001All right. Good evening. We need a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting of 9925. Okay. Kathy Steve. All those in favor? All right. Good. Dr. Farley, take it away. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us. During our prior board of education meeting, we discussed um taking a look at the cost to replace uh all of our current hallway ceiling tiles right in the lighting throughout our school buildings. I shared with the board kind of the first step of that. Mr. Lja has put together the estimate for the junior high school. He's going to work on with our architects the rest of the buildings. And once we have that, the board will have that and then we'll bring it to a board meeting, right? and we'll
002discuss, you know, the overall right cost associated with the labor, the materials um associated with that project. Uh next, in terms of an update, as the board knows, I've been participating in Western SuffK ongoing regional planning meetings. U leaders have met several times throughout the last few months. Um Mr. Payne joined me for one of those meetings. Um Mr. Maddie, uh joined me for the transportation meetings. We've had in total about five or six U meetings in the last couple of months. Uh we've engaged in collaborative discussions to identify areas where shared work amongst our dis our districts could improve efficiency, expand opportunities and address some common challenges. Uh three main activities that ultimately emerged throughout um those meetings um that again focus on kind of common district needs uh were as follows, right? Transportation
003coordination that's an area that we've already been working with some of our colleagues, some of our you know um other school districts. Uh so transportation directors um after that initial meeting with superintendents they followed up and had additional meetings um to explore ways to streamline our services and reduce costs within our region for transportation. So building on that work the plan the specific plan right talks about continuing that discussion reviewing and studying coordinated bus routes um satellite possible pickup and drop off points particularly for specialized programs um and specifically McKini Vento students. So that would be an aspect that we have not done yet, right? But it certainly would be a benefit to our school district and others as well. Coordinated regional planning um in that area obviously has the potential to reduce travel time
004for students, achieve some cost savings for school districts, and increase equitable access across school districts. Another area that we've identified as part of these meetings is access to advanced coursework. Uh it's it was actually a consistent theme throughout school districts and that obviously um we've talked about declining enrollment and we know that that's not unique to our school district right that that is common in other school districts as well. So as a result of declining in moment there are some courses that remain um not offered right um in various different districts despite there being some student interest. to address to address this, right? We talked about um establishing a regional survey of all of our course enrollment patterns and also our school bell schedules at the high school. And ultimately once we receive that data,
005then that'll inform us in terms of oh, are there opportunities for us to talk to all the different unions, right? Are there, you know, is there an opportunity there to be able to offer um you know, shared um course, right? Um you know, in terms of uh to for students that we are unable to meet in internally within our district. Again, this is really preliminary, right? Just gathering the information from various school districts. Another area was elementary guidance services. Um, if you recall a number of years ago, there were new state requirements um for school districts, specifically having to do with guidance services for our elementary students. Um, so we identified some gaps in elementary guidance counseling um particularly again in meeting some of those mandates. Um, as such, we talked about assessing those needs,
006right? Reaching out to guidance directors. If you recall, we don't have a guidance director now, right, anymore. Um, but there are, you know, some services that are required by the state and we're we're meeting them. We're just meeting them, right? Um, where maybe other districts have additional resources to be able to provide a little bit more. So we talked about um reaching out to those guidance directors and in our case our some of our guidance counselors to define what are some priorities what are some needs that we currently um that we need to fulfill and maybe explore a shared service model right like Boseies does right across other areas um where we can be able to school districts that don't have certain services still receive those services for our elementary students. Um, another area that
007we talked about is we know that as not just as a region really this is a statewide there's a growing enrollment in terms of our students um, English language learners and students with disabilities. Um so ultimately we talked about what areas can we ask for some legislative changes right for some additional supports right we were mentioning beforehand students um you know being um certain requirements in terms of the age of 22 right the reimbursement rates right things on those lines that could help school districts from a financial perspective um let's see what other areas did we talk about legislative changes I mentioned those already flexibility in the use of UPK funs Right. We as we know we started UPK a number of years ago once we started to receive funds. School districts like many school
008districts still leave money behind let's say in that line because there are such huge restrictions um in terms of its use. So we are um as a collective group asking for some flexibility there um when we talk about maybe it flexibility could allow us to you know join with other school districts right and again get more students in those UPK seats paid for you know through these um through these funds. Uh so our regionalization implementation action plan um again which will be submitted to the state and it's basically a live document. It just continues and continues as these conversations evolve. um we'll focus on these specific areas that I outlined there, the the course enrollments um you know the uh special the um elementary guidance supports right um as as the uh second other main
009uh piece there and of course in terms of the transportation. So are there any overall concerns questions with regards to these topics? I just again I think it's important for everyone to you know know that this is all continuing to meet continuing to gather data um continuing to explore right um these particular areas to ultimately increase efficiencies for school districts and equity um reduce barriers again transportation those are the main areas that we identified if at any point in the process we want to go nh no we're good we don't really want to continue to bless you um you know share our transportation supports we stop right so there's nothing that obligates us to do or not do right any of these areas um this is really continuing those discussions and where there is that
