001This public meeting of the board of education's audit committee for March 5th, 2026 is called to order. Good afternoon and welcome. Thank you all for being here. Today's agenda includes the status of the implementation of the hardship petition transfer audit recommendations, the status of the implementation of the contracts audit recommendations, a discussion and a recommendation for the board to approve a budget for the office of the internal performance audit. Status update updates on the current board approved audit plan and a discussion of a proposed plan. Status update on the 25 526 audit committee work plan and proposed meeting agendas and we'll have an opportunity to talk about future agenda items. First, we're going to begin with introductions. Uh, see, I don't think they're there yet, but soon we're going to have um um director Christy
002Split and uh community member Jennifer Samuels will be um whatever you call this virtual. Okay, we'll be virtual. And then at 5:30, we hope that our uh student representative Eban will also be here virtually. Okay. Next, we have public comment. Miss Bradshaw, do we have anyone signed up to speak? >> Yes, we do. >> Okay. We have Lisa Jackson. Oh, sir. I do know I I think you're speaking about the contracts audit. >> Yeah. And >> No, I actually I just wanted to say >> Okay, great. >> in a positive. >> All right. >> Um but yeah, for the record, I'll just state my name. My name is Lisa Jackson. Um I do community advocacy here in the um the community. Um I started in the native community as a lot of you know. Um
003but I do uh advocacy in a in a broader area now. Um but the reason why I came um and I signed up for this is because you know it is a audit. Um I just I I know we have a lot of board members and a lot of stuff is you know crazy. Um but why I'm here is I just want to offer my mental health support to everyone. Um, the reason why I say that is cuz like I've been in a lot of schools because of everything that's going on. I'm checking on admin, checking on, you know, some of our counselors and um, just to make sure we're all okay. Um, I know this audit is like a big big thing. I was actually crazy. I ran into Judy. I sat on the
004Southeast Guiding Coalition with Judy. Um, and these numbers were actually some of our numbers. and this dad is I actually worked on this with her a while ago. So, um but yeah, so it's great to run into her. Um but yes, I just I really wanted to just come in and just, you know, offer my support because I like I was telling them, I just came from a city council meeting and we're all going through a lot and I feel like being a native in this community, we don't thank each other enough. We don't communicate enough. Um, like I told city council, I'm here to offer my support for a way to help the natives be engaged. This community has been dismantled so bad for the years, but our kids are here, too. And, you
005know, they matter, too. My daughter's actually laying in the hallway right now. Um, because I'm like, I just got to go share my peace with you guys at a time like this. And I just want to say, you know, just stay positive. Things are okay. Um I I wanted to give a big thank you to him. He's everywhere and you do amazing job and I don't know if anyone thanks him enough. I was just, you know, and and we don't do that enough, y'all. So, I just wanted to say I'm here um you know, and offer support. Um, yeah. Thank you guys for all you do and I just wanted to remind you guys to stay balanced. >> You're welcome. >> It's okay. I just >> Well, I mean, I just have to remind everyone
006like, you know, we're only human, y'all. >> We're here. Okay, let's >> Hi, my name is Janice. Hansen. I'm the district's internal auditor. >> I'm Andrea Shears, one of the in-house councils at PPS. >> Hi, Stephanie Englesman. I'm the zone 6 representative. >> Hi, I'm Caroline Zavikosski. She her. I'm a community member on the audit committee. >> Good evening everyone. Michelle Morrison, chief financial officer and support to the audit committee. >> Cara Bradshaw, executive assistant. Director Sullivan Patty, I'm not sure your mic's on. >> Christie, my mic wasn't on. Sorry. >> It's okay. Isn't it funny how you can't when you're online, you can't hear like anything at all. I didn't hear a word. This is um Christie Split and I'm um on the school board and I'm sorry I'm not there tonight. I'm homesick
007and I also really appreciate Terry and I also think we should all be looking out for each other's mental health. So appreciate it. Public comment. >> Okay. Thank you Christie. Okay. Uh go to the first or next item on the agenda. The implementation of the hardship petition transfer. In 2023, the office of the internal performance audit completed and presented an audit on the hardship petition transfer process. Today we will be receiving an update on the implementation of the recommendations made at that time. Chief Morrison, would you like to introduce this topic? >> All right. Well, I would like to invite uh Miss Hansen to present on this topic and then bring your guest forward as you see fit. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Um today we have Judy Brennan and also U Margaret Calbertt
008here. Um Judy Brennan is the director for the ETC center, the enrollment and transferring center. So um a couple weeks ago I met with them both to kind of go over the status of the implementation of the recommendations. In your packet you will see the um implementation plan provided. I was able to get review documentation um to demonstrate the implementation of three of the five recommendations. Um so there are just two that are outstanding. Number three and number five. The number three is a recommendation to establish and implement internal controls that will ensure determination of available space is on a standard set of criteria. And um when I talked to Judy, it sounds like they are making progress on it, but it's not quite ready to demonstrate it's been fully implemented. Um but she is
009here today. So, if you guys have any questions, um, she's here to answer them about this outstanding recommendation. I when I chatted with her, it made sense to me and I didn't have any follow-up questions about where she's at in the implementation for this recommendation. Awesome. Okay. The other recommendation that is outstanding is really related to um data. So we recommend the ETC strengthen hardship petition transfer data collection process and pro and procedures to ensure data is accurate and complete to ensure equitable processes and decision making and to identify areas of improvement in neighborhood schools. So when I met with Judy um she talked about the what she's preparing and the data she has been able to reconcile um find a way to reconcile in the system some of the students who were approved transfers
010but then actually didn't transfer and I think that's going to clean up a lot of the data. Um she's also working to provide neighborhood schools with individual um feedback about the impact of the hardship petition transfers on each of their schools. But she is here and you guys can ask her any questions. I think this one is a tough one to get um implemented. So I'm not surprised it's going to take a little bit longer um to get fully implemented. Do you guys have any questions? Well, I know I talked with you for quite a bit about how it all worked. It was very complicated. Um, and trying to be fair, I think is probably the hardest part. Um, so this last one mainly to see how schools are affected either transferring out or in.
