TEMPLE, Texas — The Temple Independent School District has once again received a Superior financial accountability rating from the Texas Education Agency (TEA). This year’s rating reflects the district’s financial conduct and reporting during the 2021-2022 school year.
The TEA’s Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) uses 20 indicators to measure a district’s compliance with auditing regulations and numerous state-determined thresholds of financial health. The annual ratings require tremendous effort on the part of both the district and the state to ensure that each school system is being a good steward of funds. The TISD board of trustees received a report of the latest FIRST rating during the board’s monthly meeting on Monday (December 11).
TISD’s superior rating is based on the district’s performance on those 20 financial measures. Nine of the financial indicators are graded on a pass/fail basis with TISD passing all nine of those measures. The other 11 indicators are scored on either a five-point or ten-point scale and TISD received 92 out of a possible 100 points on those measures. A superior rating is the highest possible rating for a school district.
“Transparency and accountability are a major part of public services – whether public school systems or city governments,” said Dr. Bobby Ott, superintendent of Temple schools. “Temple ISD is a proven steward of taxpayer dollars. This final report marks an “A” rating from the state and is aligned with our latest public financial audit that yielded no material weaknesses. This is an expectation of our school board, staff, and community; and I’m thankful for our finance department and staff for delivering these outstanding results.”
“We are very pleased with Temple ISD’s Superior FIRST rating,” said Brandy Stanford, chief financial officer for Temple ISD. “This rating shows that our district is making the most of our taxpayers’ dollars and TISD is accountable, not only for student learning, but also for achieving these results cost-effectively and efficiently.”
The FIRST system ensures that Texas public schools are held accountable for the quality of their financial practices and that they improve these practices. The system is designed to encourage Texas public schools to better manage their financial resources to provide the maximum allocation possible for direct instructional purposes. All public schools in the state are required to submit financial accountability reports to the TEA each year.