001Good evening everyone. Welcome to the October Finance and Shared Services Committee meeting. With me tonight are Dr. Layman, Miss Laura Allen, and from the board I have Miss Tay, Mrs. Sharma, Dr. P, and um Mr. Pra. Um we have three items on the agenda. Short meeting as usual. I'm going to start with the first item which is the bill list. I want to tackle the bill list first. Did anybody have any concerns on the bill? Um, we are at I believe we are at 5 million. Is that the number? >> Sorry, I do have it in my notes somewhere. >> 5,24,000. >> Right. And we expecting an addendum soon. So, for now, the bill is 5 million. a lot of school supplies in the bill list which was as expected. The only uh question that
002stood out to me was a transportation bill from um ESJ which was um explained by Miss Allen in my pre-inance meeting as a transportation uh charge for our ESY special ed students. Um, we have moved to a new vendor for our busing. So, we wouldn't be seeing as many of those ESCJ, but our special ed kids still use the ESCJ busing. So, those bills will be smaller, but will continue to come in. Um, that was the bill list. >> And wasn't that from July? That was from Yes. >> Yes. Um, nobody has any questions. We can move on to the next item on the agenda. Uh, we have the attorney piece as a second item on the agenda. About $11,000 in attorney fees this month. Any questions? Um, this attorney piece is a good segue
003to the next item on the agenda. The portion of the attorney fees attributed to Oprah services this month was $4,900. So, as you can see, it was almost, you know, almost 40 plus% of our um legal fees for the month was Oprah services. And as you may all recollect in the last month's finance meeting, we raised a concern on the cost of attorney fees and the way we were handling OPRAS um and the cost that we were incurring on them if it made sense to look at a tool that would help us become more efficient and that would help us save money. We had requested that uh the business office ask a few providers for RFP. Um, Miss Allen had reached out the next day, taken up your names from me. I'm really grateful for
004turning it around within the month. Uh, Miss Allan, I'm going to turn it over to you to share with everybody what your findings were and then we can talk about discuss your findings and then probably make a recommendation. >> Okay. So, first I just want to mention what the current process is. I think that helps like what's going on now and what we're hoping to achieve. So right now the opra secretary receives um requests in her email. So they are mixed in with all her other emails. It's not like the one central location. Um she sends a receipt response to the requester. Um she determines um what staff member can fulfill the request and you know reaches out, emails or calls the staff member to um to do so. She manually maintains um a log
005of all the requests and the status. She um she may have to and many times will have to follow up with staff with reminders of of due dates um and you know to get the information that she needs. Um she receives information records in various formats which then have to be converted. Um she compiles and organizes the information. She redacts sensitive information manually. She prepares the redaction log manually. Um she has to physically scan records. Um and there's often a size limitation on how many records can be emailed at one time. And then she prepares and sends out letters um for extensions or final responses or etc. So there's a lot of um time involved with manual processes. Um everything's kind of all over the place. it's not in one central location. So that being
006said, so we reached out to three vendors um has requested for the Oprah software um um and we received proposals from two of those who provided us with presentations um and they actually um let us see a demonstration of their of their product, their software. So um although the two software systems that we saw are very much alike there are there the one company just Hoya offers a feature that the other does not um and it has a few other thing a few things that we kind of liked better than the other and it was less expensive. So I'm really going to speak about that. So just for you, it offers a record request tracking system using a software that manages every step of the process from intake to delivery. It streamlines the process by
007automating repetitive tasks such as um the redactions, assignments, reminders, communications with um requesters and responders. Um and it uploads documents without um stamping. Um it provides um a personalized consultative approach to the implementation process which is live. Um it configures it will configure us the system to our needs. They'll sit down with us and decide what we need. It provides technical support and a dedicated client specialist. So we will always have somebody you can reach out to um with any questions or concerns. Um it offers live monthly learning sessions and on demand learning and help videos. So there's always a learning process that you can use. Um it's cloud-based and it has um then you have unlimited users. So how does it work? So we will have one configurable public portal for the requesters to
008submit and track requests. Um so and and the Opra machine can um be linked to this. So everything will come into one place. It won't go to your email be one place where everybody can see it. Um and we can provide um a search archive within that system to allow requesters to search previous requests. Um and they may find that there's something in there that they're look that they were looking for. So they don't really need to submit a request. It's already there. So they can just pull that. Plus, the system um can look at key words in the request and direct them to another request that's already been fulfilled. So, that can be a great timesaver. Um the system um the requesttor is automatically notified of a receipt of request. Um, it also prompts
