001Good afternoon. It's 530 and we're going to begin this evening's public hearing We will start with roll call Dr. Eric Cruz Bella Crystal Hernandez present Israel the area on the third present Rudy Corona present Ritoso Gomez present Orlando Lopez present Alex Reyna and fellow bettas present Tony Torres Next item on the agenda is public comment. The next item on the agenda is public comment But before we begin I will remind our audience members of the board's procedures for handling public comments The public comment portion of our meeting is available to members of the public according to the following at regular board meetings The board shall permit public comment regardless of whether the topic is an item on the agenda Posted with notice of the meeting at all other board meetings Public comment shall be limited
002to items on the agenda posted with notice of the meeting Anyone who like to speak during a public comment must sign any prior to the start of the meeting and list the topics they want to discuss An individual with public comments to the board shall not exceed five minutes per meeting Please keep your comments or criticism civil and courteous Please avoid using profanity and refrain from making personal attacks on others during your opportunity to speak We ask that you do not discuss students who are not your own children In addition the participating individuals shall adhere to the following State their full name and what organization or group if any is being represented Indicate the topic about which they wish to speak Shall refrain from commenting directly on the individual employee or public official by name
003but may refer to a specific employment area job title or the board as a whole and Shall refrain from attacks on individuals Lastly if after at least one warning from the presiding officer Any individuals continue to disrupt the meeting by his or her words or actions? The presiding officer may request assistance from law enforcement officials to have the individual removed from the meeting If a speaker is seeking board resolution of a specific complaint that should be addressed through the district grievance process District policy DGBA has been established for addressing employee complaints Policy FNG is the avenue for filing pairing complaints a policy GF addresses committee member complaints The uniforms can be obtained at any campus administration office or at the district central administration offices We have one speaker for public comment. Ms. Mary Maney members
004The public hearing is on the financial integrity Rating system for Texas and We have a really good we've been doing really good for the last few years and There is a lot that Between the board office and our finance office that they do to keep help us keep this rating as high as we're getting it And I don't think it comes across quite as much to a lot of people about the amount of effort that it takes to get the rating that we are in this because we are talking about our finance Financial system, which is not just the bonds and all that. It's the payroll It's the POS and all this and there is a lot more to it than it just says so Just wanted to make you're going to give a shout
005out to the people that are Truly behind this. Those are the bookkeepers at your individual schools It is the finance department payroll accounts all that in here and the fact that the board works as well with them As they do so when I came in Eleven years ago, we weren't so good. But in the last couple of years, we've got excellent and Considering the amount of turnover that we've had at the upper part. It's amazing that we're getting what we are so that means we have the back the support staff is Phenomenal and it's just one of those just want to kind of give a thank you for what they do so that We can do more than what we do. So thank you very much Thank you, ma'am Thank you The next item on
006the agenda is a discussion and presentation of San Benito CISD's rating on the financial integrity rating system of Texas Well, I've miss Vicky bettas present the report. Good evening. Madam Vice President London's members of the board. Mr Bettas, my name is Vicky bettas assistant superintendent for finance and operations And it is my pleasure to present to you our first rating public hearing the next slide, please just an overview the financial integrity rating system of Texas is designed to ensure the public school district and charter schools are accountable and Transparent in their financial management promoting the effective and responsible use of taxpayer funds. So this this presentation The report is done based on ratios. And so those ratios are going to give very complex Equations to make sure that all of us are on the same
007playing field when we're going over who how we're doing and how we're Trying to be as best stewards of our tax dollars So the 24 25 rating that we present to you this evening is based off of 2324 data and the reason it's a year behind is because after it goes into the audit Then it goes into the the clearinghouse and then they start analyzing all the data. It's a whole year and a half After the fact before they finally get that information So we have four different scores that we could achieve a being superior achievement with a 90 to 100 points B above standard achievement 80 to 89 points C meets standard achievement and that's 70 to 79 points and F sub standard achievement and that's less than 70 points and I'm very proud
008to say that San Benito CISD has a perfect 100 score So whenever they get those ratios, they're gonna check to see are are they on the higher end on the lower end? Are where we are we were are where we are supposed to be and we were hitting every single mark And I'm so proud of all of that. I Will not go verbatim over each of these questions, but I will give you an a very brief Gist of what it says. So question number one was the audit submitted on time Yes Question two. Was it a clean audit? Yes question three Were our bond payments made on time? Yes question four were TRS Texas Workforce Commission and IRS payments made on time That is a yes If we did not meet that yes The most
009we could have gotten was a 95 if we had received a no on any of these first four indicators We would have received an automatic F So already off to a good start next slide Indicator number five was the total net position greater than zero. The answer is yes If we had not met this one, the most we could get is a 79 Number six was the average change in fund balance for the last three years less than 25% The answer is yes, if we had not met the ceiling the most we could make is an 89 number seven does the days Does the number of days of cash on hand is it enough to cover operating expenses and the answer is yes Number eight was the asset to liability ratio enough to cover short-term
