001foreign red light is on thank you everyone for joining us uh Guadalupe can we start with the interpretation announcement please absolutely thank you so much participants is gracias thank you thank you so much um this evening uh as Carmen said but our viewing audience doesn't know Dr Lydia is joining us virtually um congratulations on the birth of your grandson um so she is spending her evening with us thank you sorry thank you madam for answering them thank you madam president everyone I I am here I just need to know that I may not be able to finish the meeting um they was born about an hour ago so we're expecting probably within the next hour they're gonna come out and they're going to ask us to go and meet him so of course at that
002time I'm gonna have to run I'll try to come back but I cannot promise that um but I am quite excited and uh thankful for the uh flexibility um to allow me to be in both places at once yes absolutely your smile says it all um this evening first on our agenda we have uh discussions with the City of Commerce City about opportunities at the mile high Greyhound Park development um Bill Aiken from ccura the Commerce City urban renewal Authority has joined us this evening welcome thank you can y'all hear me yes thank you all very much for having me many of you may remember I was also at the September 27 2022 Board of Education meeting and at that meeting I did uh essentially this presentation that I'm about to give and today I've
003just planned to fill in some additional information and answer any questions you have and give you guys an update on the project itself um so there's there was an IGA between the City of Commerce City urban renewal Authority and the Adams 14 Board of Education back in 2018 so probably outdates most of the folks in this room including myself and uh in that IGA there's two uh particular sections that we just need to resolve and or get clarification on between the Ura and Adams 14. the first one is the modular units which there was a contribution of three hundred and thirty thousand dollars and the uh intergovernmental agreement that was paid by the developer and that's not really the purpose of tonight is that's not necessarily an urgent or time sensitive item but the next
004one is a discussion about a Career Technical Educational Center that uh that's been in the discussion since about 2018 or maybe even prior to that but records indicate around 2018. um just really quickly on this particular slide this shows the overall site plan this was the site plan as of 2018 there have been some modifications to the area shown in yellow that we'll show you on the next slide but generally speaking of the of the units outside the yellow those are all the residential units the residential construction is what is ongoing currently that's being phased out it's all being built by Dell West Dell West is a developer out of Denver uh what happened was that they purchased the entire 40 acres from the city of Commerce City urban renewal authority to build the residential
005portion the uh the single family homes the duplex homes the town homes are all built and or under construction of the multi-family units all of the landing which is shown as D2 on your screen is constructed and residents moved in last year the project next to that which is shown is D3 which is 50 additional units is under construction currently and residents are going to move in this summer and then the project in the center which is known as F will start construction in 2024 and the last section of residential is D1 which is 330 units which will start construction in 2025. So the plan was always that as the residential starts to get built out that the CC Ura would market and sell the balance of the land which is for non-residential uses January
00631st of this year we sold a two acre tract of land you can go to next slide please we sold attractive land to a hotel developer for the purple building that you see along 63rd in the center of the project and what the CC Ura is left with is about nine and a half acres of land that land is currently listed for sale we did receive multiple competitive offers for that land and we've received direction from the owner ccura on how to proceed with negotiations on selling that land and one of the largest unknowns that the city and the Ura still have during our negotiations is uh is the 60 000 square foot building that you see on the screen in front of you in the blue building it was originally designed as a a
007multicultural multi-use kind of community center when the ccura and Board of Education Adams working Board of Education originally started the dialogue which I don't have the date on that that there are some term sheets around and it was indicated that approximately fifteen thousand square feet would be an educational use um in 2021 the ccra did the study that's shown on your screen with the colored renderings and as part of that the the programming in 2021 when this slide right here was done indicated that that would be a 60 000 square foot building that it would have a culinary arts program that would be in cooperation with Adams 14 that there would be a 3 000 square foot Bistro restaurant space on the ground level that students could operate that there'd be flexible meeting space that
008there'd be four classrooms of approximately 800 square feet and that there'd be about 12 to 14 000 square feet for the Historical Society in the Chamber of Commerce next slide please the next several slides are just photos these are outdated back in September when we had a drone go fly but that project is built out and occupied now you can just go through these pretty quickly that's the park in the center of the development those are some of the single family homes and the duplex homes that are all occupied at this point and all that's under construction currently and keep going and then there's what's left over so the land that you see that's undeveloped on the screen in front of you is the D1 project which will start construction in 2025 and then if
009you'll keep going on the next uh two slides is uh the land that's left that the ccra owns Which is bound by 62nd 64th and Highway 2. so uh I drove from there here to about a 45 second drive from here about a block away and keep going um so that's that's where we're at now is that we have uh we are currently in negotiations with the developer to purchase and develop the balance of the land for the Ura it is anticipated to have the 60 000 square foot uh public institutional educational training building as well as approximately forty thousand square feet of retail commercial uh restaurants and shopping as well as the 122 room hotel which we are breaking ground on next week these just show some renderings from different perspectives so again the
010blue building is uh is where the uh the the public institutional educational building is anticipated to go keep going one more so that generally shows just an example of the building could look like again two stories is how it was uh originally contemplated it's uh two thirty thousand square foot floor so sixty thousand square feet total just some additional pictures of the commitment to the public spaces around the building and this is the the term sheet I think it's been going um you know it's been available maybe since February of last year and there's a couple blanks that still need to be filled in and a lot of this information has probably changed since uh the our previous city manager and uh and prior members of atoms 14 were negotiating discussing this so we're kind
011of starting back from the start but again when this term sheet was going back and forth before my time certainly it was a partnership between the Metro State University Adams 14 and the ccura to develop basically uh 15 000 square feet of educational programming within a 60 000 square foot building and what we're looking for if you'll keep going to the next one what we are looking for is that the CC Ura would like um you know terms or just if there's a need or desire or an interest from Atmos 14 and being part of this building whether it's your the original request of the original assumption by the ccura for a smaller portion or for a larger portion or for the whole building or what whatever Adam's 14's needs are to be transcribed into
