42127.8
. (a) The governing board provided for in subdivision (b)
shall establish a unit to be known as the County Office Fiscal Crisis
and Management Assistance Team. The team shall consist of persons
having extensive experience in school district budgeting, accounting,
data processing, telecommunications, risk management, food services,
pupil transportation, purchasing and warehousing, facilities
maintenance and operation, and personnel administration,
organization, and staffing. The Superintendent may appoint one
employee of the department to serve on the unit. The unit shall be
operated under the immediate direction of an appropriate county
office of education selected jointly, in response to an application
process, by the Superintendent and the president of the state board
or his or her designee.
(b) The unit established under subdivision (a) shall be selected
and governed by a 25-member governing board consisting of one
representative chosen by the California County Superintendents
Educational Services Association from each of the 11 county service
regions designated by the association, 11 superintendents of school
districts chosen by the Association of California School
Administrators from each of the 11 county service regions, one
representative from the department chosen by the Superintendent, the
Chancellor of the California Community Colleges or his or her
designee, and one member of a community college district governing
board chosen by the chancellor. The governing board of the County
Office Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team shall select a
county superintendent of schools to chair the unit.
(c) (1) The Superintendent may request the unit to provide the
assistance described in subdivision (b) of Section 1624, Section
1630, subdivision (b) of Section 42127.3, subdivision (c) of Section
42127.6, and Section 42127.9, and with the computation described in
subdivision (a) of Section 42238.2, and to review the fiscal and
administrative condition of any county office of education, school
district, or charter school.
(2) A county superintendent of schools may request the unit to
review the fiscal or administrative condition of a school district or
charter school under his or her jurisdiction.
(3) The Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges
may request the unit to provide the assistance described in Section
84041.
(d) In addition to the functions described in subdivision (c), the
unit shall do all of the following:
(1) Provide fiscal management assistance, at the request of any
school district, charter school, or county office of education, or,
pursuant to subdivision (g) of Section 84041, at the request of any
community college district. Each school district, charter school, or
county office of education receiving that assistance shall be
required to pay the onsite personnel costs and travel costs incurred
by the unit for that purpose, pursuant to rates determined by the
governing board established under subdivision (b). The governing
board annually shall distribute rate information to each school
district, charter school, and county office of education.
(2) Facilitate training for members of the governing board of the
school district, district and county superintendents, chief financial
officers within the district, and schoolsite personnel whose primary
responsibility is to address fiscal issues. Training services shall
emphasize efforts to improve fiscal accountability and expand the
fiscal competency of local agencies. The unit shall use state
professional associations, private organizations, and public agencies
to provide guidance, support, and the delivery of any training
services.
(3) Facilitate fiscal management training through the 11 county
service regions to county office of education staff to ensure that
they develop the technical skills necessary to perform their
fiduciary duties. The governing board established pursuant to
subdivision (b) shall determine the extent of the training that is
necessary to comply with this paragraph.
(4) Produce a training calendar, to be disseminated semiannually
to each county service region, that publicizes all of the fiscal
training services that are being offered at the local, regional, and
state levels.
(e) The governing board shall reserve not less than 25 percent,
nor more than 50 percent, of its revenues each year for expenditure
for the costs of contracts and professional services as management
assistance to school districts or county superintendents of schools
in which the board determines that a fiscal emergency exists.
(f) The governing board established under subdivision (b) may levy
an annual assessment against each county office of education that
elects to participate under this section in an amount not to exceed
twenty cents ($0.20) per unit of total average daily attendance for
all school districts within the county. The revenues collected
pursuant to that assessment shall be applied to the expenses of the
unit.
(g) The governing board established under subdivision (b) may pay
to the department, from any available funds, a reasonable amount to
reimburse the department for actual administrative expenses incurred
in the review of the budgets and fiscal conditions of school
districts, charter schools, and county superintendents of schools.
(h) When employed as a fiscal adviser by the department pursuant
to Section 1630, employees of the unit established pursuant to
subdivision (a) shall be considered employees of the department for
purposes of errors and omissions liability insurance.
(i) (1) The unit shall request and review applications to
establish regional teams of education finance experts throughout the
state.
(2) To the extent that funding is provided for purposes of this
subdivision in the annual Budget Act or through another
appropriation, regional teams selected by the Superintendent, in
consultation with the unit, shall provide training and technical
expertise to school districts, charter schools, and county offices of
education facing fiscal difficulties.
(3) The regional teams shall follow the standards and guidelines
of and remain under the general supervision of the governing board
established under subdivision (b).
(4) It is the intent of the Legislature that, to the extent
possible, the regional teams be distributed geographically throughout
the various regions of the state in order to provide timely,
cost-effective expertise to school districts, charter schools, county
offices of education, and community college districts throughout the
state.