Um and that wasn't that was that policy wasn't being enforced, but it is now. um we started doing um all of our journal entries with backup. So, um, in the in the event someone is isn't here and someone else needs to understand the journal entry they did or why they did it or how they did it, um, that's, uh, well documented inside our Tyler system. And also Mike, you know, as we discussed and it might be getting down to the minutia where you and I like, but you know, it's worth a conversation where you've upgraded the sophistication to the accounting system to have it work with you so that journal entries have explanations and attachments to it. in in addition to being able to upload a journal entry from an Excel spreadsheet to be automatically created as opposed to having somebody go in and create all these numbers again.
Right. Right. For Ryan, Morgan, anything you want to add? I'm good. I'm good. You guys good? All right. All right. Next up, recognition of outgoing board members. So, superintendent. Yes. I I obviously I have been here maybe 18 days. Um than most of you if you've taken to the actual days that I've been working. Um but I do want to thank you for the opportunity. Uh it has it has been certainly interesting. Um and and honestly enjoyable. I will say, right, this is my first interim gig. If Griff was here, he'd be talking forever, right? I'm not sure. He's talking now. He's talking now. He's he's he's watching at home. Griff, you're watching home. Um he's saying something. But it's it really has been a pleasure working with him, but it's also been a pleasure working with all of you and getting to know know each of you here.
So, you know, that's more uh that is certainly very very timeconuming and positive adjustments that prevented stuff from being done. you know before the only thing I wanted to mention in addition to your policy on purchase orders you may want to delegate I don't know how you work it but it's who's responsible for that review and make sure that the people are following it rather than have the the responsibility fall on your particular shoulders where you know you want to be able to delegate some of these responsibilities yeah it's a great point but Teresa has her hand up Yep. Terry, go ahead. Thank you. Uh, now am I correct to say each school can buy issue their own purchase orders. So there's no centralization to know if the stuff has come in until the last minute. Is is that correct? So there um each school has um a buyer and not just the schools, other locations have buyers as well where they could put requisitions in sec.
And so I we have just a small um gift acknowledgement, a thank you. And so I'm going to open one up. I'm gonna open up marks because you're right here on my right hand. There you go. That's why um we want to thank you for your time. Oh, okay. We should have opened these up before I checked them. I put together um they they say something nice and I'm not sure I can read it. Uh they have your name so you can't sell it. Don't if you're gonna put it in a Goodwill, if you're gonna give it to Goodwill, do it some way. Okay? But um because I've gotten a bunch of these, too, and like all of a sudden I'm like, "Oh, what do I do with these now?" That's like 20 years later. Um but they're always nice. Thank you for your service and commitment um on the central to the central school central 301 community school board member 221 to 225.
Yeah, the secretaries will usually do it. Uh the requisition is then approved either by myself or um Angela or Wanita if it's uh relating to a grant then gets converted to a PO. Um where I think we could do a little bit better is um when invoices come in to get them all to come in to a central location. Um and whether we decide hey listen that should all invoices should go to the site first for approval and then uh make their way over to finance for payment once they're approved or do they call them all into finance first and then they get pushed out for approval and and sent back. Um there's pros and cons of each. I've done things uh both ways, but um yeah, that that is definitely an area that um that that we could benefit from. Okay. So, who who holds the POS?
So Mark, you get yours first. Thank you. Thank you. And each of you, if you want to say something, you can say something. Um, you know, I I just jotted some notes down. So, as I step away from the uh position on the school board uh due to the recent election, uh I want to take this moment to express my gratitude um for the opportunity to serve the district and the community over the past four years. Uh throughout my term um every decision I made was guided by a core principal putting the students and teachers first. Um I approached this role with integrity and thoughtfulness um and asking the tough questions that always um made me well informed for the decisions that I made. Um, it's been an honor uh to advocate for the educational excellence, equity, and well-being of every learner and educator in this district.