010debt. Yes Number nine did our revenues equal or exceed our expenditures? And so we did receive more Revenues than we anticipated in our spending. So that was another yes Number ten says that it was not evaluated and you'll see from one year to another that there may be some indicators that don't necessarily pertain because it is a maybe like the Exemptions that TEA gives us that we might not be evaluated. So number ten was not but we still got the points for it number eleven Was the liabilities to asset ratio enough to cover long-term obligations? Yes number twelve Is there a correlation of future debt requirements to our property values that was a fairly new Indicator and that was also a yes Number thirteen did the district meet the administrative cost ratio? The amount that
011is the threshold is about ten percent as long as we have ten percent or less in our administrative cost ratio Then we're good to go and we were at nine percent. So that was a yes Number fourteen did the district have a fifteen percent or more decline in enrollment to staff Ratio and our Declinement was not more than that. So we were actually at a two percent. So that was a yes Number fifteen was our ADA within the pupil projected amount submitted to TEA that was also a yes and number sixteen did our peems financial data have a variance of less than three percent and That was also a yes If we had not met that indicator the most we would have been able to make is an 89 And on the last set of
012questions was the audit free of material weakness. The answer is yes If we had not met that ceiling, it would have been a 79 that we could get at the very most Number eighteen was the audit free of material non-compliance. We were free of non-compliance. So that was a yes Number nineteen was the financial information posted in compliance with all laws and rules We have all of our financial information uploaded to our website. We have a very robust website. So I'm really proud of that So yes, we do have that posted Number twenty did the board discuss changes or impacts to local state and federal funding? At a board meeting within a hundred and twenty days of adopting the budget and I am absolutely certain that we do that because We have several board workshops
013We've also had many discussions about the legislative sessions that had just gone by so that is a resounding yes If we had not done that though, the most we could have gotten on this First report would have been an 89 and then lastly did the district get an adjusted repayment schedule for having been over? Allocated revenues and that does not pertain to us if we had that indicator We would have not been able to make more than a 70 so congratulations to the San Benito school district the community the board for the support that y'all provide for us a perfect 100 is It's wonderful in just in any grade, right? But to be able to share that with our colleagues in the valley. It's it's also an honor as well next slide So there are
014a couple of required Requirements whenever we're talking about the public hearing for the first report. The first one is that we must have Advertised in the newspaper two times Within 30 to 10 days before the meeting and so we did advertise in San Benito news October 24th and the 31st that we would be having this meeting this evening Another requirement is that we must have the superintendent's contract available for review here at the board meeting unless it is continuously posted online which in In Wonderful transparency our superintendent does have his posted at the last two contracts actually and that is available at the link There on the website there and then another requirement is that the first report must be made available during after The the public hearing and that has been posted online as
015of last week and then the last requirement is that we Present any payments that have been made on behalf of a board member for meals lodging transportation fuel registration for any board member or superintendent during the period of 12 months before 20 June 30th 2024 So you will see we had a transition in board members that year as well as our superintendent next slide and That concludes the The public hearing portion of the of the meeting I would open it up for any questions that the board may have What was the last time we've got a hundred great? If I'm not mistaken, I don't know the exact number, but I want to say it was about four years ago Thank you. We've been consistently high though. I do know that part. Are you guys doing
016a great job? Thank you, sir from me. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Absolutely. Our team is wonderful We're we're good because they're great So I don't want to once again, you know, this is extremely important for the community to understand You know what it takes to to cultivate this type of achievement. It's very difficult, you know But I'm glad that we have a full house here and then for everybody that's seen Remotely to understand that you know taking care of our stewards dollar, which is our bus as taxpayers. It's very extremely important So for us to have a hundred, you know a hundred rating that means that we're doing our due diligence and thanks to our administration Thanks to our finance department. Everybody was into play which is all administration everybody So it's
017it's a huge blessing and honestly to see that we're doing everything we can to Continue to sustain public education and a very difficult time So miss Vicky and your team and mr. Pettis won't thank you guys so much and all the staff that's here It all takes it takes a village man to make this happen and people don't understand that but Look it up and you see how difficult it is to get a hundred So, you know what we're it's a blessing and trust me we'll be getting calls and how we do it and so it's a good thing But congratulations. Thank you sir. It is an honor to be able to provide this level of high standard and Still provide for our students everything that they need. So it's it's a wonderful balance and
018and thank you for being partners in that Thank you on behalf of the board. We want to congratulate the whole team for Obtaining the a and we look forward to continuing these great results for years to come and Does anybody else have any other comments? Thank you Thank you at this time. We are opening up our comments to the community if anybody would like to comment Miss better so can you repeat the question in the mic that way? Yes, absolutely Her question was if I have the information on how many days of cash on hand we have and I do not have the exact number But our board policy does have a certain amount that we need to keep from and it's between 60 and 90 days I can get that information and I'll forward
019that over to mr. Pettus so that he can share with the board and I'm so sorry for not having that number Thank you. Any other Comments or questions by the community if not, then we adjourn this meeting at 546