001Okay, we can we are ready to go. >> Great. Good morning everyone. Thanks for joining again. Uh good morning everyone. Thanks again for joining us. We've got a pretty decent uh lineup of folks today. This is pretty great. Uh Molly Brance, who's our chief operating officer, Brenda McGee, who is our director of procurement, are [snorts] both here for pretty much the whole rest of the day. I think I think they're on for the next couple of probably five, six hours, I think. I'm not sure. Um and so um of course this is the what we do is we bring in um folks from the district who are experts in the pieces that the board wishes um for the finance and audit committee to review our policies and our procedures and our alignment with those policies
002and procedures and fact is working on behalf of the board. So, with that, good morning everyone and I will turn it over to Brenda and Mullen. >> Hi everybody. Good morning. I'll kick us off with just an overview. Um, honored to be here. Thanks for having me. I am not here for five to six hours, but rather about 30 minutes. [laughter] Um, but Erin's sense of humor always gets me, especially 8 am. So, always appreciate that. Um, Brenda, do you want me to share my screen with my report? Okay, let me just get that going here. Um, I had it queued up unlike last time. So, I'm so excited, very proud of myself. Um, all right. Can you see that? Okay, good. So, I last night actually had the opportunity to present this uh 2.5
003monitoring report to the board. Um, the monitoring period of this report is last school year, right? So, um, it is from July 1, 2024 to Jul or to June 30th, 2025. So, we're in the rears a little bit. Um, but a lot of times as we prepare the report, we think of improvements for future reports, etc. because we are currently in this year's monitoring period in which we will report on in January of 27. So, um, the items on the agenda that you wanted us to review included 2.5.7, 2.5.8, 2.5.10, and then 2.5. So, we'll start with 2.5.7. I'll go a little bit um per the agenda that is on our calendar. So this policy um is about we that we shall not fail to provide periodic procurement reports to enable board members to monitor
004purchases, vendors and trends. Um and as with past practice um I reported compliance in all the past uh reports that I have seen we have reported compliance and we have always stated that there have been no requests for procurement reports during the monitoring period and there's no feedback meaning um items the board wanted us to bring to them. uh about when we were preparing this report and about in December, our general counsel at the time, Phil Spare had asked a curious question around should we provide um reports without requests. He believes the policy language is written to provide a procurement report without request of one. Um in just a chat, Gina, Brenda and I have had, we thought, yes, we can absolutely do something like that. when we switch to our new ERP system, Oracle,
005that will be much more able to be done. And I know that Gina and Brenda are talking about, well, what can we do since we're in a monitoring period now that we'd like to report compliance continued into next year? What could we do for the months between now and end of June to provide a periodic report to the board that isn't overly cumbersome for this group andor those two individuals um but could comply with this to provide a snapshot of of trends. So with that, Brenda, I'll let you uh take it from there. And anything else you'd like to report? >> Um thank you Molly. I can't think of anything to report right now. We've talked about what kind of reports would VAC and uh the board like to see. Um I think further down
006in this report is the information on the number of purchase orders and contracts that were uh created during this monitoring period. So I'm open to suggestions. Again, as Molly mentioned, in our new ERP system, the reporting system will be much more uh robust and we will be able to um get this going in a better avenue, I feel like, and provide some better reports to um get to both the board and the fact in regards to purchasing. As of right now, we haven't really decided or had input to what maybe the board and yourselves would like to see from us other than the numbers of purchase orders, etc. that we've done. So, um to be continued on that to figure out what what type of reporting to the board and to fact make sense and
007what would you truly like to see. >> Hey, Brenda. Um sorry I'm late first of all. Um, hey Mike. >> Hey, good morning. Um, I think I made this recommendation outside of the recorded session uh uh in the past. Um, but this is just stealing a page from something I learned once upon a time reporting to a public company audit committee. What they asked for was a summary, like an overlay page of like if you look back over any period, like just say the year, um, looking at a grid that shows for any exceptions, what the nature of the exception was, and then maybe the business unit or in this case would probably be like the school or or the function or the the department where the where the exception occurred. Um, and and the
008reason for that was they were looking for patterns to say like is there a training gap? is this one particular department or this one particular school like maybe there's more exceptions from that group than others. Um so I think as part of a compliance report at the end just to show kind of some identification of you know organization of those exceptions can be very informative for a board. I don't know if this board wants that or not, but um just a suggestion, recommendation to consider because it it it does it is illuminating if you see like, hey, look, this one school had like four exceptions and nobody else did and or if all the exceptions were universal across like the school district, but they were all of this one nature, right? Like they didn't, you
