Veronica Parker: All right, so go ahead and turn it over to Carolyn. Thank you.

Carolyn Zachry: All right, I just have to click on that recording button. So you can go on to the agenda slide. So Happy Friday everyone, and we're excited to talk about this year's budget. And today we're going to talk about the COLA, how funds are going to be dispersed. We'll talk a little bit about TA and data accountability, money.

Neil's going to go over the Allocation Guidance Memo talk a little bit about NOVA. And then Veronica is going to do a demo on NOVA for us. And then we'll have some time for questions. So the next slide.

So, you know, we're very happy to say that, again, the Adult Ed funding has gone up. And the Adult Ed Association and ACE at the community college level all fought really hard to ensure that they had an increased COLA from what was in the governor's January budget of 1.5%, or as Neil put it 1.4999 percent, which was equal to $8.1 million. And so due to a lot of your effort from the field and information that CDE and the Chancellor's Office provided, we were able to all together work together and be able to get another 2 and 1/2% COLA for CAEP. And that was another $13.7 million.

So that brought everything up to a 4.05 percent for the COLA. And you'll see our new allocation for this year is $560,376,000. So next slide.

And here you can see how we've gone up. Well, we were flat funded due to concerns about COVID in the last two years. But we've made a significant jump this year-- $42 million is a significant increase. That's a larger increase than we saw in any of the other years.

So California is really committed to funding adult education and supporting it. And so this is always great news. Next slide.

To disbursement, how are you going to get the funds this year? And how soon are you going to get them, right? That's the biggest issue. So in the past, we've had to do what was called an inter-agency agreement between the Chancellor's Office and CDE because the funds are all in the Chancellor's Office budget. We do this inter-agency agreement.

There's a lot of laws that go around how that agreement, which is like a contract, how it's put together and the timing of it, and who has to approve it. And so that's always caused a delay in funding. This year in the budget, the CAEP funds we had hoped we're going to be sent directly to-- we're going to be line items in the two budget.

However, the new language in this budget is that all of the funding is now still in the Chancellor's Office budget. However they've streamlined the process for CDE to get those funds. We no longer have to do an inter-agency agreement. We just have to send a memo to the Department of Finance along with the schedule of allocation.

We have to do that by January or July 15. And the memo has to come from the Chancellor's Office in CDE. I'm very thankful that this language did not say that it had to come from the Chancellor and the superintendent because that's more layers of approvals and that's more hoops that we have to jump through. So by having it just have to come from our two departments or two agencies, we've been able to put the allocation schedule together.

Thank you to Neil and Sanjay from the Chancellor's Office in Clifton here at the CDE, who last week-- Thursday and Friday, furiously worked on the allocation schedule and worked to get all of it put together. And we have a memo that has now been signed by both departments. And we're waiting to hear that it's been sent over to the Department of Finance electronically.

What happens after it goes there is that they then when the governor issue an executive order, that executive order states that the state controller will put in x amount of dollars, which interestingly is about 77%, into the CDE budget. And then the remaining 23% would stay in the Chancellor's Office budget. And those are the dollars that would go out to agencies and fiscal agents.

So this means you're going to get your money sooner. How sooner how much sooner? We don't know. And we'll see how this new process works. We have asked Department of Finance to ensure that the state controller doesn't delay any of this. And they have guaranteed us that they'll be watching to see and pushing the state controller to ensure that transfer of funds happens very quickly.

So this is good news. It wasn't quite in the direction we were hoping that was going to make life really super easy. The other piece that we haven't seen anywhere, and I don't know Neil if you've seen it or not, is we don't know we put in recommended change to the education code to have two disbursement versus 12, 11 or 12 allocations throughout the year. And we haven't seen if that's in trailer bill or not.

So I think both of our agencies are preparing to send out allocations. They're preparing their memos to go out either way. So--

Neil Kelly: No, Carolyn, I haven't seen it yet. But I don't think we've seen the trailer bill yet. So maybe there's some surprises in there.

Carolyn Zachry: Yeah, we'll see. So that's what all of this means, right? And the governor has signed the budget, and so we're moving forward on all of that. So the next slide.

Now, you're probably wondering how did Clifton and Sanjay and Neil all confirm that the allocation amounts were the correct ones and so that we can meet this before July 15 deadline. So that's probably a question you have. And I know that Neil has an answer.

