Thursday, July 2, 2020

Ohio School District Recognized by State Auditor for Fiscal Reporting



CPA Chris Frame was appointed the treasurer and CFO of Jefferson Township Schools in December 2008. He held the position until December 2017. On April 26, 2015, the State Auditor of Ohio honored Jefferson Township Schools and its CFO Chris Frame with the Auditor of the State Award for excellent record keeping work. The district was one of the few recognized by the State Auditor for clean audit reporting.

Every year, the State Auditor of Ohio audits more than 5,800 state and local government agencies to ensure Ohioans’ tax dollars are appropriately used. Audit reports are released semi-weekly with those that far exceed reporting standards highlighted for the award.

To earn recognition, a local government or school district is required to meet certain criteria. For one, it must file timely financial reports in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and its audit report must not contain findings for recovery, material weaknesses, deficiencies, and material citations. In addition, its management letter must not contain comments related to ethics referrals, reconciliation, lack of timely report submission, and questioned costs less than $10,000.

Speaking after the school district was honored, Mr. Frame said he appreciated the backing the treasurer’s office received from the Board of Education. He also said he would continue working to help teachers and administrators in the district.

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Information Required to Effectively Manage School Budgets


Chris Frame is a finance expert whose industry experience spans over two decades, and who has held various positions within the education sector, including treasurer/chief financial officer of Jefferson Township Schools. There, he worked closely with the board of education and fiscal oversight committee. During his time at Jefferson Township Schools, Chris Frame handled key responsibilities such as payroll and managing school budgets.

School leadership teams are often tasked with managing school budgets, from handling simple petty cash issues to overseeing departmental budgets. To successfully monitor and manage school finances and budgets, it’s essential to avoid being overwhelmed by the numbers, and to come up with a clearly defined mechanism. In addition to focusing on how your school managed its budget in the past, you should also think about what you’d like to accomplish in the future if you had sufficient financing.

An effective school budget should be a reflection of a school’s improvement plan, and should be reviewed on an annual, 2-year and 5-year basis. To have a good budget, you should have information on previous budgets so you can examine past performance, number of students, staffing requirements, and examination results to determine how various curriculum areas should be budgeted for, as well as funds needed for insurance and maintenance.