011>> Yes. Okay. And so how are you doing it? >> Yeah. Thank you for your question, Director Sullivan. So I I um I regret that it's taken us this long. Um and I'll just say that at the same time as we were implementing, we were we've also been um uh we launched a new software which is part of our synergy system. So our student information system is also where our lottery application is now. We were the first large district to use that module in the whole country. And so we've had an amazing learning curve. We're in our third year. We're pretty much fully where we need to be. And that means that we can extract data and manipulate it and use it in good ways. I was so excited to bring you an example of
012what these reports would look like because I think that they are going to be really valuable to um school leaders and to others. Unfortunately, we're like 95% there and we're just not quite there. But um as soon as they're ready to launch, I will um share it with the auditor who can pass it along to you. It'll be a report >> by school showing every hardship petition request by student um either into their school or out of their school. It'll exclude student demographics limited but student demographics, their reason for transfers. Um Janice mentioned uh the data on um students who request a transfer and then um they either receive it or they are denied. Maybe they're denied because we didn't agree with their reason or we deny because there's no space. And it's another 15%
013this for this current year. This is just a data point for you. 15% of students who received hardship transfers offer offers for this year declined their offer and didn't enroll in the school that they had initially asked for. So that data will be visible. Um we will have a um meta report that shows the overall um demographics and counts for the district. That's the final piece that will be um finishing very soon. Does it also show like if they were happy with their transfer and wanted? >> No ma'am it doesn't. Um at this point we don't have a standard mechanism for um outreach post transfer transfer or non-transfer to check in with students either from a perspective of of um whether they're happy with it or from a school's perspective how the student is doing.
014and is I guess it would show if they went back to their regular school. >> That that is one thing that you can see um >> whether it's a transfer like that reason of transfer back to a neighborhood school >> is because a student's been on transfer somewhere else and for some reason it didn't work. >> So that'll be in the data. Yes. >> Yes. Interesting. >> Thank you. >> I had a quick followup. Um, so to Director Sullivan's, Chair Sullivan's question, um, I thought you were saying that you would be able to see if a student does a transfer and then goes back to the neighborhood school, but then you said something about if it doesn't work out. Do you mean I guess I'm I'm curious, will we be able to see students who
015do transfer elsewhere and then maybe do a year or two and then go back to their neighborhood school? Will we >> Yes. return to ne what we call return to neighborhood shorthand RTN is one of the largest categories of reasons for transfer that you'll see in this report. >> Okay. Um but will we see both ways? So uh like if a kid lotteryies into Da Vinci >> and then transfers to the neighborhood school. I'm curious about a kid who's in, I don't know, Abernathy, switches to Sunnyside, and then goes back to Abernathy. Will we will we see that? Like a kid who does a hardship transfer and then perhaps something is resolved and then they choose to go back to their closer neighborhood. Will we see those returns? >> So, I'll say the data set
016for this year, we're looking at about 1350 transfer requests by student. not it's not all their choices but by student just um and that's just partial for this year. >> Okay. >> Within that data set there is some details about their reason for transfers but it's not always as fine grained as how long they had been where they had been. Okay. >> And why they had suggest they had said that they couldn't um they didn't want to continue. But the school that they were at and the school that they want to attend is part of the data set. >> Okay, perfect. And then for the 15% who put in the transfer and then don't go to the school, um I think you mentioned that there's just not outreach options at this point. But I think
017it would be important to understand like is it because the transfer took too long and came in too late and so they just couldn't plan as a family or maybe in the transfer process they were able to sort of use restorative justice and maybe remain at their school like I think it would be interesting. So is that something that we can work on getting in the future? I mean, we we can try and prioritize um post um transfer outreach. Uh I would say that that's not where we've been able to prioritize our resources so far. Um >> there may be bluer skies ahead because we've been through three really challenging years of rebuilding our the data system and now we can be maybe more experts from a technical side and can stretch in other places.
018Um the our our interest in transfer remains very high across the district between our lotteryies and our hardship petition. We see nearly 7,000 transfer requests per year and resources >> are are limited. So um >> um but absolutely we can um look for ways to expand beyond our just one moment. like our moment ends when we sign off on that transfer and but um perhaps there's a way that we can have followup that isn't in place at this time. >> I have one last question. Um speaking of these lottery, which I think would be part of the transfers that you're referring to. Um, not too long ago, I think the district changed it from you must tell us you want the position by X date to you are automatically getting we are assuming you're taking
019the position until you tell us otherwise. Um, given that it's lottery season again and people are just finding out that they're getting into certain schools and my my own family's experience with making a decision very late in the summer. Um, could the district provide? I guess I wonder whether um lottery schools numbers are smaller than they anticipate because people at the last minute say, "Oh, I'm actually going to go to my neighborhood school." And so that position that was anticipated to be filled is not filled. And I wonder whether there's been any change in placements or numbers with this shift in automatic enrollment unless you tell us otherwise versus you must tell us by a certain deadline. So is that information? >> Yeah. To be clear, that's been the procedure for the 19 Well, this
020is my 20th year doing lotteryies for PBS and we've always been in a place of if you don't want the position, tell us within the first 10 days. Otherwise, we are automatically connecting you to your school so that their next point of contact isn't necessarily with us, it's with their school. And we that that's where our focus is. Get to know your new school. Um I will say that with the new software, people can automatically accept their um >> their lottery offer. Like that's a feature we can turn on and a higher and higher percentage of families are like making that decision. like they're happy to tell us immediately. >> Okay. >> Um so that isn't a change in and of itself. >> Good. Okay. >> Um regarding the enrollment at at lotterybased schools, um
021most of our lottery based schools are highly overs subscribed and have long wait lists. There are exceptions. There are um places where interest doesn't seem to be as robust as it's been before. Um we see that with a couple of schools who have for example really small kindergartens. And then um when we talk about dual language immersion programs and how class sizes um uh the class sizes over time, that's a whole other topic because um we generally like smaller class sizes at lower grades, but we actually need to fill those classrooms with more students because of attrition. And even in Spanish programs, we don't always find enough students at say fourth grade or fifth grade to replace the students who leave the district. >> So we have de diminishing class sizes as families move away.