Neil Kelly: That's right. So as you know, we would have had to go back to you to have a public meeting. And it would have taken time to schedule and then time to have the meeting and everything recorded, and then you get back to us. That would have taken like four to six weeks. And then that would have missed the July 15th deadline as well as the 45-day statutory requirement to get the funding out.

So next slide. So what we did was-- here are the steps in the allocation process. And I think going forward this is going to be the process we'll use depending on what happens with the May Revise and the June budget bill and stuff like that.

So step one, is of course the preliminary allocations are released by the end of February based on the governor's proposed budget that's usually released at the beginning of January. So you get those preliminary allocations at the end of February. You set up your public meetings. You have discussion, and you decide based on some of the requirements we have for CAEP, how much each of the members are going to receive.

So then that is certified via the Consortia Fiscal Administrative Declaration otherwise known as the CFAD by May 2nd. So here's the kicker, the extra step here, step three. If there are any technical adjustments in May or June via the May Revise, which you've had before, or the trainer bill, which we just had to the State Budget bill, then the state CAEP Office will use the same proportional share that was approved via the CFAD on May 2nd to adjust the budget upward or downward.

So if there's an increase, we do a proportionate share to all the members. If it's downward, then we decrease it in a proportionate share. So just to give you an example of how this would work, next slide please.

So here's an example of a consortia that gets a million dollars. And so if you look at how their allocation worked and what they certified in their CFAD, member A got 10% of a million, which is 100,000. Member B, the same amount 10%-- 100,000. Member C, 10%-- a hundred thousand. And then member D is a larger school, they got 70% or 700,000.

So there are your proportionate share or your percentage share on that far right column. Next slide, please. So then here comes the May Revise or the budget bill increase. And this consortia got 200,000.

So then we go back to the proportionate share or the percentage share, and they get 10, 10, 10, 70 of that 200,000. So member A, B, and C would get the 20,000. And the member D would get the 140,000 based on that proportion share. And then next slide, please.

So then when we bring it all together, the final allocations-- so you had the $1 million that was certified in the CFAD. And then the May Revise or June budget bill, they got an extra 200,000. So their new allocation for the year is $1.2 million. But we're still using that proportionate share to divvy up the funds.

So you can see how that plays out. And that's kind of what we did with this extra 13.7 million or so. We went back to your CFADs. We looked at the percentage share for each member because we're assuming that when you submit that CFAD and everybody certified that these were all members of the consortia, that they were all getting the COLA. And so whether there was a decrease or increase in the COLA, everyone should get the same proportionate share. The COLA is not really negotiable.

Everyone gets the COLA. It's a cost of living increase. So it's not up for kind of like well maybe they should get the COLA or maybe we should do that here or there. So we felt justified to do that across the board. We did that in a few days using your CFAD amounts. And that's how we got those schedules over to Department of Finance to meet that July 15 deadline.

Now, you guys still have to go back and go into NOVA. And Veronica will show you as we did an allocation amendment for this increase of funds. You'll still have to go back into NOVA and certify those amount by each member. Next slide, please.

So then, what I just told you leads to another question. So someone might ask, so why is the state CAEP office calculating this for me? My consortia he wants to do other things with the increase. And as we know, some people like to put it for consortia projects or oh, we gave this member a little too much or not enough so we want to lump all our COLA into this one member.

You know, you want to do something other than across the board. So here's the response. Next slide, please.

So we have to follow the Education Code & Guidance. And so right off the bat, members receive no less than the prior year's amount unless they're ineffective member. And that's why we have the member effectiveness guidance that went out last week. And so if everyone's in good standing, everyone gets no less than the prior year, and everyone gets a COLA.

COLA is a cost of living increase for all members district. It's not negotiable. If you're listing them as a member on the CFAD then they get that COLA.

As the fiscal agent, just what we talked about fiscal agent and direct funded members schedules are due to finance by July 15th. So we had to work out some process to meet that deadline. And then after that, CAEP funds must be disbursed 45 days after the state budget is signed. So usually it's signed by July 1st, and so we have 45 days.

So we give you the benefit of the doubt to have your public meetings in March and April certifying the CFAD by May. And then like I said if there's any increases or decreases, we do the proportionate share. Now, if you wanted to do something very interesting and consortia projects or fund a new member, or this and that, you can still do that, but you do that outside of this process through an allocation amendment but not through the CFAD or not using your COLA. You can still pull your COLA after this.

