0012022 workshop or the Manatee county school board. We are called to order. And, my vice chair is not yet in the room. I don't believe she's going to be here today. She's not going to be here today. She's not coming. I think she had a prior. That's what she said on. I think she had a prior commitment to, okay. Okay. Then I'm going to make an announcement that I too, I have had had a family emergency that calls me to Atlanta. And I'm going to ask the past chair, if he would assume the role of presiding as, as, as I have need to absent myself later this, this morning, likewise, I have to reorder the agenda. I think I'm permitted to do that. Yes, sir. Okay. Then I would appreciate it in particularly since Mr.
002Kennedy is going to be presiding over that portion. Anyway, I would like for the African-American history of taskforce overview to be given first, and then we will take the audit committee update from chair better. And then the last matter in the workshop would be discussion of the citizens financial oversight committee board. Alright, also to the board before we get down to business, I'm not good at ad-libbing. So I'm just gonna read. Okay. The current board software is no longer being supported and an updated program will be implemented and require training. The go live date for the new boardroom software will be April the 12th. The board needs to have a training session to learn how to use the new software. Date options are Friday, February 8th or Monday, April the 11th. And I'm assuming that
003the time would be nine o'clock in the morning or 10 o'clock in the morning. I'm so sorry. You said February, April, I'm sorry, April. All right. I'm a little slow this morning. Say you're good with February. Okay. April the eighth or Monday, Friday, April 8th, Monday, April 11th. But the time would be 10 o'clock. How long will it last? All right. How does anybody know how long the training will last two hours? Three, one hour, one hour. Okay. So, so I think the catcher has given the pitcher signals over the head. That was my two hour curve ball To our curve ball. That's fine. So 10 o'clock anybody have a preference for a date in April? It doesn't matter. Either one works for me Too. All right. And maybe what we ought to do is
004defer to find out which would be more convenient for the vice chair. All right. So it will be either one in whichever one she decides is most convenient for her. All right. All right. Thank you so very much. I think those are the housekeeping matters that I wanted to address right now. And the agenda has been amended it's care has found good cause to amend the agenda, to include all items listed on the agenda amendment on the March, 1120 2, 20 22 agenda updated March 9th, 2022, and posted to the district website. We don't need a vote. This is a workshop. And that has been, that has been done. And the agenda work, the workshop agenda has been published at this time. We will move into our workshops and apparently that will be public comments
005at the end of the presentations with the usual proclivities being stated for the record. And I guess I'm, I'm going to ask you to preside over that to Mr. Kennedy, if he would do that. All right. Thank you. All right. Let us move forward with the first item on the agenda. Now, the department of education African-American history task force, all of you, Mr. Chapman and Ms. Singleton, obviously this is not Mr. Chapman. So missing a pen is going to go first. Okay, Good morning. My name is Latrina Singleton. I am the director of federal programs and grants here in Manatee county. And I am coming today to present the overview of the African-American history task force. This is a commissioner program that started at the DOE level and our former executive director, Dr. Sherene Gibson
006started this before she passed. So suddenly in 2020. So we continue the work and we worked with our community, our university partners, our teachers, our staff. And so the goal of the African-American history task force plan with the overview is looking at what the state has adopted. And so from the commissioner level is just looking at African-American history and ensuring that it is taught in our K-12 continuum and within our curriculum and following our state statute, The outlines are, so our goal was to receive exemplar status for our school district of Manatee county. The plan was developed based on the outline by the commissioner at the state level. So every single committee that we derived and worked with had to follow the guidelines by the DOE. So with that, we wanted to receive and we
007have to present to you all, and it has to be approved in order to receive, receive exemplar status. And so I did want to show a couple of the school districts that currently have exemplar status in regards to their African-American history task force plan. So we have a lot UA, Broward Duvall, Gadston Hillsborough, Leon, Miami Dade Palm beach, Pinellas and St. Lucy. So then if you see our neighbors to the north and the Northwest have exemplar status in regards to their plans, The purpose as stated before is the history of African-Americans is a required component by the statute 1 0 0 3 4 2 4. All of our K-12 students, the efforts of the task force is to ensure and develop authentic curriculum and sustainable implementation within the standards that we teach the development and
008growth of the task force aligns with the goals of our strategic plan also. And so then here are the alignment within the strategic plan of our African-American history task force, which is go one goal to go three and go four. So we have the community and parent engagement piece with our community outreach, with our university partners and their development, and working with us. We also look at the expansion of diversity inclusion within our school system and ensuring that our students feel comfortable with the material that is taught to them, but also that our teachers are equipped for teaching sensitive subjects. The next piece is our external communications piece. And so we work with every one of all of our stakeholders. It also aligns with our diversity equity and inclusion policy. And I don't think I
009need to go over that because we presented that to you about a year ago at the, at a board meeting that was board approved, The mission of the African-American history curriculum will students to learn about the origins contributions, encourage of Africans. And African-Americans from ancient Africa to the modern dysphoria. Currently, we already have resources that we utilize within our district for the K12 continuum of teaching African-American history. The goal is to enhance the curriculum that we have and ensure that it's not just taught during the month of February, but following the standards that are outlined that are within our curriculum maps and receive a little bit more feedback from our families in regards to how we are currently doing and working with the university partnerships in those areas that were weakened. So we're working on,
010it's already been done, develop a task force, create a plan that has been completed K-12 continuum of different resources, and then offer professional development opportunities to our teachers led by experts in the field expected outcomes, ensuring that the required African-American history. I'm sorry. I did want to ask a question. Yes, Sir. I read this offer professional development opportunities to teach us led by experts in the field. The field that you're talking about is it history African-American history, but is it the field of diversity equity and inclusion? It would be in the field of African-American history and history within the United States, just aligning with our civics government and the civic standards that have come through. So, so it's fair to say that the experts that we're relying on are not experts who are going to
011come to us with their opinions on diversity, equity, and inclusion, but that are going to be showing us how to teach the facts of history. Correct. Okay. I just, I want to be clear about that because there seems to be a lot of, Well, of course, after the legislation was passed yesterday, that does cause some concern, but also when the legislation was passed in regards to CRT, critical race theory, understanding that as a district, we are non, we are just not part, you know, we're bipartisan, you know, and we don't induct or try to indoctrinate our students in anything. We just teach facts. We teach our standards and that's it. Okay. Thank you very much. I popped up, I lost my flow. Oh, oh Boy. You guys are a little intimidated. Oh my goodness. Okay.
