DESE Financial update at MASBO

Circuit breaker: Jay Sullivan

circuit breaker relief email has gone out to districts: this fiscal year costs must be 25% over cost last year for circuit breaker

60-65 districts that file on an annual basis

hopefully by end of this month should be filed

Gov's budget: budget will go through a number of iterations through House and Senate
may or may not use ESSER funds for local contribution
DESE will continue to plan as if that's going to happen; guidance will be available, but not yet
Still not (and won't be) sure

House 1 Ch. 70 proposal: Rob O'Donnell and Rob Hanna

slides are on DESE Ch.70 page (this set is updated as of today)
updated Ch.70 formula workbook, as well, as to how ESSER II funds should be available to regional district members
Ch.70 aid increases over $197.7M over FY21
1/7th implementation of SOA
low income up to 185% threshold (FY16 % of low income student enrollment)
assumed in district sped enrollment percentages (increased to 1/7th)
inflation of 1.48% (2.78% for insurance from three year GIC average)
Hold harmless for 20 districts that would have otherwise lost aid under SOA implementation 
local contribution reduced 100% of gap for those over target
CEY of 175% of foundation or more required to contribute to 82.5% of foundation
House 1 allows districts to use up to 75% of ESSER II funds for their local contribution increases
Members of regional district may deem a proportional share of 75% of the regional district's ESSER II grant toward increases in required contribution 
charter tuition based on same foundation rates
implements 100/60/40 schedule for charter reimbursement (year 1): 75% of total entitlement based on current projections: $143.5M (will be 90% in FY23, 100% in FY24)
charter tuition being reduced by per pupil required local contribution that can be supported by each sending district's ESSER II award (reduction statewide of $7.5M)
Charters then asked to offset with their own ESSER funding
allocations of coronavirus funding $53M statewide just over $50M in funding for districts ($25 per pupil + $75 per low income pupil) 
two equal payments starting this month (later) 
No grant applications needed but for eligible expenses; only for use in FY21 (so by June); thus can go back to July 2020, must be spent by June 2021
to be put in separate account "available to school committee without further appropriation"
will at least need to be reported on End of Year report; may be other reporting requirement
"we're going to have all kinds of pages in the end of year report, starting in FY21"
Federal CvRF next round of reporting due March 5

Transportation: Craig Delmonte:
district that provides own transportation should have heard from recently
how districts are reporting transportation costs on End of Year report
accurate measure of claiming for costs under circuit breaker for districts that provide own transportation 
working on cost per ride across Commonwealth

Questions:
FY21 rural aid distribution: no info as yet
if my charter reimbursement is going down, what's up? Your tuition must be going down
ESSER funding: available to school committee up to 75% of total amount to cover increase
aid to state and local governments potentially coming in President's bill
150 districts that haven't drawn down CvRF
if you're funding right at net school spending, 
First time in history that a grant will be counting towards NSS
"you're going to spend the money, and then journal enter the money in your EOY report"
ESSER II use is putting off the local funding of the increase in local contribution, which will need to be picked up the following year