But this process, this allocation process is kind of separate from that. And so if you want to get together in the fall and figure out, you know, to move money around, that's up to your consortia how you want to do that. Just remember if you were going to decrease the member's amount, you have to revert the Ed Code on member effectiveness, and you have to follow the effectiveness guidance that we sent out just last week.

I don't know if we're getting any questions, Carolyn. We went through quite a bit there.

Carolyn Zachry: We did. And someone had asked where they could find the information that we were just talking about related to the disbursement of the funds. And while you were talking, I was looking on Department of Finance and they do not have the budget published yet. So I directed, I put in the chat information about AB 129 and the two sections that you all want to look at where you can see what the changes are that they've done.

Neil Kelly: OK. Yeah, because I know I said there's like a Word document but it's not the Chapter 1. I think that's what people are looking for.

Carolyn Zachry: Yeah, AB 129 is nice because it shows the changes that were made versus SB 129, which is the changed document. So 129 shows where they lined out items and things like that.

Neil Kelly: So if you go into that bill, you'll see for Adult Ed, I guess you could just do a fine feature. That's what I usually do. And you just type in Adult Ed. And there's probably like 33 references to Adult Ed and the State Budget bill. But you'll see 566 million.

And so 560 million of that is for the field, 6 million is for state leadership level. And Carolyn will go into that in just a little bit. But just don't think that we misled you. The total is 566, but six million at the state level and then the remaining 560 million goes out to the field. OK.

Carolyn Zachry: Correct.

[interposing voices]

Carolyn Zachry: I haven't seen any other questions, you now.

Neil Kelly: OK, maybe they're just shocked that we did this to them and made it easy for them. [laughs] OK, now.

Carolyn Zachry: Maybe.

Neil Kelly: Veronica, you want to move the next slide?

Veronica Parker: All right.

Neil Kelly: Yeah, Carolyn.

Carolyn Zachry: Yeah, so as Neil said. There is $6 million for leadership funds within the state budget. And the first one is the ongoing $5 million that we're getting for data and accountability. And then beginning in 2021- 2022, CAEP is going to receive an ongoing amount of $1 million in state funding for technical assistance. And that's very exciting because we really wanted to ensure that technical assistance was able to be provided for CAEP beyond what our WIOA contracts are able to support.

And so, again, this is really great news. And we're excited that we're going to be looking at this. And we have a whole list of 2 and 1/2 pages of ideas that Renee and her team have come up with for how we can help improve things for, you know, all of you. So, Neil, you want to talk about the next slide with the guidance memo or Veronica maybe. I'm not sure who's checking that one on.

Neil Kelly: I can do it. You know what I just did, Carolyn, I went into that budget and I posted the language that shows the $566 million.

Carolyn Zachry: Yeah, I did that also, Neil. So it's in there. The lines are in there. I put those in for everyone.

Neil Kelly: OK. Thanks for doing that. All right, there is a COLA in there somewhere. So you guys-- if you guys are looking for that, you can find it.

OK. All right, so this is coming out next week. Veronica, what are we looking at that? Is it going to come out on Wednesday or will it come out before that? I don't know if you guys have thought about the schedule of sending out this guidance memo.

Veronica Parker: Yes, so it'll be direct email to all consortia leads members and fiscal contacts Wednesday morning. And then it'll also be released in the newsletter.

Neil Kelly: OK.

Veronica Parker: Thanks.

Neil Kelly: And so what this will be is similar to what you heard today. It will include the schedule of final allocation amounts for fiscal agents and direct funded members. I actually did post the increases in NOVA today.

And so you have until September 1st to go into NOVA to process that allocation amendment. And Veronica is going to show you what that allocation amendment process looks like. But just a reminder, and maybe this is on the next slide I think. We want to go to the next slide.

Veronica Parker: This slide?

Neil Kelly: Yeah, OK. Thank you. So the amounts listed, this is for you-- direct funded members out there. And so the amounts listed for direct funded members must be-- sorry about that. So the amounts listed for direct funded members must be the amount certified in NOVA. So when you get this memo, at the end of the memo it will be a list of all the direct funded members and their amounts.

