School cafeterias: cafeteria fund.

(1) Existing law requires the Controller, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the State Department of Education, to develop a plan to review and report on financial and compliance audits, and with representatives of other entities, to recommend the statements and other information to be included in the audit reports filed with the state by local educational agencies, and to propose the content of an audit guide. For these purposes, existing law defines "compliance audit" as an audit that ascertains and verifies whether or not specific funds provided have been properly disbursed and expended and includes the verification of specific information. This bill would additionally require a compliance audit to include the verification of cafeteria fund expenditures. The bill would also correct a reference to a certain federal document. (2) Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district to establish cafeterias in the schools under its jurisdiction and authorizes the moneys received for the sale of food or for any services performed by the cafeterias to be paid into the county treasury to the credit of the cafeteria fund of the particular school district. Existing law requires the cafeteria fund to be used only for those expenditures authorized by the governing board of the school district that are defined in the California School Accounting Manual. This bill would require the State Department of Education to assess its food services workload and staffing needs for purposes of carrying out the state's oversight responsibilities of cafeteria funds and to request sufficient federal funding to hire the appropriate number of staff based on that assessment. The bill would require the department to prepare simplified guidelines that address most of the common acceptable and unacceptable charges to cafeteria funds. The bill would require the department to post on its Internet Web site all enforcement actions for the misappropriation of cafeteria funds. The bill would require a school district to maintain all financial records related to its cafeteria fund for 5 years, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would prohibit a school district from withholding from its food service director any financial records involving school nutrition programs. (3) Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district with an average daily attendance of over 100,000 to allow as an expenditure from its cafeteria fund a share of money agreed upon pursuant to a contract that is generated from the joint sale of items between the cafeteria and an associated student body student store. This bill would repeal that provision. (4) Existing law authorizes the governing board of any school district operating school cafeterias to establish and maintain a cafeteria fund reserve for the purchase, lease, maintenance, or replacement of cafeteria equipment, as specified. This bill would repeal that provision. (5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.