Sal what I had talked to Courtney earlier and in lieu of perhaps thinking of a finance meeting next next week during a break considering the fact that a lot of the day cutting off hassle is not there and you know I know it's an inconvenient but I also think a preliminary finance meeting to get some groundwork laid some out-of-the-box thinking down might be an opportune time to it when you not under the gun having a you know a hundred different things to do during the course of the day and if this would two gears thinking about this thing here you can have any and the objection to something like that no I I don't I'm working next week my only caution to to myself has been I don't want to bid against myself and I have no idea what I'm being proposed with in terms of a budget and to start that what I said rich to everyone is and the high school particularly because of their inquiries in FTEs and grass where's your requirements and in special ed with Kelly because the additional and bilingual is to look at those budget and to prioritize discord you said what they may need now with that said I am NOT we have not taken what some districts around with have already done they're laying off people we have not done we have not in the past we are we're waiting for at least I'm waiting for what I'm gonna be even talking about in terms of a number what I do know a rich is that the money that we were expected to get from our alliance money UCS is going to be allocated to us I did write Ryan to do to affirm that and he has at this point the only thing the unknown is the big enchilada it's what are we go and from the from the municipality so if we have a meeting next week I have no problem to meeting I just want to be careful about what's the signal what signals reporting out there because I don't know what's all involved they could be employing things that we had a look at right now we're looking at savings and benefits we're looking at carryover funds so having a meeting is okay I just want to be careful about you know what what pathway we're going that's all I'm not looking for any number kind but it's you know they did it's a guessing game and it's it's futile it's more of an exercise in collectively the minds coming together and and see what's on everybody's mind what the concerns are in a general sort of environment where you focused on one thing and not 18 different things so if there are any suggestions as to look at this you know such as generally speak and look at the end of your statements this year look at scenarios for next year why they have just mentioned them in generalities so that at least if you're thinking about it those people that are engaged in this committee have a feel that the voice has been heard and you know we make the contribution that that's basically you know the the well I'm sorry if we have a meeting next week I know I'm gonna be around and Kevin's gone Kim's gonna be gone a few days but Cortney myself and you and whoever's around we could probably mean some of them are taking some time but I'm around for it we could set some so you're gonna want to work with Cortney with something we could post yeah I'm here so we can we can set a time rich all right so what I'll do with the fact I'll leave it at your discretion as to what you feel is the best time and date you know in your agenda and send it out to the different you know members and just see if they're available and maybe even to expedite things earlier or faster if they have any questions so now you know with we're not caught off you're not caught off guard at the meeting later forward questions to to to you myself and you could review them prior to the meeting and yeah I don't have a question specifically about the budget just at some point I just had a question for dr. Sal say it's certainly yeah sorry to circle back I just wanted we just started getting peppered with questions dr.
wife rich so I just got to present it she's the one who packages at all I know there's some and that's also not a surprise she's awesome with her data thank you so much thank you I'd like to say something real quick that doctorís I had just mentioned talking about the principles being in part of the PLC as far as deciphering the data and I don't know if any other board members have done it but a couple of years ago I sat in on one of those dated deciphering days and it was over at Marley Park and to have the principal Dana Kay in the classroom helping those teachers deciphering that data it was awesome and it was a little bit mind-blowing as well and I would encourage any board member to actually go to a school once we go back in session and in visits to actually sit in and hear the strategies and and everything that they're trying to do to decipher that data it is it's remarkable isn't that what they used to call because I know we used to attend the success zones at different schools what's happening I believe the focus that member so you're seeing Phelps referring to is more on kids in an RTI model I'm not sure I this is more just reviewing their formative data weekly to make sure we're continuing to gather data on this the skills that kids might not have been proficient on on the benchmark both are very impressive yes maybe that was it but either way it was still awesome to just sit and listen to the teachers talking with the principal in the room and that was a credit to miss miss Kay excellent any other comments miss tanner no no all right miss Densmore nope thank you okay president Leonard this is Louise if any if the board members could just refresh board Docs I move to the agenda items F 2 and G 3 down to the appropriate section down to action discussion so if you can just hit your refresh it'll show up down in action discussion excellent thank you for making that adjustment anything else before we move on alright we'll go ahead and move down to action item g3 financials and compliance on it for financial year ending June 30th 2019 dr.