009know, whatever it was an exception because it went outside of, you know, dollar amount or whatever. It might >> Michael, I would echo echo that 100%. I think >> me too. I like that >> is key. I mean the number of purchase orders is interesting. Uh maybe uh but I think it's where the exceptions are that is where you really want to focus and see what is there an issue is there just like what Michael said. I'm not going to repeat it. So I'm just going to I agree with what Michael said. >> Okay. we will see what kind of report we can come up with that will provide that information and um see what we can compile in in some type of format for you. >> And I don't want it to gotcha type
010thing that's not it's more of an educational thing. It's like where can areas be improved or is there something is there a policy issue that needs to be addressed or clarified? That's that's how I see it. Okay, >> great. That's great. Thank you. Anything else on 2.5.7? >> All right, we'll move on. I hope you can see the scrolling. My my shared screen isn't showing up. 2.5.8 on the screen for you. >> Okay. >> Yep. So this is uh that the board shall not fail uh to approve property rule or otherwise um in disposition in an acquisition or disposition in excess of $500,000. So, we interpret this that really um that unless it's part of a bond plan, a mill levy override, or a specifically um identified budget item, we need approval from the board
011for anything over $500,000. Okay. So, the the data reported that I reported last night that I did report compliance for 2.5.8. The district had two purchases of property real or otherwise that required board approval under this policy. That was one Northbend High School's upgrades for compliance with the American of Disabilities Act. So, I will say that that was about $800,000. It rec it was some parking. It was some interior bathroom locker room space and some uh classroom things in the STEM area that was so that we could continue receiving our grant. Um, and this was agreed upon plan with that grant tour, I should say. Um, and we were able to complete that work last summer. So, we got the approval in the spring, we completed it in the summer. Um, and so that was
012approved prior to start of that work. The other one which you can continue this into this monitoring period as well because we're reporting on this as well but Thunder Vista P8 school um we went to them for necessary corrective and pre preventative repair work. My memory serves me that was about 3.2 million uh to do our phase three uh utility uh kind of digout and supporting plan uh of that work. Um, as many of you may know, we had a fire at Thunder Vista in during this monitoring period. Um, that will require uh another approval of dollars uh as we go through the spring and identify those to our board. So, um, both purchases were taken to the board prior to um, implementation of either the phase three work at Thunder Vista or the ADA
013work at Northland via a decision information report. We call that a DI and they were approved as you can see on February and they received. So we were in compliance. Any question? >> As a side note that to that one, Molly, um on the North Glenn uh ADA upgrades, we did do a procurement for that. We put a solicit solicitation out on the street and um off the top of my head, I can't remember who that was awarded to, but that was done competitively. The Thunder Vista P8 is of course a different story, but it's with the vendor that um originally built the school, I believe, is who that is. >> Yeah. And for Thunder Vista, there are contracts in place when we started doing the repair work many years back, and it's been a
014couple years now of repair work. Um and we have a forensic designer on board as well that design the repair work. Any questions? 2.5.8. >> No, the only thing I was thinking was was 500,000 too low, but if there's only two being reported, then obviously it's fine. >> Yeah. And I think next year I already know of some um that will be planned. We most likely will have a white fleet um going. We'll have Thunder Vista again. Um, and then we have an item that's just now kind of arising for a need and cabinet has issued kind of an opinion on it and next steps so we haven't fully teased it out but I believe that will be over 500,000 which is um birectional amplifiers. So those are in each of our schools. Some schools
015don't have them but most do. um fire departments now on their um visits and audits of our schools are citing failure of those items. They're very expensive to um either correct, repair or replace. And uh yet they're life safety. What they do um in an in a sense is that when emergency responders are on site, this birectional amplifier is similar to kind of like a radio frequency. they allow their their um radios to work within their own units and across units and within our our units. So, um the reason that has come up is one, we started testing these in the fall and we've gotten testing results back and six out of 10 that we tested failed. Sorry, five out of 10 that we tested failed. The sixth one that we know we're going to
016need to repair is Thunder Vistas because we had difficult time um the fire department north metro had difficult time radioing between their truck sitting outside and inside the building. So that is most likely going to be uh items for future reporting. >> Just out of curiosity is Thunder Vista not the newest school in the district? what what's prompting all of this work and excessive expenditure >> it is um and uh it is built on an area of expansive soils um and so that this group knows I can't say much about it but we did try so we do believe the expansive soils is a condition of this area that is 100% a truthful statement homes in this area had all their basements rebuilt built peers But in the building, it's structurally sound for Thunder Vista.