022And we don't have and and we just don't always have families students who have that language need. So, that's just a little bit more about and it it um I love going on and on all day about this um but that's more than you asked for. >> No, that's helpful. Thank you so much. Um I just want to add a clarifying point. The audit was solely focused on the hardship petition transfer and so we didn't really get into consideration related to the lottery. So, I'm so glad that you were here and able to provide that additional information, but as a side note, that was not covered in the actual audit, >> but I'm glad that she could answer. >> I have a couple questions about the um reports to schools, giving them the feedback. Um,
023one is just, you know, do you have an updated timeline of when you're able to do that? Are you going to be looking at like a year at a time? And then my final question, I'm just wondering if there's any potential privacy concerns if a student had a hardship that they didn't want their school to know about, for example. >> That's a great I really appreciate those questions. Thank you. So, in terms of timeline, like I I am personally frustrated because this was going to be the Thanksgiving gift to our schools this year and then it was going to be the winter break gift and and I'm we are going to do everything we can to have it ready by spring break. Um um it it's taken us extra time because um an earlier version
024of it we thought okay we could get it right this year but we can't replicate it easily. We took a little bit more time this year but we think that we've got the data query set up right so that we can replicate it at next fall so next fall's data will be available in in much quicker than than we were able to do here. And then um regarding your question about um if families share information or concerns with us about their current school, would we share that back? Um I don't know that I've ever experienced a circumstance where there were issues related to student privacy or parent concerns that we didn't feel we could share with the school. And I've had like frank conversations with parents about that. Um in the hardship petition process um
025in administrative directive particularly when you read through what those um what those rules are and in um policy it really emphasizes the importance of making sure that families are working with their school to resolve the issue before they come and request a change. Um at this time of year, so the midyear process, um referrals come to us through the school. So parents um go to their school, talk about a concern, if they can't address it, the school completes the request on their behalf. And that again is assurance that those parties have worked together. And sometimes the way it comes in is the parent is really frustrated and um doesn't feel confident anymore. and and we agree that a change for the student could be in their best interest. Right? So, um that's an example of
026where even that that conflict can be described. Um so, we haven't had that before. Um the issue of Furpa is a really important one. And so, that's why, for example, in these reports, we won't be reporting on student free meal qualifications by um by school. we can put it in our district report, but by the time you get down to school, it's personally identifiable and it may be a school that the student didn't enroll in. So, that's an example of how we've tried to work to make sure that um that we are honoring students privacy while still providing as much context and background as we can. >> Thank you so much. Um, one other thing I'll add is I think that the reason for the transfer is um something that will be much broader. They're
027in the reports they're not going to give the exact reason. They're going to try to categorize it right into a larger so um category as opposed to saying very specifically what the reason was. Right. >> Yes. And if it's a receiving school, all the notes about the transfer, including the feedback that we received from the private pri prior school, is available for the um school to see in synergy. So there are other ways to get that more detailed information. Any more questions? Any more comments you'd like to make? >> No. I Okay, Christie. >> Great. Thanks. Going on camera is my way of raising my hand, I guess. Um, I just wanted to give a comment just in um, I got really good customer service calling the transfer office. I asked for a friend um,
028and I didn't identify myself cuz I didn't want it to be weird who had accidentally moved into the Beaverton school district where we live. There's a lot of very weird boundaries and things of Portland addresses that aren't City of Portland or PPS. Anyway, I called for this person who was really worried about how to handle it and um, I got really great customer service. I called, the phone rang once and I talked to a person. They gave me really candid insight about how this person could seek hardship transfer from Beaverton school district back into Portland school district and then into middle school. So, um, they were great. And I mean, it's not for sure that this kid will be able to make it work. They might have to move, but I still thought it was
029really help. The service was great. So, I just wanted to give you a shout out since you don't come in front of us ordinarily. That that just makes my week and I cannot wait to share this with my team. Thank you very very much. >> School district member or board member secretly called them. >> You didn't expect that, did you? >> No. No. And now we'll be a little a little a little more nervous. But really, no. Actually, that um gives us uh great confidence. and my team works incredibly hard to try and have like family-friendly answers to every complicated scenario in um multiple languages. And so I'm very proud of their work. And um um Supervisor Margaret is here, Mark. Calbertt as well to hear that. So anyway, didn't know that it was going
030to be this good this good. Thank you everyone. >> When you come before an auditor, you don't always expect to end it on like such a good note. I guess >> we're going to take it. We're done. >> Thank you so much for coming today. >> So good. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you everybody. Um, okay. Next on the agenda, the status of the implementation of the contracts audit recommendations. And I'd like to just give a little background for this immediate um response. Uh, this audit was actually requested by the board in 2020, way before my time on the board and before either Dr. Adams or Janice Janice Hansen, our auditor, were hired. Most of the outstanding recommendations deal with evaluating the performance of the contracts before they are renewed for the following year following
031year. We acknowledge that finding specific measurables for the RESJ teams is very difficult. However, it states in our contract training course that our contract managers are responsible for monitoring the contractor's progress and performance to ensure that goods and services conform to contract requirements and that contract managers must also review and evaluate contract performance before deciding whether to contract again. So, I met with Chief Morrison and Dr. Adams six weeks ago to discuss how we could meet the request for performance goals. We all agree that it is necessary to check to make sure that we are serving students and find a way to rate partners in the buildings. Dr. Adams will share what he and his team are working on to asssure that our partners are serving our students as planned. Uh Chief Morrison, would you