Sal and I didn't want to bury it with another one but this just goes back to the the executive order about the grading policies and I was just just a clarifying question just to make sure I understand it correctly so right now the governor hasn't said anything about a mandatory pass/fail or a change to grading systems across the state and as of right now is it it's still up to the districts to make a decision on any changes to the grading policy specifically at like the high school levels so I'm looking at it just came in what it said Joe is it was just a determination of grading policies and approaches continues to be at the discretion of the local or regional boards of that okay and then it goes on to say what the governor did to his executive order he empowered the commissioner to make modifications that would be in graduation requirements if a youngster can get the coursework technical reasons that we could de Bourgh it has the right with me the waiver and so does administered and then he's suggesting the Commissioner now not not not the governor looking at a grading system that all of a consider as a state okay that's all that's all we're at right now and then he offered for example and as quickly pass/fail grades they offered what they called best failing complete pass with distinction and then standard pass/fail so yeah like for the grease that we would consider and that's that and that's his determination not that's a governor the governor that's okay thank you next up any other questions who's talking about the information briefly on the all of you according on so this is something in for those that are new that as I knew we vote on every year we're asking for the border to add it to the agenda for adoption at the next meeting and what it is is any items that are served for sale through the cafeteria the healthy food it's called the HC and just look up make sure I get the name right HFC the healthy food certification if you vote to adopt the healthy food certification it gets us an additional reimbursement of about ten cents for every like snack or item that sold and a results in about a hundred and ten thousand dollars for the district annually and what it does is it says that we have to follow certain products that are considered healthy for snacks for kids so Connecticut's a little a little bit strict with it it lowers the salts sugars you know in facts and some of the snacks and it gives us a list of items that are acceptable we have to follow those items vary from Sodexo has met with the student board and they have no pushback they have no problem they've accepted it every year but I wanted to be available to answer any questions in advance so that we'd hopefully be able to get on the agenda for for next board meeting we're required to have it voted on by April 30th by state statute in order to make the application we've approved every year when they started we thought it was kind of silly to bring it back every year but like statute we have - it just permits us one we can run our cafeteria for our kids because they have to abide by it but it also permits us to gain about as Courtney said in next 100 just times I'm your 10 grand so we can bring it back okay made a statement we have to have just voted on by April 13th and they support me this April the 22nd no I think it's ended a month wasn't it April I'm sorry 30 if I didn't see it yeah April 30 okay thank you yeah and it's like baked Lay's instead of regular potato chips you know it's just modifying to be healthier healthier foods my last question is do you have anything that you can share with the boys so we can at least view this information and then by can't I'm gonna get ready to vote on we won't have a whole lot of questions yes and was that never touched that Jeb is Kara on here Carrie did that document get attached to the agenda I guess it didn't that parently I can't I know it did not no it did not but I can forward that to the board thank you yeah thank you then I'll help make the agenda move along a little bit quicker we have to read the information and we have questions we can ask number one thank you okay is there anything else any board members have anything they want to I do okay Rachel um we're gonna set a policy meeting for April 29th at 5:30 committee members were sent an agenda and it's not continuing business as usual but looking at some new policies and some current policies impacted by the virus situation okay thank you Thank You chairperson report I don't have anything I'll be very brief I just want to thank everyone for this is a new how can I say this is a new I guess new world thank you doctor it's a new world and we all be coming together and really trying to understand that more and trying to do our best and this too shall pass but I just want to thank everyone for being cooperative if you can't be here on time and you have to leave you know a little bit early before we sign off I really appreciate that and I really appreciate just notice that just letting me know if you don't want to let me know that care or know that you're not going to be able to participate on time and you have to be a certain time and I just want to thank everyone for just really special care for supporting me Geena trying to get me to adjust from one computer to the other computers or something else and and I thank you all well if there's no other questions or comments about anything I will entertain a motion that we adjourn this meeting at eight 2023 I need a motion second I made a motion by Kate second by Jill all in favor say aye don't forget to sign it off leave the meeting have a good weekend and enjoy your Easter weekend
Kellis Thank You mr. president and I have members of the board members of cabinet for the rest of our informational items we're going to turn to our illustrious mr. Hicks so with this first wooden g3 mr. Hicks will introduce the evening mr. president members of the board superintendent dr. Kellis colleagues and community members online before I turn this over to our director finance mister Mary Dowell Speidel and Jennifer shields from Hine film each let me just say just a couple of things Burt out of Mary Dowell and her team they do an amazing job just in general but also the I'd like to include all the communication they do for the areas of improvement with all the changing appliance requirements that constantly hit us as an example though the this audit is on the agenda and other staff so that we could clearly communicate to the end-users where some of our areas of improvement are and how we can get better second I would just like to brag on Dyson for a second this presentation doesn't happen in every single district around the state in fact during the legislative session there was a bill moving through the process that would have required every district to present their audit to the governing board and have them approve the by a roll call bullet vote we don't shy away from transparency and accountability and Dicer and I thank you for your time and right now I will turn it over to Jennifer shields to start off the presentation thank you thank you mr.
Hicks can everyone hear me okay thank you I just want to make sure I got the muted button well president Leonard members of the board dr. Kellis and mr. Hicks um thank you for allowing me the chance to present the audit for fiscal year ended June 30th of 2019 I have done this presentation before but if you have any questions all certainly things at the end uh mary-dell do you want to switch slides for me please thank you so first up we have for you some information just about the audit itself in general what happens is the external auditors are contracted through the competitive proposal process so that's required for you know any multi-year purchase that's over certain thresholds and anything that you would wish to procure on a request for proposal which has different requirements than a bid a sealed bid process so we went through that process with the district and fiscal year 19 was the fourth year of the audit contract what that means is that there is one more year you're eligible for the the fiscal year that the district is currently in in which we will be working with the district to start the audit here soon actually and that means that after fiscal year 20 the district will go through the process of issuing another request for proposals for it so in terms of the audit itself I know it seems like it's been a long time since the the fiscal year ended on June 30th of 19 and here we are in April of 2020 but the on-site field work is actually conducted a couple of times a year you'll see on your screen there that we were out on site last year and may have 20:19 and then again in October of 2019 whether it was somewhat fortuitous or not we actually had been embarking on implementation of a lot of remote auditing procedures throughout the last fiscal year the district you know ken he wanted to brag on the district a little bit and and I'll add a little bit of kudos here to the district as because Dysart in particular has a lot of information that's available electronically and so when our audit teams come out on site we you know we may sit in your