012Okay. So the expected outcomes ensuring that it is taught throughout our K 12 couldn't work here alone. And the main thing is just not that we're honoring African-American history during the month of February, truly understanding how our standards are placed throughout the curriculum and through the continuum and how those standards interweave and our African-American history is just American history. And that's what we just need to say, looking at our current resources and if we need to increase or enhance. One of the things that we wanted to look at was offering a course in our high schools, Sarasota county, I'm going to date myself. I graduated in 1997 from Sarasota Riverview high school. But when I, but when I was in high school, African-American history was a course elective. It is a course elective at our,
013within the deal II, but we have not offered that course within Manatee county. So one of the goals was looking at and identifying a couple of high schools that wouldn't mind offering this course as an elective. And of course with that course being an elective, developing, ensuring that we're following the standards, but identifying and working with our community, our families, and a district of identifying resources and materials to utilize within the course and talking with our neighboring districts, we want to continue our collaboration with our universities and our local organizations. We have a very strong USF has been very strong in the work between their Tampa campus and our Sarasota campus. So we have about four of their university professors that have helped with development of the plan. We have two professors from the university
014of south central Florida, and we wanted to reach out, but I think just maintaining our regional and local area was the best and then sharing the plan with all of our stakeholders across. So as I stayed at before, the committees that were derived, followed the state commissioners plan of the African-American history task force. So we had to have a committee for professional development curriculum, university collaboration, parent, and community partnerships, and structured teaching, Working in unison with the committees the plan was developed. So we're looking at just ensuring that with this draft plan that we have providing it to you all for, in our community at large for input feedback, and how can we move forward? Because the true goal is to submit it to the state and be designated as an exemplar district. And so
015now we have the timeline of where we are. So with the PD tasks, the community involvement, Looking at our curriculum and the curriculum is current is truly enhancing what we already do inside of Schoology. There was built a vault for our statute, 1 0, 0 3 0.42. And that has all of our resources in regards to African-American history, women's history Holocaust. What else do we have? That's inside of it, our character education. So remembering that statute that's required our annual statue that we have to teach. We have resources that are currently in there. And so we just want to enhance those resources, ensure that they are age appropriate, developmentally appropriate on that K-12 continuum, Looking at the PD task of delivery and ensuring that we're all communicating the same message. And then basically, so it's
016like a three-year implementation by the year of 2024. And then in conclusion, the presentation, we hope for feedback, any type of comments that we can help strengthen our plan. We want to be a reckoning force with what we have established with other school districts in the state, but also we're utilizing the structure of this plan because we just started communicating and work to our Holocaust task force. So at the state level, we don't have exemplar status for the Holocaust task force. So Ms. Wall, who is my counterpart currently, not here, but she is one of our, she's our history coordinator with development of our Holocaust task force. We follow the same template, what we utilize for the African-American history task force, so that maybe Manatee county will be the first county honored with having a
017Holocaust task force also. So I just wanted to put out that nice little chart for ourselves. Any questions? Yes. Ma'am. I I'm looking at your timeline here, the 20, 21 22 school leader and what is required. And then we go from 2021 to 20 22, 23, then 20 23, 24, the last bullet point that you have on the draft implementation plan says to receive exemplary status and continue our work as a task force, the plan will need to be approved by the school board. When will the draft plan need to become the final plan in order to approve the time? And in order to, for the school board to approve, to meet the timeline that you have, because apparently you've already done some things. So the draft plan we're going to submit to you all,
018and you will have that draft plan to review. We were looking at that very first school board meeting in April that we're going to come in and present the entire plan. And then it will be open to the public for that 30 day continuum, like following your normal. And then afterwards after that 30 day of feedback and community reviewing, then you all will have that vote 30 days after that very, that first April meeting, That would be the first meeting in may. Okay. Will we have to convene again in the workshop session prior to the April presentation? I don't think so. Unless you all wanted to meet more and have discussions or meet with the task force members. No, I, I'm not thinking that we would want to meet. I just want to make sure
019that we would have the benefit of as much public input prior to April. And so what I'm hearing is that you, you will be receiving input from each of us individually as board members, the, the people who will be presenting their concerns to us, that's the case. Then at that meeting in April, we will be doing two things waiting the statutory time to approve it finally, and also to incorporate whatever issues arise by the first meeting in April, so that those can be incorporated into the final plan if they are in it, does that make, But I would think the presentation is that April meeting, yes, you all have the, we'll have the drafts before then your feedback and anything that we're displaying, cause it should then be public knowledge and open it up for
020everyone to see as you're receiving information and feedback from your constituents, you're communicating to myself or Mr. Chapman. And then by that may meeting, if the based on the feedback up dating the plan and then that can be provided to everyone. And then that would be the voting for that may. All right. So basically we're going to have two bites at the app. Number one, all of the input that we get between now and April and number two, to make sure that the input that we get between nine and April is incorporated into what we're going to be asked to approve in may, is that fair enough, which doesn't preclude any, it doesn't preclude any additional input that anyone might want to give. And now that's, before we go further, I want to make sure
021that we're all speaking the same language up here. If there are some other thoughts and I'm going to just stop with Mr. Shelton. Okay. So Ms. Choke, Ms. Foreman. Yeah. I want to point out that the draft of the taskforce is attached to the agenda. Isn't it? So the public can start perusing it immediately. All right. And Mr. Kennedy. Yeah, I do have a couple of things, Reverend gold first, the electronic, thanks for being here this morning and the work of you and your co-chair and the entire committee. So thanks. Thanks for that. Don't want us to be intimidating to anybody To have a conversation like friends. So my first question is about the difference between eighth grade, us history and 11th grade us history when I left and this may have changed, but I
022think it's still the same, but in eighth grade, the standards stop. I forget just before, just after the civil war. And then in 11th grade, us history, you pick up from reconstruction four to the present. They are as close as you can by the end of the, by the end of the school year. So is the design either from the commissioner of education or from the counties that have implemented or our plan or the, are these kinds of on two separate tracks between the middle school class? Well, I think the other thing is, remember our civics literacy standards were just started being pushed in within the past previous year. So we will be expanding beyond just slavery, ending with us history and tagging it into what has occurred from that era up until now. So
023with those new civic literacy standards that have been adopted by the state and pushed down towards us, those maps have been designed and developed. And so inside of the plan, you all will see exactly all of our standards, our historic, our history standards, our civic standards, and then those standards that are aligned with the teaching of African-Americans and the African diaspora. And so remember it's not just in those history classes of our us history, but it's also within our world history classes. And then also through our arts education, we have those areas too. Wow. Okay. So this is fully integrated. This is not, that was kind of my follow up question or, you know, are we trying to focus this on that African-American history elective, but it's way more than that And more integrated. We
024want the elective. So that is just a true wish, like a true wish and doing that work, but it will be integrated because we have one of our community partners with three embarrassing. Our differences been Joel blocker. Our teachers already received training in, or are able to receive training during the summer, like our arts teachers through infusion of practices and how to look at lenses of artwork. And then, so that will be tied in. So that's why that work of the curriculum is truly looking at how can we build that interdisciplinary piece and it's cause so it's, it's called African-American history task force, but of course you want to look at an interdisciplinary report approach and that's what Hillsborough has done. Good. Thank you. That's a better answer than I thought I was going to