They're um they're in the system. So, everyone has access to them once they're created. You don't get physical POS? Yes, we do. Yeah. So, once where do they go? Once um once the PO is created um accounts payable will send the PO to the individual. We call it the the greens, right? That's their ability to um to make the purchase. So that's why it it's you've got different silos. You don't have a centralized system. That's why the U PO for the move was went unnoticed perhaps. Yeah, you've got to centralize the POS. You got to centralize the POS. Yeah. One of uh one of the functions that we're we're hoping um to have an additional team member here uh soon. Um we'll be focusing um very heavily on purchasing. Um right now our accounts payable person is doing both accounts payable and purchasing. Um and you know the glasses more than uh than full.
Uh, to my fellow board members and administration staff and broader community, thank you for your collaboration. Um, I'm not stepping away from the board, uh, you know, without letting you know that I'll continue to fight from the heart, uh, and hope that the dedication and opportunity, uh, helps me put everybody first, uh, especially the students and teachers. So, uh, thank you for this time and opportunity. Thank you. Start to listen, Jay. I won't open yours because that way you can. It says the same thing except your name is on it. But thank you. Thank you for your service. Thank you very much. Feel free to say something if you want to. Thank you very much. Short and sweet. I didn't have time to get comfortable. I was the Jennifer. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I will do short like Jay. And then finally, D.
So um that would be a great project for that individual. Thank you. Are there any other questions with regard to this reconciliation? If not, then we move to the next agenda item has to do with the creation of a proposing calendar which Mike briefly talked about. Um the what I was getting at in addition to what Mike was referring to and I think it's a good point is the public accounting calendar as to for month end you know what has to be done you know journal entries approvals etc etc but in addition to that I was looking for a calendar that board would be presented uh to show what is required and what has been done so that for example financial statements would be an item. Uh bank reconciliations would be another item, tax returns another item you know whether they they be quarterly or annually.
De and Morgan who I met first. Uh D who has been my constant um travel home phone call companion. Um and so thank you for your service on this and I know we'll continue working together through the education foundation um which we have a meeting tomorrow night. Uh and so thank you. Um I didn't rehearse this probably best, right? So I just want to thank you all as a community, teachers, staff, administrators. Obviously, you know, as he said, I'm not going anywhere. But, um, this has been a pretty enjoyable experience. Um, even some of the dissent that we had, you know, we had disagreements, we had agreements. For me, it was all just learning and knowledge that I'll take away from it. So, I just want to thank you all for your support. Um, and as I said, I'm not going anywhere. I'm here for the kids.
Um different components of the the months type of transaction that we as a uh a board should be aware of. a check off calendar and at each month when the financials are produced they can just have you know a checklist that says okay this is done this is done the bank wrecks haven't done an explanation as to why um I think something like that in retrospect 2020 is always good we would have known that the bank wrecks hadn't been done for a couple of years or uh but reconciliations to subsidiary schedules are you know have been haven't been done. So I I think if if we could work on a calendar like that, it would certainly be a big help to the board knowing, you know, what they should be looking for to oversee that that the the thing the responsibilities that we're tasked with are being met.
I'm here for you guys. Um, but thank you all that. Thank you all. Thank you. All right. So, yeah, information. Okay. Information items. Uh the enrollment report uh it was uh included in your board packet. Uh the foyer report as well was included in the board packet. We already talked about the scoreboard. Thank you. Um Dan and Ted. Um so I need a motion second or required to adjourn. Oh jeez. Die. Seeen die. It's time to go. Move to adjurnn. done. Second. All right. All in favor? I thank you everybody. We will start over. And yep, a second. We're going to call this meeting to order. Um we're going to first seat the new members and um since the normal order would be the sitting president or this case it'll be the vice president from the previous board will actually walk talk you through your oath.
So that's something that we can develop together, you know, moving ahead. Is that okay with you, Mike and Carol? Sounds great. If there are no other questions on that, the final item is basically the doctor care has a mirror on her dog and pony show tomorrow, which is going to be very interesting because as far as I see, this is the first time that we're going into a a meeting where we're bringing bags of money, you know, one that we've had and the other that potentially we're saying we're going to give to you, you know, which is good that it's in that position. On the other hand, it's going to create a on our face to defend our particular position now, you know, from all of the criticisms that that that we're going to get. So, I, you know, I I've covered some of this with Karen.