012the the term sheet that that you have in your possession so that we can report back to the ccura and make decisions with the selected retail developer for the balance of the land for what they're going to build what those costs would be and start to move forward with the development of the undeveloped land at Mile High so again really not worth discussing the modular units and unless you guys want Direction on those as well but just any questions you have about the project overall or any uh discussion that you'd like to have about the intent or you know your needs or the use of the Career Technical Educational Services site I'm here to help you with those and or um to continue to work on those terms thank you so much for that over
013that over helpful I a term sheet so that that's great um and I think um to set a little contacts um and I know this board has not been involved in a lot of the discussions um in fact the the initial ones completely omitted us for much of the time so we apologize for that you know we're to this point where we need to make a decision and and we just have to um like you said uh start from scratch almost yeah um so board members would you like to start with some questions or comments or um I always hate to be the first it seems like I'm the first and the last to ask questions um and I can start if you guys want to formulate some things okay um a couple of of
014glaring questions for me and and I've asked as the Ura um just an understanding on if we if we do have access to the entire building the 60 000 square foot building um I think that would be awesome um I think in any conversations I've had it's been 30 000 or like a portion of a floor of that building um the other comment or question I would also like clarification on is um this term sheet with Metro State University um is that something that the ccura has has done or um Adams 14 had negotiated like including them I just I feel bad that I didn't know we were in talks or if there was any talks with them so this this uh the term sheet that we have in front of us was apparently a
015document that went back and forth with a prior city manager who's no longer with the city and members of the Board of Education okay so I can't tell you accurately what level of involvement the Metro State University had in it or if they're even aware that they were included in a term sheet which is why I recommend we just kind of start from what your needs are now and and because I know as far as the culinary program goes when I started about six months ago you guys informed me that why that was a great idea you guys have already invested in culinary elsewhere within your your programming for your school so you know the 2021 study probably isn't relevant anymore for you guys that's helpful as far as the space goes to the building
016uh the building will be financed and built by the Commerce City urban renewal Authority they will be the owner of the building for a period of 25 years at the end of the 25-year period they'll quit claim the building to the City of Commerce City for permanent ownership and ultimately any requests whether it's for a thousand square feet or the entire building uh we'll have to go through them and they'll likely want to know how it would be programmed and activated to benefit the site and the residents I will tell you that as we've laid out the financial modeling for this program we did anticipate that while the ccura would Finance the construction of the building that the ongoing maintenance there would be some rent paying tenants in the building so that might slightly change
017the uh the pro forma and the financial structure of the building over the 25 years that the Ura owns it if Adam's 14 desired to occupy the entire building and the Ura agreed to that okay so we would be responsible for like common area maintenance or the cam and then um some sort of lease fee like would there be it's it's unknown at this time we really need to understand whether there's one tenant or multiple tenants because if there's multiple tenants obviously some some rent paying tenants can subsidize lower paying or no paying tenants which is how we'd put together the financial plan up until uh recently when when Adam's 14 acknowledged that they may want the entire building that makes sense yeah I I think that um it would be in our best interest
018to take the whole building I would just want to know more specifics around around what president Lovato just mentioned so what would that look like for us financially if we did that and what would the impact be but other than that I think having the whole building Platinum is 14 um would be great yeah yeah yeah for me um seeing Metro State University's name on here just sent me down a rabbit hole um because I know yeah I I just um I I know being a lifelong Commerce City resident I've always pushed I mean I think it's the last census said um a little over a quarter of um residents over 25 years of age have a bachelor's degree or higher and I just think of the impacts that that could bring if we did
019some sort of partnership with Metro State University whether that be like a Metro State University campus in partnership with Adams 14 or or the such um everything like I was looking at their um their programs and and now um they recently lowered the GPA so it's 2.0 I think to be accepted um so many of our students and residents would qualify for Pell Grants and um the Colorado promise like I my my brain was just like on overload um they have a teacher licensure programs which would feed into our um or grow our own program they have um Chicano studies with a cultural competency for Teacher licensure like it just goes on and on I know we met someone from DIA they have Aviation management programs like there's certificates um minors Majors like I it
020just it blew my mind so I I don't know how I mean it kind of seems like that falls on the district to investigate that partnership and see if metro state is even looking for a northern campus anymore I know I know the war for quite some time um but if that was the case I would think the entire building would I mean it would just bring so much to our entire community and so do we know whose responsibility that would be to look into if their partnership is what they're still or my understanding from prior staff is that uh at the time or years ago that the Board of Education in the Metro District were working together to figure out if it made a fit um that the CCR was not involved in in
021what that coordination or cooperation looked like we're just building a building yeah yeah [Music] [Laughter] it's right there in the center of the community so the just as a kind of an interlude as uh for our schedule we would anticipate being within a purchase and sales agreement with the developer to redevelop those nine and a half acres at some point later this year it would likely take the most of 24 2024 to go through the permitting process and then 2025 would be likely when this error would be constructed and that would coincide with a a project that right now is valued at about 28 million dollars that the CC Ura the City of Commerce City in Colorado DOT are collaborating on for Highway 2 and Vasquez and that entire area that Five Legged intersects where
022everyone gets tickets for running the red lights and so that that project is uh that project is expected to be bid out this summer and start construction early next year so it's kind of all lining up now where the transportation Project's expected to start as they're wrapping that up the construction for the retail and for the uh the hotel bar to be open because we'll start construction later this month I'm sorry next month and uh be open hopefully before the end of this year and the Ura will would like a direction or or next steps from this board by our next meeting which is the second week of March so we meet with the Ura on March 13th um as we are currently negotiating a perch uh we have a letter of intent we'll receive
