Business services seeks policy adoption on electronic funds transfers and shows streamlined monthly financial reporting

Executive Director Amy Day presented policy 6217, Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT), submitted for first reading on September 8 and recommended for board adoption following Washington State School Directors' Association (WASDA) and state auditor guidance. Day said the district already uses EFT for payroll and has begun paying vendors via EFT in school year 2025 to improve speed, reduce costs and lower fraud risk.

Day also described a concept to realign written monthly financial reports with the format used during the annual budget cycle. She said the prior process took more than six hours to create each month, including manual data entry and review, whereas the new process pulls information directly from the financial system and produces the same reports in about ten minutes plus review. The revised package includes high‑level visual graphs (student FTE trends, general fund balance trends, monthly revenues and expenditures) and the budget status reports required under RCW 28A.505.040 that explain fund balances and variances.

Deputy and board discussion focused on the improved efficiency and the accuracy benefits of extracting data from the system rather than hand‑inputting spreadsheets; Day said the new process reduces manual review time from roughly two hours to minutes. The board did not take an adoption vote on policy 6217 at this meeting (policy remains on the agenda for second reading and possible adoption at a future meeting).