conference rooms and we may have discussions with staff but when we ask for documentation a very large portion of that documentation is already in an electronic format so the district staff are able to just simply send us the electronic documentation that's actually that puts the district in a really good place from the standpoint of being able to complete the audit and just having the documentation ready for financial transparency and to be to be reviewed so um the the reports themselves were issued already there were four different reports that were issued there's what's called the communication to governance and that's I believe you guys saw as board members have copies of all of these documents available to you the the communication to governance is a letter because audit standards require the audit or to have two-way communication with the board so we we deal with management and staff at the district on a on a daily basis for completing the actual audit there's but it's the board that has you know a lot of responsibility with making sure that things happen as they should and so the professional standards that we are under requires communication and so that particular report is one that we issued it's just a letter and then there's also the comprehensive annual financial report and that's the very very large PDF more than 150 or so pages in electronic fashion I'll talk about each one of these a little bit in a minute the single audit reporting package is a little bit smaller document and that's the the report that has information related to the district's internal controls as well as reporting on federal programs and those items that were audited with respect to the fiscal year so there's a report on that and then last but not least there's the uniform system of financial record compliance questionnaire that document is around 40 page just this year the format of it changed a little bit but that's the document that had areas of hundreds of no questions and that that document gets issued to the Auditor General's Office and they retain responsibility for reviewing to make sure that the district complied substantially with the requirements that the Auditor General's Office sets forth so specifically married L Fiona swich thank you the communication to governance letter there's information in though that there is in fact several estimates that occur in the financial statements that's normal those include things like that's for say claims payable or estimates for what we expect as a district to you know be liquidated in terms of like accrued vacation and sick leave and some of those kinds of things I'm happy to report that there were no difficulty is encountered in performing the audit there were no disagreements with management and management provided all of the required representations there were some adjust that were required to the fixed asset schedules that were originally prepared by districts in order to properly intial statements so we are required to point that out and I'll talk about that again in another slide and then just last but not least as independent auditors we have a lot of documentation that we have to go through to ensure that we are with respect to the district and we did meet in fact all of those independence requirements that would enable us to render the audit opinion so a little bit about the comprehensive answer or there's an image of what the cover looks like so the first thing I'd like to point out is that there was an unmodified opinion on the district's financial statements that's otherwise known as a clean opinion what that means is that there were no material no material misstatement in the financial statements that were detected through audit procedures so that's the the best opinion that you can get and then I'll just point out briefly that I've given you page reference numbers for several things which if you were so interested to find out a little bit more information about the financial position and the activities of the district for the last fiscal year you kind some some graphs and verbage and some discussion and analysis therein in what we refer to as the MD&A management's discussion and analysis then there are what's called government-wide financial statement just two pages that goes through all of all of the balance sheet type and essentially an income statement type figures for the district on a government-wide basis and that those two schedules include everything including capital assets and longs debt whereas you look at the fund financial statement there on pages 36 through 46 those are actually a little bit more aligned toward the information that you're used to seeing on a more monthly basis when you think about how to district reports information with budget to actual and by fund so it gives you information there last but not least course you know 30-plus pages of notes to the financial statement that will tell you a lot more information about where the numbers come from and how the district does that and the statistical section has upwards of 10 years of historical data so that you know the anybody looking at the kafir' can go back and see kind of where has the district been over the past 10 years so then switching to the single audit reporting package I'm interested that this is where we issue the report on internal roles as well as the compliance with federal and state regulations so the the auditors were required to go through a process of doing a risk assessment to determine what federal programs to tap this year the program that was selected is title one it's one of the three largest programs that the district operates and there was related to title 1 there was a weakness in internal control and an instance of non-compliance that was reported related to title 1 specifically as it has to do with time and effort documentation what that is is the federal government requires that any payroll expenses be able to be substantiated by the time that the employee is and is actually working on at a1 compared to say another objective and then I mentioned earlier that there was a deficiency well there was an issue with capital assets and the figures that the district had originally gathered for capital assets were required to be adjusted and that was reported as an internal control weakness and that it was specifically related to the district's processing of donated capital assets which are somewhat difficult to capture because there's not a mechanism within the accounting system to capture those so those can be overlooked and it requires being able to pull information from multiple sources to get those those assets that are donated into the the capital asset records at the end of it some more manual process as opposed to more automated when you know like let's say you are reef doing a renovation on a building or something like that overall the audit itself I managed to the timeline the the audit is event price we usually start in the spring around the May time frame and then it ends with the issuance of the audit reports your audit reports were in fact issued to meet the timelines which the for the financial statements they were issued to ask them in GFO a you see that on your screen the December 31st submission deadline which also allowed you the opportunity to meet your bond disclosures deadline is February 1st so both of those deadlines were met and then the other reports that we issued the single audit report and the usf are for the Auditor General's Office those are both required to be completed by March 31st so there's a nine-month deadline after of the district's fiscal year and you you're required to do those submissions by March 31st so all of those reports were issued and met the the filing requirements so that's good as well and then I think the last slide I have for you is related to the USF our compliance questionnaire and as I mentioned earlier this is an it's a document that has you know more than 40 pages over probably 400 questions of different in different questions to make sure that the district is following guidelines that are established by the Auditor General's office there's a few of those areas like procurement we mentioned that you know how do you procure your goods and services there's sections on IT payrolls so a lot of the big areas but then also you know areas like making sure that you filed your budget on time and that you were operating within your budgetary constraints and looking at student activities and as as happens with almost every district we work with there were in fact some minor non-compliance items that were noted when you think about it finance has the responsibility for it but yet many of these areas they affect there's people throughout the district you know out at the school sites that are responsible for making sure that you know all the processes happen and the the eyes get dotted and the t's get crossed and so non-compliance issues are really something that happens all throughout the district and I think Mary della is going to talk about the some of the specific instances Mary dil yes thank you very much Jennifer I just wanted to point out this specific area as Jennifer mentioned we have the u.s.
