to you acquire a new word?
DeleteThe school has graciously provided a $10 refund from the Model UN 2015 account #5035.0012 . The Georgetown University student-staffed organization sponsors an annual February event. The refund is an advance on the $10 that the conference-venue Hilton promised to send to the school for my son because of the failed porterage. The hotel reports that porterage is a Union contract charge, which seems to apply to these hotels.
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