025get. Thank you. And my second thing, Reverend golden Kelly, if you wouldn't mind bringing that, that webpage up it's oh, sorry, one second. We'll get it up. But literary and what I want to do is I just want to show for the public, the, the state's website and cause you know, for community members who would like to dig into this and provide input, it is a very robust webpage. There is in Kelly. If you could click on menu up on the top, right? And it's going to bring up a sidebar, but on that side, but right up top, we've talked about this quite a bit lately, but that see palms, it says educator resources, but that's publicly available to anybody. So you can see the standards there. But I just to folks to see for
026themselves, this is what the page looks like, and this is what's available. And that link is inside of the PowerPoint. And it is also inside of the draft plan so that when your constituents are asking, it's not that Manatee county is creating or developing. It is that we're following what the state guidelines have offered for districts. We want exemplar status. We teach our standards, but those resources are there for all. And then also the professional development that is offered through the state task force is offered free to anyone during the summer And Reverend golden. One more thing I'd like to thank the commissioner of education. It looks like he and his team have done a pretty good job here. And I wish him well on his way onto his next opportunity. Thank you, sir. I
027just had one additional question. I really appreciate you bringing up the, the civics component because it was out of this board that the issue of statutory amendment arose last year, where we asked the legislature to include in its curriculum, consideration voter education. And I I'm, I'm wanting to make absolute this year that there's nobody who's suffering under the misconception that this board or that I, or that anybody else wants to be teaching our children how to vote No, or who To vote for who to vote for. Because the reality is that we have some serious problems in terms of children. I worked at the polls at last election and I saw a young people come in, get a ballot, spend five seconds, 10 seconds with that ballot, and then take that ballot back to where
028they got it from. So they didn't even know that where you got the ballot from or what you picked it up from was not where you turn it back in. They didn't know anything about the voting process. So I appreciate the leadership of the board last year and making sure that we teach children how to vote, not who to vote for. And I have heard that there are some community groups that are presenting that as a position of the school board. And that's not a position of the school board and it's certainly not a position of Reverend golden. So I do hope I appreciate the integrated approach, no pun intended for incorporating civic education into, into what we, we need for our, for our young people who don't know how to vote. We got enough
029people who are not informed voters. And so, and part of being an informed voter is just knowing how to cast your ballot aside from any of the other efforts that are being made. We want to make sure that at least when you get your ballot, you know what to do with it. All right. And I, so is that you didn't say holistic w what was the word that you all interdisciplinary? That's a big word. I have problem with that. Okay. And now, Mr. Chuck, Just a quick followup we're and this isn't probably, you're going to be able to answer this, but I know Dr. Evans, well, somebody would be able to answer this superintendent, but when we talk about ensuring that the statutes are being followed, not only for this, but for any of our
030statutes being followed, can we just get a quick explanation to the, to the people out there, the public, what that entails for our teachers? I mean, you don't have to give me a long winded explanation, but I know there's questions about their on saying, how do we know what teachers are teaching, right. How do we know this is going to be enacted just a quick, just a quick, how, how does the school district make sure things like these, the statutes that are being passed are being taught. It's a great question, Mr. Choate, first of all, we, we, as we've just talked about recently with the best standards, which will be coming along as soon enough here, our standards and everything that we're to be teaching are designed by others, right? The state adopts what is
031to be taught even right now, down to when we say the best standards that are coming on board, even the actual list of books that we should be teaching are prescribed by the department of education. So that's fully vetted by the department of education, through a series of meetings and committee assignments and parallel involvement. So in answer your question, once those standards are complete and handed down then to districts to then implement, which we just heard latrine speak to, we develop from them curriculum maps. So that's what she was referencing is our curriculum division then takes those standards and says, all right, within Manatee county schools, these are the adopted materials again, which had been fully vetted. These are all right, this is, what's supposed to be taught first quarter and then second quarter. So
032that's all mapped out by the, our curriculum division. And then the assurance that those things are being done to the, to that degree of fidelity is through the, the classroom visitations that we do. Right? So what we do is our administrators, But wait a minute. Yes, sir. So you finally got around to answering this question and that is how do you determine whether or not what is prescribed and what is described is actually being executed in the classroom. Right. And what you're saying is that there are visitations that take place. So why don't you tell us who the visitations are by? Sure, sure. So, you know, when we talk about just instructional quality in general, I think the quality of our instruction going on in our classrooms, our administrators are charged with that, with that
033responsibility. That's what principals and assistant principals do. They visit classrooms as well as our instructional division. But our instructional vision is really in the business of, of continuing to provide resources. But our administrators are responsible for our assistant principals and our principals with visiting classrooms for a couple of purposes, one again, instructional quality, right? Giving feedback to our teachers on their, their skills and so forth. Then of course, evaluating teachers, but also ensuring that the content is being taught. As it's designed to be taught, A colleague is asking you, how do the parents of the children make sure that that is what is happening? I know we know what the process is. We know what the procedure is. We know what the practice should be, what he's asking and I, and you're right. That is
034a great question. How do parents become assured that what is process, practice and procedure is actually being executed now, if there is no way to do that ahead of time, except by hearing from the children, what they're being taught, we need to own up to that. And then we need to have a process in place to deal with teachers who are not doing what is doing according to the procedure process and practice. I'm not trying to put words in his mouth, but I don't want to be mealy mouth here about how this is supposed to take place because the teachers teach. I just spent on, I'm all, I'm an expert on teaching. I've taught one day yesterday. I told him one day, yeah, I taught and taught fourth grade. So now, you know, I knew
035everything about teaching, but at that that's where, that's where we have a lot of distrust, a lot of mistrust, a lot of misinformation. And so I think we deserve to be forthright in terms of saying, if you have problems with what your children are telling you, they're being taught, you need to get in touch first with the teacher. And, and remember one of the things we promised in the last meeting we had, I think in the last several meetings is just transparency to the materials and the curriculum, right? So that's number one. When you ask about the parent, I mean, parents should know what's being taught in their schools. We would certainly agree. So the transparency of the materials that transparency of the curricula, which are now, as we mentioned before, published to our website
036for parents to see parents do talk to their kids, parents do talk to their teachers, The maps or the curriculum maps are out there. Are we It's typically a teacher, well, give some kind of a synopsis, Hey, here's first semester, your second best here. Here's the ideas is syllabus that at least, you know, Correct. That's also true. So at the end of the day, I think there's so many eyes in our classrooms of people who walk through our classrooms, who, and again, we have a lot at stake here, as far as our performance, we in superintendent, I know, would say, and she holds us accountable that we've covered the things we're meant to have covered. And the first quarter, which leads to the second quarter and the third quarter, because we fall behind in that,
037then our students fall behind and don't perform so well academically. So the accountability of just covering the things is critical to our work. And so ultimately I would then again say that my division principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, a lot of what we talk about is have, has have the standards been covered to the, to the rigor and depth of the standard that's required because of not students won't be able to perform. So there's a lot of folks who have a stake in us covering it exactly as it's designed to be covered. Because I guess the last follow-up question I have is for the superintendent, the real proof is in the pudding in terms of the system itself being graded. And as I understand it right now, we are a very high B school district.
038Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. And what direction are we moving in C or a As of the second quarter benchmark? Our projection is to complete with an a district. Absolutely. We have a quarter left to go. So not withstanding the fact that some may disagree with how we approaching it, of him might have some questions about whether we're doing what we say the proof is, whether we meet the standards as it relates to the entire state. Correct. Okay. I, that fair enough. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Oh yes. Ms. Foreman, I'm sorry. I just had a couple of questions. One, are there, is there an AP class or dual enrollment available for African-American history? No, there needs to be, Well, when I was at Riverview in 1997, I was wasn't AP
039history, but I took it a little bit. Your head of time, I took as a sophomore and let's just say we ended with the civil war. So we never got into reconstruction and like the silver, right. So, but I'm not a history buff anymore. So, Oh my Lord, not singles, singles and Kennedy are bragging about how much they know about history, but y'all know the Gettysburg address by memory. Yeah. Okay. I still, I still can't get past how young Latrina is when she gave us her high school graduation a year at present. We do not offer the dual enrollment course or AP course. And African-American history. The what year, what we do offer is a course in AP history, right? American history, right. That's still, and that African American history would be subsumed by that
040course. I'm not aware that there is a dual enrollment core specific to African-American history, but it's a great idea. When we consider this recommendation that we put an African-American history course into our high schools. I think it'd be incumbent upon us to determine whether or not a D a D E course is a good fit, but at present we don't offer, but I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll check into that. A D E course. Hold on Enrollment. Sorry About that. Yes, sir. Yeah. And then I want to throw this out. We have a rich history right here in Manatee county with Angola and new college spearheaded, the, the archeological dig on it. And I think they even have like a little museum. I haven't seen it, but is there any thought of partnering because you listed the
041universities? So recently we reached out because Vicki Oldham was one of those that, that task of leading with Angola, that documentary that was created. So we're in the process of reaching out to her and her contacts at new college. But we also reached out to state college of Florida because they do have a museum that is currently located there with some of those archives. So we're in that process of utilizing our local resources. Also, I think it's just a great opportunity. Oh, Ms. Foreman, now that was also presented by reflections of Manatee. The organization is responsible for super superintendent of the work down that end goal. We had a panel discussion at the public library. I think it was the 26th or the 24th of temporary. And they are also working in partnership. I don't
042know whether it's with this academic part of it, but the lady who was presiding over the escape route. But I participated in that, in that workshop discussion with two other professors, gentlemen, from one of our charter schools and Mrs. Aboard, she's retired attorney sister to judge Williams from the African-American society for the preservation of the society, for the preservation of African-American history. So there, there are a lot of entities and organizations, as a matter of fact, they showed up here for our presentation of the black history month proclamation Are African-American. Yeah, I totally Wilkinson. Yeah. Right. So I'm excited about the opportunity and I'm particularly excited because we are already expressing in a desire to overcome what is emerging in a lot of areas. The antisemitism that exists is this is not just about black
043and white people. This is about racism, sexism, homophobia, you name it. It's about all of the things that people use to keep us divided and separated. And so I'm, I'm excited that we're developing this holistic approach to public education in Manatee to, to, to Manatee county. So I thank y'all. Are there any other questions? Okay. I just want to Mr. Chair, I just wanted to thank Latrina for chairing this task force. It was a, what a year, a year and a half worth of work and all of the task force members, you could see the list on a, quite an extensive list of educators and community members who came together to really take what the governor and the commissioner have said. Here is a plan right here is a plan to how to teach African-American
044history, task force or history in our schools in Florida. So here, take this plan form a task force and implement the plan in your district. So that's what we're doing, right? We're taking the governor and the commissioner's plan of how to teach African-American history and trying to implement implemented here in Manatee county, using again, the governor commissioners in the standards of that and putting it here in Manatee county. And we're about to do that now with the Holocaust education. So these are, we're just taking what is on the shelf of how to do this, and we're going to implement it here in Manti county. So for this group to spend a year and a half doing that, and then obviously now, hopefully with the board's approval, putting that work into places is a great endeavor
045and just want to thank Latrina and the task force members for, for doing this work. It's a, it's really going to pay dividends for our, our students and families here in the county. So One last question will Hispanic history be next? It could be, we've been, we've been talking about that is, is to see what is, is there an in the department of education with the commissioner and the governor to see again, if there's something that we can take off the shelf there and implement it here in Manatee county, again, using our, the curriculum standards that are, that are available. So Thank you, Mr. Chairman, are there any other questions? I'm sorry. No river golden. I just wanted to share from Mrs. Foreman's question, which I thought was really interesting. So I just did a
046quick search, and this is from September of 2020. This is reported in the hill.com so year and a half ago, but the, the college board will be developing a course solely focused on the African diaspora following a three-year pilot program that introduced the comparable course in 11 public schools. So it's being kind of rolled out in New York, Atlanta, and Miami, and then to some other schools in Huntsville, Alabama, which is because the professor that's working on. Did you say Huntsville, Alabama, Alabama? Yeah, my goodness. That's what my daughter teaches. Okay. Yeah. So it's, it's being developed. It's in process, but it's not it. According to this, it's not African-American history per se. It's just about the African diaspora. And what is your role from there? So Thank you. Anything else? Any other board members?
047Okay. Thank you also very much for your presentation. Okay. The next presentation will be the discussion. I'm sorry. The audit committee update by Dr. Better. Well, I'm going to speed this up a little bit because I have a plane to catch today too. And I was promised nine o'clock Well, I want to split a cab with, Okay. I really started by saying, I, I, it'd been a while since I've talked to you and in my report, which I'm sure you all have on your screen. I hadn't really spoken to you since last July. So in some, I have notes on what we discussed in September, what we discussed in November and what we discussed in January. So if you have any questions about those things, I'll be happy to address, but I would like to
048move on to our most recent one, which was March 2nd, if that's all right. That's Great. I've read it. Yes. Yes. And, and, and Ms. Foreman listens in on all our meetings, Mr. Kennedy's there, we get a lot of Feedback. Okay. So Just a minute, Ms. Better. Pardon? Well, it just depends. You have a meeting that is noticed, and you said that Mrs. Foreman listens in on your meetings is a Mrs. Foreman. The representative from the board? No, Mr. Kennedy is. Okay. So, okay. And she's very interested in what we do. So she listens to, It's a public meeting publicly you notice today. Okay. Yep. All right. I just, I'm just very sensitive to all of the accusations about transparency and the lack of transparency. And I just want to make sure that we're doing
049what we can in the proper way. So when people say, well, they she's listening in and he's there. I want to make sure that people know that it has been properly noticed. And it is a public meeting. Yeah. It's all our meetings are properly noticed. And in fact, Mr. Nelson was at our last meeting, so, Oh, well, in that case, then everything is, Everything is on There, But you know, this report of mine is posted. So if anybody has any questions, they can read it on the website. Okay. Okay. We need new members as are one of my most important items. Ms. Foreman resigned for her board seat. We're supposed, our charter says we're supposed to have seven, or we can have seven members. We've had six, Ms. Foreman resigned. I've had another resignation and
050another one who hasn't been to a meeting in a year. So we decided he'd lost his seat. So we are down to four people on the audit committee and Dr. Russo is running for the school board also. So she intends to retire at the end of June when her term is up. My term is also up at the end of year, but after she's gone, there's only three of us. And that isn't enough for us to vote. So as you're looking around and talking to people, I have, I've gotten two sort of leads this week, but I ask everybody that I talked to, if they know anybody that would work on the committee. And I even spoke to Ms. Saunders, if she's out and about and meeting people, if she sees anybody with an accounting