bar questionnaire we are required to comply with the various areas there are over 20 areas that are reviewed within the u.s. FRS and the shields mentioned this is a summary of how it came to play here within Dysart within 2261 items I know she mentioned it was 400 questions each item sometimes has multiple questions but I wanted to point out there specifically 261 items on the US so far that the auditors go through and answer whether it's a yes or no as it differs from our single audit in that materiality is not looked at in this instance auditors look at that as a yes or no answer and so as it relates to those you can see there there are 251 yes answers and there were 10 no answers and so we can go through those a little bit more in detail here but the specific areas where there were some no responses was related to fixed assets as Miss Shields mentioned procurement classroom site fund student attendance reporting again as she alluded to that definitely has quite a bit of manual work that goes into that so we often do see some instances of non-compliance in that area as well as transportation this next area shows the audit compliance summary so these next few slides which you have been provided in advance shows the question itself the auditor comments so basically what was the background related to the finding and then we do go beyond and collect from the different departments that are responsible for those areas what is the district action taken is that a matter of additional training that's needed is it a matter of additional you so we really try to focus on what is the root cause and try to identify how we can make those Corrections moving forward also in that finding and prior fiscal year comments we did want to provide that as a reference so you can see is it a recurring finding or is it something that may have just come up this year the finding in the prior fiscal year pretty much on as noted on the various columns and I'll just kind of sort through here most of those findings you'll see was no so it wasn't it was not a finding in the prior fiscal year and that was the case for most except for a couple of these items I can certainly answer own questions related to those the final area here was the single audit reporting package as the shield's referenced this is just a little bit more background on that title finding what the district correction action or the district corrected acting up action has been taken as well as the capital asset finding and so we've really reviewed as I mentioned with the various areas and identified what we need to do to correct these things moving forward and so at this time as I mentioned you've been provided these in advance and so I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you very much we have any questions this is Tracy I have two one of them is for Jennifer shields if possible and it had to do with one of the slides that you were talking about the donated assets I believe yes and can you explain that a little bit more because if it's not why are our feet held to the fire if it's not required at least that's what I'm getting from what you said does that make it is and and Mary doe can probably help me out a little bit too but specifically when the if the district receives donated assets they they do in fact become the property of the district and then the district has an obligation to make sure that it reports all of its financial assets which includes anything related to capital items so for example if you receive let's say for some reason you receive a donation of computers those would be technically added to the district's asset listing so that you can properly pack them you can properly insure them and then you can make sure that you all of the other controls over capital assets to make sure that Legia assets don't walk away that they are stolen and that you are protecting those assets now typically most assets are purchased by a district or they are obtained through a long term lease finance you know instrument or something like that but there are cases where donations are made and so this finding itself is it's more related to the financial reporting because there is that obligation that you report your your complete financial asset you know I'm sorry your complete financial statements which includes all of the assets that are owned by the district and if I could just add a little bit more specifically members so you're seeing on that question with capital assets this this particular finding actually resulted from us going through and and identifying really trying to reconcile all of the items that were in our financial ledger system to all of our backup and in that process of reconciling we actually identified some land that had previously been donated through our developer donations that had did not go through our general ledger system because we didn't purchase it ourselves but it was rather donated and so in that sense it was brought to the Governing Board for approval and for recognition and at that point is where we kind of did include that final loop of having our fixed assets to go back through and I don't if I guess the board has now recognized this as being one of the district's assets let's now go back and physically add this to the fixed asset listing so that is the change that we've now made is ensuring that all governing board items when we bring that gifts and donations monthly board report that we're really combing through that making sure anything that falls within that fixed asset threshold is captured in the system answer the question okay and that's that's when you were talking about adding manually so it's right okay all right all right typically it gets added into the system via processing through accounts payable and then we do the final reconciliation and it gets added into the system because it's already living there and house there this is where kind of I was a little bit more manual effort to add it on physically outside of the system okay so that could happen at any time right but you were doing your best in order to make sure things are at it as soon as a mess and that all parties that need to know so for example of our accounts receivable team gathers the information and prepares it for board agenda and then we really then how our fixed assets um tech go through and ensure that it's being captured into the system so it's really just kind of finally you know closing that that final loop and that's what we're really focusing on doing awesome okay and my second question is of course it always has to do with I think I asked every year the student attendance reporting and I know that's Jennifer you can probably answer this because you deal with so many school school districts but that always seems to be an area that I don't think we've ever had a hundred percent on the student attendance correct and that is correct well I apologize let me mean let me rephrase I don't know whether your district specifically has ever had an audit where there were not attendance non-compliance issues reported however what I can tell you is that through our experience and our work with many different school districts that the area of attendance itself happens to be one area where every district struggles and it has to do with the fact that you know out at each individual school site you're managing so many different students with different schedules and a lot of the a lot of the questions I'm trying to look here on my screen oh fast there's it looks like there's about 45 questions just related to attendance Alone's not correct married oh yes there's 45 questions and the fact that your district has currently only five that's actually not bad most a lot of districts have more than five but one of the things that were to look at is say partial day attendance and so that's for example when a student comes to school and leaves early to go to the doctor or you know goes to the doctor in the morning and then comes in late and so those constitute what are called partial days and so it's important to point out two different things number one the district is not funded based on absences the district's funded based on memberships so the the absence rate doesn't necessarily have a direct correlation so we're still testing for items to make sure that absences are properly reported but yet it doesn't ultimately have an effect on the funding so that's the first thing I would point out the second thing I would point out is that that those calculations although most districts you know the student management systems that are in place the there they're designed to calculate down to the minute to determine whether a student gets you know say 0.25 absence versus 8.5 absence and as we choose our samples those are the kinds of details that we're looking for so when Mara Dell had mentioned earlier that there's no there's no materiality consideration with respect to the USF our compliance questionnaire the we're looking at you know did student you know student a if student a left 0.5 hours or point 5 days early but was marked as 0.75 then that results in a non-compliance so a lot of the times you're talking about very very small discrepancies and they're usually in that you know 0.5 kind of area yeah so it's something that all of us all school districts struggle with this correct and is there is there ever going to be a day that we could you pour all districts that would be able to answer you know yes to everything and we'd be all happy with unicorns and rainbows and stuff I longed for that day that's definitely one where we're targeting I did just want to share as it relates to the things that while it is very difficult to achieve 100% and we know how many districts do if very many we do still want to ensure that we're doing the best that we can and identifying where do we need to make those adjustments and so I did want to share some things that the student information systems team has been doing and and kind of the corrective actions they have been taking really after last year's audit results they they got together they kind of started brainstorming and performing those internal data reviews out of the various school sites and so they have completed a spring of nineteen of fall of nineteen and they're just wrapping up the the fall of norms are in the spring of twenty and so since implementing those changes they've had nineteen schools where they've kind of reduced overall findings and so they're having various target areas that they're looking at and then as they identify common issues they do hold monthly data records tech and register our meetings and so the leadership team they're into information systems shares our best practices and really works together among the various school sites for them to share what works