Mission CISD earns state's highest fiscal accountability rating

MISSION - Mission Consolidated Independent School District (CISD) officials have received preliminary word that the district has qualified to receive a rating of "Superior Achievement" under Texas' Schools FIRST financial accountability rating system. Final ratings will be issued to school districts in the next few weeks.

The superior achievement rating is the state's highest, demonstrating the quality of Mission CISD's financial management and reporting system. This will be the sixth year in a row the district has received the highest rating since they were first started.

This is the sixth year of Schools FIRST (Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas), a financial accountability system for Texas school districts developed by the Texas Education Agency in response to Senate Bill 875 of the 76th Texas Legislature in 1999. The primary goal of Schools FIRST is to achieve quality performance in the management of school districts' financial resources, a goal made more significant due to the complexity of accounting associated with Texas' school finance system.

"We are very pleased with Mission CISD's Schools FIRST rating," said Mission CISD Superintendent Oscar Rodriguez, Jr., "as it shows that our district is continuing to make the most of our taxpayer dollars. The superior achievement rating shows that Mission CISD is 2 accountable not only for student learning, but also for achieving these results cost-effectively and efficiently."

The Schools FIRST accountability rating system assigns one of four financial accountability ratings to Texas school districts, with the highest being "Superior Achievement," followed by "Above-Standard Achievement," "Standard Achievement" and Substandard Achievement." Districts with serious data quality problems may receive the additional rating of "Suspended- Data Quality."

To arrive at the Schools FIRST ratings, the TEA looks at 24 different indicators, including: cost ratios, student to teacher ratios, fund balance information, operating expenditures, tax collections, and annual financial reports. This year's rating is based upon an analysis of staff and student data reported for the 2006-2007 school year and the budgetary and actual financial data for the 2007 fiscal year.

As required by the TEA, district officials will hold a public hearing and make a financial management report available for parents and taxpayers after the final ratings notification has been received from TEA officials.