Albuquerque Public Schools Foundation

“The form 990 is reviewed by senior management and submitted to the finance committee for their review and approval prior to filing. The entire board has access to the 990 prior to filing.”

“Employees, officers, and board members are subject to the conflict interest policy. Employees and officers attest to their independence when hired and are required inform the organization should their situation change. Board members receive the conflict of interest policy upon appointment and are required to attest to their independence annually. If a conflict arises, it is reviewed by independent members of the board. A person with a conflict of interest is not allowed to vote on the transaction on which the conflict exists.”

“The salary of the executive director and any other key employees are determined by albuquerque public school's (aps) district compensation committee under the guidelines for aps employees since they are employed by aps. This process includes the review and approval by independent persons, comparability data and the use of a salary grade system, and contemporaneous substantiation of the salary decision.”

“The organization make its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“The aps foundation is a component unit of albuquerque public schools (aps) and, as such, is part of their budget process and reported in their consolidated audited governmental financial statements. In addition, the foundation as a separate section 501(c)(3) organization is required to obtain separate audited financial statements under the nm charitable solicitations act. Aps, as part of their budgeting process, budgets for the payment of foundation expenses including employee compensation costs. Since aps can provide much better benefits under their state sponsored educational system than the foundation could by hiring and paying their own employees, the foundation is able to attract and retain highly qualified employees by having them paid under the aps payroll system. The foundation actually makes the hiring decisions for the employees working for them and aps budgets and pays a majority of the foundation employee salaries and charges these expenses to the foundation portion of the aps budget. In order to reflect the expenses paid directly by aps under the foundation budget for the separate financial reporting of the foundation, an entry is made on the foundation books reflecting the cost of the salary and other expenses paid directly by aps. This is done for administrative convenience rather than actually exchanging checks between the aps and the foundation bank accounts that would be eliminated in the consolidated governmental financial statements. In the past, the salary costs were eliminated from the foundation expenses and donation revenue for form 990 reporting purposes under the belief they were donated services. However, the services are not donated to the foundation by aps. They are budgeted to the foundation at cost and are included in the aps consolidated financial statements along with the expenses paid separately out of the separate foundation bank accounts. The foundation is now reporting the compensation and other expenses paid by aps on their behalf in their functional expense schedule, including the foundation employees that are paid by aps to perform services for the foundation and that are hired by the foundation. It is the opinion of the foundation's cpa firm that this more accurately reflects the foundation expenses based upon the structure of the transaction under the aps memorandum of understanding with the foundation and that the compensation costs are not donated services under the irs guidelines.”

“The aps foundation staff are employees of albuquerque public schools (aps). Aps issues and files the w-2's and other payroll tax reports as required. The aps foundation does not have any employees and, therefore, is not required to file, and does not file, any w-2's or other payroll tax reports. Since the aps foundation, through its memorandum of understanding with aps, effectively reimburses the compensation of aps employees for time spent working on foundation business, this compensation expense has been reported on lines 5 though 7 in the part ix statement of functional expenses.”

“Change in value of beneficial interest in trust 24,004.”

“There was no change in the oversight or selection process during the tax year.”