032like to introduce this topic? >> Yes. Thank you so much, Director uh Chair Sullivan. And I just want to uh give some gratitude to the extra time you spent with me and Dr. Adams as well as we reviewed kind of um just the history on this audit topic and how we can um dovetail it in a way that we can fold into our practice for all personnel contracts and not just resj. So I super appreciate your time and I would like to um introduce Dr. Renard Adams. uh he has taken the lead on this implementation plan and his department does manage many personnel service uh contracts and uh hand it over to you. >> Thank you, Chief Morrison. Good evening or afternoon. I never know what you say when it's 5:30. Uh everyone um pleased
033to be here and really um pleased for the opportunity. I was really heartened by my last visit to the committee where when I spoke of the challenges in looking at the measures um committee members said why don't you all decide what you want to measure and then evaluate based on that and I thought wow what a great opportunity uh to really think about what supports and services our partners provide and how we might know that students are benefiting from those services. I think about my own experience as a young black male growing up in Baltimore City going to public school and I remember having Mr. Brown as my ninth grade geometry teacher. He was also a black male and he just was the first teacher who said, "You know, Renard, I think you can be
034great and I think you're awesome." And he gave me a button that said that. And the way he poured into me really mattered. And I know it's a different urban context and we don't necessarily have the same diversity of teacher and workforce here that I experienced growing up. And so our partners really provide those types of supports and encouragement to our students, specifically our students of color. And I I struggle to put a value on that, right? Other than to know other than to say it was really invaluable to me. I um was a story was shared with me just recently by the um founder of be group, black excellence group where uh Miss Tyson was sharing she was working with some of our middle school students in one of our middle schools and this
035young male was really distraught and frustrated because he was not earning the grades he thought he should have. And he said, "I'm failing middle school and I'm just going to fail out of school." and Miss Tyson took him to the side and told him, "No, you're not. This isn't everything. You're in middle school. We have a lot of time to turn this around and you can do it." And she talked about how he lit up because it appeared as if no one had ever said that to him before, right? This idea and belief that the adults will not allow you to fail is so critically important. And so, it's those type of stories that really invigorate me. Also proud to say since I assumed leadership of the racial equity and social social justice team, I
036believe it was May of 2023. So we're coming up on um just about three years. We've gotten almost all the audit areas to be green. Um and not many of them were green when I first met with Miss Hansen. So I'm really proud about that. So here um and what has been shared uh to audit committee members was a proposal for an evaluation framework uh that would uh answer recommendation three recommendations 3B and 3C utilizing a cover memo to create a template for contract managers to document the review and evaluation of all contracts and also requiring the view the review and evaluation uh to be reviewed and approved by the contract cont managers supervisor and submitted prior um to the and submitted to the purchasing and contracting department. And so I'm not going to read
037this document to you. You've probably hopefully had time to review it, but I do want to a couple of things I want to stress is that first and foremost the components of evaluation we don't believe should change. We should believe, we still believe we should monitor service provision to make sure students and families are receiving services, that our partners should provide quarterly reports, that we should obtain building leader feedback, and that we should have an impact assessment. And what we are recommending is that that impact assessment is where we uh more closely align the measures that we have from our students and our families to the actual services that our partners provide. And so what we have done, what we are in process of doing is first we uh at our last partnership meeting where
038we bring all our partners in, we bring them in quarterly. We shared the concept of what we thought we might be able to do and they were really excited about the idea of really having something that would tell them, you know, what are students have how have students increased their sense of belonging um based on their having a culturally specific or culturally like mentor or adult in their academic life. Um am I reporting additional engagement in school? Do families report that they have more ability to advocate for their students in school because of the work at the prek PK5 level on family specific supports. And so there was a lot of excitement in the room when we uh had that conversation with them. And I'm happy to say uh when I met with Richard Smith
039who's our senior director for data and accountability and Dr. Anna Kushner, who's our evaluator on the research and assessment team, they were really excited to uh partner with the racial equity and social justice team on this project that would create these measures. And so um in our thinking it would be most helpful if we were measuring the same thing per strategy across all the partners that provide that strategy which would allow us to have consistent understanding on and to what extent each of the partners were um having an impact on the student or the family experience. And so if were the committee to uh accept this recommendation, we would continue that work and really have uh the measurements in place. And by measurements, I mean we're going to create the tool and provide that our
040plan is to create the tool, provide the measures to our partners at the beginning of next school year so they can have baseline data in the fall and then close to end of the year data in about midappril or May which then we would have access to immediately so that we could as we're going through the contract evaluation and renewal process have that information, bring it to the board um during the contract approval window, which is usually in June. Um these last contracts were designed by the purchasing purchasing and contract team to be four-year renewals. And so I believe after next year is the next time the contracts will come before the board. And so what we would be able to provide would be information on service provision based on an adjustment to the board
041cover memo. Uh information on whether or not and the extent to which quarterly reports were provided as outlined in the contract and the scope of work and the fact that we obtained building leader feedback. The um want to say just a few things about that. The way we obtain building leader feedback is twofold. One, we have ad hoc meetings with administrators throughout the school year and we have unannounced visits where we check on service provision and staff talk to building leaders. We also created a tool. We we're using a tool to obtain what's best thought of as like a Yelp or Google review for each partner by the building administrator. And that only comes to myself and the director of racial equity and social justice, Will Fernandez, so that they can give us an honest