051background, send them right over. So we'll, we'd love to do that, but that's our biggest problem. Mr. Jorgensen from silent spoke about his report in January and he felt the district is progressing well. He had held a tabletop, which is kind of a fire drill on Monday, February 28th, and had met with the it department to discuss current threats, which seemed to be getting more sophisticated all the time. He shared a web page that advertises computer ransom software that can be purchased with a percentage of the ransom salt percentage of the ransom To be paid to the re the software authors and the bad actors continue to find more creative ways to monetize their actions. We are also doing a strategic tabletop on March 21st with Mr. Jorgensen. And that should, and then we will
052talk to all of you after that. In fact, we're looking for a shade meeting. We also have some information from the security audit that needs to be shared in a shade meeting. And so would the finer details of this Report. And if you do that, the audit committee would love to come to, because we can't talk about this in our meetings except in generalities. And there's only four of us left. So it shouldn't be that tough. Okay. Mark Smith from CRI presented the budget audit report, he found the process to be satisfactory, but noted that the district could use second set of notes here. I've heard a correction. They need a backup at the individual schools to calculate FTEs. And they are both here Ms. Kidder and Mr. Smith. And they will talk about their
053reports in a minute. But The amazing thing was when they were in looking through this budget report, that the FTEs, which is the full-time teacher equivalents, that everyone uses to it. It's how you're paid and money from the state. Everything, The projection that they used was only 10 and a half FTEs Off the actual numbers that they needed when school started, which is a quarter of 1%. So the modeling is pretty, pretty good. The next phase of the budget testing will be to consider the final budget approved by the board to the actual dollar amounts at year end and significant fund transfers related to the budget. The sales Sur tax was presented. We had two updates from when we previously looked at it. I've got a fact with this page, Excuse me. Somebody gave me
054a correction. So I had to, okay. The sales search tax was represented with two updates and presented with two updates. Following the discussion, the committee voted with one dissension to recommend the budget, audit to the board and to recommend the sales Sur tax report to the board unanimously Ms. Kitter discussed the CRI workplace going forward. They plan to next work on petition position control, followed by benefits. Her hours used report show that C R I had used approximately a hundred hours to support the board staff auditor and his work. And the bar board staff auditor had resigned. We have been paying him on a hourly basis. He's working from home, but that is to come to an end tomorrow, the 12th And Dr. Bruso gave us a copy of her audit committee procedures To the
055clerk for distribution. And I think the audit committee procedures and the board staff auditor procedures are also attached to this report. Thank you. And Ms. Vetter for, for your report. And we'll just go around this way. I'll start about a year or so ago. I raised the issue of participation in the audit committee. I had asked if there was some consideration for expanding the foundational qualifications. Apparently the foundational qualifications are that you either have been that you are a CPA and or that you have had I'm paraphrasing. I don't know whether it says Extensive school district Financials re experience that. Okay. So that, so I want to know if that's still, I noticed that you, and just about every meeting that you've had, the issue of your membership has come up, but I know that
056there is no suggestions or recommendations. And I'm, I'm thinking that now that we're down to four, I'd be interested in hearing from the president board membership, because I don't think we have anything else other than this report. Okay. Whether there has been a discussion about whether or not we should be expanding that or whether we should just leave it, like it was, I believe it was the previous chair Dr. Gruesome that had made the presentation. Is she present? Yeah. Yeah. Let's go is also here. All right. Well, that's great. So I, I I'd be interested in hearing whether or not they have changed their mind or not about expanding the, the opportunity for participation on the audit committee. That's that's my question. Okay. And you can speak for them. It doesn't Well, we would prefer
057not to. And so We upped our efforts to find some more people, and I've spoken to two people this week. So after spring break, hopefully we can find some and hopefully everybody will keep, we've got new ads out. We've targeted them, them a little better. So, and we've refined the, the conditions, you know, the ad, the old dad always just said, civic minded people, blah, blah, blah, to serve on the, the audit committee. And the new ad talks about, it's probably five to eight, an average of five to eight hours a month. We have one meeting every two months for three hours. And you know, you're not getting yourself into something that becomes your full-time job. We can work together and do this. The problem is, is that CPAs and people that have been CPAs,
058we have a common language that when we speak to each other, you may not understand it, but we understand it because we all have sort of the same background. And that is our reason for really not wanting to divided up. So I, you know, I hear very clearly what you're saying about y'all speaking to each other. How, how do you all speak to other people who are not CPAs? So how do you get them to understand your position or your point? Well, Just sounds like if you like this report, the judge, as I understood everything here, I, I'm not a CPA, but I, I got the input, I guess what I'm really, I wrote it really nicely. We'll talk, we'll talk about that in the cab on the way to the airport, but it just,
059it seems like that. And we keep, we keep doing this over and over again, you don't do the audits. No. All right. You receive the reports from the audits that we authorize, right? And then you bring the report on what you have received to us. And I guess where I am is where I was when I first mentioned this to Dr. Gruesome, I just don't understand why. The only way we can receive reports from an audit committee that works with us is from people who themselves literally do audits. I, it's not that I'm questioning the CPA's ability to understand the input that they receive. What I'm questioning is why we limit what we get as a report to people that, that are CPAs and or who have school board finance. I, I like the idea
060of civic minded people sitting down and, and, and, and seriously discussing the results of an audit given to them by CPAs who know how to speak plain English. Well, and I think we can do that, but we meet with these people all the time. We supervise these people, they come to us and say, well, here's what we think we're doing. Well, maybe you ought to look at this a little more or that a little more. I mean, we're not just recommending it to you. We do more than that at the meetings. And, and I think we can speak in English, but that doesn't mean we want to, when we're working among ourselves and the background qualifications for this committee have kept politics out of this committee. So the fear and I'm I'm, Well, it it's,
061it's what, you know, not who, you know, to be on this committee. Okay. So you say, because what I'm really concerned about is that to be on that committee requires the vote of the people up here, right? And so what I'm asking is why is the other resistance? If none of us, I'm sorry, one of us might be a CPA. Adam. One of us is a CPA. The rest of us are rich bankers and investment people. I tend to preaches and all that got an Alternate universe, But seriously, seriously, We, we, when, when, when Mrs. Foreman speaks, we, we listen because she is a CPA and she does have that background, but she speaks to us, not in CPA, ish of CPAs. She speaks to us in a language that helps us informs us so
062that we can make a decision. I'm just trying to figure out why we have such a wall between the input that we receive coming to us only from CPAs, that, that that's all. And we won't solve that today. It's just that I still have that concern because since I brought it up a year or so ago, now we're down to, it's a matter of fact, the young man that I recommend come onto the board has come on and resigned. And he was a CPA. Yes, she, Yes. He, so I, yeah, I'm just kind of, we need to move past, we got a problem with people attending, and either we expand on that in terms of trying to find more CPAs, or we get people who are able to speak CPA, EES to present to the
063board. That's all. Alright, Mr. Choke and Ms. Foreman, and then Mr. Kennedy, I don't know. I don't have much, it's a great report, but I do agree that there's a concern with, with obviously the membership. Yes. And is there a, or do we advertise to, you know, the CPA organizations that are out there? You know, We are now that this new ad, when we went there, we made sure of it, right Mr. Kennedy To me, And just cause I mean, the CPAs that I work with, you know, from, from January until April, you know, unless they're doing businesses and then in October as well, there is no time for this, for them to come and help, you know? And so I was just wondering, you know, some of the retired CPAs that are still part
