You are here

Community Programs and Services FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Middle School Athletic Programs
 

Question: At the request of one of the parochial schools, we have opened up our middle school athletic programs to all resident (parochial and home schooled) students.

Answer: Middle school athletic programs can be recorded in either Fund 10 (General) or in Fund 80 (CPS) based on the nature of the program offering. Two primary factors must be considered by each district before coding middle school athletic programs in CPS (Fund 80).

The first factor has been referenced in your description: these programs are open to all individuals in the community to participate (age-appropriate). A practical step will be to document this decision in the Annual Meeting official minutes and in the Board of Education official minutes this year and in each year into the future.

The second factor to be met is that the scheduling of each middle school athletic program minimizes any significant barriers to non-public school students from participating. We are not able to determine whether this factor is met by the district based on the information provided. Again, documenting the board’s decision to ensure equal access to these programs would be a practical step for the district to take. The district should be able to document how non-public students were invited and informed of the related opportunities.

School Resource Officer/School Liaison Officer
 

Question: We have an agreement with one of our parochial schools that the school liaison officer/school resource officer would be available to them as needed.

Answer: The brief information included in your statement provides an indication that this position is not limited to the public schools. The placement of School Liaison Officer/School Resources officer expenses in CPS (Fund 80) is a local decision based on the following characteristics:

  • the individual’s primary responsibility is not to provide school SECURITY; and
  • the job description/agreement with direct employer of the individual specifies that:
    • the jurisdiction of this position is not confined to the walls of the school;
    • this individual communicates with service groups, churches, other municipal teams, local businesses and citizens to assist them in understanding the student issues in the community;
    • the work schedule of this position is NOT limited to the work hours of the school day;
    • students reach out to this individual about issues on and off school property; and
    • there is a concerted effort to document this as a community-wide program and this documentation will be available to auditors.

Crossing Guards
 

Question: Crossing guards are provided by our school district at our elementary school and at a very busy intersection of a state highway. There are no parochial/private schools in our community.

Answer: The primary benefit of this expense is the safety and welfare of the students attending your school and based on this description this would be deemed an "ineligible" cost in Fund 80. It is the district's duty to document that others benefit from this service beyond those driving the vehicles through that location while the service is provided.

Latchkey Program
 

Question: Our school district offers a latchkey program with educational support and physical activities for those attending. The program is fee/levy funded and open to any age appropriate student who resides in our district; can we continue to do so?

Answer: Yes, this program can continue to be included in Fund 80 as it is open to all age appropriate children.

Scheduling of All Facilities
 

Question: In our district, scheduling of all facilities and sites is scheduled by one building level secretary and this has been part of the job description for several years. Can we continue to code 15 percent of her compensation cost to Fund 80?

Answer: Probably, with a few modifications to this individual's employment arrangements. The district needs to define this individual's employment based on the concept that this employee has been assigned two separate positions that combined grant full-time employment as defined by the school district.

  • The primary position would be a 6.8 hour/day building secretary (Fund 10) position and the secondary position would be a 1.2 hour/day facility/site coordinator (CPS) position.
  • This employee needs to understand that if Fund 80 ends, they would lose the 1.2 hour/day facility/site coordinator (CPS) position.
  • To confirm the budgeting of this CPS position, the employee will log their time related to this program and this can assist the district in any modification needed in the following school year.

Scheduling Software
 

Question: Our district uses scheduling software to coordinate the use of all school facilities outside of the normal school hours. The annual user fee for this software is paid completely through Fund 80.

Answer: Based on the information provided, this appears to be an "ineligible" cost in Fund 80. This software is used by multiple curricular and extra-curricular activities. This expense should be shared with Fund 10 based on a logical calculation. Going back to the standard - Ineligible costs include costs that would be incurred by the school district if the community programs and services were not provided by the school district, would the service be discontinued if Fund 80 expenditures stopped?

Administrator's Salary and Benefit Costs
 

Question: A portion of an administrator’s salary and benefit costs are paid through Fund 80 as we do not have a Community Education Director position and this individual is assigned this duty.