well at their sites and so we're seeing that that's been a pretty successful ventures to really bring them together identify what are their challenges what are those common kind of internal findings we're seeing it's really that's our target is to reduce and ideally one day have all yeses on here but we really do want to just continue to work towards continuously improving that area yes and that ninety six point one seven percent is is huge it's it's fantastic and you know we know that you guys are doing the best work possible and we thank you for that and touching on that just for a second Jennifer and Mary Adele do you think that the usf our questionnaire is going to look a little different because of what we're going through now you know that's that's actually a really good question every year the otter general's office does go through the process of determining whether or not you know there are certain questions that they're asking that are perhaps not achieving desired answers you know maybe maybe we're looking for something but we're asking the wrong way so they do go through that process but so many of these areas that the areas aren't necessarily going the way in the schools you still are going to be required to do procurement you're still going to be required for this to do all of these things what I'm what I'm unsure of and you know I'd be interested to hear also what miss Bedell says but we never really know what the questions are going to be changed to until usually after the fiscal year has ended so the requirements don't change it's just the information that's being asked for on the questionnaire there may be some changes that come down with respect budgeting or maybe some winces made with respect to like payroll or attendance as they relate to the current situation that we're going with but that all still remains to be seen it's a it's a big task that the Auditor General's Office has to undertake to make sure to get the right information out there and is I agree with that Thank You Jennifer thank you very good just a quick just a little bit echoing Tracy I think she's right I think that um I don't think I can remember a year when we didn't get flagged for attendance and although it may not be linked to funding I I appreciate mary-dell you making that point to where it's something we strive for even just from B I mean because number one I mean obviously we want to be accurate with our reporting's but then you know when you think of students who maybe for for whatever reason they are always hugging that 10 absent you know the the cusp of 10 absences and things where it starts impacting them or that parent who gets a call during the day that says your student has been absent for one or more classes and then maybe they were just code wrong or you know something like that so those little things in the record as far as if it's list isn't Alex and it's really not and then also just for parents again to to get that call to your student wasn't present when maybe they should have been coded for an activity versus absent or whatever I'm it evolved it all matters so I appreciate you saying that it's still something even though we're very high um and how well we're doing things percentage-wise it's still not quite a hundred percent in for something like that I know we all want to achieve to get there so thank you for keeping that a priority yes thank you yep we have high standards so we're he'll be shooting for those thank you thanks plip anyone else all right we appreciate your presentation thank you so much for your feedback and helping us understand this on it we'll go ahead and move on to information item G for district demographic information update dr.
Kellis Thank You mr. president members of the board and members of cabinet again mr. Hicks will introduce this item good evening mr. president members of the board superintendent dr. Kellis colleagues and our online community members before I turn this over to our planning administrator Kevin Shipman let me just say that I really believe were lucky to have him he does a great job of supporting a number of different departments you heard him earlier with the boundary change transportation demographics ATMs do HR with projections so he does a great job of taking information or a request really quickly and turning that data into information so I appreciate all that he does and so with that take it away together I think you can greetings again president leonard board members superintendent dr.
Kellis cabinet and those in the public I'll be providing a brief update on demographics and growth within the district and I'd be happy to take any questions that you have after my presentation so I'll preface this by saying these estimates and forecasts are pre-pandemic data and it's probably a little premature at this time to provide any data or numbers on specificity as to what will happen in terms of growth or enrollment as we're just in the middle of this pandemic but I will provide some commentary at the end of the presentation on some thoughts related to that as well this column chart illustrates enrollment historical and then forecasted and the key point to take away here is forecasts that have been developed in the last six months pre-pandemic we're really illustrating the building activity and enrollment growth that is really starting to ramp up within the district at this time and obviously things have changed a little bit but we were expecting some pretty healthy growth and we're very much starting to see that in the last six months during this school year so and we also noticed that very significantly in our breaks for example after winter break worse we were really seeing a lot of those new home purchasers come in and enroll their new families to Dysart which was exciting this illustrates housing unit construction again historic and forecasted you can see for this fiscal year were partially the way through that and the key takeaway here I would say is that we're expected again pre-pandemic that we would see over 3000 units constructed a year in the next couple years for the foreseeable future and really as those permit activity new new units kind of trickle down a little bit at the end of the forecast period that's maybe better an illustration of not specificity to the developments that would be happening maybe past five or ten years it's occurring and also developers and builders in the area are very careful about not putting themselves in the position that many found themselves pre housing crash and so they usually were planning on kind of reining in their development activity and so that's why that kind of caps around at mark maybe around three thousand year as opposed to doing what we had pre housing crash so this illustrates estimated enrollment in in our local non Dysart schools and I'll also note that you may be aware that there's a another charter that's opening in the West Valley and surprise still slated to open this coming fall and we do expect that that will affect Dysart enrollment the elementary forecasts that you'll be seeing does not reflect that because it's from earlier in the fall and if you have questions about that we can certainly answer those I believe Ken Hicks knows I think a little less than two hundred average daily membership was forecasted to decrease so that would be a forecast that we lose some elementary enrollment to that opening but again that's I think overshadowed at least by the pre-pandemic growth forecasts this illustrates our key enrollment forecast and because of other providers and kind of aging in the community we tend to see a little bit less growth in K eight so you can see that there's kind of a healthy growth activity that's occurring but really if you look at it from the state's perspective the district has maybe a little over twenty thousand capacity at all of our our elementary schools so this doesn't necessarily indicate that from the school facilities board that the that the district would be eligible for funds however most of our schools have I would say all of our schools have pretty healthy populations some of our lower enrollment elementary schools or maybe 600-650 and I'm thankful that that we have those numbers and not dealing with what other districts have where they have maybe 300 or 400 in the school so this is a again historic and forecast of our high school enrollment and you can see that we're forecasting to jump over 10,000 here in the next 10 years the high school forecast is significant because this might be an area of future need and because high schoolers tend to come to Dysart and they usually don't want to go anywhere else we don't have a lot of other providers in the area for high school students we expect significant numbers and recently the district sent a letter to the school facilities for requesting that they consider securing funding for for a land purchase for high school as this is significant growth and this is much more significant than we would have seen if we looked at this data a year or two years ago we're really seeing those numbers come in and it's also noteworthy that this doesn't necessarily fully take into account the potential for other students especially outside the district as Luke Air Force Base increases their mission and we see we can Burke in Ngata Berg districts having a lot of residential growth and a lot of really strong evidence that those students prefer to attend ice our high schools so we expect continued healthy high school enrollment and this illustrates that high school enrollment at each of our existing four high schools Dysart's usually going to be maybe 16 or 18 hundred through the forecast period but what you can really see here is that willow Canyon and shadow Ridge especially are where there's a lot of that building activity and then this certainly illustrates the expected Ruhlman thats just really increasing in those areas so you may have seen this before but this is a map of the district showing existing residential units and here we have our existing school coverage so the green school icons are k-8 schools and the blue are our high schools and then this is pending development so the district tracks pending development activity very closely of course we get our demographic update from Applied Economics and track a lot of other sources demographics trends building activity so that we can keep a close eye on what's happening within the district and as you can see there's a lot of pending developments that's going on I'm sure board members and others have seen that activity throughout the district and ultimately what we're doing here is highlighting that there are definitely some areas where there's a lot of construction and growth and we don't have a lot of facilities right now I know mr.
