(6) The TEA division responsible for financial accountability
will submit the information provided by the school district or open-enrollment
charter school to the external review panel members for review.
(7) Each external review panel member will examine
the appeal and supporting documentation and will submit his or her
recommendation to the TEA division responsible for financial accountability.
(8) The TEA division responsible for financial accountability
will compile the recommendations and forward them to the commissioner.
(9) The commissioner will make a final ratings decision.
(m) A final rating issued by the TEA under this section
may not be appealed under the TEC, §7.057, or any other law or
rule.
(n) A financial accountability rating by a voluntary
association is a local option of the school district or open-enrollment
charter school, but it does not substitute for a financial accountability
rating by the TEA.
(o) Each school district and open-enrollment charter
school is required to report information and financial accountability
ratings to parents, taxpayers, and other stakeholders by implementing
the following reporting procedures.
(1) Each school district and open-enrollment charter
school must prepare and distribute an annual financial management
report in accordance with this subsection.
(2) Each school district and open-enrollment charter
school must provide the public with an opportunity to comment on the
report at a public hearing.
(3) The school district's or open-enrollment charter
school's annual financial management report must include:
(A) a description of its financial management performance
based on a comparison, provided by the TEA, of its performance on
the indicators established by the commissioner and reflected in this
section. The report will contain information that discloses:
(i) state-established standards; and
(ii) the school district's or open-enrollment charter
school's financial management performance under each indicator for
the current and previous year's financial accountability ratings;
(B) any descriptive information required by the commissioner,
including:
(i) a copy of the superintendent's current employment
contract or other written documentation of employment if no contract
exists. This must disclose all compensation and benefits paid to the
superintendent. The school district or open-enrollment charter school
may publish the superintendent's employment contract on its website
instead of publishing it in the annual financial management report;
(ii) a summary schedule for the fiscal year (12-month
period) of expenditures paid on behalf of the superintendent and each
board member and total reimbursements received by the superintendent
and each board member. This includes transactions on the school district's
or open-enrollment charter school's credit card(s), debit card(s),
stored-value card(s), and any other similar instrument(s) to cover
expenses incurred by the superintendent and each board member. The
summary schedule must separately report reimbursements for meals,
lodging, transportation, motor fuel, and other items. The summary
schedule of total reimbursements should not include reimbursements
for supplies and materials that were purchased for the operation of
the school district or open-enrollment charter school;
(iii) a summary schedule for the fiscal year of the
dollar amount of compensation and fees received by the superintendent
from an outside school district or open-enrollment charter school
or any other outside entity in exchange for professional consulting
or other personal services. The schedule must separately report the
amount received from each entity;
(iv) a summary schedule for the fiscal year of the
total dollar amount of gifts that had a total economic value of $250
or more received by the executive officers and board members. This
reporting requirement applies only to gifts received by the school
district's or open-enrollment charter school's (or charter holder's)
executive officers and board members (and their immediate family as
described by Government Code, Chapter 573, Subchapter B, Relationships
by Consanguinity or by Affinity) from an outside entity that received
payments from the school district or open-enrollment charter school
(or charter holder) in the prior fiscal year and to gifts from competing
vendors that were not awarded contracts in the prior fiscal year.
This reporting requirement does not apply to reimbursement by an outside
entity for travel-related expenses when the purpose of the travel
was to investigate matters directly related to an executive officer's
or board member's duties or to investigate matters related to attendance
at education-related conferences and seminars with the primary purpose
of providing continuing education (this exclusion does not apply to
trips for entertainment purposes or pleasure trips). This reporting
requirement excludes an individual gift or a series of gifts from
a single outside entity that had a total economic value of less than
$250 per executive officer or board member; and
(v) a summary schedule for the fiscal year of the dollar
amount received by board members for the total amount of business
transactions with the school district or open-enrollment charter school
(or charter holder). This reporting requirement is not to duplicate
the items disclosed in the summary schedule of reimbursements received
by board members; and
(C) any other information the board of trustees of
the school district or open-enrollment charter school determines to
be useful.
(4) The board of trustees of each school district or
open-enrollment charter school must hold a public hearing on the annual
financial management report within two months after receiving a final
financial accountability rating. The public hearing must be held at
a location in the district's or open-enrollment charter school's facilities.
The board must give notice of the hearing to owners of real estate
property in the geographic boundaries of the school district or open-enrollment
charter school and to parents of school district or open-enrollment
charter school students. In addition to other notice required by
law, the board must provide notice of the hearing:
(A) to a newspaper of general circulation in the geographic
boundaries of the school district or each campus of an open-enrollment
charter school once a week for two weeks prior to holding the public
meeting, providing the time and place of the hearing. The first notice
in the newspaper may not be more than 30 days prior to the public
meeting or less than 14 days prior to the public meeting. If no newspaper
is published in the county in which the district's central administration
office is located or within the geographic boundaries of an open-enrollment
charter school's campus, then the board must publish the notice in
the county nearest to the county seat of the county in which the district's
central administration office is located or in which the campus of
the open-enrollment charter school is located; and
(B) through electronic mail to the mass communication
media serving the school district or open-enrollment charter school,
including, but not limited to, radio and television.
(5) At the hearing, the school district or open-enrollment
charter school must provide the annual financial management report
to the attending parents and taxpayers.
(6) The school district or open-enrollment charter
school must retain the annual financial management report for at least
three years after the public hearing and make it available to parents
and taxpayers upon request.
(7) Each school district or open-enrollment charter
school that received an F rating must file a corrective action plan
with the TEA, prepared in accordance with instructions from the commissioner,
within one month after the school district's or open-enrollment charter
school's public hearing. The commissioner may require certain information
in the corrective action plan to address the factor(s) that may have
contributed to a school district's or an open-enrollment charter school's
F rating.
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