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Also, we send out notices about programs that are frozen in FRIS for various reasons. We try to provide the superintendents a list of what has been submitted and what has not, so they can follow up with their team to make sure that those expenditure reports are submitted, and the money keeps flowing with the district. What’s nice is both Cheryl and I are not really limited on some of the issues. I just recently assisted a school district with what the requirements are for submitting bids and how they went out for bus bids. I provided some connections and some research for that. I really believe a lot of the value add that Cheryl and I can bring to it is that we will take the time and do the research that superintendents may not have the time to. Q How have Cheryl and Robert assisted your district? Andy: We’re trying to streamline multiple processes. One is data at our high school. We’ve worked with Cheryl, and continue to do so, trying to figure out where some of this data is coming from and making

Q What would you say to districts on the fence about joining IASA Compliance Plus? of those reports. They have helped me better understand what ISBE is asking for. It was taking me a long time to research it. They could just tell me what I needed right away. They’ve just made me much more efficient. Andy: Since August, I’ve probably had correspondence with Robert or Cheryl on at least 15 to 20 matters. When you ask me what all we’ve dealt with, some of the things that come to mind are indirect costs. Robert walked me through Jeff: Compliance Plus has really supported me as a second year superintendent. There’s a lot to learn and year one was pretty difficult. One thing for sure is IASA has the Task Planner, but districts participating in Compliance Plus get a more detailed planner that breaks things down more with due dates and explanations about compliance-related matters. With things like expenditure reports and site-based expenditures, I had some catch up to do. I’ve been working with Cheryl and Robert closely on some

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sure our people understand what needs to be provided. My interactions with Robert have been incredible. Every time I’ve asked for something, he has responded. We’ve had phone conversations in regard to any and all requests that I’ve had. We’ve had grant questions, transportation report questions and pretty much run the gamut on everything ISBE related.

some information about indirect costs, which we don’t utilize and that I did not fully understand. I’m not going to lie to you, I don’t think a lot of people probably do. We’ve talked a lot about nutrition grants. We’ve talked a lot about Evidence-Based Funding. Just about anything compliance wise. I think one of our grade school principals was having some concerns about a discrepancy with her class size data.

The magnitude of what we’ve been able to utilize with Cheryl and Robert has really been a game changer.

My brother is a superintendent, and I’ve tried to tell him at least three times so far this year that, for $5,200, you need to tie in with Robert Wolfe and Cheryl Graff for all things ISBE data. Period. I guess I would finish by just saying the piece that I struggle to understand is why people wouldn’t spend $5,200 when the magnitude of what we’ve been able to utilize, with both Cheryl and Robert, has really been a game changer. They’re helping us to better understand the pieces and the parts behind the emails that seem to come every week from the Illinois State Board of Education requesting something. We have a Compliance Document that they are working on with

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What other ways has IASA Compliance Plus assisted your district? Chelle Beck, Curriculum Director at Effingham CUSD #40: ISBE collects a lot of data from school districts that lands in the Illinois School Report Card. A lot of times we have questions about why that particular metric looks the way it does. It sometimes doesn’t match with our internal calculations. It’s been really beneficial to partner with Cheryl and have her actually walk us through some of the metrics. Sometimes we don’t know how that checkbox is impacting the data that, months later, is public facing. It’s saved us a lot of time and has been really helpful.

19 LM October 2023 continued...