023direction from the ccra's owner on how to proceed with negotiating that we are now in the process of due diligence on the site it is a 60-day process so in the next uh 60 days some decisions will have to be made in order for the Ura to move forward with a developer to uh to acquire that nine and a half acres and develop and build the buildings um and just the the reason why that's important is um the CC Ura does not have the Staffing or the ability to self-perform the management of a construction of a 60 000 square foot building so the developer that we select to do the nine and a half acres of retail uh we will pay a development fee to oversee the construction management of the 60 000 square foot
024building at approximately the same time as the retail and there's a big economy's a scale of having them do that while they're out there doing the retail thank you peace any uh Mr amateur Molina any questions or comments So when you say that we would have the building for 25 years roughly um when that goes to Commerce City they could do what they want with this so they could kick us out if they so please you know I I would say that any term trip for negotiation um whether that's less than 25 years or 25 years at the Mark or if it's longer there's there's nothing currently in writing that says at year 25 we have to give the building back to Commerce City empty so certainly any of those terms are up for negotiation
025okay are you thinking director Molina okay um well and um I I think this is great information I think um if it would be okay with the board I would love to reach out to Metro State and see where we can even enter into conversations with this because I think that's going to make a big difference um on where we as a district will remove um I know you've been meeting with um our staff as well um and part of our strategic plan we have talked about CTE we've talked about middle schools so there's there's a lot of different possibilities that would probably require some changes to the IGA um but I think our first step like for me like I the Metro State option possibility like is just amazing um so I would like
026to pursue that and then um [Music] of course um so I can in the conversations that we have had and I just want to stamp it in my head so I am clear in How I um how I guide the staff to not only uh ensure that we are looking at the board's Vision but also in what you need in a timely manner um so the 60 000 square feet we are able to use that or to claim that the 60 000 we do not have necessarily to share if we don't want to is that is that what I'm hearing and this is based on today's conversation also last week's conversation so I I wanted to stamp it so I I'm absolutely clear so the the ccura is the owner of the building has no
027obligations or commitments at this time to any other party except the IGA that we have with Adams 14. um the members on the CCRI will ultimately have to make the decision on the entire building but again at what really starts that question is to get the terms that we can present to the ccra board and and give them the most information possible to make a decision on whether or not they think it's the best move for the community to have all sixty thousand square feet occupied by one user or multiple users so it the entire sixty thousand square feet is currently available but it will ultimately be up to the building owner on uh whether to lease the entire building to one user or to multiple users okay and and for for them to be
028able to make that determination where yes then it's going to be the 60 000 or or whatever amount that is going to be based on the proposal and how we're going to be using the building or on something else you know the the term sheet has um a couple items in there that are certainly worth their consideration but in my personal opinion the programming uh the programming and the benefit to the community is is top uh priority for the the members of the urban renewal Authority okay and then one last clarifying question um my apologies modern president um and and this is the proposal or the project or the initiation of this conversations is what you need by the 13th of March so we are we're going to be giving the urban renewal Authority board
029an update on March 13th it would be um it would be great to get some information much sooner than that so that we can present it to them on March 13th if we can't get information the next week or so which is which may be unreasonable then certainly we'll just give them an update that um that we met with you at this board of educational meeting and that we're continuing the dialogue into April okay because one of the things as modern president mentioned with the Strategic Plan and the New needs of the district in the in the New Vision um or the or the very clear Vision you know around students and Community uh one of the pieces of that strategic plan is engagement it's a genuine engagement of the community so no longer we
030want to be a district where you know a couple of people are having discussions and uh and then the the community because what we hear from the community is that they do not hear um what's going on or they hear wrong information or they get you know uh partial information so we would like to engage in a true um and genuine discussion with the community to see what what is it that they're looking at what is it that they would appreciate uh we have heard some already I think we'll share a little bit of that uh before on um you know making the use of this building in which part of that building will be a community um a place Auditorium kind of a cultural Multicultural complex um and and it can be used by
031by uh you know where schools and students can come in and present there of course we can have other uh individuals using it but those would be probably the best way to do it is through agreements uh building agreements with the District of which we already have policies um so if we would like to engage in those kind of discussions to see universities or colleges because uh you know those these are all options that we need to explore and engage the community for their buying uh if that is what we propose by the 13 or before then uh how would you think that would resonate with the group um to exchange extend this period and if they do accept and that how much time do you think that would get us to be able to
032share with you a a final uh proposal if I can call it final but but you know close to be your final proposal yeah you know I can't speak for the board you know it's a 13-member board of very unique opinions and ideas but what I could say is that I'm sure that everyone on the board um you know they understand that we are partners with Adam's 14 and you guys are a phenomenal partner for the city and for the Ura and that we would continue dialogue and negotiations for you know those will take several months um why we're kind of urgent is that we're in a 60-day due diligence period on the property and we'd like to provide some direction of that property to that developer on what the building how the building might
033be programmed so that we can start to think about what those costs and expenses are going to be to the Ura board so we certainly don't anticipate having all the items negotiated in the next couple months if if Adam's 14 desires to move forward with this we just need some basic terms that we can give back to the Ura board so that they can give us direction to then communicate with the developer how that building may be programmed okay okay well that that helped me if you know for for the leadership and um bill I I think that you received the e-invite for for Tuesday March the 7th the state of the schools um and I hope that you're able to attend if you didn't you know let me know or on your way out
034talk to Mario you said that you can get one and if I may ask if you can kindly expand that invitation to the board members because one thing we all know um you know Adams 14 um in in the past is the past but today is a new day we're engaging in Str the community to set up structures that will actually be sustainable uh that will ensure that there's High accountability uh you know not only in the superintendent but also the board you know from the community and that that will Mark and make a huge difference and if uh and I would like and would love to be able to have them start uh and hear directly what we are sharing on Tuesday and um because uh it's a new day and we need to
