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Thursday, May 15

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Welcome to day 2 of the Annual Institute! Click on a session to read its description and then click View for more information.

7:00 - 8:30 Breakfast ~ Ballroom

Sponsored by

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8:15 - 9:30 Opening Remarks and Keynote ~ Ballroom

Ballroom
FY25 A.I. Leadership with Purpose

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Overview

Leading with Purpose - build, inspire, and guide teams to make strategic and thoughtful financial decisions that support schools and students. Ensure every dollar spent creates better learning environments and helps students succeed.

9:40 - 10:40 Breakout Sessions ~ Nauset

Nauset 2
FY25 A.I. E&D Simplified

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Overview

***2-hour session***

We will review the balance sheet checklist and the undesignated fund balance analysis including the encumbrance process. These are the two most common hold-ups in the E&D process. We hope to better explain what is expected and what we are looking for within these two forms in order to simplify and expedite your certification. After our presentation we will have a question and answer period for all things E&D no matter if they are related to our presentation. This session is geared toward all Regional School Business personnel regardless of years of experience and all others are welcome.

Nauset 3
FY25 A.I. Purpose-Driven Leadership

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Overview

"Beyond Balancing Budgets: Financial Leadership That Shapes the Future of Education" - Adam Braun will share powerful, real-world stories from his journey in founding Pencils of Promise and how resourcefulness, strategic thinking, and purpose-driven leadership can drive meaningful change for students to improve their lives — even in the face of financial constraints.

Nauset 4
FY25 A.I. Financial Reporting to School Committee

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Overview

It is critical that school committees are kept informed on the financial well-being of the district. In this session, we'll discuss why it's important, how to tell the story of your district's finances, and how to educate your school committee members to ask the right questions.

NOTE: The 10:50 session that follows this session demonstrates how to prepare these reports in Excel. Bring your laptop if you plan to stay in the room for the 10:50 session.

Nauset 5
FY25 A.I. Potential Solutions to Special Ed Transportation Challenges

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Overview

A review and discussion of the tools and resources available through MAPT's spedtranssavings.org website to address your special education transportation challenges.

10:50 - 11:50 Breakout Sessions ~ Nauset

Nauset 3
FY25 A.I. Safe Routes to Schools

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Overview

Celebrating its 20th year, join MA Safe Routes to School as we share how this free program has been effective in 70% of MA K-12 public schools by addressing some of the challenges of today’s school transportation budget reductions, family traffic, absenteeism, circulation planning and communication. Learn how your colleagues have put our policy, planning, education, and funding opportunities to work.

Nauset 4
FY25 A.I. Financial Reporting to School Committee - Excel

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Overview

Building on the previous session on financial reporting to the School Committee, this session will discuss the nuts and bolts of using Excel to prepare the data, tables, and graphs to present to your School Committee. Including building the historical database, reviewing trends, forecasting expenditures, and presenting data (BRING YOUR LAPTOP IF YOU WANT TO WORK IN EXCEL WHILE WE LEARN).

NOTE: Attending the previous session at 9:40 is encouraged, but not required.

Nauset 5
FY25 A.I. Calculating Maintenance of Effort

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Overview

This hands-on session will illustrate how an LEA can demonstrate MOE eligibility through either: (1) the combination of State and local funds in the aggregate; or (2) the combination of State and local funds on a per capita basis.

12:00 - 12:40 Lunch ~ Ballroom

Sponsored by

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12:40-1:40 General Session: Listserv Live ~ Ballroom

Ballroom
FY25 A.I. Listserv Live

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Overview

TABLE TOPICS

Join us for an engaging and interactive “Listserv Live” session — an opportunity to connect, collaborate, and share insights with fellow School Business Administrators!

After lunch on Thursday, we’ll host a dynamic, one-hour roundtable event where you can dive into timely and relevant topics that matter most to your work. Each of our 25 discussion tables will focus on a specific topic of interest, with a facilitator -  a fellow School Business Administrator - to help guide the conversation and keep discussions flowing.

1:50 - 2:50 Breakout Sessions ~ Nauset

Nauset 2
FY25 A.I. Student Activity Accounts: External Audits and Internal Reviews

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Overview

Student activity accounts provide an additional support within your district. Learn best practices for managing student activity accounts and how they support the 3-year external audit cycle and the two off-year internal reviews.

Nauset 3
FY25 A.I. DESE Financial Reporting Update

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Overview

Informing members of changes to the reporting of rollover encumbrances, and discuss potential adjustments to the EOYR audit agreed upon procedures that might be coming.

Nauset 4
FY25 A.I. Mastering EOYR Prep

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Overview

This session will equip school finance directors with practical strategies to streamline End-of-Year Reporting (EOYR) preparation using Pivot Tables and Crosswalks, enhancing efficiency and accuracy.

Nauset 5
FY25 A.I. Understanding Regional School District Budgets and Assessments

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Overview

Each regional school district agreement must contain, among other requirements, the detailed procedure for the preparation and adoption of the annual budget, as well as a method of apportioning the expenses and costs of the district, based on the regional school district budget. Regional school district agreements must also have a method of implementing the statutory assessment method and may also have an alternative assessment method. This session will provide guidance on the budget and assessment processes.

3:00 - 4:00 Breakout Sessions ~ Nauset

Nauset 2
FY25 A.I. DESE Admin Review for Collaboratives

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Overview

This session will assist SBAs with an overall review of the Collaborative Admin Review for DESE. Attendees will gain a better understanding of the overall review process to be better prepared for their scheduled review.

Nauset 3
FY25 A.I. New Power Bi Dashboard

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Overview

Showing off Power Bi again and running through capabilities for districts to find and use their data.

Nauset 4
FY25 A.I. Regionalizing 7D Transportation

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Overview

This session will discuss how a region tied to a Special Education Collaborative that encompasses 20 school districts in the North Shore of Massachusetts was able to establish its own transportation network to leverage economies of scale with respect to purchasing power and passenger load to save districts money. Initiatives like this are more important than ever given the rising costs of student transportation along with ever limited financial resources available to school districts.

Nauset 5
FY25 A.I. Effective Use of Regional School District Funds*

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Overview

This session will provide an overview of uses of some of the more common regional school district funding sources. Topics will include the use of Excess and Deficiency (E & D) in regional school district budgets, including how and when E & D may be used and what districts are required to do if E and D is over 5%, and the use of other sources of funds (within and outside the general fund budget), including stabilization, transportation reimbursement, and school choice.

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4:00 - 4:30 Roundtables ~ Nauset

See Description for Locations
FY25 A.I. Roundtables

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Overview

Unsure which roundtable you belong to? Click HERE and locate the town that your district office resides and match the town's highlighted color to the roundtable name. USBAR districts may attend either their town's geographical roundtable or USBAR, or split their time between both.

  • Assabet Valley - Monomoy
  • Berkshire and West - Nauset 3
  • Cape Cod - Nobska
  • Central - Nauset 2
  • Lighthouse Nauset 4
  • Metrowest - Chatham
  • North Shore - Nauset 5
  • USBAR - Race Point

5:00 - 10:00 President's Reception followed by Thursday Night Lights ~ Terrace, Ballroom

President's Reception sponsored by:

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Dinner and Activity sponsored by:

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