010opportunity to do so um really taking advantage of that right and again those are the specific areas that we've identified as a region throughout these meetings >> so that's essentially a brainstorming list of ideas and then each district's going to submit the information needed to see if it's >> so actually it's a brainstorm of ideas yes but both our regional Yeah, exactly. So through that submitted already? >> no. So this this is just a list right now. Then you're submitting all the data from each district. Then that goes into the plan. >> They are going to submit our regional plan. And our regional plan consists of what I just described those those main categories. Um, and the action items that that would include if we're okay with that, right, as a board, as a team,
011um, are the areas that I talked about gathering data from the high schools on the course enrollments that we would, you know, that we do have an interest, but I only have six students that are interested in this course. Do you have that next door Babylon? Do you right like um, so gathering the data is year one, right, of these trans, >> but that's before that's all going to happen before the plan's submitted. No, the first year plan because the plan is a uh 10 year every year you're revisiting and saying kind of where you're at, right? So this first initial submission of the plan is saying what I just outlined out that we are meeting that we've had these meetings that of all these meetings this is where we narrowed the focus to these
012three main categories right um and these are the actions we're going to take there in transportation the ones that I described high school enrollment and the courses you know what I described there um and guidance um elementary support services those and UPK right so the plan is going to be submitted by on our behalf, our regional plan within our piece to say this is our year one plan and then eight months later we have to submit they have to submit on behalf of our region. >> Where are we at? Are we changing? Are we doing it? Oh, West Babylon is no longer part of the conversation. Oh, um half is Hills is now part of the conversation. Right? Like they have to kind of consistently every year submit any of those changes. >> Um but
013I don't submit it. So they submit it on behalf of the region. questions, concerns, continuing the process. >> Yeah, there's no downside. There really isn't, right? You know, certainly from a cost perspective. Absolutely. Okay. All right. So, we will continue there. Um that is all I had for this section of the agenda. Um actually a question to that on the the legislative initiative where um speak about when you the districts are going to talk in reference to legislative priorities and things that they want to change. Um I'm assuming you mean like elected representatives that the board would be included in that prior to that being done. >> Uh so this is the cause. >> So two things um the legislative priorities that you know we talk about the boards association, superintendent association, right? Boseies, all
014those >> those will all be this is I'll call it separate but in reality the same because this was specifically to the UPK piece, right, of flexible spending on that that's likely going to be in all the other ones, you know, in terms of as well. Um this was um by us saying that we're continuing and that we agree in terms of with these we're saying we as a board not right like agree with in terms of these these steps and we also agree with um there being some some flexibility there in what our elected officials do. >> Okay. I thought you meant other I thought you meant petitioning uh representatives for other initiatives. Okay. >> That'll come with all the actions that are coming that we'll be meeting right together with our officials. Yes.
015>> All right. Good. >> Miss go, you're up. >> Good evening, everybody. Um, I'm going to start off with saying that districtwide, many students are excited for the homecoming game on Saturday. Um, the high school students are very eager for the pep rally on Friday. That's always a fun one. And the dance also Saturday night. Um, students K to 12 in this first month of school have been able to find their routine getting to know their teachers and some their new schools um at the beginning of this school year. I would like to note that following this report, I am going to begin reporting on students from individual schools at each meeting. So, for example, at one meeting, I'll do students from Forest their point of views and the junior high and the high school
016at different meetings. Um, and I will be meeting with the students from each school um prior to the meeting, talking to them, getting their opinions, and then speaking on what they'd like to say. >> Perfect. >> Thank you. Thank you. So, I know it's only been a month, but how would you find the electronic band coming along? >> I actually do feel like it has been a huge benefit to at least in the high school. I know that the junior high and elementary schools definitely didn't have as large of an issue per se with the um cell phones, but even in lunch, we have I mean, we have a blast. I was playing battleship today. We play um air hockey and foosball and we were playing Monopoly for two weeks writing down our properties and
017it it's it's a lot of fun. I mean, some people are not the happiest about it, but it has kind of forced a lot of people to I mean, I always talk, but >> um a lot of people, you know, that don't always talk that maybe would have just sat there watching their TV show on their phone. Um I would say it definitely makes has made a huge difference, especially in lunch, in socialization, and even in paying attention in class. >> For sure. >> It sounds like the interaction that a whole generation of kids in kindergarten, >> right? Because of all the testing and all the other stuff. >> Okay, you're up. >> So, we have we have Mr. Mike Leone, partner from Colin Andowski, who is here with our financial statements. The board received
018all the information um I think it was on Friday, right? Evening over the weekend. Um so, Mr. Leone, take it away. And I did I shared with the board I kind of did a little prelude right um to the presentation >> during our prior board meeting and highlighted some of the areas that we had talked about. So >> that's perfect. First thing I want to invite to the air hockey. I love air hockey. >> All right. And I'm really good at it. So just giving you a warning there. All right. It's always a pleasure to be here. So tonight uh you received a packet. Uh included within the packet are four documents. Uh there's going to be a test later. So remember the financial statements. It's a 73page document. Then we have the management letter.