035start and we're working on on sharing a new narrative and creating a new narrative person in our community and certainly this Center uh will be will be part of that strategic plan uh as we move forward so um that was just a little advertisement on on March 7th and um and you know please uh feel free to share with anybody share the invite with anybody you you seem um you know might benefit from hearing directly thank you and I will see you there um for me um Direction um I I would lean towards wanting the entire building um which I I know is a huge ask but I think we'll absolutely find a use I think as Dr Lydia said I think it's imperative that we engage with the community and even see like what
036our options are with metro state or or another uh college or university but um that's that's my two cents um board members yeah I definitely agree with that I think that it sounds like what you're asking for is Direction and I think um we're I'm very interested in seeing how Adams 14 can occupy the whole building I know we have tons of ideas especially partnering with nearby colleges and universities and um I mean I'm excited to see where this goes but for sure the whole building I look at the same thing the whole 60k um to use it for for the community and for our schools because we have a lot of stuff going on and we have we're already working with a lot of universities now with some of the programs that we can
037put in there that would match up to what we already said feedback Partners here I just work oh yeah I'll piggyback on what they said as well the the best interests of the district is um the whole building um yeah and I'm just you know kind of just worried about gentrification but you know yeah thank you um I think from there um well I'll be at the meeting on the 13th but um I I will also work with our staff to to connect with Metro State and and see if we can pick up on those conversations and then hopefully have an update on that portion as well that would be great yeah just just any ideas you guys have about who Partners might be your programming yeah anything we can share with the Ura board
038to kind of keep the keep the ball moving forward would be very helpful for me yeah and it's helpful to know that we have like the 60 days that like we got to dig down and um make sure we get information to you guys that's right so thank you different we're on a different hat tonight yes yeah well thank you all very much for having me I appreciate your time again have a great night very exciting I'm just um next on our agenda is policy governance um vice president Estrada and I had the opportunity um and and Dr Lydia we met with um Dan Jorgensen from the Colorado Department of Education they did get back to us with the great news that we received additional funding through the easy Grant to continue our um our
039training and our our learnings around moving to policy governance so um just wanted to run by a few options with with you all um ideally it would be great if we could have um a longer retreat to start just because we have new board members um we are actually operating as a school board should and not having an external manager in our ear um and so I think it uh director Charlotte just pointed out like it's such a different Dynamic and a different way we're going to learn about how it actually applies to our district um so we're all new yeah technically yeah so um Ramona if you can help us find a block of time um ideally for hours um and and they're very flexible we could do it during the day on the
040weekend just some time to re-ground and and and walk through that and then Dan also proposed that we spend a few minutes during we could talk about during study sessions um not necessarily board meetings because we'll be making decisions but just so this is constantly on the Forefront and we're working through um all of the nuances as we go along um thank you I'm sorry yeah it's exciting news that we get to continue the learning um and then I I know we approved all of the executive limitations um I've been uh I've had the opportunity to attend several um School Board Partners cohort meetings and trainings and um it's interesting to see on a national level how different school boards have implemented this how they've changed in talking to Dr Lauria I think for us
041the focus is always our community and so we don't even have to call it policy governance we can call it something else and and make this our own and what works for our district so I think um it's going to take a lot of work um another thing I learned was about the 458 policies that we have out there I think we we just have to find a a good way to make this move and to make sure we're covering our bases keeping our community informed um so I don't know if we want to talk about having voluntary meetings where some of us get together and start running through them I think we need to go through our executive limitations and make sure we're aligning to the existing policies um it's just it's going to
042be a lot and I think we need to figure out a game plan on how to accomplish all that yeah so to start we'll start with the four hour retreat re-grounds 100 each or what I know no yeah I think that's right well I think it's really exciting to maybe uh be able to create something sustainable for feature boards as well yeah um and maybe those future boards can um protect our district a little bit more stronger yeah well it moves us to be a governing body which is what we should be um I I know I I reread um the Killer Bees it was an article that CDE gave us many years ago um and it just talked about how boards and turn around we don't need to be in the weeds we have
043all these talented amazing people that do the work and and we just need to talk about the how or the what not the how I'm president yes um concerning those 458 policies that you don't need to go through all of those your policies are the the policies that you approved when you approved policy governance and so those are the ones that you would you know go through and make sure that they fit what you want them to fit and then as Administration they the administrators we can go through those other policies and bring them up to dates per kasby you know because they give legal and legislative advice we just got an spu today that had a lot of a minimum so um that's something that administrators can do and then we would bring them
044to you to let you know that they had been changed so you don't have to do all those 458 policies you do your policies and then direct the superintendent and her staff to do the other policies yeah I think it's more so the alignment to make sure that we're we're covering all of the existing policies in our in our new if that makes sense right um which I think you you did but I think to give us ownership on on that we as a board have to walk through each one and absolutely yes those are your policies so yeah yes yes so yeah so next on the list um Ramona will work with us to find a date we'll start there um yes um just to say um of an idea out there that I'm
045thinking about I don't know in math and then we'll be uh we'll participate or we'll attend the national board Association um in um April because we're all going to be there and if both of them are there congratulations both of them are there um I believe we could set aside some time if they agree to that and and that is already time that the entire board has has um you know has put on their calendar so um we can we can look for a second date if that doesn't work for them but if that works for them and we're all going to be there that might be some uh sometime in which we can find a place there and then just have the four hour Retreat there love that Disney World we're going to have
046to confirm with them okay um Ramona do you mind reaching out to um Janet CDE and Matt cashby to see if they're attending that no not at all okay awesome all right do you guys have any questions or comments about guys I'm looking forward to this oh of course thank you for going through this lots of great great work happening yeah um next on the agenda we have the 2021-22 audit and board priorities um do we have a presentation Mr Moss oh I'll turn it over to you thank you if you want don't mind introducing our guests or introduce yourself thank you for joining us good evening my name is Timothy Ajo pelto I'm an audit partner with Hinkle and Company and I'm happy to be here this evening I think we've dug in wayson
