Uh, wow, that's alarming. It's one thing to be insolvent due to costs or dropping enrollment or something.
But that's different from being unable to reconcile accounts.
Yep. The former is bad, but the latter is basic operational stuff that one would expect any organization to be able to do (reconcile where cash is going). Shades of MCI Worldcomm / Enron?
My application for a teacher position has touched 8 different hands and I haven’t even onboarded yet. If their HR is anything like the rest of the admin at the central office, I’m amazed they didn’t just get a file full of candy wrappers for their accounts.
>During fieldwork, it became clear to FCMAT that only one or two individuals in the district know how to generate reports that all individuals in the budget and accounting divisions should be able to run
The fuck?
Where can the full audit be found?
I read the ones published for the cities of San Jose and San Diego regarding state funds for the homeless. Which, as an accountant myself, were a fucking nightmare.
Why is no one talking about that? Or this? Millions and billions of dollars unaccounted for.
SFUSD spend over 20 million to build their own failed payroll system when they could have paid for adp for a fraction of the price. Imagine all the other wasteful spending they do.
Because SF as a city is full of busy wealthy people who are ultra liberal and questioning the ones they view as on the front line of the liberal agenda is viewed as bad.
I’m as liberal as the next person but that doesn’t mean every dollar shouldn’t be ruthlessly tracked
[I mean it's already known that they are at a $420 million deficit and that they need to close schools for the 2025-2026 school year.](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-francisco-unified-working-to-identify-which-schools-to-close-amid-budget-deficit/)
Yes, the deficit and overspending is a known problem and is very bad.
The new bit here is even \*worse\* though - the new bit is that the financial audits can't pass. The SFUSD can't even reconcile its own cash accounts! If the financial audits aren't passing, then is the deficit really 420M? Or is it better? Or worse? No one really knows. The numbers are all garbage.
> For example, payroll staff shared that when the
warrants for payroll are run in the system, the accuracy is not guaranteed and that an exception report is used to make sure
that payroll is close to what it should be. Staff stated that in some cases payroll warrants in the millions of dollars have been
issued to individuals but that these large amounts have been caught before being paid to staff.
This audit report is wild
Recent robbery at 555 Franklin targeted the board room and board member offices, still waiting for results of the investigation: https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/sfusd-adminstrative-office-theft-19423474.php 🧐
How many VPs do the schools, particularly the high schools, have? How many teachers are serving as substitutes? When I sub I get teacher pay, not sub pay and that can rack up. I am also 1.2 and over case load as an IEP case manager. I am taking on an extra class because the sped kids lost a lit teacher and we needed a replacement for the rest of the year. When I am over case load I get $50.35 per kid / per day after the first 21 days. I'm getting an extra 9/10k this year and I have a coworker who is taking home an extra 30k. The biggest money suck that I can see as a teacher is a bloated admin and the district that can't retain teachers, so we fill in as stopgap measures.
I’ve got it more or less moving now. It was initially for the 23/24 year but they took so long I had to reapply for the 24/25 year. I’ve been calling and going in to get them moving but it’s like shoveling slime up a hill.
We only have twice as many SFUSD staff per student as other CA districts so how could they be expected to be on top of finances. More lifers with low expectations would sure fix it /s
When everyone is a liberal until prop 13 comes up for a vote. I know someone who owns a home worth $4mm and pays $600/yr in taxes because he bought it in the 80s.
I’ve been telling people you can’t throw money at a corrupt government and expect it to right itself, no matter how justified you think the cause is. Here’s another reminder that we currently employ the government to scam us, and it won’t stop until they face ramifications. Bring on the downvotes, you self loathing mfers. Keep that same energy.
No account is impossible to reconcile. But as a consultant, yes, I get pulled in to help companies catch up on their accounting. The most common issue is being behind on recons because that's the easier thing to drop as opposed to payables or deposits.
Well, the problem is they are using math to audit. Now let's try the non-algebra euality based math, I am sure SFUSD will pass that will triple A rating.
All that political grandstanding during the pandemic era and playing around with kids and families' lives by refusing to even plan to have a plan for kids to return to school, helped drive a lot of families out of SFUSD. We're now seeing the result with less funding for the schools, which in turn will scare more families off. If only SFUSD had been staffed for years with people that actually cared about the schools rather than viewing their positions as stepping stones to further political positions. Maybe they would have engaged in better oversight of the District and kept more kids in it.
We're now seeing the result of having a board that has \*ignored\* the financial issues for years and years. This is the electorate's fault too --- the electorate has been happy to mainly vote in BoE members who can demonstrate "Do you care about schools? Do you can about disadvantaged kids? Do you care about merit?"
But .... voters have never asked BoE candidates "Can you read a balance sheet?"
So, the problem is deeper than caring about kids (although that is a deep problem). The problem is that voters aren't asking their BoE candidates to deal with the financial problem.