And so that the amounts we pre-calculated for each member from a direct funded consortia. And so you have to use those amounts because those are the amounts that we gave to finance. They'll give those to state controllers. And so that will be dispersed in those 11 installments to those particular members. Now fiscal agents, of course, they get the lump sum and then that money comes to the fiscal agent, so we didn't have to divide it up for them yet.

But for you direct funded members, we've already calculated it for you. And in this memo we'll have those individual amounts for each direct funded members. So when you go through your public meeting or maybe you don't even have to go through a public meeting because we already calculated it. But to certify in NOVA you have to use these amounts. Because if you use a different amount or you use a different percentage and the calculation is off, it'll be different than what you're getting from state controller so it won't align.

So kind of like I said in the next bullet, we calculated these numbers in advance in order to make the disbursement statute deadline to push funds out to local districts and fiscal agents as soon as possible. And I went through that example to kind of show you how we did it. If a consortia wishes to make changes with the 2021-2022 allocations they can do so via an allocation amendment process after they certify the allocation amendment that we just put in for the consortia.

But just keep in mind if you do any changes, if your direct funded and we've seen this happen maybe four or five times, they'll go into NOVA. They'll do an allocation amendment. And then if they're direct funded, they will not do the next step of actually physically transferring the funds with the check at the local level, like walking it from one district to another.

Because NOVA does not have a connection to State Controller's Office. So when you make a change in NOVA, you have to follow up locally. And we can't tell state controllers like, oh stop those installments, we're going to make a change. So once we give them the schedules, those will be the schedules between now and June, and so you'll have to keep making those changes if you're changing the amounts for this year.

And so it could be a little-- think that through if you wanted to do it. You might want to move money around from prior years if you had carryover or something like that, rather than monkeying around with the current year funding.

Carolyn Zachry: And Neil, there have been a couple of questions.

Neil Kelly: OK.

Carolyn Zachry: I'll get this first one because it has to do with the WIOA GAN . And that is the-- Ns package is in our chief deputy's office waiting approval. And so again we hope to have GANs out this month.

And I think, Neil, you answered this question from Eric about able to move money, if they're able to make an adjustment through a budget amendment. And it's the allocation amendment process. You answered that. Yeah, but--

[interposing voices]

Carolyn Zachry: Go ahead.

Neil Kelly: Just a reminder on that Eric that you have to-- hello.

Carolyn Zachry: Go ahead Neil.

Neil Kelly: Oh, OK. So Eric you have to remember first you go in and certify what we-- I think you have a fiscal agent. So if you have a fiscal agent, really you can move this money around however you want. And so you could do an allocation amendment after you certify that the amounts for each member and to the fiscal agent. And it's a lot easier with that fiscal agent because they get the money then they can move it around reflecting what you put into NOVA.

So if he says we did not agree to provide the revised increased COLA to this member, but it sounded like this occurred through the process you described. Yeah, COLA is not negotiable. And so you can't really decide whether someone gets it or not. It's across the board. It's to all members.

So if this member was ineffective, then you'd go through the ineffective member process. And you reallocate funds based on that process. And that's the only code we have for not giving funding to a member. And so that-- if you want to look at that member effectiveness memo that just came out a few weeks ago.

Carolyn Zachry: So Neil, there's another question about-- it said early on there was talk about community college funds for ESL career pathways, did this ever materialize?

Neil Kelly: We think it got taken out, but like we said we're going to have to look at the trailer bill. But I don't think it made that cut. But we could be surprised. But it wasn't in the current budget.

Carolyn Zachry: Right.

Neil Kelly: The trailer bill has a lot of surprises.

Carolyn Zachry: All right, here's another question. How do we know the percentages that direct funded agencies are using?

Neil Kelly: So what we did was when you certified your CFAD, when we divide that through your total allocation, each member got a proportionate share. So like we said if you got a million dollars for your allocation for your consortia and member a got 100,000, so their share is 10%. So any increase, they're going to get 10% of that increase.

So we didn't have to really figure too much out. We based it on your CFAD and what percentage share you gave to each member. And so that's very consistent, and it's based on what you certify, if that makes sense.

Carolyn Zachry: OK. And then so Guillermo, just sort of clarifying, he said that for now we certify the amounts currently in NOVA, amendments will come later for direct funded consortia.