047and our crew have enjoyed our time together and we're kind of blessed and relieved to be at this point and we're almost ready to cross the finish line and get things submitted we usually present either we at at this time we're presenting a draft but we also present uh final financial statements and we like to talk about three things we like to talk about our audit process we'll give you an idea of what we're doing we have some required Communications that are both written and verbal we like to actually be a a warm face to the board and then we're gonna we have some changes to the art reports if you compare them between 2020 school year 2021 school year and this year there'd be a few little changes that we can discuss and then
048at the end if you have some questions whether questions about the 2022 audit or just what we do in general or you may have some questions with regards to governance or maybe some hot topics that come to mind during the presentation we can discuss those I can address those questions to the best of my ability first of all our audit process our audit process involves planning testing and Reporting when we plan what we mean by planning is we gain an understanding of the district especially since this is a first year engagement for us it's all new to us uh you're you're new to us we're new to you so we're kind of getting to know one another in a in amicable manner we understand the district we also obtain under we're required to obtain an
049understanding of the district's internal controls their design those controls cover both financial statement as well as compliance controls and based on our planning we develop tests our tests usually involve substantive tests of details testing balances testing transactions and balances both during the school year and after the school year they involve we involve analytics analysts are basically trying to guess what an acceptable range of a value on a particular financial statement item or issue is and then developing predictive tests that say a range between A and B is acceptable and and if it's outside that range we talked to Doug and waste some and others with regards to what caused that variance after we do all of our testing we prepare reports we call those audit opinions both on the financial side as well as the
050compliance side and we're happy to report that we had no unmodified we had no modifications your reports were unmodified that's all I could probably finish now and we could have a break and have a nice drink of water but um foreign some of our required audit Communications one involves our responsibility under under the auditing standards our basic responsibility is to obtain reasonable assurance that your financial statements are free of material misstatement now just to unpack that a little bit reasonable base Assurance basically means good enough we don't have to test a hundred percent and obtain absolute assurance and then free of material misstatement material is is a bit of a how should we say this it's a it's a bit of a moving Target we do have we have to start somewhere so we we
051calculate our materiality based on the nature of the district's opinion units and the government as a whole and material is basically an amount of sufficient weight that it would change your mind as to an action that you would do as as far as a board or District management or things of that nature we're also responsible for communicating any significant matters related to the audit uh there were there was nothing unusual that that came to mind we're also required to inform you about compliance with ethical requirements including Independence and to the best of our knowledge we complied with all requirements related to Independence no no changes in the district's significant accounting policies there were also no uncorrected or corrected adjustments that came to our attention as a as a result of our audit procedures uh from
052time to time Doug and his staff will come up with they'll submit a trial balance to us to get the ball rolling with regards to the audit and we will you know they'll come up with uh they'll for example they'll they'll run the auditor's Integrity report through the cde's pipeline and they may come up with some issues that require further adjustment and we take those and we we test those adjustments as a part of our regular testing and and post those as client request entries but other than that there were no corrected or uncorrected adjustments now we're happy to report there were no disagreements with management during the course of the audit dog uh when we're done here we will shortly get once we're all good with the act for as it stands you did
053get a draft I hope you got A draft copy of the act for this afternoon we'll get rep written representations for management uh that's that's very much a key uh piece of evidence for us that uh you know we've got full access and all sorts of things related to the financial statements as well as the all the things that go into the financial statements and the compliance reports we encounter no difficulties dealing with management uh Doug and wayson had been very helpful in getting us those things we need sometimes it's understanding what the Auditors need and then they then they will once they understand what we want from them they'll be happy to provide it uh we're also not aware of any consultation with other accountants regarding auditing and accounting matters those it's basically we
054need to communicate whether or not management went and got a second opinion on a particular accounting issue all right now for some more snooze inducing information uh back when I moved to Colorado and took the CPA exam just to give you a little bit of background regarding how our profession has changed the independent Auditors report this this report right here was I think it was four paragraphs long as four paragraphs long and now your report is with required supplementary information it is three pages plus long so the aicpa which is a standard setting body for those that perform audits of school districts charter schools and other municipalities have again changed the format of the audit opinion such that the opinion is moved to the very front of the report so when you look at the
055draft act for you'll see that there's the opinion and the basis of the opinion and and when I was a younger gentleman it was it started off with what we do and then about the middle to the end it ended with the opinion and the next part of your audit opinion is the responsibility entails the responsibilities of management as well as the responsibilities of the auditors and then there'll be some other you know we'll talk about required supplementary information and supplementary information in the back like the introductory required supplementary information includes things like the management discussion analysis any pension opeb related issues um budget comparison required budget comparison schedules supplementary information has to do with things like introductory section statistical section all that fun stuff that you put by the by your bedside to eliminate
056your insomnia so uh the Not only was the financial statement audit opinion updated it was it also applied to the single audit opinion on on your compliance over major programs so with that you know if you have any questions feel free to shoot them I'll stay as long as it takes to get you to understand what's what's going on the long and short of it is it was good enough and we're happy today we're happy to have you right yeah the audience is like we we try to not be the we're not like you're talking about Auditors they come in and just kind of read you the ride act we try to make it we try to make it as pleasant as possible I I know we're an interruption to to Doug and wayson's regularly