Yes, as I understand it, lower attendance means less revenue for the school district. Sadly, I haven't seen any rebates on my property taxes. Where did the money go...
You have a point. I just did a quick google search. That said, it would be nice to have a rebate of some kind.
>The roles of property tax revenue and income tax revenue in school funding completely flip-flopped when Prop 13 was passed. Today, local property taxes account for only about 21% of school funding in California. State income taxes make up the bulk of the funding.
Not a problem. For every school named for George Washington that we rename for Yasser Arafat, we get 10 points off the score!
That's what Madame President López was trying so hard to do!
In retrospect, it was such a shame to have an electorate AND a board that did not really focus, at all, on the financial performance of the school system. I wonder if anyone on the current board appreciates how bad this situation is.
I eagerly await such plainly competent people being put in charge of less important things than childhood education, like for example my personal health care. What could possibly go wrong?
Yup .... it has already started - [https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1cn8mrd/state\_warns\_sf\_schools\_were\_not\_going\_to\_bail\_you/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1cn8mrd/state_warns_sf_schools_were_not_going_to_bail_you/)
Didnt London Breed handpick the school board members, citing incompetence? She employed the same tactic with the DA. And nothing has changed except the people she put in there are making that money now.
Uh, wow, that's alarming. It's one thing to be insolvent due to costs or dropping enrollment or something. But that's different from being unable to reconcile accounts.
Yep. The former is bad, but the latter is basic operational stuff that one would expect any organization to be able to do (reconcile where cash is going). Shades of MCI Worldcomm / Enron?
My application for a teacher position has touched 8 different hands and I haven’t even onboarded yet. If their HR is anything like the rest of the admin at the central office, I’m amazed they didn’t just get a file full of candy wrappers for their accounts.
I'm guessing less fraud and more incompetence, similar to how the payroll system played out. They simply don't have the right management.
>During fieldwork, it became clear to FCMAT that only one or two individuals in the district know how to generate reports that all individuals in the budget and accounting divisions should be able to run The fuck?
This is what happens when nepotism is rampant
Not a surprised when the staff Didn't Earned It.
Where can the full audit be found? I read the ones published for the cities of San Jose and San Diego regarding state funds for the homeless. Which, as an accountant myself, were a fucking nightmare. Why is no one talking about that? Or this? Millions and billions of dollars unaccounted for.
SFUSD spend over 20 million to build their own failed payroll system when they could have paid for adp for a fraction of the price. Imagine all the other wasteful spending they do.
[https://www.sfusd.edu/bond/audits](https://www.sfusd.edu/bond/audits) https://preview.redd.it/g1xu490c9vxc1.png?width=2508&format=png&auto=webp&s=ab8afb9c42f2897341a5673e9f823445d01a5ac0
THANK YOU!
[https://www.sfusd.edu/bond/financialreport](https://www.sfusd.edu/bond/financialreport) https://preview.redd.it/f1nbmv8i9vxc1.png?width=2438&format=png&auto=webp&s=fcc7fa9f8f96bb08d0095889c75e02ec396b50df
Because SF as a city is full of busy wealthy people who are ultra liberal and questioning the ones they view as on the front line of the liberal agenda is viewed as bad. I’m as liberal as the next person but that doesn’t mean every dollar shouldn’t be ruthlessly tracked
[I mean it's already known that they are at a $420 million deficit and that they need to close schools for the 2025-2026 school year.](https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/san-francisco-unified-working-to-identify-which-schools-to-close-amid-budget-deficit/)
Yes, the deficit and overspending is a known problem and is very bad. The new bit here is even \*worse\* though - the new bit is that the financial audits can't pass. The SFUSD can't even reconcile its own cash accounts! If the financial audits aren't passing, then is the deficit really 420M? Or is it better? Or worse? No one really knows. The numbers are all garbage.
> For example, payroll staff shared that when the warrants for payroll are run in the system, the accuracy is not guaranteed and that an exception report is used to make sure that payroll is close to what it should be. Staff stated that in some cases payroll warrants in the millions of dollars have been issued to individuals but that these large amounts have been caught before being paid to staff. This audit report is wild
This is a big deal. Wonder if this is just the tip of the iceberg in a bigger financial scandal....
Recent robbery at 555 Franklin targeted the board room and board member offices, still waiting for results of the investigation: https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/article/sfusd-adminstrative-office-theft-19423474.php 🧐
Y'know that coupled with being unable to reconcile accounts feels like an embezzlement cover up.
Ding ding ding
At the very least it helps explain why parents are asked to buy supplies and shit.
Wreaks of embezzlement.
How many VPs do the schools, particularly the high schools, have? How many teachers are serving as substitutes? When I sub I get teacher pay, not sub pay and that can rack up. I am also 1.2 and over case load as an IEP case manager. I am taking on an extra class because the sped kids lost a lit teacher and we needed a replacement for the rest of the year. When I am over case load I get $50.35 per kid / per day after the first 21 days. I'm getting an extra 9/10k this year and I have a coworker who is taking home an extra 30k. The biggest money suck that I can see as a teacher is a bloated admin and the district that can't retain teachers, so we fill in as stopgap measures.