042rating on um how our partners are doing. For example, I'll share I can think of a partner, I won't name them, but they work in our elementary schools almost exclusively and have received five-star ratings from all of the principles that have rated them, right? And when we observe that partner's work in action, we are also very very pleased with those outcomes and students are excited to be amongst each other and with that partner. And so we believe coupling that with this idea of does Renard now have a trusted adult in the school community that he can go to if something is wrong? Measures like that. Do I feel more engaged as a parent? do I feel more empowered around the educational experience of my uh son or daughter? Um we're really excited about the opportunity
043to merge all that together to make um more informed uh decisions about whether to move forward and continuing to partner with uh each culturally specific organization with whom we work. And so I'm going to stop talking now um because I said a whole lot in a little bit of time and I tend to talk fast and just open it up for questions and or comments that you might have. >> Okay. Um any comments? Questions? >> I have some questions. >> Sure. >> Um okay. So you are correct in that the purchasing and contracting department set the contracts up for 4-year renewal. So, but the board did ask for an annual update each year >> to provide the board with an overview of the review and evaluation um of each contracts before they enter into the
044next year even though it won't require the board approval. >> Is that still on your agenda? >> Yes, we we've been providing that and intend to continue. Yes. >> Okay. And will that be in advance of June this year? that is our that will be our every effort. >> Okay. Um and then also for the contracts that will be signed in June of this year >> for the 2627 school year, right? >> Um that those are the contracts that will have the updated measures. Yes. >> Correct. Okay. Um and also as a side note we the we can't really preapprove this framework. >> Okay. >> Um there there are some strict rules audit standards about um we can't preapprove what we think will work but I think that we can certainly say that it looks
045like you're on the right track. Um, but it is important that we wait and to see what you did before a what was done implements the recommendation. >> Fair. >> Um, hopefully that makes sense. >> It does. Yes, absolutely. >> Good. Um, any other questions? >> I don't really have a question. And it's a comment though and it's I heard it also and we just the three of us talked together that having the principles be able to talk to you know without the teams knowing I think is wonderful. >> Thank you. >> And that you go out there fairly regularly. I know in reading some of the um comments from the partners last year, they really wanted a It sounds like you're already making it something where they could send out to parents or student
046older students >> to say how they're doing. Yes. And how they feel. >> Sure. And >> that sounds like something you're doing. >> Yes, ma'am. We're also recognizing that our partners are different sizes and shapes and they have different levels of capacity to do that work on their on their own. So we have some partners who already have some robust surveys. They're sharing those with us so the evaluation team can consider that as maybe part of the measures we also implement. And so we want to provide that's why what we want to provide them with the tool and the instrument to take the measurement so that it is not uh undue burden on them and that there aren't as many data barriers as there appear that there have been in the past >> because it
047looks like you're dealing with >> looks like you're dealing with such a variety of ages and um expectations but almost all of them would have student not necessarily success but student um feeling belonging in the school. >> Most of them will have >> something to really measure. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Any other comments? >> Oh, Christie, sorry. >> I can see. It's okay. Hi. Um, I just wanted to just make a comment that um, when you were last in front of us, we talked about finding like different things that did feel measurable and did feel like they matched up with the work that you all want to do instead of feeling like you were trapped in like what's a traditional metric. So, I just wanted to say thank you for um, going back and thinking
048of something that would work um, within what you're trying to do. And I just wanted to say, I know it's really hard when that qualitative like how that teacher made you feel. You probably never would have gotten a survey that would have asked you about that moment that made such a difference, right? So, totally seeing that. Um, and I appreciate you um thinking about using those data sources we do have that demonstrate belonging that you know very well um to to help with that. but also I just appreciate the other ways that you're looking about how to get that data um and information. Um so just thank you for continuing to um be responsive and work on this so that it actually feels right and feels like helpful because I think what you're saying all
049sounds like it will help us in the long run to make sure these um organizations programs are are working well in our schools which is something I think we all want care about and believe that they they are. Thanks. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll be sure to share with the team. >> Okay. Um, thank you. If there's no more questions, >> thank you. >> You don't have to sit and listen to the rest of the meeting. I know you're busy. >> All right. Our next agenda item is a dis discussion and recommendation to approve the budget of the Office of Internal Performance Audit. and we'll make a recommendation to the full board of education um to bring that to the uh budget adoption process. We don't approve the budget. We just say we recommend
050that it be in the budget process. So Janice will present that because she knows all about it. >> Okay, great. Um I printed for a copy of the slides for you guys and for those who are watching hopefully you can pull it up on inboard books. Um in the presentation what I wanted to start with is a little bit of benchmarking information. Most of you who were here last well, let's see, we have quite a few new members, but some of y'all have seen this um this benchmarking data before. The Council of Great City Schools um collects all of this data and creates this benchmarking information for us. They don't do it every single year. So this benchmarking data was as of January 28th of 2025 and it hasn't been updated since then. But I
051still wanted to share the most recent benchmarking data that we have. The first slide in the presentation talks about the um percentage of general fund dollars that support the office of internal performance audit. And you can see there where PPS ranks in amongst the other school districts. We are just a little bit below the average, but not as low as some. So I think we're still right in the middle. Um the next slide is about the number of audits per $1 million in general fund. That is also another way in which um the size of an internal audit could be determined. And you can see that the average is listed there. And we are a little bit further lower on this this the lower side of the average, but again not as low as all