057scheduled programming and I'm sure their 12-month calendar has a bit it will get a bit of a cycle to it with budgets and closing books and things like that so I feel terrible because I think we didn't get the draft until this afternoon so we probably haven't played through this yeah feel free to to send me or I'm sure everyone has can reach out to contact Doug and he can he can ask questions and so forth I have a couple of general ones if that's okay that's fine so with the change in the audit opinion format um it it basically took the qualified and non or unqualified opinion and it separated it out for you to like what you just reviewed to say there's no material right misstatements or um so there's no like very
058I know everybody always yeah everybody I always pick that one line like okay we're good no we're not gonna look are you're looking for the yeah it's kind of like some sometimes it's like our confirmation responses the the banks don't respond they don't understand that there's an actual date that we're confirming but uh yeah so when you look at the at the report you don't have to flip through all the or read every every letter unless you're really that have that kind of personality but uh you know I have to understand what our responsibilities are with regards to the required supplementary information you might you might get into the second page and trying to understand what Management's responsibilities are but yes it the the opinions that's kind of what the aicpa was trying to get
059at was trying to get the get you to the meet the turning point of the audit opinion so that if you had you wanted some reason to if you had wanted some background to understand how the how the things funneled into that opinion you could actually read it read in that and all sometimes that's uh covering our our bases I I'm not sure if any attorneys really kind of parsed out the new engagement letter yet but yeah I I personally like it better I think it's more um it gives a better picture in the past 20 years that there have been you know I think that the audit opinion hadn't changed since the early 20th century and in in 2002 that really kind of changed with Enron and MCI WorldCom and it kind of trickled
060into the the non the non-publicly traded private sector as well as the public sector and I I just remember being in you know it's a bit of a bunny trail but there were what Orange County and California did have a a bit of an issue with some accounting complex accounting issues about in 1993-94 So maybe about 30 years ago so yeah it's not just the the publicly traded entities that get uh read the riot act so so to speak but uh um yeah any other questions um and and again I haven't read through the entire thing yet um but I know last year the year before we did have some concerns around separation of Duties um and I don't I'm just wondering if you addressed that or had any findings in that area I know
061Mr Moss has worked really hard too Rectify that area that we had concerns with a couple years ago um I get you know you talked about governance and I think a lot of times it's you have to weigh the costs and benefits of how many people do you take on board um sometimes it's it's identifying where you have object you do have objectives in your financial reporting and your compliance issues uh it it's a matter of identifying what those objectives are and what the risks are that you will miss something so to speak so if you for example if you take your statement of net position and you think well how do I um what kind of holes are in a particular line item on the statement that position or statement of activities so with
062regards to segregation of duties it is a bit of a cost it's kind of a cost benefit analysis uh I've been to some CPE trainings where the instructor basically said you need at least three people in order to in order to have an effective internal control system you really only need at least three people one person to initial initiate a transaction one person to record the transaction another person to review it so when it comes to segregation of Duties that that may that may be all you need but a lot of times people that like the superintendent or Doug that are a little closer to the the transaction processing can bring things to your attention as the board or they can kind of see where yeah we got you know these we probably have a
063risk here that needs to be addressed yeah a little bit um so I think um since we haven't been able to review this would you like us to direct the questions to Mr moss and then with you and okay yeah kind of example of what he's talking about so no well I had an exam I I was just wondering if the the concern was addressed because I know last time we just had One Financial person that was just as you said like during the entry doing the right review doing the reporting and and I know um I just wanted to see if if that had been documented or found in this audit and you know we've actually got quite a few new new clients in the past 12 months but a lot of times we're
064you know with the first year engagement sometimes you're just you're trying to like I said you're trying to get to know one another yeah and you're trying to you're trying to develop a rudimentary sketch of what's going on in the organization and some of that we will probably fill in a little more in year two and year three of the contract a lot of times it's just kind of getting the documentation gotten documentation down of who does what uh and one of the things that you as a board might be might consider is uh now Doug you could probably speak to whether or not you get them a monthly board monthly financials packet right so that that is actually a very effective way to it's an effective top side control to mitigate it if you
065had limited segregation of Duties where if if Doug and his crew are providing you with uh kind of a rough monthly or quarterly financial statements you can review you obviously if you get it in the in your board packet you'll have an you should have enough time to to look at that stuff and come up with questions and see well the why is why are we at 90 percent of budget we're only 55 percent of the way through the year so that kind of Mr Moss does a great job of giving us our yes yes right yeah thank you there's there's always first year challenges that you know a lot of a lot of the stuff we were just we're we do have you do have a CD deadline and a lot of times we
066just got to focus on this on the stuff to get get the reports good enough to meet the deadlines even with an extension so um Mr moss do you have information on those deadlines like should we expect to need to approve this at our March meeting or do we have a little time or okay it's time to read yeah yeah and then submit questions to Mr okay okay awesome thank you so much thank you you're welcome thank you for joining us this evening thank you um next uh Dr Lauria oh is she still here she probably got called to go meet her baby oh um next is our strategic Plan update oh my god um [Music] Dr Lauria I think you're in a blind spot we could barely hear you no sorry okay can you
067hear me a little better but not great yeah put it here with people oh there you are right there can you hear me yeah okay I was uh just saying um that I am in front of the room and they're gonna open for us to go in in a minute so I might not finish this section but I do want to set the tone of what is coming Dr McKenna will be covering it will be facilitating or or facilitating the conversation I guess it's the right way to say it uh what we have here Madam president and members of the board is an update of the strategic planning uh we have engaged with tntp and the old Foundation through tntp to go to how the staff go through the process of of the Strategic plan
068originally um deliverable that they had uh and we had agreed upon was February uh but honestly it has taken us a little longer to really engage with the Cadre which is about 35 individuals um director Zubia is is part of of the group and what you will hear now is what we have worked thus far in also a timeline of where you can expect uh to hear the final um within uh we're gonna come back to you in March in in present the whole picture we're meeting with a team with a Cadre again tomorrow uh to do some work and after that work we're gonna come back to you in March during the board meeting and it's going to be an opportunity for you to see the you know with a little bit more detail