009the requester to provide more information about the request so that we can fill it if they're missing information like if we could have like if there's email logs and they don't have the to and from or the dates or whatever whatever it is, we can have that information built into there. So, they have to put that in and that will eliminate the back and forth and the denials and stuff. So, that helps the process as well for everyone. um it can um it can build out workflows based on the type of the request. So if it's requesting an email log, it can we can have it directed to go straight to our tech department so they can start to fulfill it. Um or you know whatever whatever like maybe keywords that it can be directed
010to somebody to start to work on. Um we can add legal to the flow. um if we need to or if we at some point just want to add certain certain ones we want to go to legal so they have everything right there cuz everything will be there the documents the letter responses everything will be right there um we there are reminders that will go out to the staff escalations reassignments approvals everything go out right from the system it will create custom forms and letters um it centralizes all communication ations with the requester and internally. Um, it will design and automate common communications with templated messages and workflows. And then the nice piece is the redaction um of the sensitive information which it can it can either do it by keyword or um certain terms
011you can use. It can um eliminate duplicate emails, which is often been a problem with email logs. You might get 10 emails the same thing. It will eliminate all that. So, you're not redacting 10 different things. Um and it can um do batch um redactions and it automatically will give you can have an exemption law um that will be created so that the person the requester can see why it was um redacted obviously the reason um so let's see it keeps track of it can keep track of time and labor material materials for billing purposes um which which can be very helpful if you know I believe that's more people whoever's working on it can submit their time there'll be an hourly rate down that we charge so you can get and if there's materials
012you can put that in there simply see what we're paying or what we're um charging if you need to charge it imports and organizes response documents um so they don't need to be manually scanned there's unlimited file size. Um it provides a lot of reports. Um the log which is as I said currently manually prepared. Um the process request the bottlenecks user activity etc. So you can have any any kind of report that you feel need to see. It will build in our count our school calendar and build in the deadlines according to that. Um you can set due dates for the staff so you're not like chasing people down. um anyone can see the status and leave notes or instructions or you know how you want to handle um how you want to fulfill
013the request um with the staff and that will be deleted before it goes out but you know you can have communications in nutshell um so it it really in summary it does do a lot um and it's it's it's a lot of streamlining efficiency timesaving things um centralization and communication um automating the tracking of requests and increased transparency and efficiency. Um and that being said, we still would need to use an attorney at times. There's always going to be times we will need the internet. We can't get around that. But this definitely would be a timesaver um for the other >> we need a secretary. Yes, there's still going to be um >> we're still going to do the same thing just they're going to have to >> Yeah. So, the expense of >> this
014the expense for this program is $8,252 a year. Um and they would being that we could start actually if it's board approved gets approved um you know the day after actually they would start the training. It's about four week training process and where they set everything up. Um, so that would be paraded. So it' be about $5,800 for this year. Every year they raise it 5%. Um, and to compare with the other system next request, that was 9,498 a year plus a $2,000 implementation fee, which is one time. So that would be 11,498. um they did come back with a 25% discount for the first year if we did this before um December 19th, but that would still bring us to 9,123, which is more than this other company would offer. >> And there was
015one key difference between Next Request and just they don't pull from >> correct. they don't pull from um the open the other the other um next request you would have to you have to basically go in and and and pull it into this portal whereas just Hoya it links it so it automatically goes into that portal and it's good because user requesters can go in and see the status and see what's going on and everybody can see what's going on sometime um but that what they can create. >> I just have two quick questions for you. So when looking of course price-wise and looking at the fact that it integrates with Oprah machine just foil seems to be the right choice. When you said there's a public portal if we go with them will people
016be just going on this portal to submit their request and not emailing it to anybody? They could still submit the request and open a machine directly. Is that the process? could and that will come right. >> Yes. >> But if they wanted to check a status, Monroe has a dedicated portal page >> and that's with the other system too. They both have the same type of things. It's one one place your government which which is nice. >> So they're not currently our taxpayers that submit an oper request follow through with our Oprah secretary to find out what's going on >> or look at Oprah machine to see if it's being fulfilled. Right. Typically if it's fulfilled they'll hear back in within >> right if and it's being um if they she needs more time with