Neil Kelly: Not exactly. So here's how it works. The increases were put into NOVA for all consortia whether your direct funded or fiscal agent. And so what you have to do is go in and say, OK of that amount that we got an increase, how much of it goes to the various members?

Now with direct funded, because we have to tell the Department of Finance and state controllers the exact amount, we calculated that amount for you. So if your direct funded-- when we sent out the memo on Wednesday, you have to look at the schedule that's attached to the memo. And we'll have those amounts already laid out. And so all you have to do is make sure that those amounts are loaded into NOVA, and that's the total amount that each member should be getting.

And you might have to do a little backwards math to say, OK we certify this amount and now they're getting this amount. And so this is the increase that we're going to put into NOVA. But that's the only really the extra step you have to do. But it's already calculated for you.

Carolyn Zachry: All right and someone didn't quite hear the answer to the WIOA GAN question. And so WIOA GAN's our GAN package is at our Chief Deputy for approval. We expect to have GANs out this month. And I think we're caught up.

Neil Kelly: OK, let me just remind everyone. So there is that piece, so when you get that memo on Wednesday, you'll see a total for each of your fiscal agents or each of your direct funded members. And so what you want to see is how much of the increase each member got. And so you'll just have to maybe add a column and then subtract the total from the CFAD amount. And that would be the allocation amendment amount or the increase that you're going to provide into NOVA.

Because I think as Veronica will show you, the increase will be in there. But you'll have to calculate how much each member will be getting of that increase, kind of like you did for the CFAD. For direct funding, we've already calculated that for you.

So just want to make that clear. A little different. We haven't done this before, but it seems like a sound process based on logic and Math. So we like logic and Math.

Carolyn Zachry: No other questions.

Neil Kelly: OK, I think this is where we turn it over to Veronica. Is that right? Here we go.

Veronica Parker: Yes. Thank you Neil, and thank you Carolyn. I am going to share my screen and share NOVA. And so as Neil mentioned, the updated allocations have been included in NOVA. And so they are available for you all to start working on the allocation amendment although you have until September 1st to complete them.

And so I have logged in into NOVA. And I have accessed the Antelope Valley Regional Adult Education Consortium. And if anyone from Antelope Valley is here, I will be demonstrating using your consortium. And I am on the live site.

So at this time, there will be a few changes. However, we are going to have that cleared out by the programmers so that when you all go to do your actual allocation amendment, nothing it will be unchanged. So you don't have to worry about that.

And so I am scrolling down to-- first I'm going to go to the CFAD section just so you can verify the additional amount that has been added to your CFAD and then also to provide some clarity around the CFAD moving forward. So this is the CFAD section in NOVA. And so this is where you all went by May 2nd to complete your CFAD and to have members approve the CFAD.

And so for Antelope Valley, when they approved their CFAD, their original allocation for the 2021-2022 program year was this $ 4,158,560. And they only have one funding member so that's Antelope Valley Union High and then South Kern Unified is a voting-member only, nonfunded. And so this is how much Antelope Valley had received originally.

Now after the signed budget, received an increase of $104,481. And so that is reflected here in this total remaining, of course, is in red. And it is in addition versus in prior years there was a reduction. And so just to let everyone know, as long as these funds are available-- so through the life cycle of the 2021-2022 funds, whenever you come to complete your CFAD, you will see this $104,481 as an addition for that particular year.

Because once the CFAD is approved and certified, we no longer make changes to it. Although when there are changes to the total allocation and Neil goes to upload those changes to the total allocation, he uploads them in this section of the CFAD. However, consortia leads and members no longer have access to be able to make the necessary changes that's why we complete an allocation amendment.

So just to provide some clarity for next year, when you go to complete your CFAD and you see this additional $104,000 for example, you don't think that you did not complete something in the prior year. Like I said this amount will remain on the CFAD through the lifecycle of the funds.

And so that's here. So this was the original allocation that was received back in February when the preliminary allocations were released. And then this is the total CAEP funds available for the 2021-2022 program year. And this is the difference, which is an addition of $104,481.

So now I will go back to the allocation amendment section because that's where you will complete the allocation amendment to disburse this additional funding. And again there's only two members here with one as nonfunded, so this will be relatively easy. And so here I'm just showing the process-- the step by step process in NOVA, not providing any methodology about how the funds are disbursed. We're just going through the step by step process.

