Sponsored Programs

The IASA, the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) and the Illinois Association of School Business Officials (IASBO) have developed the Illinois Schools Employee Benefits Consortium (ISEBC) that includes a proprietary fully insured, comprehensive group health insurance plan that will offer member school districts the opportunity to provide employees health benefits at affordable prices. Details of the program were included in the March 4, 2013, issue of Leadership Matters and are available by clicking here.

Illinois School District Liquid Asset Fund Plus is an inter-governmental investment program for school districts and community colleges in Illinois. Co-sponsored by Illinois ASBO, IASA, and IASB, the program offers opportunities to school districts for the investment and management of funds.

The Fund is known for its excellent performance, built around the safety, liquidity and yield that school officials want. PMA Financial Network, Inc. serves as Administrator and RBC acts as the Investment Adviser for the Fund. The Fund focuses on five distinct areas. Foremost, the Fund provides security through its investment process that provides a good yield, offers solid value, and simplifies school officials’ lives. The Fund is administered by school officials for schools - creating the highest possible professional level of trust. Flexibility, a third focus, offers officials choices to meet their own school district’s unique needs. Fourth, 24-hour online access to your ISDLAF+ account information underscores its ease of use. And, finally, as an ISDLAF+ participant, members can benefit from the full range of PMA cash management and investment services designed especially for school districts, including Cash Flow Analysis Program, Bond Proceeds Management Program, and Educational Seminars and Classes. For more information, go to http://isdlafplus.com

Forecast5 brings business intelligence to Illinois school districts. 5Sight combines powerful data mining tools and interactive visuals to fast-track discovery and analysis. Key decision makers can use 5Sight to quickly develop financial strategies and action plans. 5Sight Analyze allows users to view, explore, and get behind the details of the data. In 5Sight, users can:

• Filter data to a desired view
• Export to spreadsheet applications or dashboards
• Unlock the potential of the data in compliance/regulatory reports already submitted
• Compare to peers, view a trend, or establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

5Share allows school leaders to share information and data visuals. This multiplies the value of 5Sight as new forms of analysis become available to all members.

5Cast offers a powerful projection tool for districts to project revenue and expenses five years into the future. It can incorporate 5Sight analysis and other assumptions developed by the school district.

5Lab is an open platform where school districts can design their own analysis projects driven by trained consultants. Benefit: Provides business intelligence that previously was inaccessible for Illinois school districts and allows data driven decisions to be made at the operational and policy levels. For more information, go to www.forecast5analytics.com

p-Card is an Illinois ASBO developed program featuring Procurement Cards, or p-Cards. All four Alliance partners are sponsors. p-Cards have existed in the private and public sectors for many years as a means to streamline and control the traditional purchasing process. The Illinois ASBO program is in contract with Harris Bank/MasterCard to provide school districts, community colleges and other educational entities in Illinois and other states with a procurement card. While ‘looking’ like a credit or debit card, p-cards are very different.

In most school districts, 55-60% of AP checks are for less than $500, yet experts at Deloitte Consulting say that the average cost of processing a purchase order manually is in excess of $75 when considering employee time for data entry and procurement and check writing processes. Automating procurement with the help of a p-Card, reduces that cost to between $10 - $40.

The benefits of a p-Card Program for school districts includes the ability to submit one monthly payment vs. multiple payments to multiple vendors; the reduction in paperwork; fraud prevention and protection the Harris Bank and MasterCard; detailed reporting that’s available 24/7; easy online administration and dedicated customer support and most importantly - control on spending limits and accepted vendors for each individual card. Most of all, the p-Card program integrates with school district budget both for reporting and internal controls. For more information, go to: http://Illinois-pcard.com

The Illinois School District Agency (ISDA) offers a full line of property casualty coverage for interested member districts. The pooled risk management program is governed by a board of regents composed of local school board members and administrators. The Illinois School District Agency provides property/casualty coverage to 4 more than 175 school districts across Illinois. For the 2005-2006 program year, the ISDA experienced a renewal retention rate in the 90th percentile and received approximately $9.6 million in contributions. In addition to receiving competitively priced property/casualty coverage, ISDA members receive specialized loss control services and access to low-cost property appraisals to assure proper insurance to value coverage. Benefit: Assists school districts contain property-casualty coverage costs. For more information, go to: http://www.wcsit-isda.com/WCSIT.html