Category: Newsroom Articles

Annual Audit Requirements

Initial Report to the Commissioner Due November 1st:

Pursuant to Title 20-A MRSA 6051 §4, statements of assurance and Maine Education Financial System reconciliations are due to the Department by November 1, 2018. Please submit via email to DOE.audit@maine.gov . Any adjustments identified by these reconciliations should be uploaded to the Maine Education Financial System in NEO by November 30, 2018.

Annual Audit Reports Due December 30th:

  • Annual audit reports are due within six months after the end of the audit period (e.g., reports for the fiscal year ending June 30th are due on or before December 30th).
    • Per statute, it is the school board’s responsibility to submit the annual audit document unless it is included in the engagement letter that the audit firm will submit the audit to the Department on behalf of the school board.
  • Per statute, the auditor is required to review the audit with the school board.
    • Municipal school units are required to submit either a combined annual audit or a school department audit and a municipal audit to the Department. The municipal annual report (a.k.a. town report) cannot be accepted in lieu of the complete municipal annual audit.
  • Per statute, Maine DOE must receive a SEFA (Schedule of Expenditure of Federal Awards), which includes federal award expenditures for all reporting entities, regardless if a Single Audit (formerly A-133 audit) is not required to be conducted. The SEFA provides information needed by Maine DOE to conduct sub-recipient monitoring as required by US DOE and is due at the time of the annual audit.
    • In municipal school units where a combined audit is not conducted, Maine DOE is to receive two audits: an audit with a SEFA for the school department and a city/town including a SEFA.

 

  • If a management letter is prepared by the auditor, a copy must be submitted to MDOE with the annual audit as this letter provides MDOE with information needed to conduct sub-recipient monitoring as required by US DOE.
  • Please submit all annual audit documents, reports, information requests, questions and other audit correspondence via email to DOE.Audit@Maine.gov or via the direct link provided on the Fiscal Review and Compliance webpage.

Extensions and Subsidy Payments

It is the Superintendent’s responsibility to request audit deadline extensions and/or exceptions, regardless if the request is for the municipal audit and/or school department audit. The forms are available on the Fiscal Review and Compliance webpage.

  • Extensions will expire no less than 30 days from the date the extension was submitted.
  • Extension requests will be considered until June 30th (six months after due date); extensions will not be valid after June 30th and all municipalities and school administrative units with overdue audits that have not submitted an extension request before May 30th will be place on the hold subsidy list and subsidy will be withheld in July.
  • Submitting the required documents will be the only way to be removed from the Hold Subsidy List.

For more information, review statutory requirements in Title 20-A MRSA 6051 §4 or email to DOE.Audit@Maine.gov.

Special Statement about Proficiency Based Diplomas (L.D. 1666)

Following the passage of L.D. 1666: An Act To Ensure the Successful Implementation of Proficiency-based Diplomas, the Department is in the process of conducting a legal review to understand the changes that come with the passage of L.D. 1666, and will be working to determine how best to support schools going forward.

Further guidance will be available to schools and districts as soon as possible.

To help better understand the Department’s sentiments about the new diploma law, please view this statement that Governor Paul R. LePage provided to the Legislature when he signed L.D. 1666. The Department shares the Governor’s concerns and hopes on the passage of L.D. 1666, as expressed in this statement.

The Department thanks the field for their patience as we work through these changes. It is our sincere hope that the way forward will be collaborative and toward a shared vision of excellence and opportunity for all Maine students.

 

 

Schedule for Computer Science Day Now Available

Please plan to join us in Augusta for Computer Science Day at the Capital on August 13th from 9am to 4pm, hosted by Maine DOE, the Maine State Library, Project Login, and Maine Math and Science Alliance. Students, educators and businesses can all benefit from exploring how computer science skills can be learned in formal and informal learning settings, and how those skills can be applied in current and future jobs in Maine.

The day will include presentations and booths with hands-on learning activities. More information can be found below and will continue to be updated over the next few weeks!

For more information or questions, contact any of the following event organizers:

 

Further Work Permit Application Revisions

The Maine Department of Labor’s (MDOL) State of Maine Work Permit application has been revised as of 07/19/18. This additional change, since the most recent update about the work permit process, was necessary in order to protect certain Personally Identifiable Information (PII).  In addition to this change, a second document must now be submitted along with the Work Permit. This second form is an Age Verification Form.  The Age Verification Form must be submitted to MDOL by one of the following methods only:

With the final changes to the permit application itself, the new version, which is absent any PII, may be sent by email (if sent by itself), or it can be included in a secure manner using the same process for and along with the new Age Verification Form.  It is important that your issuing officers support use of the new Work Permit Application and Age Verification forms, using the aforementioned modes of dissemination for managing each of the documents.

MDOL is committed to serving the citizens of Maine at the highest level and will continue to seek ways to streamline this process. We are confident that these additional efforts will ensure the safe transmission of this sensitive information and thank you for your assistance in the process.

Here are the links to the new documents:

If you have any questions regarding Work Permits or this new process, please call Rachel Bowler at 207-623-7930.

Maine DOE Legislative Summary Available

The Maine Department of Education has prepared a summary of major laws related to education enacted by the Second Regular Session of the 128th Maine Legislature. This information may prove helpful to educators when planning for the 2018-9 school year.

For each education bill, the summary lists the provisions, effective date, and action required by the bill.

A law indicated as an “emergency” is a law that was passed by a two-thirds vote of the Maine Legislature; emergency legislation can take effect immediately upon the Governor’s signature.  For non-emergency laws passed during the First Regular Session, the general effective date is August 1, 2018 unless otherwise noted.

The summary can be downloaded from the Maine Department of Education’s Website: Education-Related Legislation Enacted by the 128th Maine Legislature Second Regular Session.

