Montgomery County Public Schools

OCFO provides guidance and support to executive staff and program managers on the preparation and formulation of the operating budget for MCPS.

Through regular financial monitoring and data-driven analysis, OCFO maintains controls for current-year revenues and expenditures to ensure that the operating budget is implemented as approved.

ERSC is a single point of contact for employees and retirees for information about compensation and benefits. ERSC provides administration of employee programs such as payroll, health and retirement benefits, leave, salary administration, and workforce reporting. Smooth and effective operations of these functions are critical to provide prompt and accurate responses for employees’ questions and needs. ERSC operates a call center, transactions unit, and communications program; provides support for policy implementation; and continually expands the use of technology to improve service and efficiency. The introduction and continued expansion of employee self-service applications have improved employee access to data, benefits enrollment, paystub, and tax forms, supporting employees’ ability to focus their efforts and attention on the needs of students and schools.

The Division of Financial Services prepares the financial statements, statistical reports, and other accounting reports; provides for internal controls of all accounting activities; prepares required federal, state, and other reports; processes accounting transactions; supports procurement card activity; collects amounts owed to MCPS; makes all payments on behalf of MCPS; and coordinates system cash including the Centralized Investment fund. The division provides accounting services to the MCPS Educational Foundation, a 501(c)(3) corporation. The division brings central services resources to support schools through support of the School Funds Online and Online School Payments systems, along with a visiting bookkeeper program for elementary schools and special centers. This central effort reduces burden on schools so that school-based employees can focus on the critical work of teaching and learning for all students. The division also collects the student extracurricular activity fund fee and manages the federal Impact Aid program.

OCFO works closely with all offices and schools to implement a system to allocate resources to schools based on school, student, and program need.