Answer: This would be an "ineligible" cost based on the information provided. To retain this arrangement the district will need to define this individual’s employment based on the concept that this employee has been assigned two separate positions that combined grant full time employment as defined by the Board approved job description. Thus, if Fund 80 was no longer operating this individual would no longer have full-time employment.

Custodial or Maintenance Services
 

Question: Custodial or maintenance services related to CPS activities are charged to Fund 80 on a shared basis for a set position (regular hours) and not logged as over-time hours.

Answer: This may be okay provided the district can document through time cards that these hours are actual and additional hours. The district needs to document that this individual's employment is based on the concept that this employee has been assigned two separate positions that combined grant full-time employment as defined by the school district. In addition, this district must show that if Fund 80 went away so would the full time status of this position.

Salaried Staff Member
 

Question: A salaried staff member is assigned a K-8 extracurricular duty as part of their full-time teaching contract with no additional compensation for extracurricular duties. Can that portion of the salary and benefits be charged to Fund 80?

Answer: These expenditures will result in an "ineligible" cost in Fund 80. To retain this arrangement the district will need to define this individual's employment based on the concept that this employee has been assigned two separate positions that combined grant full time employment as defined by the Board approved job description. Thus, if Fund 80 was no longer operating, this individual would no longer have a full-time employment.

Public Information and Community Engagement/Public Relations
 

Question: Our district's strategic plan includes a robust public information and community engagement/public relations program with quality newsletters and promotional website informational documents. Some space is provided for community programs and service information as well as community-wide information pieces. The related expenses are assigned to Fund 80.

Answer: This expenditure would be considered "ineligible" for all related costs beyond the sections that can easily be documented as tied to the activities provided through Community Programs and Services (Fund 80). An allowable Fund 80 expense related to sharing CPS information can only be for the actual additional cost to include CPS information. Hence, if CPS-Fund 80 was no longer operating this expense would not exist.

Utilities Costs for District's Swimming Pool
 

Question: Utilities costs for the district's swimming pool are charged to Fund 10 based on the number of hours/per year the pool is schedule for related curricular and extra-curricular activities (Fund 10). The remaining hours/year are charged in Fund 80.

Answer: This practice will result in an "ineligible" cost in Fund 80 as the actual additional requirement is not being met. This district facility is maintained primarily for education of students. If Fund 80 stopped operating, the district would need to provide the utility services so that the pool was available for pre-K-12 functions through Fund 10.

Fund 80 could be charged for any documented, actual and additional utility costs resulting from its use by the public. Documentation would need to include an energy study that supports how the cost per hour was determined.

District Charging a Flat-Rate Rental Fee
 

Question: Our district charges a flat-rate rental fee for the use of any section of the district's facilities. The rate is determined per Board Policy. This revenue is recorded in Fund 80, as that is where the district pays for related utilities and custodial/maintenance staffing (non-over time).

Answer: We are deferring to this standard: Building use fees charged for utilities and other operational costs must be recorded in the General Fund if no cost allocation was made for these to the Community Service Fund, these expenditures will result in an "ineligible" cost in Fund 80. This also requires that the related expenditures listed need to transfer to Fund 10.

School District Facility Fees Issue

Issue

School district facility fees that are prorated between revenues that support the school district's community program and services under s. 120.13(19), Stats., and revenues that support regular curricular and extracurricular programs for pupils.

Question: In our district, we have a select number of facilities/sites that we have determined to be jointly scheduled for use by programs and activities support by Fund 10 and also rented out to others for what we have determined to community activities. The rental fees are recorded in Fund 80 and are being allowed to accumulate over the years to offset predetermined future replacement or facility upgrades. Will be allowed to continue this practice?

Answer: Not as it currently operates, as this practice must be changed away from Fund 80 to Fund 10. There is no problem with charging rental fees and allowing the revenue to accumulate over time for the said purpose; however, all rental fees for the use of facilities must be reported in Fund 10 budget and it will be outside of the Revenue Limit.

For questions about this information, contact dpifin@dpi.wi.gov (608) 267-9114