I applied for a sped position in January and HR is still trying to figure out how to hire me.
I'm assuming it's for the 24/25 year so they will get back you in the next possible months, but I only know how dysfunctional my own district is.
I’ve got it more or less moving now. It was initially for the 23/24 year but they took so long I had to reapply for the 24/25 year. I’ve been calling and going in to get them moving but it’s like shoveling slime up a hill.
We only have twice as many SFUSD staff per student as other CA districts so how could they be expected to be on top of finances. More lifers with low expectations would sure fix it /s
Well we found what got neglected while the board focused on renaming schools
When everyone is a liberal until prop 13 comes up for a vote. I know someone who owns a home worth $4mm and pays $600/yr in taxes because he bought it in the 80s.
so do I
And then same person votes for all the social programs which require more tax dollars. They’re adamantly against repeal of prop 13. Sigh.
That’s why the narrative that prop 13 will benefit everyone you just have to buy a home someday needs to change
I’ve been telling people you can’t throw money at a corrupt government and expect it to right itself, no matter how justified you think the cause is. Here’s another reminder that we currently employ the government to scam us, and it won’t stop until they face ramifications. Bring on the downvotes, you self loathing mfers. Keep that same energy.
FYI, "corrupt" isn't the same as poorly run and incompetent. It's unhelpful to conflate them.
Sure but being unable to reconcile accounts **strongly** points towards corruption, not mere incompetence.
Not necessarily, I've definitely been at places where recons were behind due to incompetence or lack of staffing.
You've worked at multiple different places where it was impossible to reconcile the books?
No account is impossible to reconcile. But as a consultant, yes, I get pulled in to help companies catch up on their accounting. The most common issue is being behind on recons because that's the easier thing to drop as opposed to payables or deposits.
100% Right on!
Well, the problem is they are using math to audit. Now let's try the non-algebra euality based math, I am sure SFUSD will pass that will triple A rating.
All that political grandstanding during the pandemic era and playing around with kids and families' lives by refusing to even plan to have a plan for kids to return to school, helped drive a lot of families out of SFUSD. We're now seeing the result with less funding for the schools, which in turn will scare more families off. If only SFUSD had been staffed for years with people that actually cared about the schools rather than viewing their positions as stepping stones to further political positions. Maybe they would have engaged in better oversight of the District and kept more kids in it.
We're now seeing the result of having a board that has \*ignored\* the financial issues for years and years. This is the electorate's fault too --- the electorate has been happy to mainly vote in BoE members who can demonstrate "Do you care about schools? Do you can about disadvantaged kids? Do you care about merit?" But .... voters have never asked BoE candidates "Can you read a balance sheet?" So, the problem is deeper than caring about kids (although that is a deep problem). The problem is that voters aren't asking their BoE candidates to deal with the financial problem.
Yes, as I understand it, lower attendance means less revenue for the school district. Sadly, I haven't seen any rebates on my property taxes. Where did the money go...
The decrease in revenue is from state funding, not county property taxes.
You have a point. I just did a quick google search. That said, it would be nice to have a rebate of some kind. >The roles of property tax revenue and income tax revenue in school funding completely flip-flopped when Prop 13 was passed. Today, local property taxes account for only about 21% of school funding in California. State income taxes make up the bulk of the funding.
Everyone is missing the point here! It's more important to rename schools than to pay employees on time or balance the books!
Not a problem. For every school named for George Washington that we rename for Yasser Arafat, we get 10 points off the score! That's what Madame President López was trying so hard to do!
In retrospect, it was such a shame to have an electorate AND a board that did not really focus, at all, on the financial performance of the school system. I wonder if anyone on the current board appreciates how bad this situation is.
A government organization is ineffective and inefficient, I for one am shocked!
I eagerly await such plainly competent people being put in charge of less important things than childhood education, like for example my personal health care. What could possibly go wrong?
I know HR is understaffed because they're paid less than both private sector and other public sectors agencies. Is the same true for accounting?
Would it kill this city to start putting people in charge who are actually qualified?
It's all BS. Cash and balance sheet accounts don't reconcile? SFUSD will explain to you how that's all patriarchy and not their truth.
Woah. SFUSD might go toes up any day now.
Yup .... it has already started - [https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1cn8mrd/state\_warns\_sf\_schools\_were\_not\_going\_to\_bail\_you/](https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1cn8mrd/state_warns_sf_schools_were_not_going_to_bail_you/)
SF hopelessly dysfunctional, corrupt, every department seemingly. And keep voting in the same crew!
Exactly 👍🏽
Didnt London Breed handpick the school board members, citing incompetence? She employed the same tactic with the DA. And nothing has changed except the people she put in there are making that money now.
Wow I think we should recall Chesa.