Summary

This audit report is the third in a series of reports to be issued on audits conducted pursuant to Chapter 2001-253, Laws of Florida, Specific Appropriation 118, and Section 11.45, Florida Statutes. Additional reports will be issued as audit fieldwork is completed in areas selected by the Auditor General for audit.

This operational audit focused on the Miami-Dade County District School Board's Strategic Plan; budgetary control procedures, including adherence to the School Allocation Plan; and a review of class size measures for the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 fiscal years. As part of the budget and staff allocation process, the Board adopted School Allocation Plans for each fiscal year. The School Allocation Plan K-12 provides for the allocation of instructional and certain support positions to schools to be funded through the General Fund budget. Instructional and clerical positions are allocated based on the number of students at each school. The District uses a centralized position control system to track authorized, filled, and vacant positions. Also, our audit included providing a survey to 2,500 teachers requesting input on staffing and class size matters.

Finding No. 1: District’s Strategic Plan

Strategic planning procedures could be enhanced to provide for timely reporting to the Board, routine monitoring and evaluation of the District’s adherence to its Strategic Plan, and enhancing the connection between the strategic planning process and the budget. We noted that the Annual Accountability Report due to the Board in September 2001 had not been presented to the Board as of January 2002.

Finding No. 2: Staff Utilization – Teachers on Special Assignment

The District should continue its efforts to determine the optimum utilization of teachers on special assignment to ensure that the maximum level of resources is directed to the classroom. The District had approximately 370 and 345 Teachers on Special Assignment at the region and District level for the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 school years, respectively.

Finding No. 3: Staff Allocation – Teacher Duties

Additional guidance should be given to principals regarding the establishment of teacher positions that are partially or fully released from teaching duties, and monitoring procedures should be enhanced to provide for maintaining an accurate Districtwide listing of these positions and employees. For example, our analysis disclosed 777 and 789 school-based teacher positions that were partially or fully released from teaching duties, some of which were not provided for in the School Allocation Plan or the United Teachers of Dade (UTD) contract for the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 school years, respectively.

Finding No. 4: Budget Administration – Centralized Position Control System

Procedures for maintaining the District’s centralized position control system could be enhanced to ensure the accuracy of the job titles listed in the system for teachers placed in positions with partial or full release from teaching duties. We noted instances in which the position titles in the position control system did not agree with the position titles assigned to the teachers by the principals.

Finding No. 5: Compliance with School Allocation Plan

Monitoring procedures could be enhanced to ensure that schools comply with the School Allocation Plan in the establishment of administrative and support staff. We noted several schools in which clerical positions were established by the principals exceeding the Standard Allocation Plan by up to five positions.

Finding No. 6: Class Sizes – Low Performing Schools

Continued efforts are needed to ensure that class sizes in low performing schools are reduced toward the statutorily established class size goals. We noted several low performing schools in which class sizes exceeded both the District’s and the statutorily established class size goals.

The Superintendent's written response to the audit findings can be viewed in its entirety on the Auditor General's web site.