019Then our required communications uh that we have to communicate with you annually and then there's also the extra classroom financial statements. Um in addition to that, I handed out a supplementary uh document and what I'm going to do is that kind of summarizes some key performance indicators and some key results uh with respect to the financial statements this year and I think it's really important. It goes over kind of reserves and other areas. So, I'm going to cover that and kind of refer to most of that rather than go through 70 pages of a financial statement and bore you. So, uh, with that said, I am going to start with the financial statements. >> Yes, please. >> All right. So, what I want you to do is just turn to the table of contents. I
020just want to let you know what's included within the document. Then, we're going to go over the opinion and then I'm going to flip through the uh supplementary information and kind of walk you through some important information uh with res with respect to the results. So if you look at the table of contents, it starts with the independent auditors report. That's where we issue our opinion. I'm going to go over that shortly. Um then there's some required supplementary information. The MDNA, that's extensive information comparatively on the financial statements that talks about this year and the prior year. Um again within my document that I've uh the additional document that I gave you, I'll go through that. Then there's the base financial statements with the notes to the financial statements. Um then there's some additional required
021supplementary information that Gazsby requires. Uh there is a little change in the presentation this year. We presented certain funds in a non- major aspect. Um and that's because they met certain criteria and for audit efficiency purposes were able to put certain funds into a non- major category. The information is very similar to the prior year just presented in a different section of the financial statements. Um there's some supplementary information that's required by the New York State Education Department. And then of course there's the government auditing standards in which we have to indicate whether you comply with laws and regulations and I'm happy to report that uh there were no findings on that. So with that we're going to flip to the opinion. So we've issued what is known as an unmodified opinion. There is a
022qualified opinion on the extra classroom activity funds as we've discussed in the past that relates to the cash receipts and the fundraising. Um there was a change in accounting principle this year. If you recall when I presented the planning meeting Gazsby 101, the compensated absences briefly on that um that required uh districts to um calculate what a projected liability is for the compensated absences um including usage time of existing time that they've earned. In the past that Gazsby uh Gazsby 16 just required that you pick up a liability based on the bargaining unit contract. Now, this has been expanded a little bit. This resulted in a restatement just on the governmentwide financial statements, the with the long-term liabilities of about a $900,000 increase in that liability. Keep in mind that the financial statements are the
023responsibility of management. We as the auditors have to perform our work, perform our risk assessments, and then give an opinion on the financial statements. The rest of the information within the opinion I've kind of spoken about has to do with required supplementary information, some additional supplementary information on the non- major funds, the New York State education, and of course the government auditing standards. With that said, rather than go through this very lengthy document, what I decided to do is put together this supplementary information. It's about nine pages long, but I'll kind of cover the the more important aspects of it. So um I've also referred to in this document that uh the the various different pages within the financial statement where the information is is located. So one of the most important things that we
024look at as external auditors is at the end of the year what are the reserves look like? Right? That's important. So uh the first table here uh which is on page 14 and page 22 of the balance sheet is we look at what the opening reserves were. What how you utilize the reserves during the year. Keep in mind that the district does appropriate reserves during the year and they get to use utilize them up to the expenditures in in the budget. Then there's interest that's allocated and then if they have a surplus at the end of the year which fortunately for the district based on all the cost cutting measures that they took they were able to generate a surplus for the current year then they can fund certain reserves. You can see one of
025the major reserves that they were able to fund is that proposition that you had years ago with the capital reserve that enabled you to put about $4 million based on operating surplus results, which is a good thing, right? So now you can make those improvements to the district at no additional cost to to the taxpayers. Right below that table is some funding analysis on the reserve balances. One of the important things to think about when it comes to reserves is what is my balance? How does that compare to my annual expenditures or my related liabilities um for these reserves? So, we'd like to lay that out here and show you. So, for workers comp, you had 2,896770 left in the reserve. You have an annual expenditure of about 695,000. So, that's about four years worth