Hicks will address that later this evening but as you can see there's a lot of slated growth and the district is looking forward to bringing those new students to Dicer so when we talk about post pandemic growth there's a lot of uncertainty as as what will occur and I certainly can't provide too many answers but there's a obviously a lot of conversation as to what's going on I do think that it's worth to note a couple item a couple points in terms of Dicer Unified School District and and what happens long term so post the housing crash there was a lot of pent-up demand and the market hasn't really caught up to that yet so I'm sure a lot of you read that it was very much a seller's market earlier this year and last year where there was a lot of demand for homes and there weren't a lot out there and there's a number of reasons for that Builders are being a little more careful and also there were some labor challenges so there's still a lot of demand and I think that that perhaps indicates that after the pandemic that demand will still very much be there and when you have a population growth and and just the demographic need for that housing I think it does suggest that at some point that growth will be very robust in the future whether that's you know six months or longer I really can't answer another noteworthy point is that builders post see the o8 crash did a lot of things to make sure that they were exposing themselves as much so Pulte group for example which is a builder here in the area and they own centex homes they have tried to not on so much land at one time and sort of do other take other steps to make sure that they're not exposing themselves so that if there is another recession they'll be able to bounce back a lot quicker and so that might be something that helps growth in this area rebound much quicker and then of course we know that a lot of building activity has been deemed essential in housing construction and mortgage rates are still very low so those are things that may indicate that we see that growth come back on quicker again I can't make any promises or even really a forecast but I think it points to the fact that within Dysart Unified we there is going to be a real strong need in the near term for those homes and we will see that growth be happy to answer any questions that you have thank you so much for that we have any questions Kevin I just wanted to say that hopefully is at one point in your career you will be able to have a magical crystal ball and you can foresee the future but there's only so much that we can ask of you but thank you for everything that you have done to give us a glimpse on especially like the high schools that you were mentioning the growth that would be especially over at Willow Canyon and shadow Ridge they it's gonna really it's good really gonna boom so but I do appreciate everything you said you're welcome thank you member so I think though thanks Allah and with that we'll go ahead and move on to action item g5 bond committee recommendations for election under dr. Kellis Thank You mr.
president members of the board and members of cabinet several months ago the governing board charged administration with forming two committees one for a bond feasibility study and one for an override feasibility study Ken Hicks has accomplished both of these tasks and they're very efficient use of time and energy and he will be reporting on each of these we'll start off with number 5 which is the bomb committee recommendation so mr. Riggs thank you very much and good evening mr. president members of the board superintendent dr. Kellis colleagues and on link online community members it is my pleasure to present the results of the bond committee first I'd like to thank all of our members for their service we did start this process over two months ago and when we did things look very different now I presented information to the committee about the last bond request how school finance works how bonds are sold what our debt looks like things from transportation inventory age mileage SFB high school and possibilities demographic trends that you just saw from mr.
Shipman we're also we we just started talking about middle schools and what would a conversion look like and then all this happened which is all this is the highest highest new cases of unemployment that we've ever seen a stock market that has a lot of volatility the economy which we don't know exactly where we are today and evidence that that is the classroom psych fund which is prop 301 we're supposed to have that number by law for what we budget the next year by March 30th each year we still don't have that right now because the jlbc and their economists still have not figured out what this is going to be sales tax gonna be so but on the flip side as you just heard the demographic report we actually don't know a ton about new homes and you've probably seen some different reports and Kevin helped build a picture on that boat when you see for the month of March I think I saw a report where you had about 300 homes a week we're coming on to MLS listing roles and about 200 to 250 contract issued and they were coming off the rolls and that happened though I think the whole month of March and that's what happened in February and that's what happened in January so this had this pandemic started prior to that and so it hasn't had a dramatic effect on home but we had a lot of been to kind of demand in that sense and so that is a big deal but where does that leave us and so what I did is I asked the bond committee about should we continue with this or knowing that all we have with stock market influx the economy who knows where it's going to be record unemployment should we continue is this the right time and actually six of the ten so only 10 responded to the survey there was only 5 days to the survey was only open for 5 days but only 10 a six of the 10 respond 10 responded 6 of them said yes we still need to go out for it but they were split on their reasons one saying hey you said you were moving to a middle school conversion we probably still need money to convert the schools let's do that and some said hey with the new normal this online learning we probably have greater needs from technology because technology was presented to the committee so there was a little bit split on that but but first I I don't know from a middle school conversion I'm not even sure what the cost would be right now because we don't have the plan to what it's going to look like and how many schools and so I don't have that number right now at second we are receiving some federal care stimulus money they can be used for a lot of different things including technology there's also separate grants and either block grants or the blood grants or other grants that are specifically open for technology and so on top of that I did contact and talk to a couple political consultants and I did ask their advice and they said calling for a bond right now with all so much uncertainty they basically said unless you have no other options they would probably not call for a bond and so with that and I did email the bond committee and let them know thank you for your voting and thank you I know that six the tend to continue at the bond I did tell the committee that I was going to tell the board that I would not call for a bond election for November 2020 and so this is not an action item so there's no vote but I would like to hear comments from the board to see if obviously this is ultimately something that governing board could direct me to continue with the committee and come back and I would do that but I would listen to what kind of feedback the board has for me at this point Thank You mr.