052as all of them. So we're still kind of in the middle there. The next slide is the number of auditors per 1,000 students. Again, we are a little on the lower side of the average, but still kind of in the middle there. And the last slide is the amount of budget allocated towards training. And you can see right similar with the all of the other ones were right on the lower end of the average but not at the bottom. The next slide in the presentation you guys it might look familiar from last year because this is the format that I've provided the budget proposal in the past. What I did is I took the sum of the current year salary related expenditures and to generate the estimate for the next year. So for fiscal year
0532027 um I took that amount and multiplied it times 1.06% which is kind of the average. Um it's a good estimate to use to come up with a budget number to request for the professional development um training there for the current year. We did have some budget set aside. However, when we got close to time to go to a conference there, we were under a spending freeze and so we opted to not go to the Council of Great City Schools conference this year. I am requesting that it be included in the budget for next year. I think one opportunity for savings would potentially be to go to that training every other year. Um, but I also want to mention that myself and Mary Katherine are both required to have 40 hours of professional development training
054each year. And outside of the Council of Great City School Conference, I haven't been able to find any other training that's specific to school districts. So, there are certainly other trainings that we can go to and we do go to. and um Mary Katherine is great about helping me find free trainings that we're able to go to. Um unfortunately, they just don't really speak to our experience here at a school district. So the conference at the Council of Great City Schools is really an important opportunity for us to um understand what other internal auditors are doing um amongst the other other cities council of great city schools. So I would like to make sure we include that in our budget for the next year and the fees and dues. Um both Mary Katherine and I
055are members of the local the association of local government auditors. It's called ALGAA and also the Institute of Internal Auditors which is the IA. And so we just have annual membership fees for that. Any questions? Thank you Janice. Um, Chief Morrison, would you like to add anything budget-wise? >> Oh, thank you so very much. So, yeah, I just can't help but chair that this will be uh even as if it's approved and recommended by the audit committee and moves forward to the board that it's one of all of the other considerations as we're looking at some significant budget challenges the current year and in the upcoming year. And so, I know folks on the board have already begun to recognize some of the really challenging decisions we're going to have to make. So I just
056wanted to elevate that so that there's not this belief that if it's approved here that it's an automatic for next year. So just a little level setting there. So thank you. And we will be proposing our board or our budget to the board on April 28th. So tune in. Okay. Um thank you. Are there any more questions about the um internal audit or internal performance audits budget? I can remember this is just part of the overall budget when it comes to the board for adoption >> and we're going to our committee. >> Oh, sorry Christie. >> You're right in front of me. >> Question for Michelle. Is that allowed? >> What? >> Um Michelle, is it okay if I ask you a question? >> Of course. >> Thanks. Um I'm just curious how the board
057budget gets developed. I don't remember being involved in that last year. Does it just get decided by staff and handed to us or is there some other process that happens that just involves the leadership or just curious how it works? >> Yeah, we can um send it to you for a line by line review. I I haven't been in charge of that process typically, but I know Deborah Kapori will um kind of oversee the office of the superintendent to a degree in partnership with the superintendent, but also the activities of the school board and um so we can put forward that request for sure. >> Yeah. I'm just curious how the process works. I just don't know. But thank you for sharing. >> Yep. Yeah, I was interested in that too, Christie, and in fact
058looked at it with Janice the other day because I realized I'd never even thought about it. I mean, I'm on the board and I I don't have a clue about the budget. >> Um, so if there's no other questions, um, I do have a couple more comments if we go ahead. So sometimes I am asked about what would it look like to have a fully funded internal audit department and um you know there's no such thing to be honest every single internal audit department is really customized to the entity that we work at. If you um look at the internal audit function at any of the other school districts kind of listed there, the things that they do are may or may not be the same things that we do. So there is a lot
059of differentiation and when an internal audit department is operating at its best, it is customized to meet the specific needs of the agency in which is being audited. And then one other thing that I wanted to mention um is a little bit of a shout out to our former director Julia Bren Edwards. um you know when we've talked about it in the past one of the things that she has mentioned as for the genesis of why we kind of created the internal audit function at PPS to begin with is as a result of an OS um that talks about the need for internal audit functions within the state. So the OS talks about if a state agency gets and I printed it and it's sitting on my desk. If the state agency gets more than
060$200 million of revenues for the year um they have to meet two of four requirements. So 200 million in revenues per bienium. So it's 100 million each year. The other requirement is the agency has 400 or more employees and then the OS was updated in 2022 to have a couple of additional um criteria. And so the if the state agency meets two of the four requirements then this that agency is required to establish and maintain an internal audit function. That is not a requirement for PPS. So that is just a state agency but that was kind of um at least in the past what Julia Bur Edwards has brought forward and and mentioned. Unfortunately, there's so few people here anymore that were around whenever the internal audit function was initially developed. So, I was going
061back and listening to some of the previous comments and I was like, I wish he was here to mention that. So, I thought I'd bring that forward also. Again, it's not a mandate for PPS, but that is what why PPS um kind of started to generate to think about having the internal audit function. And also um the development of the internal audit function at PPS was additionally part of a commitment that PPS made in response to the Secretary of State's audit division where they did a combined audit of OD and PPS and issued that report back in 2019. And in the district's response to the recommendations, um creating and funding an internal audit function was one of the uh things that PPS said that they were going to do as a result of the audit.