So to complete the allocation amendment you will, of course, select Start Amendment. And this notice will appear that says to amend your funds you need to follow the Workflow Steps and once submitted the changes need to be approved by the Member Representatives. So I'm going to press Continue to continue with this process.

And here is just a verification of Member Agencies and Certifiers. If there is a new member agency at this time, you are able to click on this Add New Member Agency button and be able to add their information here. But if you do not have any additional members, then you just move on to the next step in the workflow process.

And here is where you will account for the additional funding that was received for the program year. So again, Antelope CCD or South Kern. Yeah, there is one-- oh no, let me go back because on the CFAD is the South Kern Unified. But this member is a voting member only and not funded.

So we're going to go Next here. And so the additional $104,481 will go to Antelope Valley Union High. So we'll go ahead and add those additional funding. So I'm going to just use my calculator for one second.

And 481 plus the 4,158,560. So of course their total is 4,263,041. And then I'm going to tab. And so as you can see, the adjustment is an increase with the $404,481, which brings their total allocated to members and total CAEP funds if they now equal one another.

And there is total remaining, which must be zero. It is now zero. That's the only way that you'll be able to complete this particular process. And so once you have done that and of course verified your numbers, make sure everything has been put in the proper place. And you can go to Next.

You'll preview the transaction that you just completed. Everything looks correct. And then in theory, you will go Submit. But again, I am on the live site. And I do not want to alert the Antelope Valley members to this transaction that their consortium lead did not complete.

So I'm going to go ahead and cancel this amendment so that no approvals will go through, or excuse me submissions will go through. But I want to show you if you needed to verify what took place as a result of the governor signed budget. Let's say you need verification because we know that in CFAD, it's going to show this additional funding but is not going to show that you have distributed this additional funding to your members.

So I'm going to go back out, and I'm going to go down to the Amendment History. So oftentimes we receive request from consortia leads and/or members or physical contacts that asks about the reallocation of let's say the COLA for this year. And so we always direct everyone to view the Amendment History and check to see when that transaction was completed and then also what the transaction was.

So if you ever needed to refer back to how you handle the let's say the COLA increase or if there was a reduction like in prior years, please go back to your Amendment History and look at the various transactions that you have completed. Always pay attention to the date and time stamp because that gives you an indication of when this was completed, especially if you're trying to let's say match your transactions to your district's fiscal records or something like that. So always make sure that you check your Amendment History because again, the correct allocations that were completed after the governor signed budget will always be in the Allocation Amendment section and not in the CFAD section.

So I'm going to go back to NOVA and again all of your Amendment History is here through the 2017-2018 program year. So if you ever need to refer back to this, it's here for you. And that is all that I have in terms of the Allocation Amendment demonstration. Are there any questions?

Neil Kelly: Veronica, we did have one comment from Kelly.

Veronica Parker: OK.

Neil Kelly: She said last year she got really confused between the preliminary, and the finals, and the variance, and things like that.

Veronica Parker: Yes.

Neil Kelly: So she keeps the spreadsheet. I don't know if there's other helpful tips that you've heard or people want to share of how they stay on top of this stuff.

Veronica Parker: Yeah, I think that that's a very great tip. Some people also save the Amendment History, so they'll save this PDF for their records just to show the actual transactions. Yeah, and if anyone else has anything that they would like to share.

Neil Kelly: Yeah, and the one thing Veronica, I don't know if you have any tips for this. But these direct funded consortia, they're already thinking about, oh well this one member wants to give their COLA to another member we want to move money around. So after the certification they could do that. But when we give the controllers the schedule, that same amount-- that monthly installment will be the same regardless of what you do in NOVA.

And so you'll have to play catch up locally by cutting checks, walking them over to the other member district, you know, fiscal office or business office. And that could get to be a pain in the neck to do that. Maybe your fiscal offices don't want to do that. And so we suggested maybe you're looking at carryover if you want to move money around or waiting until the installments are done. Or if it's an amount that's small enough that could be covered with one check, maybe that won't be that big of a deal.

But if it's a large sum you might want to think through how you're going to do that because you don't have that flexibility as the controller will continue to give that member the same amount until June of next year. So I don't know if you've had any case just like that.

