“Transparency” has become one of the hottest topics in public finance, especially in schools. We find our school districts under the microscope of public scrutiny now more than ever, and have recently seen funding attached to the ability to post and display financial information pertinent to our operations. We’ve seen communities taken by surprise as districts have depleted reserves in order to maintain fiscal expenditures, which has resulted in cutting needed educational programs and services. We’ve had concerns that no widely used and independent mechanism has existed to accurately determine the “fiscal health” of a district…until now.
 
Over a year ago, MSBO began to search the marketplace for a solution that would have the ability to utilize financial information submitted to the Michigan Department of Education to determine cost effective/best practice models. Although we investigated a few prospects, a company who is working with municipalities to meet the transparency reporting requirements of the Michigan Department of Treasury, contacted us to explore the possibility of an extended application of their system for use in school districts. After reviewing the reporting mechanism, which had been developed for municipalities, it was obvious that with some specific measurement focus on school district finance, a tool that would test the financial health of a school district was in reach.

Munetrix™ is a web-based information source designed to give easy-to-understand access to sometimes confusing financial information for municipal governments and schools. The tool allows for building long-term financial forecasts and trend analysis including fiscal indicator scores, best-practice benchmarking and peer group comparisons. The tool creates a virtual fiscal radar so municipal and school users can make sure they are heading out to open waters versus the rocky shore. We have been working on Munetrix - School Edition which measures components of fund balance, student counts and fiscal revenues versus expenditures to calculate a “fiscal scorecard” on a scale of 0 to 9. A score of 0 representing a healthy fiscal condition, and 9 representing deathly ill. Through the use of information obtained directly from the Center for Educational Performance Indicators (CEPI), and with the ability to enter current and projected district financial information, a scorecard can be calculated for past and future fiscal periods.

Vetting the Formula’s
In the spring of 2011, MSBO began the process of identifying the fiscal indicators necessary to calculate the fiscal conditions of a district. Through a process that has included vetting the formulas and displays through a panel of ISD finance directors, a panel of K-12 finance directors and finally a workgroup consisting of members from around the state representing both K-12 and ISD finance, a final product is very close to being completed. We believe the final product will give all districts the ability to determine and display trend information related to the fiscal health of their district and compare those results with peers of their choosing.

A completed product will be ready for internal training and “pre-sale” in the next few weeks. As affordability to the end user was an initial goal, great care has been taken to determine a funding structure that was sustainable, at the same time allowing for an expansion of the first version with further development. More information will be available in the near future.

MSBO Board Endorsement
The MSBO Board of Directors has endorsed the system and it is our expectation that the launch date we be sometime in late March or early April. MASA and MASB are also in the process of reviewing the system and potentially endorsing the product as well.

If you are interested in seeing the product in its “beta” form, you may find it at www.munetrix.com. You will find both the municipal and the school products coexisting on this website, and throughout the product, the ability to interact between both sides has been implemented. By entering the site, you will gain “public access” as this will be the lowest level of detail available for viewing by the general public. With subscription level access, the district has the ability to control the display of current and future year information based on the needs of the district. All information termed historical, is generated directly from CEPI and is locked down for security. Please visit the charts and graphs that are available using the district and regional data, either all fund types or simply the general fund.

CAUTION: THE WEBSITE IS STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT AND THE INFORMATION DISPLAYED IS NOT TO BE USED FOR DATA MANIPULATION. ONCE THE SITE HAS BEEN FULLY DEVELOPED AND READY FOR PUBLIC USE, WE WILL BE “RELEASING” THE SYSTEM FOR USE THROUGH SUBSCRIPTION.

What about the cost?
Well, certainly there are costs associated with the system, but we believe we have put together a model that shouldn’t make cost a reason for not using the system. We have developed an annual pricing model that incorporates a discount if all districts in your ISD participate at the basic “light-up” level, which gives “information only” access, and at the “subscription level” which allows for full access, comparison and edit rights to the system.

The basic light up fee is $250 annually and the annual subscription fees range from $500 - $2,500 based on student count. These amounts are discounted 10% if all districts participate in your ISD!

There are a lot of bills floating around and more surfacing this week! We depend on the legislative updates each week from both MASA and MASB as they follow the legislative process in detail and allow us to forward the updates they send to their membership on a weekly basis. There are a few bills that you may want to pay special attention to that are currently being debated and may have a significant on schools in the coming months.

Please watch for the MASA and MASB “Legislative Updates” that will be forwarded via our listserv. We appreciate the ability to pass these and other legislative issues to you in this manner.

Again, we forward these updates to the Business, ISD, Technology, Facilities, Food Service, and Transportation Listervs.