062So that's just my little bit of background information. >> Your history. >> Yes. Not yours. Audit history. >> Yes. >> Um okay. Um, let's just do a a quick vote because I would like to Oh, yes. Sorry. >> I just have one quick question. Sorry. Um, I wanted to ask if there And I was just doing some quick Google. Is there an association of public school auditors or are these two um organizations that you belong to the big ones the only ones? And the reason I ask is because at least for lawyers, there's this Oregon State Bar that we're members of, and the State Bar puts on a whole slew of trainings, many of which are free to the lawyers who pay into. And so training obviously is critical any any job anyone has, including
063internal auditors, of course. And so I'm I guess I'm wondering this Council for Great City Schools is terrific. We're in this budget crisis. you know, I think there's a travel freeze, you know, outside of urgent, but we need to get you trained and keep you up to date with all the new >> um criteria for auditing, which I don't even know the terms for, so I'm stumbling, but like are there are there more free trainings that you can take advantage of to feel confident in your work while also >> saving? Yes, thank you for that question. Um so the ALGA, the Association of Local Government Auditors does do training. Um unfortunately it's not free for members. um we do get a discount on that training for members. But one of the things that the ALGA
064created um I would say in the last year was a quarterly meeting specifically for school district internal auditors. So we have a a similar meeting like this um as part of the council of great city schools. uh every other month we get together and all the internal auditors are all part of the the meeting and we talk about what's going on in each of our districts and ask each other questions and get support from each other on what's going on. And the ALGA just created something like that last year for internal auditors um at school districts specifically. It's hasn't done any training, but it is awesome to get together with other school district internal auditors. Um, some of the auditors that are going to the ALGA um, meeting quarterly are not members of the Council
065of Great City Schools. And so I get an opportunity to engage with auditors from school districts that may not necessarily be part of the council of great city schools. But to answer your question directly, no. Unfortunately, um again for the IIA also their training does cost. We do get a discount. Um, and the training that I see available through the council or through the IIA and the ALGA is great training. It's just not specific to um, school districts. So, I have been looking very hard, especially this year due to budget cuts and we have made it work to meet the 40 for this year. Um but in addition to just the 40 hours of training, 24 of those hours have to be related to government auditing specifically. So, we do try to get in on
066the training offered by the ALGA because that really helps cover the government specific training that's necessary and by adding in the Council of Great City Schools that kind of gets us the more specific training. But I really wish there were more opportunities. Um in the state of Washington it there is um the state auditor. It's a separately elected position. It's a little bit different than what we have here and oftent times they do training. Um so I try to stay um in touch with some of them and go to the trainings whenever possible. >> Okay. Any more questions? Every time I do this, a question pops up. Okay. Um Okay. So, if we could um vote now. Um and committee members, I'd like your vote, too. And you know, you're not a formal voter, but
067it is nice to have your opinion when I go and present this to the full board. So, um I guess I'll just go one by one. Is it all right with you to accept this? >> Yes. Yes. >> And I accept Christie. >> I saw her mouth. Yes. And I heard an S on the end before. >> She's coming back on to say it again. >> I'll try again. I'm having a hard time. My audio is like back has been wild the whole time. But yes, >> Stephanie saw your mouth. She read your lip. >> Yes. Still can't hear me. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. I will uh present this to the full board when I give my my report next week. Okay. Um next >> um before we move in um I we've had
068a loss in our family and so my husband's out of town and I'm in five minutes going to get up so because we have a childcare issue. I'm going to log on online but I just wanted everyone to know when I get up and leave it's because we have some childcare issues as well. Okay. Thank you. Um, so board policy requires the board of education review and approve an annual performance audit plan. So tonight we will receive an update on the current approved plan. In April of 2023, the board approved resolution 6693 which approved the 2023 24 audit plan. That plan included the school building security audit, the measure 98 audit, and the career and technical education or CTE audit. Tonight, Janice will give us a status update on those audits. We'll also have an
069opportunity to discuss a proposed audit plan that she is bringing forward. Janice, would you please begin? >> Thank you. Um, okay. So, I printed a document for you guys. is also available online and it just gives the current status of the already approved audits. The first of which is the measure 98 audit. Um we are in the testing phase of that audit and we currently are estimating the audit report will be ready um in June. We were really hoping to get it done in time for the May 7th meeting, but it's not looking like that's going to happen. So, I do estimate it will be done in June. Since we don't have any already scheduled meetings um in June or over the summer, we when it gets ready, I can send out um an email
070to talk about whether or not we want to have a quick meeting to deliver it or if it's okay to wait until um potentially in the fall to go over it. The next audit is the building security audit and we are in early planning phase and I have also um touched base with our student rep to the audit committee and I am planning to work with him on some student engagement around the scope of the audit. Thank you. Um for the building security. So I'm looking forward to working with him on that. um in really we'll get started on that in this this month. The next audit is the CTE audit. And as we discussed um earlier this year, the approved scope of audit on this audit is a little outdated. And so we do
071plan to rescope the audit um and bring that back to the audit committee for approval before we actually start on the audit. I have been doing some research on that and I have some ideas, but I also plan to work directly with um the director of CTE um and get input and thoughts on what scope he thinks would add the most value. So, I didn't want to bring that updated scope to the audit committee for approval until we get a little bit closer to when it's actually time to start this audit. We do anticipate this audit will roll over to the 2627 school year. So, I would anticipate bringing that um updated scope to the committee for reapproval um probably in September. Then on the back part of that page, we back in um October,