064of the organization, I think that's, and the retired educator that was, you know, those are the ones that I think we've got to target, not the current working, because I just don't think they had the time to do it. So that, that was my wondering if we're doing those, I don't know whether those organizations, We've gotten more focused about who we're advertising to, That's it. Okay. This is going to be good Course. It is. Yes. CPA's talking to ahead. All right. It's not that we speak a different language. It just, that we have an experience education training to understand what's involved in an audit. And we, because of that, the CPAs on this committee have a basis to judge the work of our auditors and their reports. That's why it's important. And that's why the
065committee has been, I mean, this committee has been successful since the very beginning and, you know, there's, it's, untarnished, in my opinion, I think one reason why we had so many people volunteering earlier was we had scandals. Now we could have a scandal and get some PR and probably get some people wanting to step in. But I don't recommend that. Yeah. When I was on the committee, Mr. Barber was a big help to get people because he would have it on the front page of the web of the webpage. Okay. Which I just looked, it's not there. He would contact the press, the press would put out something saying, just school boards, looking for members for the audit committee. And we get that's where you get the retirees. Right. And I think even a Facebook
066post and Twitter would be a good idea. Those are my suggestions, but I think we just need to get the word out. And I agree that what we're looking for is a retired CPA. And especially with people moving to Manatee county from up north, we had a lot of people want to get on the citizen, financial oversight committee, you know, that were fairly new to the community. And so I think that, I don't think it's an unobtainable. I think we'll be able to get, to get people that we just have to be a little creative and really hammer it now. So. Okay. Okay. That's it. That's it. Okay. Thanks. All right, Mr. Kennedy, You're The liaison to the audit committee. Yeah. Yeah. And I'll, I'll, I just have a few things. I'll start with the,
067the recruitment of new members. The notice from CUNY communications went out this week. In addition, we are, I confirmed with Christian yesterday afternoon that we are going to run an ad. We're going to give it a try in the Florida Institute of CPAs professional journal. So that's kind of a new avenue to reach out to. We might catch somebody there, but I think those are all good ideas as well as how we can, how we can get our membership back up. I do appreciate the four. Well, three of you are here. I do appreciate three of you. And I'm sure ginger is probably working today or she, us too. But, but you know, it's, the board is aware of the issue. Thanks to you. Constant constantly reminding us. We need people. We need people. So
068please keep reminding us. But I, you know, I'm confident, well that that search will, will, will start to bear fruit with the ideas that we've heard from, from the board today. I do want to let everybody know that the, the board staff internal audit position document, and the, the procedures for the audit committee, two separate documents, it's very, to two very separate pieces, but they are not on the board agenda here, but they, they were sent by our agency clerk to the board members this week. So the board does, does have those two documents. And if I could, I'm going to ask Dr. Doctor, I have a couple of questions about the, the procedures document. So Charvet or would it be okay if I had a couple of questions? I didn't, I didn't think he
069would mind it, but so Dr. Grosso, can I borrow you for one second? Okay. Before, before Dr. Gruesome comes with respect to the procedures. Sure. I'd like to try to take the information that we've gained So far and put that on the back burner for one second. Yeah. And the intelligence that we've gained, because I think Dr. Grosso has already indicated that at the end of her term in June, then you would literally, if nothing happens, if nothing is different, you literally be down to three, which is not even a majority of the number. What I'd like for us to develop in this workshop is a timeline to meet clearly what we've established as a priority. And that is that we want to hold the qualification aspects as they are CPAs and people with extensive
070background in school, Eric Russo was the superintendent of a school district. He thought that counted Dance, then that's fine. But what I want us to develop as a timeline to execute that so that we don't get to June still with three. Yeah. So, and I see the superintendents hand over there. So Madam superintendent, before I continue, Well, I can tell you we've are already executing the expectations of what's being stated. Advertising was already in play that Mr. Kennedy and Matt, Mr. Barber is watching the meeting. So he will be putting stuff out on social media. I've seen the blast go out through communications, but I'm putting the link back up on the website and social media. He will, that could very well be done today. All right. So, so many of the things that were
071asked in terms of communicating and trying to get an interest publicly noticing that will already be taken care of, Alright. In the interest of continuity and making sure that we aren't any more disrupted by the lack of participation that we've already been. I'm, I'm thinking that we ought to be able to have some people such as they are, from what the efforts that we're making by the first meeting, hopefully in April, or at least the second meeting in April, where we can make some decisions about who we would like to see, because at that point in time, we won't have one more meeting right. With the four of them. So I I'm, I'm asking that we, in addition to all of the information that we're providing, that we establish a timeline that would be beneficial
072to the school board. So if you're interested in doing this, we need to have your application in by, because we are going to consider the applications that we have on so that we can thereafter go forward. And I'm just asking is the first meeting in April too quick. We don't have another meeting in this month. No, the second please. Okay. The second meeting in April is when we are going to be receiving applications up to four, I gotta remember that phrase for CPAs and people with extensive financial school District that says, okay, so the second meeting in April is by the time we will have them, is there a timeline in which we then have to wait before we vote? Or is that yes. Comes from, Well, the, when the applications come in, they are
073reviewed by the chair of the audit committee and a interview set up with, and we get copies. I mean, we get copies well, a lot. It's not like they got the power, but, and then an interview is set up with a member of the school board, preferably Mr. Kennedy and, and, and Ms. Better. And they interview, then they come back with a recommendation to the board. So if we have a deadline in April, I would late April. I, we need to give them a few weeks to handle what they've got to handle. And so if we have a recommendation to the board by second meeting in may, will, we'll be fine. So, so basically the timeline that we are suggesting and recommending as a board to help us with our audit committee responsibilities is that
074we will receive applications up to, and until the second meeting in April, and that we will have those applications evaluated and a recommendation to come to us by the second meeting in may. Is that, is that a fair? Can we agree on that? Okay. I am really sorry that I based here is not here to, to provide the input, but that's okay. I think that gives her enough time to, to, to, to support that. Is there any impediment to that Madam superintendent? No, That's fine. What? We should be able to make that. All right. And attorney di is there any impediment to the timeline that we have established in the process? All right. Thank you so very much. And now I have a couple more things. No, I know, but now we want to Touch
075on related to her piece. Oh, okay. All right. And then you want to, And then I can go onto the, Oh, the other part. Okay. Procedures document. That's fine. Thank you. You know, I just wanted to update the board. Ms. has already referred to it, but Mr. Grifols contract initial contract expires tomorrow at 8 45 this morning, we received his first, his draft report and Dr. Bruso has worked very closely with Mr. Griffel throughout his tenure with us when he was here and since he's been working remotely. So we have that, that first draft. I will, I can send it the board if you'd like to see the first draft. Now, normally that would go through the audit committee first, but we can do it over the board would like, I do want to make
076a recommendation. You know, the board can, we can add at an, at a regular meeting. We can decide if we want to go forward. My suggestion would be is that, and I was an advocate for Mr. Griffo working remotely when he had to return back to the east coast. I've come to think that we would be better off. However, if the, this remote relationship were not to continue, I think for the, for this work to continue at its highest standard, this person has to be here, has to be a, you know, full full-time employee who is here at the district. The, the distance stuff has, has, you know, complicated, the timeline of Mr. Griffel getting his work done. I also, you know, CRI Ms, better mentioned this as well, CRI as part of their audit