026of workers comp expense, right? But it's not just the expense that you look at, it's also what is the potential liability. And the liability that's within the the long-term liabilities is 1.4 4 million. So you have 200% of that. So that's about two years. Again, one one of the important things is when you look at reserves, um the comproller can always come in and take a a look at these reserves and have some points to make on that. You at least want to have at least 100% of that liability. You have more than that. Um so I think that's fine. But again, you know, I can't I you know, I don't know what the controller would come in and say. Looking at unemployment, it's very small reserve that you have out there. It's 122,000. You
027had annual expense of 20 $20,000. That's not significant to me. You do have a lot of that reserve. Um you do have the ability at year end within 60 days of year end to move that into another reserve. Legally, you can do that. Um but with that such a small balance, I don't see any reason for that right now. You also have your TRS reserve and your ERS reserve. Right? TRS is the teachers retirement. ERS is the employee retirement system. Uh TRS has been relatively new for the last couple of years. You're only allowed to put in 2% of uh last year's salaries for the teachers, right? So that hasn't grown significantly. You have about 34% of that reserve. Each year you can build that up, but you can't have more than 10% um in
028total of that reserve of the salaries. Uh retirement contribution, you have uh 3.3 million. Uh your annual expenditure is 1.9. Um, another basis for that is you have about 177% that's a little under two years. We look for two to three years of that. That's good because one of the important things about the ERS as well as the TRS is that these are mandated contributions that you have to make. You can't control them. So, it's always nice to have a little bit of a reserve. Uh, I added something this year. I just wanted to give you a history of the reserves so you can see um how they've trended over the last number of years. Right? That's the next schedule down there. So I showed you from June 2022 to June 2025. You can see
029you were trending down in those reserves from 22 to 23 to 24. And thankfully you were able to generate a surplus this year and restore some of those reserves. Uh you ended the year with unassigned fund balance of at 2025 of 4%. You could see the trend there of what your unassigned fund balances. That's the maximum you're allowed to keep. Last year you were a little bit below that. Uh but that's that's um that's what's required by law. you should have more than 4%. And right on the bottom, plan usage of reserve. What I think is really important about this is the district every year budgets and appropriate appropriates certain reserves to utilize. And that's really important. That means that the reserves that you're generating, you're using for your expenditures. So you can see each
030year you're appropriating certain reserves. That's a good thing. I find that as a as a positive, right? So you utilize that reserve. If you end the year with a with a surplus, you're able to refund those reserves. Okay, any questions on the reserves? The next page is the unassigned fund balance just to kind of show you uh what uh how you came to the 4%. You start with your opening unassigned fund balance. There's some budget revisions. Um then there's some schedules that we're going to go over revenues over budget and expenditures and other financing uses and incumbrances under budget. These are important just from a percentage standpoint. I'm going to go over them with you shortly. um the unused appropriated reserves. As I mentioned earlier, if you would appropriate a reserve and you have less
031expenditure than what you appropriated, you have to put that back into the reserves. So that that happened with your workers comp and your unemployment, your expenses were not as large as what you appropriated. So you put them right back into the reserves. And then whatever you appropriate for the next year, leaving you at that 4% of next year's budget, which is which is very good. Now the next page, next two pages are what I just referred to as your revenues and your expenditures. This kind of shows you whether you're overbudget under budget. So with respect to revenues, your actual revenues exceeded your budget, right? So it was about 3.4 million over that, right? So that's your budgeting process. Unfortunately, we can't appine upon your budgeting process. But that's a positive thing when that when you
032have more revenues than you than you budget, right? even considering the fact that you're also appropriating certain reserves because that is a portion of money that you're or a pot of money that you plan on using to fund your expenditures. So, so that's a good thing and this kind of shows you where those various variances are. State sources revenue um some miscellaneous and in the case of miscellaneous you did have some additional revenues for Bosey's refunds. So some of these things are unanticipated and you get them in the actual expenditures. But more importantly, the next page is the one that I think you really need to focus on because this is your budget, your expenditure based bud budget and how does that compare to actual. So what's important here is right it starts out with
033your original budget, your final budget. Then it compares it to what your actual expenditures were, what the incumbrances are, your obligations are at your end and what is that variance after that. So, at the bottom here, you can see that you underextended your budget by 6.3 million compared to $137 million budget. That's a 4.67% uh under spending. Now, typically, if you're in a 3 to 5% range, that's very reasonable because what's important is budgeting is not an exact science. There are things that you need to build into your budget. There are things that you uh that you can anticipate. special education costs, some of the health insurance, mid-year increases or whatever they are or decreases for that matter. Um, all of those things. So, if you're in that 3 to 5% range, that's very healthy.