017extension they will get a letter from her but that's again another manual >> all the manual process that's been done when we fulfill a request through just before the point that if all the work had been done by the system say it was a very simple request didn't need any attorney review just simple redactions you know few emails it wouldn't automatically submit to the receiver. It goes through review. >> Correct. >> In fact, they have a system which I don't think we would use, but they have both of them have um some a feature where you could they could create a bill, have the um requesttor pay the bill, and then they it get released upon repayment. Um but that I don't think that would really work for us. But no, somebody she would be
018the one to look out before it goes out in the act >> and she could mark the bill as paid and that was the thing. >> Please go ahead. >> Cuz I was on the pre-inance meeting. If they send them a bill and they don't want to pay it, that automatically means can it wouldn't be released if they >> Nothing would be released. So it's erased. >> Isn't there certain things you can only charge for though? >> Yeah. So basically it's um the materials, the copy, something like that. I think that's in our policy. >> Well, it depends like if there's a long a big email loan that has to be that she's got to go through and it takes, you know, five, six, seven hours or whatever, we can charge for that at her
019rate hour. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Yes, we do. >> We do. Um Yeah. In fact, >> we took a couple examples in the last meeting where we so there was an opener request for over 900 pages worth of and one was over 12,300 pages. We sent them a bill >> and they >> but it's being done. That's why it's gone to the policy committee because >> I think we're doing it on a case by case basis. We haven't we don't have defined thresholds. >> We need to probably fix that in policy. But having a tool like this what it is doing from what I understood with the way Miss Alan explained it is that is running a log of the cost real time. We can set out thresholds that as long as an Oprah costs
020say $200, no bill will go to the to the requester. But the minute that crosses 200 200 goes to say $250. Now we need to ask the requester you will owe us $50 for this. We don't ask them for all the money, but we ask them for what's gone over the threshold. >> And and that's fair because some opas could cost us thousands of dollars and some opas only cost us currently $150. So we define the threshold and that's what the training and setup and onboarding of the system would be >> giving us giving the system our custom information >> and it's all going to be set up based on that giving how we're running the process currently and you guys are going to be working on the policy. tie the two things together and
021and the threshold gets defined and input into the system. Every time that gets beat, we then send a bill out. But then we do want to maybe ask just foyer that as soon as it crosses the threshold, we don't continue working on it. Like we shouldn't end up in a situation where it's crossed the threshold and we've sent it for attorney review, we're getting build for it and the requesttor says, "Oh no, I don't want to pay even a single dollar for it." We should pause the work at the point where the threshold crossed, >> right? >> And then when we get when we get consent from the requester is when our attorney should continue to work on it. >> You know, internal also in that for that matter. Our manpower internally is also >>
022I think maybe Weiss could advise us because I know that there was a question when we first got on the board. there was an open request and if I recall it right the district build for the request and then when wife saw it he was like this isn't something that was available I think it was like an email log or something if I remember right it wasn't the actual emails it was just like a log and it was you know >> when was this in >> yeah like I would say in the beginning like in the middle of 24 like I remember being in the meeting question about >> and he had said there was a question about we were talking about the opus >> and somebody said like you know like I guess it
023was an example where we build the person for this then when we had looked at it he said no you if you're you can't hit the log say was 3200 pages but the log is really only 20 pages with 3200 entries like you can't we couldn't build for the log but we could for the email. That's right. >> And that's what we had did. He said that we had sent a bill. I don't know if somebody questioned an Oprah, but I mean this is something that I think we would >> I think the examples that you shared in the last meeting were ones that we've gone to the attorney to give us a way to calculate the cost and that's what we should always >> once our policy is set >> then we have a
024guideline on how to be calculating and then now the system would do it if we go with the system >> and I think it helps too like if we ask the attorney if we're going to use the attorney in advance what how long they think they're going because we don't often find out until it's so you know until the end. So if we know in advance if they can give us an estimate and then we can reach out to the requester and say hey it's going to be this much do you want to come till now. >> Were they able to share if they work with any other districts? >> I know they do work with Cherry Hill School District. They just um I think started pretty recent. That's how I got the recommendation for
025Laura because Cherry Hill board president shared with me that they've been using them. She was very transparent in saying is streamline our processes made us very efficient but it does not eliminate the attorney which is what Mr. Weiss said that night too that you really cannot eliminate the attorney from this process but >> and I think you were just indicating >> what goes to the like this is my question because it just says >> and it's a basic thing that doesn't go We don't >> it's only things where there's a question about it. But will this system say all right this person asked for this type of record right now to tell us like do you need to send this to the attorney or >> we still have to determine it really based on the