017What isn't and structurally sound and what is moving is the soil is moving because it gets wed. If you see the structure of Thunder Vista, it's kind of built into a hill and it's eastern neighborhood boundary is kind of a hill down. So we not only get natural water, irrigation water from surrounding homes, but also then the soils have cracked plumbing lines that then introduces more water into the soil. With that water, that's what expands the soil and then have been affecting our plumbing, electrical, utilities that are underground. It is a normal construction um technique to to put things like this in the ground, electrical, plumbing, etc. Um what isn't normal is the expansive soils. >> Yeah, >> we as a district we did um try to resolve through mediation what we feel might be
018some construction errors um well not I say design errors and um we were unable to do so. So we did file suit with our original designer for that um school. That is you know something we haven't resolved yet and we are uncertain about. We do know the cause of the fire was related to expansive soils and so our legal team and outside counsel is determining next steps for that. >> Molly, thank you so much for the very thorough answer. You answered all of my questions. I felt that there should have to be some developer something here somewhere. So, uh definitely appreciate that very thorough answer to appreciate it. >> Yeah, >> I have a I have a follow- on question to that. So, Prospect Ridge is right down the street. Are we anticipating any similar
019issues with that? because it's in the same neighborhood or is it just higher ground so there's not going to be the same issues? >> I can't really speak to that. Um, not being an expert, but I will say that Thunder Vista was not built with a crawl space. Um, and I'm not if if their building was, that could be a difference right there. >> Okay. I was just curious because they're right down the street from each other. >> Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's move to 2.5.10. All right. Yes. 2.5.10. get there for you. All right, Brenda, do you want is this mine? Oh, this is mine. So, this is that um we interpret this is that we shall not dispose of any gift incumbrance granting um to the district without a certain process um and
020compensation. So as you read this, we as run or as we researched this, the district did not relinquish or dispose of any property during the monitoring period. So we did um uh assess compliance for this area. This one's kind of a a little bit easier one. Um and therefore the next interpreted statement if any remaining property or operations become financially infeasible and safe and accessible or dysfunctional thereafter that did not apply since we did not relinquish any um and therefore are compliant with 2.5.10. I will say that we uh looking forward I always like to give you the looking forward although this is kind of a dry report for 2.5.10 This year we are um looking at selling land hopefully in the next monitoring period to two monitoring periods. Um we do own a piece
021of land south of the ESC that we are currently have an interested buyer um and following processes to see where that takes us. Um so it could be in the next one or two monitoring periods in which we do have um application till 2.5.10. All right. And then going back, this one is yours. The 2.5. I'll let Brenda speak to this one. So 2.5.5 says that we shall not make any purchase wherein normal normally prudent protection has not been given against conflict of interest and any material amount without having obtained comparative prices and quality and without a stringent method of assuring the balance of long-term quality and cost. Um, I point this back to our procurement um, district policies 3310 and 3320, which dictates what the levels of requirements are for soliciting. uh for this
022monitoring report uh the information that Molly has on the screen here is prudent um purchases 10,000 but under 100,000 people are allowed people being the departments or the schools are allowed to do this on their own uh by getting at least two proposals. So that meets um section B of this um 2.5.5 and then um the other information that's there again is just our limits on doing um our procurement levels and what's required along with that as we do um the solicitations or go out and get quotes or whatever. We also have conflict of interest statements that we have our evaluation committee sign off on to say they do not have a conflict with potentially the vendors that we are looking at for those purchases etc. So that is part of our solicitation process um
023with how we we handle those. So that answers both A and B of 2.5.5 in our asset protection. Um something that we will be looking at moving forward is potentially uh changing some of those limits. We are looking at updating our district policy on procurement. Uh I've met with Gina and with uh legal counsel to review our policies on purchasing and we're making some recommendations for uh some changes with that. So the next monitoring those could be a little bit different. >> Brenda, would you expect those to go up? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. those do seem >> uh we are trying to align with the federal acquisition guidelines um with the dollar values. We're also looking at um districts of the same size to make sure that um we're in compliance well not in