034Once you start exceeding that, um, you know, the the OSC could question that you might be your budget might be a little bit inflated, but this is reasonable. >> Okay, any questions so far? >> This is in reference to the term surplus. >> Yes. >> Um, it's only a surplus until you have to make your next budget. Correct. Well, it's a well, here's the way the surplus works. Surplus is really generated on your actual results. So, if your revenues exceed your expenditures, right, you have a surplus. That means you got you receive more fund balance. Now, you have the ability to put it into the reserves. But absolutely, next year's budget, if your if your expenses are continually going up, right, that surplus may have to be used in the form of reserves or an
035unassigned fund balance if you have unanticipated expenditures. So, it's a good question though to add that little >> absolutely. Yeah, that's important, right? So, the next few um items within this presentation are um just showing you what happened with the general fund and the various other funds. I focus most of my time on the general fund because that's the most important fund, right? Because that's what you budget for, right? But there are other funds. So, this kind of shows you comparatively uh what your revenues were, what your expenditures were, whether there was an increase or a decrease. And then there's other financing sources. So kind of let's walk through 2025 compared to 2024. So if you look at the top portion, the revenues were 133.5 million compared to 128.9. That's a $4.6 million increase or
0363 and a.5%. Right? The big drivers there again you had a 2.01% tax levy increase. So that generated $2 million in real property taxes and star combined. uh your state sources you had uh that's based on you know your various funding that you get and once you get the approval of that you had 2.3 million those two make primarily make up your your differences there was some additional amount in the miscellaneous there for 334,000 variance and as I mentioned you received an additional Boseies refund which happens every year it all depends on what the ending results are with respect to Boseies now on the expenditure side this is where you were able to do a very good job because you had a lot of cost cutting that was going on. So if you look at
037your expenditures, you had 130 million compared to 127.8 so 2.2 million increase only 1.78%. Uh now the big driver here as you can see in this general support you had some significant settlements as you know uh for claims and judgments that relate to certain claims. Uh so that was the main driver there. There was over $3 million of settlements that were made there. uh other ones don't are not significant to mention your debt has been declining a little bit so your principles are uh your principal is down with respect to that and the only thing I really want to go over is really the other financing sources one of the things that you had the ability to do this this year is you utilize bands to for those uh for those settlements the ability that
038you were able to um finance them over a longer term gave you the ability to recognize them as proceeds under gazsby 62 so typically bands are just short-term liabilities. However, if you're able to coordinate the maturity dates on that and have that out long term until you go with uh permanent financing with a bond, you're able to recognize that. So, that was uh we had worked with management on that to make sure that they coordinated that. So, that 2.5 million there was an operating transfer out of $845,000. Part of those bands that are being redeemed were it was agreed upon in the original arrangement that the general fund would fund that. So that was a transfer out to the capital project funds to fund that ban. And then you're you have your normal operating transfers
039which are among your other funds. Right? So at the end of the day you had $5 million increase in your um general fund fund balance which was the which gave you the ability to fund some of those reserves. >> On that same page, sure what is covered under use of money and property. So use of money in property is if you have any rentals or your interest that you earn. So again interest uh depends on what your interest rates are, how much cash you have in your um in your accounts. So that's what use of money in property is. And at many times the district might rent out facilities um and they can get payments for that. So that would be included within there. >> Okay. And then I guess the same question for other
040tax items and miscellaneous. >> So other tax items. These are good questions and I appreciate them. Uh other tax items includes two items. It includes your STAR which is a uh which I've always I've always said why don't we just include that real property taxes but the New York State Education Department has them in certain categories. So other tax items and your pilots that you get. >> Okay. >> So yeah. So those >> and then miscellaneous >> and miscellaneous could be um that's going to be premiums that you get on your bands that's going to be boseies refunds. That's going to be any other additional items that you didn't anticipate that don't fall into these major categories. Um, so that fluctuates year to year. All right. You can get ref workers comp refunds. Well, more
041I shouldn't say that. Workers comp refunds would fall in the sale of property and compensation of others. And sometimes you get these settlements on those and those are included there. But good questions. Um, so the remaining pages kind of go through the rest of the funds, right? So the next one is a special aid fund. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on that. That's really your grants. So your revenues equal your expenditures less what you need to fund for the summer program by the general fund. So that just zeros out. You have no fund balance there. The only difference here uh that you could see is when you look at 25 to 24, you'll see that the revenues and the expenditures were down considerably and that's because in the past you received
042American recovery funds and COVID related funds that have ended. So they're no longer there, no longer available. Page seven is your school food services fund. Again, that's what you manage your school food service fund with, right? So, it it reflects uh what your revenues are. Uh you can see that your state sources and your federal sources cons uh were up considerably. Again, your community elig eligibility program plus the increase in the rates drives that up based on the number of meals served. So, that's generating that. Uh your expenditures were down, believe it or not, just a little bit. on that is because last year you invested a lot in equipment. This year you didn't have that. So that wasn't um that wasn't a repeat. So your expenditures went down a little bit in the school