Veronica Parker: Yes, we have. And so whenever we receive questions regarding the allocation amendment and the transfer of funds in NOVA versus what's going on at the local level, we give them the same advice to make sure that they are on their end transferring the money. Because this is just the reporting system and not the actual transfer of money.

Neil Kelly: Right. And then Shannon said, just offering up-- if you're a fiscal agent and doing an allocation amendment, you need to make sure your members are good at having good communication with their budget people or your lead needs to have good communication with site budget people. So keeping your fiscal and budget people or your business office in the loop is always good when you do amendment.

So that's a kind of a local tip. We don't really get involved in that state level. But thank you for sharing that Shannon. So Veronica, you're open for questions on how to navigate this in NOVA.

Veronica Parker: Uh-huh.

Neil Kelly: OK. And I don't know if Carolyn is still-- Carolyn you still with this?

Carolyn Zachry: I am.

Neil Kelly: Were you able to see any other questions I'm kind of looking at?

[interposing voices]

Carolyn Zachry: A lot of sharing of ideas, but I think you just kind of covered me on about the importance of keeping your business office informed and making sure you have good communication with them. That was really what I saw. Lots of ideas about keeping a spreadsheet.

Neil Kelly: Yeah, Kelly makes some note on an action item for consortia. Otherwise, members see a variance and may get confused. And then Parul uses an MOU process, which would be probably really good because it's a contract somewhat. And then Euleen uses a spreadsheet with different revision amounts and revision dates. Good idea to add narrative and notes on why the decrease or increase.

Carolyn Zachry: And yeah, especially because there's a lot of talk about turnover of members and people-- critical people at district offices. So having that some type of a history that's documented is a good idea.

Neil Kelly: Yeah, thank you Eileen for sharing that. And Todd concurs history is critical for members and district offices. So for those new consortia leaders or directors out there, take it from the veterans that are putting this stuff in the chat. And I think we're, I mean, Veronica do we have any other? The next slide is just kind of reminders, right?

Veronica Parker: I'm sorry my screen went away. Yes, other slides are just reminders. Let me go back to the PowerPoint.

Neil Kelly: So Todd's comment about history-- so Veronica that allocation Amendment History, how do you access that in NOVA.

Veronica Parker: So there's a button that can actually go back to NOVA to show everyone where it is I think my NOVA went away. One second while I bring it back up. OK, so go ahead and share my screen and share NOVA.

Neil Kelly: I'll answer Janet's question. She asks, if you move money from one member to another after the final allocation through an Amendment in NOVA, does that change the base amount that the member will report the following year? So what will happen is you go in and certify the increase.

And then after you certify the increase that I just put in this morning, then you can do your member allocation amendment and that wouldn't change the base. So what I just did today when I put in that extra 13.7 million, I changed the base. But the state can only change the base. You guys can't change the base at the local level.

So if you do an allocation amendment after certifying this increase that I put in there today, it won't affect your base allocation. So if that makes sense. And so the member won't receive less the following year. If it's done as an allocation amendment after you certify this increase. Right, Veronica?

Veronica Parker: Yes, that's correct.

Neil Kelly: OK. So do you want to show them where. Oh, there it is. I see it.

Veronica Parker: Yes, so you just click on this button. And then I'll show you all of the allocation amendments that were completed. And these are all of the approved allocation amendments so this is where every voting member within the consortium has signed off on it. And it gives you the Fund Year for which year did you make this allocation amendment on as well as the completed date and time. So you have verification of exactly when it was completed.

Neil Kelly: Great. I know if people wanted to add notes they really couldn't do that in this because this is the NOVA system Amendment History, right?

Veronica Parker: Yes, this is the completed transaction from NOVA. If there were any notes that needed to be added, you're always welcome to add documents in the Supporting Documents section. In here, we keep an archive of everything that has been uploaded. And this is also a repository of the fiscal reports from the fiscal reporting section. So after each program year, the fiscal reports are directly extracted and uploaded here.

Neil Kelly: OK. So hopefully, Shannon, that's a tip. Maybe you knew about it. We do have some limitations, but it's better than not having the history at all. So maybe like Veronica's saying, you keep a kind of a narrative that goes along that matches that allocation amendment history.

So if you want more details or you could reference your public meeting notes, decision making that kind of stuff, so you have that history if things go sideways. And we've had some things go sideways on with allocation amendments. And people saying, Oh I was supposed to do this and now I want to keep this money. So having that record is important because sometimes members agree to things and then you have changes, and people forget what they agreed to, so always document that.

