What a Difference a Year Makes
One Year Ago…
Last year, I became a school board member on a Monday.
The next day, seventy teachers, educational technicians, bus drivers, custodians and other staff appeared at my first School Board board meeting. During the public comment period we learned how poorly the PPS payroll system was being run. Previous rumors of problems underestimated how bad it really was. Finger pointing aside, it was the tip of the iceberg.
Where We Are Today
This month the new Finance Director Helene DiBartolomeo, who started on October 1, 2023 updated the School Board on her progress. Here are the Major Findings and Fixes:
1. The District is moving to an external payroll operator. ADP is a well respected national firm that will produce the payroll. The new system’s paychecks will be distributed beginning in January.
2. After 11 months of fact finding, analysis and systemic reorganization by Berry Dunn, a local accounting firm the payroll structure is now in a place to be handed to ADP. One notable system failure is there were no standard written operating procedures in place for the past few years.
3. Unfortunately, Human Resources (HR) is in a similar plight as the Finance Department was, and this compounded the issues the Finance Department experienced.
4. The Annual Audit with the City will take place on December 4th. Preparation by the Board has taken more time because of the lack of organization and reporting systems. Here are some critiques written in the audit report for June 2022 to June 2023:
Inadequate Segregation of Duties. Concerns related to payroll staff entering and processing pay and benefits
Integrity of financials based on payroll system issues
Late filings of State and Federal tax withholdings
Lack of timely reconciliations of cash, AP, benefits
Lack of written departmental procedures and internal controls.
Director DiBartolomeo has deep knowledge and experience. I am optimistic future audits will run smoother. It’s what we need going forward.
5. Cleaning up the Finance situation has been expensive and is still ongoing but will be complete in a few months, An inhouse Payroll Manager, Purchasing Manager, and Accounting Manager will take over specified duties. Redundancy will be created to avoid errors that might occur when a specialist is out of the office.
An important aspect of Financial stability is the setting of priorities for the entire district which leads us to planning for the future.
Five Years From Now…
The Portland Public Schools have begun strategic planning for the next 5 years. Prioritizing goals to direct the budget development by creating a five year strategic plan that actualizes improving student outcomes, recruiting and retaining superior educators, maintaining and improving physical structures and functions that provide the best environment for student success.
In the meantime, certain areas are prioritized this year. I’ve summarized them here:
1. Create a strong communication system internally and externally. This will improve operational effectiveness, ensure retention of our excellent educators and facilitate recruiting promising educators.
2. Build data systems that will help us identify individual students or groups of students who need more support. Use that knowledge to improve student outcomes through specific interventions.
3. Strengthen the core curriculum particularly literacy in grades K-8.
4. Cultivate safe environments for all students.
5. Restructure the Central Office to be more effective and cost efficient.
6. Create a responsible and effective budget for 2023-2025 school year given the EIGHT MILLION DOLLAR loss of Covid related funding and the likely TWO MILLION DOLLAR decreased state funding due to increasingly high Portland property values.
It is very important that parents, teachers, grandparents, neighbors and friends contribute to forming the Strategic Plan and the School Budget. Please join the community meetings where you can share your beliefs about how to improve student outcomes, support teachers and be fiscally responsible. I will post those I know about on my Facebook page. The draft schedule of budget planning is linked here. The Finance Department presentation to the Board on November 14th is attached here.
