Report 2021-108 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2021-108: Bellflower Unified School District: Has Not Used Its Significant Financial Resources to Fully Address Student Needs (Release Date: June 2022)

Recommendation #1 To: Bellflower Unified School District

To ensure that it provides its board with an accurate accounting of its available funds, Bellflower should improve its budgeting practices by December 2022. Specifically, the district should evaluate its spending to date every month and more accurately estimate the planned expenditures it includes in its budgets.

6-Month Agency Response

The District reviews it's year to date revenues and expenditures through weekly meetings that are held with the Director of Fiscal Services and Associate Superintendent of Business and Personnel. Additionally the District has added predictive budget forecasting based on the year to date expenditure information. The Board is presented with the conservative budgeted amount based on all proposed, approved budgeted expenditures that have been submitted. The Board is then provided presentations with predictive budgeted forecasting expenditures. These presentations are done at the required reporting dates and in alignment with Board meeting approval dates.

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

The district has incorporated predictive expenditure information into its budgeting practices and interim financial reporting. This additional information provides the board with a more accurate accounting of expenditures during the year.

60-Day Agency Response

Because the budget process is a year long process this recommendation while in place already will not be fully observed until January 2023. The District will provide the Board with presentations for all reporting periods which include unaudited actual's, first interim, the annual audit, second interim and budget approval. These presentations will have estimated actual information as part of the expenditure information. The Director of Fiscal Services and the Associate Superintendent of Business Services meet weekly to review budgets and as part of those meetings review year to date expenditures. Meetings with Directors overseeing budgets based on information analyzed during these meetings will be held.

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

All Recommendations in 2021-108

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.