Nix I appreciate your insight and obviously over the past two months you are definitely correct a few things have changed and it's getting a little a little tougher just to you know blow out that crystal ball that missus or your think bill talked about and figure out exactly where things are going with depending you know markets and everything that's happening the ups and downs and all around it's it's a tough one for sure and definitely something that we need to tread lightly on and look at all of our options I think that it's a sound call to hold off on the bond currently as I've looked at it you know just over time especially with pending recession and the things that could happen obviously you know we look at our growth numbers we look at the trends and everything as best as we can but there again nobody could see you know what's happening now and and we certainly don't know what the future holds I think it's definitely a sound recommendation and I definitely support your than the Committee on that and we'll open it up for questions let's go ahead and go with miss Roy your seat belt Thank You mr.
president I am I'm glad that mr. Hicks reached out to some political consultants and to get their feel on it that crystal ball we do we don't know what's going to happen it within the next two to three months let alone the rest of the year and I although I would like to see have having us wind a bond I don't think that it is the appropriate time right now to do it there are just too many variables and too many things that are in the fire that we need to concentrate on and to successfully win it with the way just like you said unemployment and and things that are going on right now and I don't see us advancing it so yes I would I would agree with mr. Leonard and you thank you thank you for that let's go ahead and go to mr.
Tanner I had to only I don't I don't have any questions further than what has been recommended from the committee thank you for that let's go ahead and go with mr. Pritchard um mr. Hicks when you mentioned that you and you're not recommending we move forward and you told the committee that you were gonna go ahead and make that recommendation to the board were you able to get their feedback I know this would be the first time we would not be going with the recommendation of our community committee work so once you explained everything to them as far as information you've gathered and the rationale behind your decision I mean do they have an opportunity to hear that and process that with you and do they come to the same conclusion or are they still feeling like it's something that they feel is important to pursue mr.
president members is well that's a great question I did have one so in my email to them to let him know that I would not be going that I would be taking the opposite position of what their recommendation is I did put in layered in there a couple of those comments about that I don't know what the middle school so going to try to support for the middle school I would just be making up a number and also the additional funds we're getting that you can be used for technology and stuff I only got one email back from somebody that said thank you very much and that was I believe one person opponent to continue they said I agree with you and just so I only got one feedback from that and they agreed with my stance of not going forward but you didn't necessarily because you told them that you've decided you were going to just move forward with your recommendation to not recommend the bond did you happen to or is it even too late to consider letting them know like this is my my recommendation based on these reasons does that change your position you know just to kind of actually ask for that feedback rather than seeing if anybody wanted to reach out is that just to only didn't know why I'm saying it I completely understand what you're what where you're coming from but just the district we've always really honored our community work and I I want to make sure that if people went out of their way to schedule time out of their lives to provide this feedback that they feel like they their point of view was heard even in light of this new information so I just think it would be interesting to see if that would change their perspective I also because I guess where I'm coming from too is the technology piece and maybe how how confident you are in some of those other areas of as far as getting some money to cover that and if we did not go up for a bond only because what we've learned is we had some some technology challenges when it comes to some of our online learning and just the different changes we've had to me that are making our district and also not knowing what may happen down the road I know I mean not to get into a lot of the news but what a lot of the experts are saying medically is this could come back around maybe in the fall and you know or whatever you know just in general are we able to seamlessly transition with our technology that we have so I have a concern I was looking forward to the bond you know if we did move forward with it and if it did pass covering a lot of those technological gaps we have because our equipment is so old so just you know how soon I mean do you even have time just to go to the committee and email them and just say hey is this based on this information is that change of position and who are these we you say political consultants um pardon my being a little naive with that what exactly what is what kind of experts are they exactly as far as just the likelihood of the ballot measure being successful that's what these people do just like projections or so mr.
