DFS Digest

The P2 property tax estimates were sent to the California Department of Education and the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office before the April 15th deadline. As expected, due to the recent surge in property values, the amount of funding for our LEAs is significantly higher than previous years. DFS Notify ACT2024-30: Property Tax Report – K12 and ACT2024-31: Property Tax Report – Community Colleges contain detailed information regarding the certification.

LEAs now control the year end rollover option through the “Modify District Cutoff Dates” screen. A drop-down selector is available to select an option. If the LEA does not select an option, the previous year option will be used.

Every business day, US Bank provides a list of warrants we are to decision as “pay” or “do not pay”. We have to make a decision by 1:00 pm each day. Some warrants presented for our review are missing payee information. In these instances, we may reach out for confirmation from the district in order to “pay” or “do not pay”. If we are not able to obtain a response by 12:30 pm, we are going to decision the item as “do not pay”.

For the processing of cancels, we do not need the original warrant and signed form mailed to our office. The scanned copies sent via email are sufficient. Please ensure the copy of the scanned warrant is included in the request. If the warrant is not provided or not available, we need to process the request as missing. When providing a copy of the warrant, ensure that the signature has been cut out/removed. If the warrant still includes the signature, we will be requesting the signature is removed before we proceed.

Please use the following contact list for accounting-related inquiries and requests:

Rick Torres: rstorres@rcoe.us

Erwin Carreon: ecarreon@rcoe.us

Melody Santamaria: msantamaria@rcoe.us

Whitney Knight: wknight@rcoe.us

Anabel Gonzalez: agonzalez@rcoe.us

The budget cycle rates in the budget module do not automatically update for outyear rates. When you populate your budget, it simply grabs the current year rates and you must modify for the budget year. This includes rates for CalPERS, CalSTRS, unemployment insurance, and workers' comp. Once you modify the budget cycle rates, you will need to recalculate the budget.

Assembly Bill 721 amended Education Code 42103 to specify that for the years January 1, 2024, thru December 31, 2026, the School district, or County Office Education on behalf of the school district, shall publish the budget hearing information in a local newspaper. County Offices of Education are required to verify that the publishing requirements are met. The Notice of Public Hearing excel spreadsheet designating the date the budget will be available for inspection and the scheduled date of the public hearing and the Budget Publication Information form, were due to our office by May 1st. If your district has not submitted the required forms, our office will be reaching out to assist.

Please consider taking your temporary loan resolutions for next fiscal year early and submit to our office! For additional information, you may reference DFS Notify FOS2024-42: Blanket Budget & Temporary Loan Resolutions Samples.

Districts are required to record their ASB activity in Fund 08, Student Activity Special Reserve Fund. Please keep in mind, if this is your first time reporting Fund 08 in SACS, beginning fund balances, by resource, should be reported using Object 9795, Other Restatements, rather than Object 9791, Beginning Fund Balance, which must be zero. Otherwise, a fatal technical review check (TRC) exception(s) will be generated for the TRC that compares the current year’s beginning fund balance to the prior year’s ending fund balance. Districts may choose to move ASB funds to the county treasurer rather than maintain the funds in a separate bank account; however, a board resolution must be adopted to formally establish the fund.

DFS Notify PAY2024-20 was distributed on April 15, 2024. This notify lays out the new POD (Payroll-On-Demand) process that will be implemented starting next fiscal year. The most significant changes are that, beginning July 1, 2024, all PODs will be paid via direct deposit, and we will be moving to one POD per week on Tuesdays, with a payday of Thursday (excluding holidays and Galaxy downtimes). The first regular 12P POD is scheduled on Tuesday, July 2, 2024, with a pay date of Friday, July 5, 2024, due to the Independence Day holiday.

The notify also includes Section 425 of the DFS Payroll and W-2 Manual which outlines the new POD processing timeline that will be effective in July. We kindly ask that you thoroughly review this information with relevant staff to ensure a smooth transition to the new process. Please contact DFSPayroll@rcoe.us with any questions.

DFS Notify PAY2024-21 was distributed on April 15, 2024. This notify includes the July 2024 Payroll Calendar, July 2024 POD Schedule, and Section 425 of the DFS Payroll and W-2 Manual which has been updated with the new POD process and timeline that will be effective starting July 2024.

