Description & Overview

This session will be held in the MPAAA offices starting at 9:00 am and ending at 4:00 pm, Monday, August 3rd - Wednesday, August 5th, 2026.

We've heard from many of our new members that they need more comprehensive training to start them off on the right foot in Pupil Accounting. In response to this request, we've created a 3-day boot camp to give those new to the field a firmer grounding in the basics.

Attendees who complete the Boot Camp will have 6 of the required courses for the Pupil Accounting Specialist completed and have a great start on their MSBO certification. Each attendee will receive full printouts of all presentations as well as additional references and documentation in a handy reference binder.

To make this session as productive as possible for those attending, we will be limiting enrollment to 24.

Agenda & Speakers

Day 1 - Pupil Accounting Basics - Randi Bassett and Rob Dickinson will be taking you through the basics of Pupil Accounting, from learning the terms and acronyms, through working with the 3 populations, to all the forms to use and the documents to gather.

Day 2 - CEPI and State Reporting - In the morning, Kathi Thornton and Rob Dickinson will be going over what schools report to CEPI, as well as State and Federal agencies.  You'll learn what applications you need to report data to, and we'll spend time in the actual applications explaining the inner workings and how to know where your data is in the submission process. In the afternoon, Anne Hansknecht and Robert Hovenkamp from CEPI will take you through the CEPI applications in detail.

Day 3 - Days and Hours & "The Recipe" - Rob Dickinson will spend the morning explaining the days and hours requirements and how to make sure your buildings meet them (and what it will cost if they don't!). In the afternoon, he will take you through a calendar-based review of how to complete a count day, from before school starts through the end of the audit. The items that need to be addressed at each step will be addressed, and helpful hints will be given on making sure your submission and audit go smoothly.

Hotel Information

We've had good luck for those who wish to stay in the area at the Springhill Suites, 111 S. Marketplace Blvd., Lansing 48917. Please call them at (517) 627-0002. Ask for the Government Rate, which is lower than what we could negotiate for a room block. Please remember to bring your tax-exempt documents to avoid paying sales tax.

Cost Information

The cost of the Boot Camp will be $450 for MPAAA members and $550 for non-members. You can register online with a credit card by pressing the register button above on the right, or if a credit card isn't available to you, you can print out the registration form to the right on the screen, and mail it in with a check.

Cancellation Policy & Contact Information

Members and guests will be charged a cancellation fee of $100 for event registrations canceled by July 6th, 2025. There will be no refunds for cancellations occurring after this date.

Please contact our Executive Director to request the cancellation of a workshop for which you are registered or for any other event / MPAAA-related question.

*NO REFUNDS* will be granted if cancellation is after the July 6th cutoff date.