Marianne says since we are increasing overall budget and member allocation, is there anything that members are required to approve in a public meeting? I would just follow your bylaws, Marianne, or your governance of how you approve these things. Now some people feel that because they certified in the CFAD that any additional technical adjustments would follow that same agreement that they made when they certified the May 2nd, kind of like we did when we took the percentages.

And so that's really up to you guys of how you want to process that. If you feel you have to go to a public meeting session and have some discussion about it, we'll leave that up to you guys to decide based on your governance and decision making processes. I don't know if anybody had any other questions.

Carolyn Zachry: So there was a question from Marianne that she said since we are increasing our overall budget and member allocation, is there anything-- did you answer that one?

Neil Kelly: Yeah, I just answered it.

Carolyn Zachry: OK, sorry.

Neil Kelly: No we're good. [laughs]

Carolyn Zachry: I haven't seen any other questions come in.

Neil Kelly: They should be asking, unless this process was so simple and maybe you're just glad we calculated it for you. I don't know if you had a chance, I put the allocation at the consortia level in the chat. So I don't know people are seeing that for the first time. To me they need to take that in.

And then the increases are put into NOVA this morning. Veronica, are those increases showing now when you went in?

Veronica Parker: Yes, they are.

Neil Kelly: OK, so everything's live. You can go into NOVA. And you can see what Veronica showed you based on your consortia increase. It should match up to the document we put on the chat. And that will match up to the guidance we're going to release on Wednesday.

So there shouldn't be-- if there is confusion, I mean TAP is available to help you. They can walk you through the process. The one hiccup or could be a little bump is that direct funded member calculation that we made. We want to make sure that there's no confusion on that.

And so we do have like 30, I don't know 31 direct-funded consortia. So that memo has those schedules. It's quite a few members that get direct funded, so please check that out when the memo comes out on Wednesday.

OK, so everybody sees the increase. They're all excited, ready to approve. And so I do want to take up a collection. In rounding, we did have to short one of our consortia a couple of bucks. And so I'd like to pass the hat for Allan Hancock.

So if anybody has any spare change, we can send that all to the Central Coast like care of Santa Maria, and get them a few extra--

Carolyn Zachry: --two dollars or something like that Neil.

Neil Kelly: A couple of bucks, yeah.

[laughter]

[interposing voices]

Carolyn Zachry: There was a question kind of way back about is it what was it actually around COLA, or was it like the 1.499999.

Neil Kelly: No, so if you calculate the amount-- so the amount they don't do hundreds. So Finance doesn't do hundreds. So everything's rounded to the thousands. So if you look at that budget bill-- let me just look at the amount.

The COLA is $21,812,000. And so that no cents, no dollars. It's rounded to the thousands, so that works at 4.05. But that's what we want you to kind of avoid doing. We already calculated that percentage for you.

We suggest you might want to use the percentage share. It's a lot cleaner. You'll probably get to the same spot using 4.05. But sometimes those percentages and the rounding, you might be off a dollar here and there. And so then you'd have to have that discussion with the consortia who gets the dollar more, who gets the dollar less.

And so smaller things have started more conflict than just a dollar, right? So we try to take all that out of the equation.

Audience: Hi, Neil. I have a quick question.

Neil Kelly: Sure.

Audience: I was at the Chancellor's Office webinar on Wednesday, and they said that COLA for the community colleges was 5%. Is that correct or they're just rounding?

Neil Kelly: There could be-- so they have different COLAs for different programs. So categoricals get certain COLAs and then a portion may get certain COLAs. And so K12's get certain COLAs. So I'm not sure in reference what that 5% was to.

So when they say COLA, it's not across the board for every single program. It kind of varies. And you'd have to look at the budget bill of what they're talking about of 5% here. Because they have that formula funding-- the student centered formula funding. So that could be a little different than a COLA for the K12's or the COLA for the CAEP program.

Audience: Yeah, thank you. Appreciate that.

Neil Kelly: OK. Sorry I couldn't be more specific.

Audience: No, that's good.

Carolyn Zachry: All right, and there's been some links put into the chat for one doing an evaluation, and two we are looking for proposals for presentation for the CAEP summit, which is in October.