069than today where we are get your feedback as far as are the initiatives meaning the actions that we need to take on the right track and there are those supporting your goals on the priorities that the camera came um came up with um we have been through an its assessments with a group it's a group um you know really us mostly focusing on the academics and the culture of the schools uh and I've develop their priorities and you will see some of them in after February the 14th when your ends were approved uh we came in and that has been aligned with the work right so I'm gonna um have um Dr McKenna walk you through the process but uh you know this is an opportunity for you to see where we are um and
070and a timeline of uh what to expect moving forward between now and April great thank you Madam president Madam vice president members of the board cabinet Dr Maria congratulations and a great job so I'm going to start and give you uh a flyover with brevity because as you see up here I'm going to start at the last slide and then go to the front but on the 14th is when we'll be able to take a deep dive into what has been done and then get feedback answer questions with Fidelity as much as you want to get into the work on the 20th we'll have the community input on our strategic plan a lot of us in this room have been working on this I believe we've met seven or eight times and then ultimately it
071will come to the board on October on April the 11th for final approval and so we're going to start with really this slide right here we started in the fall and you can see that the landscape analysis was done and then we moved throughout the fall and uh through the holidays time and right now where we're at is um outlining the Strategic initiatives and really doing uh very shortly the capacity needs analysis we meet tomorrow and so by the end of the day tomorrow we'll really be able to leverage all of the work that we've done to finalize the board approved ends that you all approved back in February put our priorities in place our objectives our initiatives so we want to walk away from that meeting being able to socialize how we move forward
072from this point on I will tell you that when I first talked to Dr Lauria about coming to Adams 14 and when Nathan talked to me when I talked to him about coming one of the things that the superintendent said when I asked for the Strategic plan is like that's one of our first priorities because as director Molina said we have to have a blueprint of a path forward and when we look back historically if there was one at some point in time historically it's not there that we can find and so it so the Strategic plan itself is really our road map it's our opportunity to if we have to correct course everybody sees it it's a transparent um document that really provides us Clarity the direction and the focus that we need as
073a team regardless of whether you're an employee of Adams 14 you're the board member you're a parent you're a Community member or of a student and it's the foundation of this is our vision and this Vision wasn't taken lightly wasn't done quickly because it's really the the everything's built upon this vision and so we had to Wordsmith it work through it and as you can read Adams 14 students graduate empowered inspired and equipped to be who they want to be and that piece will set the foundation for the rest of the work that we have to do and just like any Journey you have to have your North Star and when you look at this North Star that we have regardless of what lens regardless of if it's a lens of a board member if
074it's somebody in this room it's a parent it's a student I think we can all look at that and and buy into that because what that says our North Star is we're focused on educating the whole child and in order to do that we have to have the wrap around supports that are need needed not just for the kiddos but our community and that's the direction that our superintendent has charged us with having this North Star and then some of the things that support our Direction going towards this North Star really have to recruit really good people you have to keep really good people and you keep them by supporting them value appreciated and growing and so a lot of what we're going to talk about uh when you get the robust strategic plan is
075not just the staff but how do you develop the staff through high quality PD and then of course really the second bullet is we just constantly have to do an autopsy of our practices our policies to ensure that we're never complacent and we're always focused on upskilling and moving things forward and really having a culture that's Equity based so that all of our kids get the benefit of the high quality education not just academically but social emotionally and then the fourth bullet that I feel like coming into Adams 14 that I feel like we really are building on but we still have a long way to go and that's building a culture of trust and having high expectations for all of our students so what's beautiful like what when you look at this slide I
076hope that you really give yourself a round of applause because I'm going to tell you why so when you look at the board ends that you approved right these are the things that you approved as a board back in February and when we reached out to the community and to our team if you look to the right basically what you want as a board is exactly aligned to what our community of stakeholders is looking for with the direction that they want to go so I mean that that's absolutely amazing there's a lot of times there could be a disconnect in this case it's not and so knowing that the board ends are aligned with the community goals and priorities and then making sure that as a team we have objectives that we're going to put
077into place now this is not going to happen this week this month this year some of these things are going to be quick wins some of these things are going to take time a really good strategic plan is not done overnight it's low hanging fruit if it's done in a year or two this is a strategic plan that you know will evolve over time and could possibly be in most cases sometimes five or seven years what you're not really ever going to see in a strategic plan are vendors or supports or Consultants you're going to really see these are our objectives and all of those other supports like connect ad all of the other things that we do as a district with support those are things that just support the work and the objectives that
078we need to accomplish um and then there's one that is not necessarily um identified you know through the core team but it's still super critical and it aligns with what uh our CFO presented tonight and that is all of these things really mean nothing if we can't physically fiscally fund them right and we don't have longevity uh and we're not thinking about the future and as board members I want to take this time and I speak for the superintendent when we talked about this today to applaud you because you have to make the hard decisions because it's easy to stick our head in the Sands and not think about what's around the corner and think about the now and you all have been willing to really think about long range what we need to do
079to not just survive but thrive in the Long Haul even if it's been uncomfortable and then the now with a couple of strategic priorities um I'll speak to the second one because I have a soft spot in my heart for the second one but really we're not going to get into the the initiative pieces but they're the how right so develop if you want a priority right it's it's just like we can't you know when New Year's Eve like what goal you know what are your New Year's resolutions they mean nothing if you don't have actions you know everybody like I want to do this I want to do that but then they haven't really thought about how they're going to be able to accomplish that the initiatives are the how of how they're going