024compliance but we're not above really what they're doing and want to see what everybody around us is doing. So doing some due diligence in trying to make sure that um our policies match up with um our fellow districts and size around us. [snorts] >> Good. That sounds great. >> And with that, that's our 2.5 uh monitor report presentation for today under the areas in which they were identified. Any final questions for Brenda or myself on that? appreciate you guys very much. Um I will uh mention because many of you I remember from when I came the 2.5.2 is not part of our agenda today but to give you an update on that. Um, I came to this group. Um, the wording that we are trying to figure out how to change because as Chris said
025last night in the monitoring report, usually there's three reasons a monitoring report um has consistent failure of compliance. This little section I've highlighted is the failure of compliance that we spoke about. Um, and that's because we have now changed our software system to be more inclusive of items. So, we've added to our deferred maintenance value, which gives us a more realistic um we'll never have a full uh what is our replacement cost to the district, but this one gives us a more realistic cost than our past uh cost lab system did because we are able to track way more things in a more inclusive component and or system-based way. And um it uh and also the cost of in or the inflation of construction is just insane. And that is part of the factor of
026the equation that goes into developing the cost to replace and the cost of our deferred maintenance. Um so we'll say that um right now we are looking at coming up with two to three uh new little snippets of language that could be inserted here. I know one is going to be this but just increase the percentage to something that is more feasible long term with our new approach to to our data. Uh another will be a reporting uh in like a more uh in-depth reporting with maybe FCI and other things related to our buildings that are beyond deferred maintenance. Deferred maintenance will still be a part of it. Um and then the third is still to be determined or maybe a hybrid of the two. So, um I when I get those I have a
027little subgroup from my LR pack that I lead that is kind of working on providing feedback to some of the options legal has given us. Uh I will be coming back to this group or asking Gina to come back to this group to just run them by you to get your feedback before going to the board and we hope to come back in the spring at some point. >> Okay. All right. Thank you very much. You guys have a great day. >> Thank you Molly. >> Thanks Molly. Thank you. >> Always appreciate you coming here, especially after a board meeting night. Um, I just want the fact to know, of course, you know, board meetings um are spelled B O R E D. Even though this is a public um publicly recorded thing, I think
028that's all true for everybody. Um, [snorts] but anyway, thank you so much, Molly, for joining us today. Again, as I said, especially after the board meeting night and everything that's going on at the district. So, appreciate your time. Thank you so much. >> No problem. Bye. Thanks, Molly. >> Great. And now I think we'll just keep continuing now with uh Brenda's got some more uh pieces for us. >> Thank you, Erin. Um so the next piece that's on my agenda for this meeting is discussion of district policy 4130, which is the staff ethics and conflicts of interest. Um I don't think there's a lot to report on as far as compliance. We did make some recommendations last year because um at the at looking at this report, it spelled out some um annual reporting that's
029done from HR where they do go out and verify that those of us that are particularly in the uh procurement world or touching those type of operations understand this policy with conflicts of interest, nepotism, etc. What we determined last year was that we had kind of a hole in that in the fact that certified and classified did not get that annual monitoring. Um so HR was going to change that so that each year that is done um the same way that it is done for the rest of the the administrative staff and some certified staff. I did reach out to HR to find out if that was done and I don't have a response back from them yet. I'll follow up again today and see if I can get that information for you guys. But
030other than that, I don't think there's a lot to report on on this policy. Things are going okay with it. Um we do make every attempt as we do um solicitations and stuff to make sure that we m mitigate any risks for the district in regards to conflicts of interest and nepotism um by as I mentioned previously having evaluation committees etc fill out our form that says they don't have a conflict of interest as they are on a committee to perhaps make a selection of somebody to award a solicitation to. So other than that, um I think it's just a followup of um making sure that HR added that additional level into um the annual reporting factor and and I apologize that I don't have that answer for you today. questions on 4130. All right,
031Erin, that's all I've got on that. Thank you. Sorry, I had to always refine that unmute button. Great. I appreciate it. Any uh further questions today for um Brenda before we're able to uh end this part of the meeting and we'll we'll start uh work on the monitoring report for today. >> I don't. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Brenda. >> Thanks, Brenda. And now, Carolina, we'll end um the public part of the meeting and so we can