072we talked about a long list of audit topic ideas and we narrowed that list down to three areas which were teacher absences and subprotocols, student performance measures and support system for principles. These are the broad audit topics that we wanted um to kind of move forward with. And what I am working on is researching these topics. And we will develop a proposal for each of those audit topic ideas um and bring them back to the audit committee for approval. And at that time, you'll get to pick two of the three. Just don't forget that. Um, and we we have a couple of rollover audits, so I don't want to scope them out too soon. I think one of the things I learned with the CTE audit is the scope does get outdated and it does
073need to get um re-updated. So, I would anticipate um bringing this proposal, those three audits for consideration in the fall, this coming fall. Okay. Any any questions for Janice about plans? Yeah, it sounded like even though the CTE one got outdated, it's pretty exciting for the new idea. So, >> yes, there's been a lot that has gone on in the CTE department since we originally talked about doing the audit and um the director Chris Brida, I'm pretty sure um when I spoke with him in the past, he was excited to hear that we were planning an audit on this topic. And so I'm really looking forward to working with him to come up with a scope that will really add value to the work the new things that are already going on in the CTE
074department. >> And I know for me I'm not new on the audit committee anymore, but I feel like I am. And there's always new things coming up that just how long it takes from an idea to scope it out to do it and then get it presented. >> It really does take time. >> Takes a long time. >> I would really love it if we could keep the same audit committee for two years. kind of have a two-year cycle of terms because to really start an idea and then follow it all the way through to when you see the report um it really does look closer to two years. And so, um, in our next meeting when we talk about what's going well, um, and where the audit committee, um, could do things a little
075different, we I do want to talk about that about asking for a little bit longer of a commitment, but we'll see how we'll see how it goes. Okay. Any questions, comments? Okay. Okay. We're coming down to the end of the meeting. My goodness, long time. Um, so now it's time to review the committee work plan and discuss upcoming agenda. And we look at the plan. Um, it looks like the May 7th meeting might be kind of long. And darn it, missing Stephanie to get her. Okay. Um, would like to um propose that maybe that could be a two-hour meeting. >> I'm here. Don't worry, I'm here. I can hear you. >> Oh, Stephanie, good. Cuz um so >> I'm okay with a longer meeting. >> Stephanie, are you okay with next meeting being two hours?
076>> Yeah, I'm guessing that's a Thursday again. Is that right? >> Um yes. >> Could we um start earlier rather than going later? Would that be an option to other to people or No. >> Is that okay with you? The one of the reasons why we start at 5 is to accommodate our community members who who are working, but our board members are also working. So, um, Jennifer is not here today, but I will touch base with her. I'm pretty sure she'll be able to accommodate it. If it sounds good to Caroline, then I think potentially moving it to 4:30. >> 4:30 to 6:30. >> Well, that sounds like a plan. and I'll just double check with her and send out an email in the next couple days to confirm. Is that okay? >> Can
077I'll probably want to be on phone 4:30 to 5. >> But that works for me as long as you guys are cool with that. >> You can. That works for you, Christie. >> Yeah, I'll just drive um and be on the phone from 4:30 to 5. >> Oh, okay. And if it doesn't work, if it doesn't work, we can I mean, I don't want to make it hard on anybody. We could go 5 to 7. Um, I'm sure that works. I just thought I would ask. >> Yeah, I just have to supposed to work till 5:00 and I try to leave. If I leave at like 4:30, it's not the worst. I just like have to start a little bit earlier in the day. I can do that. We can talk to you, Steph. I
078don't know what you have, but we can figure it out. >> We can figure that one out. Okay. Looks like everybody at least is willing to add another half hour to their meeting. So, that's good. Um, I want to thank everybody for being so flexible. I was hoping that Eban would be here because he was willing to report about his experience down in Salem when we were all down there um trying to get some more money for our schools. But, um, maybe we can have him report next time. I know he had I think it was a sports thing he had to do today. So, he might have got tied up with that. So, we look forward to seeing him next time. And Janice, you had a few other things you wanted to say about
079scheduling the meeting or next next meeting. >> Yeah. Before we wrap up, I just wanted to draw your attention to the agenda for the May 7th meeting. We have a very full and exciting meeting planned. Um, one of the topics that will be on the agenda is discussion related to the annual bond performance audit recommendations. If you recall earlier in this year, the audit committee referred out following up on the outstanding bond audit recommendations to the facilities committee to do more followup on that. And the request from this committee was to check in on it. So we will be doing that um in the May 7th meeting. I have talked to director Lefort um the chair of the facilities committee and she is planning to attend the May 7th meeting to share a little bit
080about how that has gone for her and then in her committee and I understand we've also sent out invitations to some staff from OSM to have them come and talk about it as well. So, I think that will be um a really great way to wrap up on the meetings for this year is to check back in and see how that went and we can talk about whether or not um the audit committee would like to continue um with that or if the audit committee would like to do the followup in our committee. Um so I think that is a really exciting way to wrap up the year. Also um the we don't have a June meeting and one of the things that is required by the end of June is the annual performance evaluation
081for myself that the audit committee chair drafts. So, I just wanted to let you know that that we will talk about it in our May meeting, but it won't actually be ready to submit until the end of June. planned. The last thing I wanted to say is we do not have an April meeting, but I am hoping that each of the audit committee members will not mind meeting with me in advance um in April, either later this month or early in April. One of the things that I'm working on for the May 7th meeting is to go over the charter and the policy to see whether or not there are any updates or edits that need to be made to the charter and policy. And I would like to meet with each of the audit
082committee members to hear from you um on each of those two items. So even though we won't get together, I'll definitely be reaching out to meet with you in the next couple of weeks or perhaps early in April. Also, in advance, I am meeting with Michelle to kind of do something similar where we will talk through the policy and the charter and and ask Michelle for input on um hopefully I'll gather all of that input and then be ready to talk about it in the May 7th meeting. >> Thank you, Janice. You are a busy person. Okay, that's it for tonight. Next meeting is on May 7th and we agreed it'll be a two-hour meeting and the time when it begins is to be decided. Thank you. The meeting is a good night. >> Thank
083you.