077hours that they have spent a hundred of those hours have been to support that position, which is exactly what we were trying to move away from. So I think maybe as a board and as an audit committee, we can talk about this, but you know, my suggestion would be, you know, let's thank Mr. Garfield for the work that he did complete for us while he was with us. But I would suggest we don't extend that contract. And the other piece I have, we'll get back to it. I knew I would have to write it down because I would forget, oh no, I talked about that. I'm sorry. And then one final kind of personal, as long as we're talking about looking for members, despite some people thinking I'm bluffing, I am not running for the
078district to school board seat. I will be finished in this district who seat in November. I'm not a CPA, I'm not an accountant, but I certainly feel like I have more expertise with school finance now than I did. When I, when I was elected onto this board, I will be happy to serve on the audit committee. Once I, if the, if the new board is kind enough to appoint me, I'll be happy to submit an application. I would love to continue to work with this group. It's it's a Target right there. Okay, good. Mr. Di can he, can he say this now? I just said it That way, but we're going to unsafe if, if we have to aye, aye, aye. Aye. He is a member of the school board. And indeed, if he were
079to become a member of the audit committee, the school board has constituted at that time would have to vote on that, which obviously won't take place to November. And the reason I'm having concerns is because I'm thinking that such opportunities to fill vacancies will take place before then, unless we decide to hold off until Absolutely. We will look at other candidates first. I think this was especially if we couldn't, if we could, if we were still short. Yeah. Plan B. Well, all that's well and good, but we'd over here. Get the plan B until plan a is not successful. I don't want us to get to a point to where we are not able to consider him because at the time he bought his right, because there's no other applications, there's no nothing else that's
080before us. And I don't want to be precluded from considering anybody. Are there four open seats? Yes, yes. Right. But it's good to know that you feel that that's what I would say. It's good to know that you feel you're qualified to serve on the audit committee. Thank you very much. That's all we're going to say right now. And that's, if you decide to renew my membership on the audit committee By November. No, no mine expires at the end of June also That's plan a Plan Members getting new ones. Yeah. And we got to get it. Nobody else leaves. So Nobody else wants this job. Yeah, I get it. I seriously, I could appreciate that. We have a situation in terms of what we're trying to cure. I don't want to exclude Kennedy and I
081don't want him to self exclude himself by saying something today that, you know, that would make it seem as if we have already decided that that's the thing that I, that's why I wanted to stop. Not that I have any objection. And it's not that he probably is as qualified as a experienced But I don't want to exclude anybody. And I, and I don't want anybody to challenge us later saying that we colluded and, or did something out outside of the normal scope of things. Am I, is that a fair statement, attorney? Yes. I understand your concern. I don't see a legal issue with it though. Okay. All right. That's fine. We've heard you. Okay. It's out there now. And then I just have one more thing for Mr. Di before we move on to
082the next piece. And that was about, we had talked during workshop and, and meeting requests on Tuesday morning. It was a Tuesday night about having shade meeting for safety and security audit, which Mr. Griffith just got his first draft in and then for the silent presentation. And we it's w it's been a while since we've done one of these. So I just wanted to kinda check in on the, the parameters of a shade. If, if we did a shade workshop or do they have to be done in regular meetings, the shade sessions, I guess your question is, is there such a thing as a shade workshop? That is my question. Yeah. We, we, we really do shade meetings, but the question is, do we do a shade? Well, it's, it's really not a workshop. It's
083really not a board workshop. The shade meeting is a, is a separate creature. So I think it's just to protect the safety and security information of the district. So I think you can have a shade meeting to discuss that topic, but it's not a, it's not a typical board workshop. It doesn't have to be on the normal bore, our regular board rotation week. We could do it in a workshop. It's not like Friday morning. They're kind of just a separate animal. We'd Have to call it a meeting. Yeah. And in anything having to do with this topic should be in the shade, in my opinion. Yeah. Okay. Now And the, I, the it things, I think they'll all feel better if you get to talk to Mr. Jorgensen and ask him questions. I think Mrs.
084Better, you just get so much input for information. I think I've heard this come up before and I think that there's been a suggestion or recommendation for a special meeting in the shade to address these security concerns. Am I imagining things? Madam clerk. Okay. But I thought I'd heard someone say something about a date air early in April or something. I put special meeting. I don't think we ever got close to a date. We just talked about needing to have one for these updates. Okay. All right. That's fine. And when would be an appropriate time for us to try to consider these matters arising out of security concerns and safety concerns. Did, did, did you think of a date? I don't have one. I think the four Mr. Griffin's report that we just got this
085morning, I think maybe the best way to do it is to let the audit committee take a look at that draft decide what they want to do with it. And then once we get it back from them, then we can get on the calendar. Ms. Better. Your next meeting is the first week of April. Yeah. May. Oh, we've already had the mark. Yeah. It's may. Okay. So perhaps that the second one would be our workshop Friday in our first one, the first workshop in may, that way the w the audit committee will have it a chance. And the, we could, we could do it on Friday morning, call it a shade meeting at 9:00 AM and then call board workshop at 10:00 AM, for example. But I'm thinking that in may, the, the school board
086meeting will come before or after the, the, the meeting of the audit committee That'd be after. Yeah. It'll be off. Cause they audit committee meets the first Wednesday of, Okay. All right. So that, all right. So that allows us to then consider it. We have any publication requirements or anything like that. If not Reverend golden the committee with this timing, they would meet the first Wednesday in may. And then we would have to publish that following Friday, that two days later that Friday would be our seven days notice for the following Friday's workshop. But the second Tuesday for the, oh, I'm sorry, you're saying second Friday for the meeting that we are going to have in the shade, We could have a special meeting. So that's, that's essentially what I'm saying. We would, it's it's
087our normal time for a workshop, but we would notice it as a 9:00 AM Meeting. Speeding. Yeah, Exactly. All right. So that's The workshop for just after. All right. So that's the timeline that we want to do this workshop slash shade meeting first meeting in may following the may meeting of the audit committee. That fair enough. Yes. Okay. All right. All right. So be it. That was it. Yeah. Now Reverend gold, the only thing that stopped me was, was you said the first meeting, but again, I'm talking about the actual date of the first workshop in may. I know, but we're going to call that a meeting because we don't have security workshops. I just didn't want to confuse that first regular meetings Tuesday, Because we're talking about Friday or normal workshop Time. All right,
088sorry. That's my fault. And we have three re I know you want to speak to Dr. Crusoe, but we have three reports that the committee has approved for the school board from CRI, and they will talk to you about them and we have voted to approve them and send them to you. So we hope they will work their way into the next board meeting and be approved. All right. So the CRI presentation as a part of the presentation from last year, Th they, they, they wrote it. They're able to answer those questions Dr. Grosso now, or Ms. Kennedy. Oh, yes, please. Sure. Okay. Thank you very, very much. And, And Reverend golden, I just had two items for shouldn't take too long. No, no, that's fine. Okay. First, Dr. Chris, thanks for joining us this
089morning. I just, you just heard my recommendation to the board on how we proceed with Mr. Griffin. You've worked probably closer with him than I have. So as a member of the committee, I just, if you don't mind, could you share what your, your recommendation is? I know you're not, you're speaking for yourself, not your, your committee, but Your mind with what you said. Okay. Fair enough. Good. And then I'll, then I'll keep moving. The, I know it's been a long time. The, the audit committee procedures document that you've been working on has been, has been a long time coming. And I just, if you could just hit a couple of the highlights of the, of the changes that, that you're suggesting. The, the honor committee has been in existence for 10 years now, and
090we follow a set of procedures that's in everybody's head. So we kind of know how a meeting goes. We know what we do with our reports, how we bring them to you. And so what we did at the request of the superintendent, we actually put it on paper so that as we move forward, anyone who was chair and the rest of the committee members know exactly how we do our work. We have a meeting every other month. We've finally gotten that straightened out so that we can minimize the amount of meetings. There was a period of time when we were meeting every month, because there was so much to do. We've gotten ourselves, I think a little bit more focused at this point on what we really need to be taken care of. We have