president members of the board so there are lots of questions in there so I'll try to answer all of them but or comment but please follow up if I did not answer some of their so I'll go backwards so the political consultants I talked to mr. Paul Ben's and I talked to mr. Pauley who both do a lot of local and statewide elections and just in general if we have a pending recession coming to the state which may or may not be short or long or medium-term is the time because we do have a high population of retirees that probably from the phone calls I got from the last election here they live on a fixed income most of them I assume that means that their investments and they get a distribution from their investments and so their investments might have just taken a 30% cut and how does that impact them potentially paying more money and property taxes to cover that do we have a bigger recession that impacts sales home sales new sales assessed valuations where they're going so there's multiple layers that we just don't know right now how that's going to impact the home with a record number of unemployment of people and I know that the governor signed an executive order to not be picked anybody but are we having lots of people not make payments on their house right now so how that looks in 2-3 months could be much different going back to I did not it was a survey so it allowed for them to provide a comment but it was not it back and forth and an email would still not be a back and forth with them they have this so if I was to go back and give feedback I'd have to schedule an online meeting that we'd have to come back and have a little bit more conversation because time was tight and I needed the agenda done by last week I chose to instead of trying to find a time where we all comida I just did a survey so they could fill that out on their time before going forward and I also didn't want to waste their time because all the presentation all the information was before it has gotten worse and worse and worse and so they want to waste anybody's time I'll be honest I really thought it was going to be a majority a vast majority saying don't go out I was a little shocked when it was go out a couple of the comments when they said go out they said modify it only go out for about 15 million dollars if we're only going to go out for 15 million dollars I would not go out because that's not going to solve all the needs that we have either through new construction or come versions or technology that's just the transportation ask to be quite honest and need so knowing all the different things what I told them is that if we don't go out I would recommend that we come back in December and start looking at this data again and see how hard what you mentioned calling a meeting I don't again if I'm not understanding this correctly but I don't know that that would necessarily be necessary based on what I'm wondering why what wouldn't be stopping you from writing an email with the ten people that attended and said and just to kind of outline why you're not feeling like this would be appropriate at this time or feasible but wanting to honor the work they've done and make sure that you've captured because we wanted to capture their thoughts it was the reason why we did this and just give them and then just say would this change your position just so they can feel like maybe it wouldn't you know or and I would like to know that but I think it's also good for them to feel like they went out of their way but reserved this time for us and rather than having them feel like okay well I guess the district just shut it down we're not moving forward with any of it at least see whether or not it would have changed their what they would have recommended or if they're okay with it it more of like a closure thing and just to see if this would have made any difference I don't know why that couldn't just be done in an email just saying if you if it's you know if you want to if this changes your position or you you know it want to provide feedback then you know please respond to this email but and then you at least know and they at least have a an opportunity to say either way if that would change their position mr.
president members of the board I could do that that is what I did prior to this agenda item is that I did send that email out that's when the one person did respond because I thank them for their time and explain why why I'm taking the Congress approach recommendation and so but I could do that again and asking that the board has specifically asked for additional feedback and how they felt with with me taking the opposite of recommendation to the board well not necessarily how they how they feel about necessarily it's more of a matter this is the reason why you've decided not to move forward with their recommendation and just say you know given this information because I'm sure you've explained it to them why you feel like it might not be a good idea right now just said of that as a committee would that would that change your position on this so you do any of you feel like we still need to go out for a bond based on the information presented just to just to see if this happened I mean it changed your mind it you know may change the board's mind but I'd be interested in knowing what the committee thinks of that mr.
president members of the board I could definitely send that email I mean I did explain in my original email to them but I did I have no problem going back out and asking them I will tell you part of why they probably weren't as strong of sending more feedback is I mentioned to our committees multiple times that they really only come up with a recommendation the governing board much like they did last year with the bond can modify any recommendation accept it or go with it so there's multiple directions that can happen in a governing board has the purview to do whatever this is a committee just looking a little deeper to see what they want and so that is what that's what has happened and so I think maybe I prepped them for the governing board and I think but I'll definitely let them know the book governing board with the time and effort you put into this would like to hear how you feel about these right because we've always we've know we do have the authority to go a different direction historically I don't think we ever have I mean I think we really always value the the work that comes out of it and I just I just want to make sure they have the opportunity to finish the process and and say whether or not your information would have changed their position that's all mr.
president members of the board but just for clarification last year the governing the committee did not recommend to elementary schools the board approved going for two out of Monterey school so they did modify it even though they didn't I agree with you probably has never ignored or or gone completely against what a committee has said but it it's very common for boards to change if they think it's it's reasonable because you also are representatives of the people and so as I press upon our committee recommending just to recommend without understanding what our community wants and will approve it's just wasting our time and so there is a process that has to go through that we have to see what is viable and reasonable for our community standpoint as well exactly and they're the representatives are of our community they're the ones that we gather to get that feedback as represents represented our community that's why I'm saying that like even before when we changed certain parts maybe of the bond or how what it was gonna represent we still the committee recommended supporting the bond and so the board still went with the bond it was just whether or not you know how certain pieces of it would look but ultimately they wanted a bond we went out for the bond so again I don't think it's a waste of time if we're just talking about a three three-minute email just to make sure they feel like their time together was honored and they feel like they still have a voice in finishing the process because really it sounds like it was cut short it was they did the work and then we came out to say which with very good information and I think there's a lot of merit to it that it probably it's not looking good for these reasons and so you were saying I'm gonna recommend it to the board but that more takes it kind of like they didn't get the opportunity to process that I guess and say well we hear that information but as a committee we would still like you to move forward I'm not saying that that's what they're gonna say I'm just saying I'd like them to have that community input that they were supposed to represent our community boys and have them finish that mr.
president members of the board just for clarification we did not finish the process it was cut short so your comment is exactly right on and so the question that would be asked them should we start up our meetings again because there's no no number we don't have like oh go for a five hundred million dollar bond or a five million dollar bond we did not finish the process so we would have to continue to finish that process all the way to the end we were three-quarters of the way through it when we had to cancel the first meeting and the second meeting we cancelled and then I send out the survey so I have no problems starting back up the process to go through to see what the final recommendation would be that's not what I'm saying I mean in light of this pandemic in light of the information you received from the political consultants because of what's going on I don't want to waste anyone's time either I'm not saying let's have meetings and let's talk about money that we likely may not go out for what I'm saying is everyone knows what's happened we know that this this process isn't being done the way we would typically do it to take it all the way to the end but we have a valid reason for why it's being cut short and based on the information you gathered from the political consultants you're going back to the committee and saying you know this is what we've gathered we probably should stop our work or or this is what I'm recommending to the board that we don't move fort farther with this you know see what the committee says if they're the people that we picked to be the voice of our community on whether we move forward with a bond all I'm saying is still put it back in their hands to give them one opportunity to say we hear you mr.