043food service fund. Capital projects, that's another big major fund, right? So again, the things to keep in mind with the capital projects, um the district entered into an EPC agreement this year. So that's $9 million, right? So there was a lot of a lot of expenditures that related to that as well as your high school roof project. So just that alone covers over $10 million worth of costs and then you have various other projects that you're included and those are the expenditures there on the bottom. The other financing source talks about where you're getting your funding. So you got 9.9 million borrowings from the EPC. Um there's some Boseies leases and some uh and I think a truck purchase that you got with an installment debt. Those are all parts of your proceeds. As I
044mentioned earlier that 845 is a money that came in from the general fund to help pay for the ban. That's a redemption from the general fund. that's treated as a transfer. And then your small operating transfers in and operating transfers out. Uh in the prior year, you had um $76,000 left over from your performing arts capital project. You transferred that back and then you're using that for a newer project in 20 in 2425 for 76. So it was in and out. Um and then the only one is the debt service. Um and that's that's pretty clear. Basically, that's interest earned and then whatever you're using from the debt service to pay for debt related expenditures are transferred into the general fund since you're making the payments there. All right, with that um that kind of
045covers the financial statements. Again, I tried to do this using this supplementary information because I think this covers the more important aspects of the financial statements than trying to have you flip through a bunch of pages on the financial statements. >> Definitely which were helpful, right? Like having >> Yeah, it gives you a bit and and I think it gives you the big picture. you what you got some key performance indicators with respect to reserves. You understand where your fund balance is. You understand how you did on your general fund, why you generated a surplus um and how you were able to fund some of those reserves. Okay. So, with that, that covers the financial statements. Unless there's any further questions, I'm going to go to the management letter, which is the next item. All
046right. So, the management letter, uh one of the things that we do is as part of our opinion, we indicate clearly that we are not engaged to intest uh to test internal controls. However, as part of our uh audit engagement, we will look at internal controls, gain an understanding of them, and occasionally we come up with some recommendations where we feel that you can strengthen and improve um your operations. So, one of the things that you do have is extra classroom activities. It's a lot of work. There's a lot of advisors. Um you know, we test the sample of transactions and two items kicked out at us with relate with respect to cash receipts and some cash dispersements. Again, we look at the high school and the middle school when it comes to the extra
047classrooms. So, in one out of 10 samples, we real we notice that the faculty advisor didn't approve it. There's requirements set forth by the state. Uh it's only one out of 10. The point being is that we didn't have the finding because we don't test all of the transactions. So we reported that on the dispersement side we also noticed in the gold uh the blue and gold club that there was one transaction that was really a taxable purchase for like painting and supplies and you know that's the whole point of that student activity club is to assist the students in managing business right so if there's something that's taxable you have to make sure that you're making the appropriate taxes. Um, another item that came up, but management was very aggressive in fixing this. Uh,
048there was a a little bit of a slip up when it came to the payroll processing. Um, at year end, uh, two I think the the prior payroll before year-end payroll is very large payroll for the payout. And what happens is they generate a certain cover sheet to provide for transfers within the payroll. Unfortunately, um when the last payroll was processed, that cover sheet for the previous payroll was also submitted on and some transfers were made. Luckily, the district caught this. Um but again, there's a there was a lapse in control. So again, we think it's important just to report that. Um but emphasize the fact that the district was able to correct that. But we want to make sure that the the controls are um set up so that you can prevent something like
049that in the future. And I believe Victoria and Lexi have already had the discussion as to what they're going to do to double check to make sure that that cover sheet that is sent over for payroll is checked and double checked so that we don't have a situation like that again. But it was corrected. So that's the more important thing >> just in reference to to that situation. So you guys noticed that because of the reconciliation. >> Yeah. So the bank reconciliations what we noticed is we noticed some large reconcil reconciling items. So we had inquired about what those reconciling items were and sure enough uh very transparent open >> right >> and they shared with us that was a situation that occurred uh and again it was you know was done they had to
050fix it. So when we notice something like that that's something that you know if there's a slip up in internal control we feel that we should report that but again emphasizing the fact that it was captured secondarily but what we want to do is we want to make sure that's captured before that happens. Was the secondary capture though because there was a process in place to double check that process or was it >> absolutely I think you know when um upon doing the reconciliations that was captured uh but what ideally you want to capture that beforehand and again when I I I've talked about internal controls before again when you think about them there's preventative controls and detective controls this is evidence of a detective control when you're doing the reconciliation you spotted it that's
051why they're so important preventative controls can be something where it could never happen you know like you have um a user right or a permission that you just you block somebody out so that could never happen in a situation like this for checks and balances you want to make sure that you have adequate controls are in place where you have these detection tools in place and this is something that >> okay >> came up. So and then the last item just has to do with capital assets. Uh what's important here and it's only really from the the long-term perspective. One of the things that you're required to do is you're supposed to track your capital assets. So you keep in mind your capital projects fund generates a lot of costs that go towards capital assets.