091certain tasks that we do at certain times during the year January, we look at the external auditors report. That is a 200 page report. We read every single word, and it is in technical language. And you've taught, I don't want to belabor this, but you talked about members on the committee. Mr. has very specific knowledge that he brings into, you know, what the footnote say. I mean, everything in that report has to be precise. And the reason there are CPAs is because they understand, does this audit really address the concerns of the school district? And can they say to the board, this is correct. And that's why the technical language is so important. So we do that in January. In may, we do evaluations of auditors in the fall, and we are going to look
092at the sales tax. So we have sets of reports that we have to do every year at about the same time. That's on paper. Now, at the same instance, we have CRI that does audit reports all year and you're finished. They bring them to us. We review them, we ask them for changes, if there's a problem. And then we recommend the report to you. And once that happens, they then come present that report to you so that you can accept it. And it becomes an official report that gets posted on the website. So those are the kinds of procedures we have written down. We even have a section on the report that comes to you from the audit committee. So when our chair comes, she's going to bring you a general discussion of what happened
093at our meeting. But then she also brings you the specific recommendation we have made, you know, how we voted on it so that you can accept that recommendation. So that's what we've put on paper. It's pretty, it's only a page and a half long, but it's just to make sure that as we move forward, everybody knows what Ms. Foreman has in her brain. What I have in my brain, what all of us have been doing here for many, many years. And that's what it's about. I just had one question. Sure. In light of the totality of everything that's been brought up here today, and in light of the fact that tomorrow is the last day for the external auditor, do you have an opinion? And maybe I should probably ask the chair this, I don't
094know, but maybe I can get an answer. Do we want to move forward with trying to replace the, the external auditor immediately? Or should we incorporate that in entire process and the procedures that you've just indicated to try to take some time? I, I, I think I heard you say you all do some things in the middle of the year and some things in January at this point, do we have the luxury of looking for that particular position immediately or taking our time so that everybody can get on the same page? And I, that that's as good as I can come up with as a question right now, We've talked about moving forward with it, but maybe taking a slight breather just to make sure everybody's on the same page about what is being sought.
095The inter the board it's called the board house, internal auditor, that position is actually runs through a committee called the auditor selection committee that has been put into statute a member of the board chairs. That that would be Mr. Kennedy at this point. And members of the audit committee are also on that committee. I think eventually the audit committee would like you to proceed with filling that there is a vision that we have about this district, having an internal audit function. In-house one that reports to the board, not to the superintendent. So you are assured of the independence of the work, but it is a way to make sure that tasks that are not normally contracted out to an external source can actually be taken care of the things that Mr. Griffin did that have
096not been done before for every school that had a change in principal. He went to those schools and looked at how the monies from the internal accounts were being handled so that when the new principal came in, they could actually look and say, okay, I don't have to worry about internal accounts. They're being handled properly. He did bookkeeper reviews at schools where there were changes in bookkeepers, and those are tasks that had never been done before, but they're critical to make sure that the money that all of these groups are raising is being handled properly. And he put together a structure for how to do that. So he has a form with all of the information that has to be gathered and a procedure to make it pretty streamlined. So it doesn't take a lot
097of time, but you at least know that that work is being done. There are other audits that need to be done that go much more in depth and require a lot more onsite visits. Then you would typically contract with outside. And so there is this vision to actually have a department here that could do some of that work. We have struggled to be able to have someone in there continuously, but I certainly think it is worth pursuing. So the short answer is we can take our time, the, the, the timeline that we've developed for repopulating the audit committee. Would that be a satisfactory timeline in terms of also trying to deal with the audit selection committee coming forth with a recommendation? So the problem I have is that we've got four people now with down
098to three. And if we were to have interviews for the internal auditor and then populate the audit, committed with three new people, assuming I can talk Ms. Veteran to stay on as we ride in the cab to the airport today. So, so seriously with the, you would have three people who conceivably could be recommending someone that four people might have problems with. And so I don't want us to put someone in that position who was going to wind up not really being able to, to work with or work beside or to make this vision happen. That is that Dr. Crusoe has go ahead and spin it Around golden. I would, I'm going down the same path you are. I think we do have time. There's no rush here. This position has been a little bit
099snakebit, we've, we've filled it twice after a little bit of, you know, kind of looking and looking. And then we found somebody and then she left us and then we were looking and looking, and we found Mr. Griffin, or we found each other. So this is certainly not an easy one to fill. And I still, I still agree with Dr. Versus vision in that ultimately long after I'm gone, we do want to have a internal audit function in in-house. Critics will say, that's what got the district into trouble. The first time back in 20 pre 2012 pre 2013. But the difference here is in Dr. Grosso said it, the difference is, is that between then and now that internal audit function back, then report it to the superintendent, which is why when, when this board
100created that board staff internal audit position, they report to this board to the superintendent. So I think that's that line of reporting is what keeps, that would be an enormous difference between the past and the present. So as between the two prior, as between the two needs, repopulating the committee and trying to find a replacement auditor, obviously the repopulating of the committee is a priority and we are waiting. So is that, is that a fair statement of the sentiment of the board? Okay. All right. Thank you. I, I just want us to be, I want it to be out there because I know sooner or later, somebody's going to say, how are you going to rock board without having an audit, committed people? You know, that kind of stuff, and superintendent, oh, I'm so sorry.
101Yes. Madam superintendent. I just wanted to give a couple of points. Some of the work that that internal auditor was charged to do, that's not complete is, is very important in the summertime as predominantly when we have a change of movement of principals or so forth. So I know in the past we had contracted that out with the CRI. We may need to look at executing that work so that we can ensure that those expectations of those internal accounts and other things are being done, because it's very important that things are looked at, it looked at timely. I think that one of the obstacles Let's take that. Let's take them one at a time. Yes, sir. Having heard what the superintendent said with respect to the principals being shifted in the auditing, does that change
102anyone's mind or perspective? Because it sounds like what I heard you say, not too loudly is that we can get CRI to do those this summer so that whoever we do wind up getting as a auditor will come in with a full slate of this is where you are. And this is where you begin that that's just me. So before we go to the next point, Mr. Kennedy, I'll defer to, I don't want to Take up all the time. The CRI will need to come to the next meeting with an increase budget. We'll have to come before the board so that we can approve it. So We need, we need, yeah, it needs to be done. CRI has done it in the past. And I think it's, it's fine. It just, we need to be
103aware that we're going to have to pay CRI That's fine. And so that's still, so Mrs. Foreman is not dissuaded from the timeline that we talked about in terms of waiting and whenever Mr. Okay. All right. No, I just want to thank the superintendent cause I, that was not even on my radar and we're probably going to ha I would imagine we're gonna have quite a bit of movement with some, some of our long serving employees leaving, which is gonna set off that chain reaction of events. So there's going to be quite a bit of work because it's only fair to a new principal or to new, a big bookkeeper to walk into a campus on day one with a clean audit, like, you know, everything is, you know, there's no problems, so, