Report 2016-129 Recommendation 2 Responses

Report 2016-129: K-12 High Speed Network: Improved Budgeting, Greater Transparency, and Increased Oversight Are Needed to Ensure That the Network Is Providing Reliable Services at the Lowest Cost to the State (Release Date: May 2017)

Recommendation #2 To: Imperial County Office of Education

To better inform decision makers at the state level about the amount of funding necessary to operate and maintain the network, ICOE should formally amend its annual budget documents by November 2017 to specify multiple potential levels of network expenditures for the coming year, and it should detail the specific network upgrades and project costs included in each scenario. As part of this process, ICOE should also provide information about how these upgrades will affect the network's functionality.

6-Month Agency Response

ICOE presented its first draft of 2018-19 proposed budget to Education on Thursday, November 9, 2017. The documentation included a list of proposed upgrades as well as options for increased capacity to sites where multiple choices were considered. A revised budget document was presented to Education on November 22, 2018, based on feedback received on November 9th.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

We reviewed the budget submissions that ICOE references in its response and confirmed that the current format offers the State two different expenditure scenarios for network circuit and equipment costs that correspond to an attached list of capacity upgrade options for the circuits in question. These scenarios vary from one another by approximately $530,000. This information, combined with the information the Education Code now requires ICOE to provide for all network upgrades in excess of $25,000, will enable state decision makers to reach more informed conclusions about which network upgrades to fund and, as a result, how much state funding to appropriate to the K12HSN program each year.

60-Day Agency Response

Steps are underway to ensure that budget documents are developed from an earlier Request for Proposal process. The process moved forward on the calendar from approximately October or November to July. The program budget documents will be developed for the 2018-2019 fiscal year by November, 2017. These documents will provide multiple potential levels of network expenditures. The documents will include specifics on discreet projects and rationale for each proposed solution. The process of determining which node sites require new bids due to expiring contracts, and which node sites require new bids to evaluate increased levels of utilization began in May. Then advanced to joint conversations with CENIC in early June and resulted in the posting of the RFP on July 14, 2017. The process of securing proposals will close on September 8, 2017. Processing of submitted proposals will occur between September 8th and mid-October, with circuit award recommendations being finalized by October 23, 2017. As part of the discussions between ICOE and state stakeholders, ICOE will provide information to stakeholders on multiple options for proposed capacity changes, and on how proposed upgrades will affect the network's functionality.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2016-129

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.