052What you should do at year end is when you provide this information to your third party asset management firm, you should evaluate what was um what was processed in capital projects and anything that's placed in service should be moved from construction in progress over to the related category within the fixed assets. So whether it's building, whether it's improvements, we noted that you have about 13 million dollars in construction in progress. That's a little high given that you've done a lot a lot of work in the EPC. Probably a lot of that stuff is already placed in service. So, it's just a recommendation in the future just to take a close look at that and provide that information to the third party management firm so that you're appropriately capturing and reducing the construction in progress because
053when something's placed in service, it gets depreciated from a long-term perspective. So, that's it. I mean, the these are these are um not unusual comments. Um but um you know I think they're wellreceived uh and I think they're just what's important here is just to make sure that we point out some internal controls that we came across and >> just looking for improvements on that. Any questions on a management letter? Okay. Our required communication is very simple. That is going through all this information with you letting you know that we didn't encounter any major problems. We didn't have to consult with any other accountants. um all the estimates and information contained in the financial statements is fairly stated. Um no variations from that. Also points out that we did um have the Gazsby 101 implementation.
054The last item um and I'm not going to test you to remind you which order they were in is the extra classroom activity club. And basically what this shows you is it just kind of lays out the middle school and the and the high school. And it shows you what their beginning balance was, what they received in the form of receipts, what the dispersements were by club, what the ending balances are. And again, we look at certain transactions and we test them. We also make sure that the opening balances tie from the previous year. Then we look at the activity to make sure that that is organized and in the appropriate category and that the ending balances are reported and reflected properly. Again, the most important thing here is to keep in mind that we
055don't have the ability to appine upon um without issuing a qualified opinion with respect to the cash receipts and we've covered that and that you you find that across all the school districts. Uh the only way to prevent something like that would be to have systems in place to make sure any fundraisers that are captured or done outside of the school grounds, you have very very tight controls and you would have to provide that to us. So that's always an option and then that would get rid of the qualification, but it's an involved process. Um, so that's something just for consideration. >> I think one time we were two out of 10. So we >> that's that's still very good. That really is. If we're only finding that I I I I hate to say
056it, but I' i've had situations where >> there's pretty egregious uh uh findings with respect to extra classroom and they're numerous and they don't seem to correct themselves because you know what it's it's not really centralized, it's decentralized when you're talking about various different adviserss and it's very difficult, right? They're also doing their regular functions and now they're participating in this even though they receive a stipen, you know, sometimes things fall through the cracks. So one of the things it's when we test it is to report on what we find so that we can find some sort of >> it's very fast and loose that whole operation because you have many receipts coming in and out different people running around. >> It is it's not easy to manage. So I mean we you know listen
057we we're not in the business of being overly critical. We just want to point out some areas that we think you can strengthen internal controls and just improve upon. >> One other question on the journal entry letter you sent us. Yeah. >> I guess it was a AUC260 whatever. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's >> that's how I was the audit standard. That's right. Uh, >> good for you. >> Good question. Um, >> in the under the qualitative aspects of accounting practices, there's a line in there and I read the paragraph 50 times. >> Yeah. >> I'm trying to understand the perspective of why it's in there. >> Uh, >> it says no other accounting policies were adopted and the existing policies was not changed during the year. What What is that? >> Okay. So, that means
058that that means from a financial statement standpoint, no policies that would impact the financial statements were in here. that would um we do mention within here that there was the Gazsby 101 implementation which did impact the financials. Now you could have policies and procedures in place for other things, okay, >> within the district, but that that has nothing to do with impacting the financial statements. So that's very specific to that, but that's a very good question. >> Yeah, because it it doesn't mean that you're um you haven't adopted any policies during the year. Of course you have. Right. Right. Managing a school district's enormous, right? So yeah, I wasn't sure if you were interpreting that as a recommendation that was previously made, meaning no that we did not react to >> No recommendations. Okay. >>
059No, great. >> Not at all. But good question. >> All right. If there's no further questions, then uh um I think the only thing that we need is rep the representation letters. Look at this. >> We're ready. >> And then we're able to go final on this and we can submit that to the state. >> Yes. >> All right. Perfect. Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. And thank you so much for your support and guidance and recommen. >> Okay, at this point we're going to um kick it over to Mr. Payne who is going to provide an update on UPK for us. >> Okay, >> no podium. It's good for everyone. So, uh, I'm going to give a quick overview of the UPK program and where where we've been, where we're going. Uh,
