Finding Number: 2023-002
Program Name/Assistance Listing Title: Education Stabilization Fund
Assistance Listing Number: 84.425
Contact Person: Priscine Jones, Business Manager
Anticipated Completion Date: The Business Manager will work with the Federal Programs Director to ensure that categories of expenses are correctly reported on the next ESSER reporting cycle. The Business Manager will work with the Federal Programs Director effective immediately January 18, 2024 to obtain correct funding codes in writing.
Planned Corrective Action: The Business Manager and Federal Programs Director worked with ADE ESSER grants program staff, and the Arizona Auditor General’s office on ESSER and COVID Reporting. When we completed the initial ESSER reports, we did not understand from guidance that we were supposed to match the categories of expenditures we were reporting to the Accounts Payable Expense reports used for reimbursement requests. We had been reporting based on actual expenditures to date, not the snapshots for the given window of time represented by the Accounts Payable Expense reports used for reimbursement requests. For the most recent reporting cycle, we did gain a clear understanding of the expectations for these reports we are supposed to match to. We do carefully monitor expenditures to ensure that they are aligned to our grant and allowable uses for our ESSER funds. Now that we understand which reports we have to match to, we will be able to match the categories of expenditures to the Accounts Payable Expense reports accurately. Currently, The District has expended ESSER I and II completely. We only have ESSER III to report on which will simplify the ESSER reporting requirements to the Arizona Department of Education. In regard to ESSER I & II salary and benefits expenditures, the District had retention stipends written into both ESSER II and III for specified years and recruitment stipends written only in ESSER III. A misunderstanding caused a payment to be posted to the wrong grant. Upon discovery and to process the correction, the District executed a journal entry to assign the expense to the right grant. In the meantime, we had already processed a reimbursement request for the original and erroneously posted expense. This caused the financial reports to appear as if the expense occurred twice; once in F336 and once in F346 in the future, the Business Manager will get a written approval from the Federal Programs Director on which funds were approved for Recruitment and Retention payments and for specified years.