Please contact Debra Plowman, State Legislative Director, at debra.plowman@maine.gov with questions.

Understanding Maine DOE Data: A Workshop for School and District Leaders

WhyDataMatters-003.pngAre you a school or district leader that wonders why the Department collects certain data sets and what they are used for? Get the answer to this question and more by attending a workshops led by Paula Gravelle of School Finance and Charlotte Ellis of the Data Team. These are targeted sessions for school and district leaders, they will be about data use and policy, not data entry.

Topics Covered:

  • How does the State calculation work for funding public education (PreK-12)?
  • What data is important for the Essential Programs and Service (EPS)?
  • What data is important for Accountability?
  • What are the deadlines for submitting data?
  • Should I certify even if the data is wrong?
  • How does my data effect other districts?
  • What if I have an error in my data, can it be corrected?
  • What type of student data impacts the subsidy calculation?
  • Why do I have to do certifications?

Workshop Sessions Details:

  • August 7, Caribou High School 9:30-11:30 AM
  • August 8, Ellsworth Elementary/Middle School 9:30-11:30 AM
  • August 9, Brewer High School 9:30-11:30 AM
  • August 20, Cony High School (Augusta) 9:30-11:30 AM
  • August 21, Mt. Ararat Middle School (Topsham) 9:30-11:30 AM
  • August 22, Mt. Blue High School (Farmington) 9:30-11:30 AM
  • August 23, Gorham High School 9:30-11:30 AM

Please join Maine DOE School Finance Consultant, Paula Gravelle and Data Manager, Charlotte Ellis to understand why data matters.

Register for one of the workshops here: Workshop Registration Link

Important Update About NEO Accountability Report and Certification

This year the Department launched the NEO Accountability Report and Certification reports which were created to assist with data reporting for assessment and accountability.  These reports were meant to be used by districts and schools ahead of time to validate data for students who need to be assessed, allowing for a clean data set to be sent to for assessment and accountability reporting, and no cleanup and validation necessary in the fall.

Unfortunately, due to the many technical issues with the Accountability Report and Certification, the Department is closing the reports. While there was much progress made in fixing the technical issues, due to the complications with the reports and the lack of districts who were able to complete the report, the former process of allowing fall data cleanup will continue for this year only.

To meet assessment and accountability reporting deadlines, the current data was pulled and will be sent to the reporting vendor as is.

As in the past, districts and schools will be able to validate the data manually in the individual and aggregate assessment reports in the Maine Assessment and Accountability Reporting System (MAARS) in the fall.

In the future, the Department will release the NEO Accountability Report and Certification again to be used for the 2018-2019 school year, with no data cleanup for the fall of 2019.

For further questions contact Maine DOE Data Manager Charlotte Ellis at Charlotte.Ellis@maine.gov.

 

2018-19 Enacted ED279 Subsidy Printouts Now Available

FY 2018-2019 ED 279 subsidy printouts are now available on the Maine Department of Education website:

View the FY 2018-2019 ED 279 subsidy printouts

These printouts are based on Public Law 2017 Chapter 446. Reflected changes include:

  • The mill expectation decreased from 8.51 mills to 8.48 mills.
  • Additional funds were allocated for those Career and Technical Education (CTE) organizations which are underspending the EPS Model for CTE.

Guidance regarding CTE Funds: CTE funds are now targeted and may only be used to support approved CTE programming.  Should any CTE funds allocated remain unspent at the end of the fiscal year, those funds must be carried forward for exclusive support of CTE programming in future years.

Districts that have questions regarding subsidy printouts can contact the School Finance Team: Tyler Backus at tyler.backus@maine.gov, Paula Gravelle at paula.b.gravelle@maine.gov, or Ida Batista at ida.batista@maine.gov.

ESEA Federal Fund Manual Extension Changes

The Maine Department of Education’s ESEA Federal Programs Team is providing an update regarding the requesting of manual extensions for ESEA Federal funds.

The ESEA Federal Programs will continue to grant manual extensions to school administrative units (SAUs) that were unable to expend their ESEA Federal carryover funds within the expected two-year time frame however, manual extension requests for FY17 funds will only be accepted until August 15, 2018. Requests submitted August 16, 2018 and beyond will not be reviewed or approved.

All requests for manual extensions should go to the district’s ESEA regional team member. Manual extension requests require all funds to be obligated by September 30, 2018 and liquidated by October 30, 2018.

With the understanding that it is not always possible to plan expenditures of ESEA Federal Funds within the fiscal year the funds are granted. In the event that funds are not expended, the ESEA allows for SAUs to carry funds over into the following year. The provision for a manual extension should be the last option in order to expand funds carried over from prior years.

Your continual support as a responsible steward of ESEA Federal Funds is greatly appreciated. If you have questions regarding manual extensions, please contact your ESEA regional team member.

 

New School Nurse Orientation Registration

If you hired a new nurse for your school over the summer be sure to encourage them to attend the New School Nurse Orientation, a specialized program designed to help nurses transition into the educational setting.

Some of the topics included will be an introduction to School Nursing including a professional framework, scope and standards and certification requirements, resources, a review of Maine’s Nurse Practice Act, medication administration, and screening requirements. There will be two more days covering different topics for new School Nurses scheduled later in the school year.

  • Date: September 28, 2018
  • Time: 8:30am-3:00pm
  • Location: Camden National Bank Ice Vault Arena, Whitten Road, Hallowell
  • Cost: FREE
  • Registration: Register now for the New School Nurse Orientation Registration

If you have any questions, please contact Emily Poland, RN, School Nurse Consultant for the Maine Department of Education at 207-624-6688 or Emily.poland@maine.gov.