026kind of test. if it's something that involves student information, um legal things that staff um things that are just sensitive that that we have to be very careful with and we would send it to the attorney. >> Um I think we would still continue to do that. We don't take a chance, >> but um no, it'd be up to us to determine whether it should go to the attorney. >> I mean, this may be something we could try for like a yearly basis and if it works. >> Yeah. And >> we're saving money for the district. Absolutely. But if it Right. No, >> just just to put things in perspective, right? We have spent and we're not talking about internal costs at all, but just in attorney fees, we have spent 15 $16,000 in the
027last two months on the on Oprah. And this is going to cost us $8,200. They're not taking an onboarding fees. We'll have a dedicating a dedicated CSM customer service manager. I think it's definitely worth trying for your And then we compare a year later what were our savings >> how what percentage of opas needed to go to the attorney and you know I know we have an opra secretary but you know there can always be reassignments of t there's going to be time saving there's going to be less human mistakes there's going to be proper recordkeeping the whole fact that we will have data a dashboard that is showing us the time taken for an average okra you know it'll show us the ones that stand All in all, just automation is the way to
028go for too much manual work happening >> just to see >> I and I know Gail also agrees that we are >> you know when we have Miss Allen and Miss Dr. Lane. So what do you guys think should we put this together >> because they'll prorate this from December to >> so the question is how do we get this we have to bring to the full board. >> Yeah. So we would recommend it. committee recommended Laura puts it on the agenda for next week. >> Okay. And then we'll let the other board members you'll talk to the board members. >> Of course. Of course. I would, you know, hopefully they watch the meeting, but I will give them a >> I will give them a summary. >> I'm fine. Yeah. >> Yeah. It it
029was great. Laura had so much information the other day and it just with machine. >> Yes. Oh, yeah. 100%. because this is going to be the best part of it where the intake and the and the submission is all going to be automated through a system. We will have checkpoints, manual checkpoints internally, but our our community will be dealing with a a portal that is going to give them full visibility of the process. This is where my Oprah is sitting right now or wait, it's going to take longer, cost more money. I have to make a decision. >> I feel like transparency also increases. Um manual reduct you know redundancies manual redundancies will get taken care of. All in all this is a step forward. >> Yeah. >> And there's this these tools are all
030AI based. So there's a lot of learning happening. So you know based on the requests that are coming it literally would train itself over the next few months and it'll make the other requests faster. So I have I have hope that this is going to be a game changer. >> This is something maybe we should try absolutely run it through and see what happens. >> Yes, >> I think we have a unanimous. >> Perfect. So we'll put this recommendation for the agenda and I'll make sure I put it in my committee meeting minutes and we can have a discussion if the board needs to before this goes to a last item on our agenda for tonight. Thank you everybody. Have a good night. We'll be moving. Good. Sorry. >> We got to pick a board
031goal from this committee. >> Oh, thanks for the reminder, please. I So, we >> permission >> and that will be tackled that'll be tackled as soon as we set the goal. >> I am taking ideas. >> Yeah, I mean ideas what what this committee sees as a goal, but we're I'm going to present them getting one from each committee and present them at next week. I'll send it to you on the Friday's uh president's report all the ones that I've gotten and then we can discuss them next week in public and see which ones we want to break down to which are more important. We might want to do them all. >> Yeah, >> there was one last night we combined lace and CAC for one. So, you know, we can do that with the
032other ones too. Sure. >> I am a little unprepared for the discussion. Sorry, Gail. But I do remember last year the goal was to one of the goals was to um tackle more and more capital projects through our EIP umbrella and I think we've been very successful. >> Uh we've we've put a lot of you know things into that EIP pipeline and will get done and eventually not really cost us money with the great rates and everything that we got with the bond. So that well I can't remember what the other goal was. I know it was just about being fiscally responsible with our operating budget >> which I mean >> which continues to be the goal. >> Can you think of anything that would be appropriate for this committee or to you know present
033to the board? Yeah, I mean I think a goal specific to this committee may actually merge with whether it's a BG&T piece because that's for the EIP right capital project piece or you know so I think you know maybe we get through BG&T we'll see another connection you know because I the finance piece freestanding on its own we could probably come up with something but I think >> like the success of the EIP was prioritizing the funding for these projects the BG&T side of it is getting the projects done that are on list of things to do. So, >> you know, maybe maybe this committee's goal emerged with >> Right. And I do I do see on the agenda tonight is is a whole comprehensive plan and maybe we that could also >> add some
034depth into how we need to look at it from the financial perspective. The comprehensive good. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you everybody. That concludes the finance meeting.