060obviously this is our fifth year doing UPK. We've partnered with Scope for all five years. It's been a wonderful partnership. They really are a very strong um presence in the UPK world, but very good for West Babylon as well. I'm going to start with this and end with it. Right. So, during our first two years, we were capped by funding, right? We had plenty of space and plenty of interest, but we didn't have enough funds. It sort of shift. it did after two years. Um, and we had um sort of capped by interest, right? We had plenty of space, plenty of funding, but we didn't have enough interest for UPK. Um, so we were capp sort of limited by that. And then as we all know, right, I'm going to end with this and and
061I'll talk about a little later on. Right now, um, we have a tremendous amount of interest, we have a tremendous amount of funding, but we don't have enough space. Um, so it's interesting to see how it shifted for us throughout the, uh, the tenure here of UPK in West Babylon. Um the larger schools just so and I think I everyone knows this have always run more sections than our smaller schools of UPK. South Bay has never had room for a UPK section and Forest um was a smaller school that really only for a while only had one section. Um so UPK is represented differently as you know in all the buildings. Um as I mentioned space was a limiting factor. So we have seven sections of UPK this year. We have no outside sections as
062I know the board is aware. We have one section at Tuker Avenue, two at JFK, three at Santa for a total of 108 students in our UPK program. At the start of the summer, there were 81 students on our weight list. Um, currently there are 88. Um, and we've had six openings filled. So, we've actually increased our weight list um by about 15 um 13 to 15 students um because we have gotten some into the program as people have left. Um we have partnered with our safe program to provide PM child care for UPK students at Santa which has been a great great experience. Um particularly after we had some of the shiftings with some of the outside programs that may have had after school programs we were able to do it here. Uh and
063I think I'm going to end with this piece right I I talked about space being a limiting factor as we all know. Um so one of the things we're looking to do under the opices of the board in Yendi uh Dr. fairly is to look to get more space for our UPK programs potentially in the form of the junior high school or the senior high school. So, we're looking to this year to look at both of those buildings. It looks kind of like the high school right now and and we'll talk about why that might be better for us. Um to get UPK sections housed in the senior high school, maybe the junior high school as well. Um that would allow some freeing up of rooms in the elementary schools, which we desperately need. It
064might even allow for more sections of UPK in West Babylon, which would be a great thing. But one of the exciting things that we think we can do is potentially start to run some uh education or child care classes at the senior high school where we could utilize our senior high school students to get actual experience with our own UPK program. Um so the high school the senior high school as a location would provide a tremendous number of benefits. Um it's going to we're starting to look at it now. It's going to it's going to be an exhaustive process because there's going to have to be some significant significant facility changes to do that. Um as well as isolation issues and all of that. Um, but we hope to be able to present to the
065board of ed by December or January the feasibility and cost of this proposal. Um, so that's it. Questions? >> Quick question and to anybody. Do we know how they calculate the funding for the UPK? Because it doesn't it there's districts that don't use it and yet they still got an increase, right, >> in funding for UPK, >> right? And I don't want to say that I think it's an an easy increase for the state to suggest because then they can say look at the increase in education and then you don't use it and they get it back. >> So is there a >> I defer to my colleagues. I have no idea. >> No idea. >> Okay. >> Like I said at the beginning we were limited m by the funding and then it opened
066up tremendously. >> Right. Right. Okay. >> Yeah. >> And again there are >> restrictions right on on it use. Okay. To be continued. >> Yeah. >> Great. >> Thank you, Mr. Payne. >> Thank you. That's it, right? >> Y. >> Okay. Okay. Statement of residence. At this time, residents wishing to make a statement on agenda items only, come to the podium, state their name and their address. They should also write, they can also write the information on an index card and give it to the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Comments and individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted. Responses will responses will be given after all statements. Questions needing further research will be addressed at the next
067meeting. Okay. Okay. Approval of the consent agenda. We need a motion to approve the consent agenda. Patty Steve. All those in favor? Okay. Policy review. Motion to wave the first time reading and adopt policy 4322 is revised. Steve Katie. All those in favor? >> Yeah, they're sleeping over there. I always look last time I didn't look over there. I got in trouble. >> Old old business. >> Any new business? >> Congratulations. >> Sure. I would like to just take a moment. The board has just uh voted on the consent agenda to congratulate Shannon McCaffrey who is in our audience, our new SLP. Welcome to the WB family. >> What's SLP? >> Speech and language pathologist. >> Great. >> Can't reduce that job to just an acronym. It's very important. >> Okay. Uh statement of residence.
068Any resident wishing to make a state statement on any general topic, please come to the podium. State their name and address. You can also write your name and address information on the index card or present it to the superintendent, the assistant superintendent of finance and operations. Comments of individual students or employees are not permitted. Each resident will have up to three minutes to speak with a total of 15 minutes allotted. The responses will be given after all statements. Any questions needing further research will be addressed at the next meeting. N okay, we need a motion to adjurnn. Steve, Kathy, all those in favor? That's everyone. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Good night, everyone. Thank you. >> Congratulations.