080to accomplish then and of course so this this here is instruction which my colleague to my right would could answer questions about uh robustly and with Fidelity I feel like I've learned a lot from her so maybe I could too um and then of course I think that you know I have a soft spot in my heart for HR so I'll just point this out that we're here right now and you know with Dr bowden's leadership and support we started doing these things under the direction of our superintendent early you have to really have clear updated job descriptions you have to build Partnerships and so when we talk about Partnerships with Metro State we've had our feet on the ground talking about Partnerships three times this year and have already have that Evolutions in place
081along with five six other universities that have been here or or we've been there as well and then you know growth opportunities for staff remember if you've heard me say this before people staff they're valued appreciated but they have to grow right people valued and appreciated will still go if they don't grow and so that's a big piece of the puzzle that we're working on be you know with the leadership and the guidance and most importantly the support of our superintendent in the board and then this is the last two slides because this again is the flyover we're going to get into the deep heart of it when there's a robust presentation done uh you know in March but we're at the part right now where as I said in the beginning the capacity needs
082analysis is coming up that's super important making sure that the process the plan uh the feedback is utilized with all stakeholders right this has not been nor can it ever be a few of us sitting in the room making these decisions we have really worked hard to get our community involved in every piece of the the process from the very beginning and you know we're learning we're growing we're adapting to what we need to do so have have we been perfect this whole process uh with intention we've tried to be but we've pivoted when we haven't been and I feel like we're in an amazing spot and then of course you'll see what is going to happen in April uh and then um this is just the slide where we ended just as a reminder
083for those of you in the viewing audience the state of the schools is on March 7th uh that will be our first annual state of the schools and our superintendent is ready to roll and and share uh what's the great things that are going on in Adams 14 and then just some things we started at so that is a flyover again on the 14th will be the full presentation but you know our superintendent has made it very clear to us to just keep you abreast of the things that we have going on so that when it comes to the 14th you'll have a foundational knowledge of what where we've been and where we're at soup did I miss anything doc grandma [Music] um but I do just want to um just support this uh strategic
084planning in the processary into the context of quality government hey Doc can you can you go back to what you did before like there you go are you there yeah okay okay this uh earphones are not probably not working very well uh my apologies so what I was saying is um perfect timing because they have not opened the door yet um but um I want to put the process of the strategic planning uh in what we're doing uh in the context of policy governance because what I will be asking of you um especially you know uh in March when we bring the this presentation is uh if you look at just or uh Ramona can you go back two slides I want to say it's two slides or maybe three uh one more no one
085more one more maybe then there was more than three well that one uh what I will be looking uh you know from the board specific feedback is when you look at the initiative the light blue column um is that or are these um the watch is going to get us to your ends right so this is the feedback that I'm going to be looking for as Jeff said it's not going to be a list of things that we're doing connected as he said it's already uh it's here to really uh address one of the initiatives that is taking us or is directly linked to the ends that you have that you have um set for the district so um you will be getting um this for feedback uh before the 14th we're going to be
086sharing it with you um in the Friday updates as soon as we have the document as Jeff shared we're going to be meeting with Alexandria tomorrow and after tomorrow we're going to be able to have the final product to start um you know putting it together for you and um I just want to say um also the monitoring piece that we are going to be looking at how we're going to be monitoring is going to be directly linked through the monitoring reports that I will bring so uh everything is it's aligning to also policy governments and um in the transparency most of all just like uh like Jeff said the transparency for you for the community and the ability for the community to help the superintendent accountable even the board accountable on what we said
087we were going to be doing uh it's going to be a it's going to be a robust structure for for Mutual accountability um I don't know if there's any questions or I'm gonna leave it open for you to make any comments or ask any questions so I don't have any questions um I did have a comment I um it just gets me excited to see how um Equity centered policies or practices are not like a separate section I feel that we're moving in the right direction when we can see that Equity isn't all we do it's not just a separate part of a strategic plan like you know a tool in a toolbox it's more who we are and so I'm excited to see that that is just embedded throughout the Strategic plan so just
088kudos for that the online feedback form are you guys planning on presenting the results of that and like who responded and how many responded yes yes we're going to be presenting a little bit of oh um yes Madam President we will be presenting um you know the statistics and and um the surveys and everything everything else yes I would just thank you thank you to uh you Dr Lauria and all your staff uh I I really just after all these years that we've been struggling I I feel hopeful I really feel hopeful um for our district um and I'm very thankful that I could be part of this so muchas gracias foreign I killed my microphone um thank you yeah I um I know this has taken a ton of work and I'm so appreciative
089and so looking forward to having a plan like this is something that we we need um I'm also very hopeful um that is just going to bring our community and our students in we're all going to be on the same page it's going to be transparent we're going to be moving towards the same targets it's just I think it's going to impact us um greatly so thank you all right lastly I look at it about the Partnerships with the MSC going forward I'm I'm honestly really shocked that previous leaderships never envisioned us thank you there so I'm thankful that the future of Commerce City is a lot brighter thank you so we'll have lots of reading uh next for our March meeting we'll have the Strategic plan and the and the audit so um sorry
090in advance fellow board members and one thing that I want to cure um I mentioned uh and I apologize my apologies if if I didn't hear it uh when you said it but the fiscal or financial well-being those priorities we already engaged with um a different group of the Cadre or a different category in all principles and administrators are in involved in this uh because this is going to be hand in hand with the facilities plan that we are developing uh based on charge that you gave us on um February the 14th so we started already we met with them once uh we're meeting with them again on Thursday and I hope you heard that because I I hope you heard that yes we did thank you Dr Olivia okay okay perfect yeah all right
091any further questions comments so this concludes our um our presentation unless you have uh any other questions no more questions thank you so much we will um look forward to digging into to all of the information yeah yeah awesome well thank you all for joining us um this concludes our agenda for the evening thank you board members and staff for your time and all of your work our next meeting of the board is a regular meeting and that will be held on Tuesday March 14th may I have a motion to adjourn so moved in a second I'll second thank you Ramona Rocco please oh yeah it's a study session we're just adjourned thank you all for joining us we'll see you it's been a long day I tell you thank you guys