So you should all have a copy of the oath in front of you. And then you all have to stand up. Stand up. And you will administer. You guys are just going to read it all at the same time where it says your name. Obviously, if you don't say your name, my name. Okay. All right. Go ahead. I Andy do that faithfully discharge the duties of the office of the board of education of central community and school district in accordance with the constitution of the United States of the state of Illinois and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability. I further swear that I shall respect taxpayer interests by serving as faithful protector of the school district. I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek their hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of some students and employees.
She'll know how how to defend it. My suggestion would be just to get that out of the way to to begin with. So we cut off the the questions, tell them what we've done and what we found the controls and things we have in place and let's move ahead and defend the current budget for 194 million. getting to that point, just recapping is is the question I have is is that the mayor gave us, you know, as he put it, um $199 million. So, he gave us $172 in the appropriation, which was a $12 million increase. He regifted to us, if I can use that phrase, a unspent balance that he gave us last year of the the city or state arbor money. It's nice to be regifted, you know, present. Uh and then he he threw in the other alliance money which generally in the past had come to us direct of $9 million and the famous $ 122.9 million of inind services which if we can figure out how to apply that to some vendor that would certainly help us.
I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public meeting. I shall abide by majority decisions of the boardaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. As part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district. I shall foster with the board for extensive participation of community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for central community school district 301. I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law.
But my my question to you Cara is in going into this meeting when you defend $194 million Are you going to say that with what we currently have the as I've said the four the nine uh and and basically that's it that we're going to continue to do what we have and to make things work or there may be a shortfall of x number of dollars that are are you know in terms of even the arithmetic that we're going to be short and we'd like you to pony only need that money up or if not there are other funds we have such as that nonoperating account and non I think it's non operating forget you know what what the ex extra sure terminology is but non-lapsing account uh and and so I I guess what I'm saying is what is the ultimate purpose and request that you're going to make of the city tomorrow sure so you know we our needs are are still the needs that we had have going into tomorrow.
I shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students and our community schools to advance the vision for central community unit school district 301. And I shall strive to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district towards fulfilling the vision the board has created, fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills, knowledge, citizenship and personal development. Thank you. Congratulations. You may be seated and welcome to welcome to the board. That is the longest that you will ever have to read at one time. That was difficult. But thank you and welcome to all of our all of our new board members. You will actually get four name plates at the next meeting in May. So we will go from there. Okay. Recording se Secretary Mandy, will you take roll call? Dogen here. Foreman. Reva here. Here. Wson here. Welch here.
Um, you know, as always, you know, I don't want to say we've gotten pretty good at, you know, figuring things out, but we are we are coming down to a to a line with this grant where, you know, any flexibility that we've ever um would have had. You know, it it would have been wonderful to walk into next school year with the full alliance grant or a good portion of alliance grant um being available to supplement student services across the school system. Um we won't be able to do that next year. Um but we will be able to slide, you know, staff that's intended to open up the school system um in into that grant. So what it does is that it allows it'll allow us to live another day um but does not allow us to really thrive. And that's and that's the difference you know as we go into um you know the the the next school year um again we have not negotiated five contracts coming up um that that are unknowns over the summer.
So at this time we have to reorganize the board. Obviously there's new members that are on here. The current um even vice president etc no longer are in effect. So at this time um president we need a nomination for president prom in reorganization. Okay, I'd like to nominate Morgan Papis as president promp. Second. Okay, congratulations. Oh, okay. Where? All in favor of the motion to appoint me Morgan as president prom by signifying by saying yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. I will hand the chair over. Well, that's me. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Okay. Nominations are now in order for the office of president. Any nominations? Uh I nominate Ryan. Sorry. We have a second. I'll second. Okay. So Brian is nominated. Are there any others? Ryan being the only candidate nominated for the office of president and the chair hereby declares Ryan elected by acclamation and directs the recording secretary to so record in the minutes.