Three 12P long-term PODs will be available for timely payment of any additional, fiscal year 2023-2024 payroll payments. They are highlighted in yellow, blue, and green on the July 2024 Payroll Calendar. To participate in a POD, please notify the DFS Payroll Unit via email to DFSPayroll@rcoe.us, including the number of the POD you would like to participate in (i.e., 12P 0702202401).

Additionally, in July, 12P and 01P PODs will run concurrently, please carefully select the correct POD number when making your payroll entries.

Also, please do not update your salary schedules in Galaxy for the new fiscal year until you have completed any large PODs associated with fiscal year 2023-2024.

We ask that you share the information in DFS Notify PAY2024-21 including all the attachments with relevant staff. Please contact DFSPayroll@rcoe.us with any questions.

Please send NEATs to DFS via GoAnywhere as soon as possible for timely county approval.

DFS does not approve NEATs between the Payroll Gross Pay and Net Pay since doing so bypasses the certificated credentialing process and the accurate calculation of employee garnishments. We ask that LEAs submit NEATs in a timely manner, but no later than Gross Pay for any employees you intend to pay in the upcoming payroll. Any delay in your process may result in our office not moving forward with the approval and a delay in payment to the employee.

Additionally, we are still seeing common errors relating to employees’ date of birth, name, gender, and social security number. We kindly ask that you have a thorough review process in place to check for accuracy before submitting this information to DFS.

The MyCalPERS system is not compatible with the semi-monthly X (A and B) payroll schedules. As a result, we have been using a workaround to report payroll to CalPERS. The semi-monthly X causes many issues when it comes to CalPERS reporting, such as having to use one retro code for each pay period and having to separate the June and July earnings for retirees on 01A payroll. DFS has made available the semi-monthly Y (C and D) payroll schedules to mitigate this problem. The C pay period runs from the 1st through 15th and the D pay period runs from the 16th through end of the month. These payroll cycles are compatible with MyCalPERS, and DFS strongly encourages LEAs to move to the C and the D payroll schedules as CalPERS could tell us to stop using the workaround at any given moment without notice.

Val Verde USD made this change and has been on the C and D payrolls for almost two years. Moira Borja, Payroll and Budget Manager, stated that their payroll department has experienced no impact to payroll processing after transitioning to the C and the D. We share this in hopes that it will motivate other LEAs to change from the A and B payrolls to the C and D!

CalPERS has resumed active review of retired annuitants who have an open appointment with CalPERS. If the retiree is found to be in violation of the post-retirement restrictions, the consequences may include reinstatement into CalPERS membership and request for repayment of retirement benefits.

Minimize your LEA’s exposure by separating retirees that are no longer working for you. Send the PERS unit a separation Member Action Request (MAR) form to separate those who are not.

It is common practice to hire retired annuitants as substitutes for vacancies in permanent positions. Retirees filling in for permanent staff positions would be considered to be in violation of the retirement restrictions. CalPERS retired annuitants should only be hired for “Extra Help Positions” doing limited duration work. Per CalPERS Publication 33 “Working After Retirement,” Extra Help can consist of work to eliminate a backlog, working on special projects, and work that is in excess of what regular staff can do. Hiring documents need to be specific with respect to the activities the retiree will be performing. CalPERS will be looking for this type of verbiage in hiring documents as part of their review to determine if the post-retirement employment is compliant.

CalSTRS has launched an updated learning module regarding creditable compensation. This module covers the conditions that make compensation creditable, the types of compensation that are reportable, and how to report compensation to CalSTRS. If you would like to take this training, you can navigate to it through SEW by clicking on Employer Support Portal, then Employer Learning Center. You will then be required to log in. After that, click on Teachers’ Retirement Law Training Materials and then Creditable Compensation. The link below will also get you to the log in screen where you can also create an user account, if you don’t already have one. There are several other modules available to you as well.

Employer Learning Center: Log in to the site (calstrs.com)

The remaining meeting schedule is as follows.

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (Virtual)

Wednesday, August 14, 2024

9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (Virtual)

Wednesday, October 9, 2024
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (Virtual)

Wednesday, February 26, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (Virtual)

Wednesday, April 30, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (Virtual)

Wednesday, June 4, 2025
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (Virtual)

AB1200 (951) 826-6429 FAX: (951) 826-6961

Accounting (951) 826-6634 FAX: (951) 826-4457

Payroll & Retirement (951) 826-6538 FAX: (951) 826-6967

Email: dfs-notify@rcoe.us
Website: www.rcoe.us
Location: 3939 13th Street, Riverside, CA, USA
Phone: 951-826-6429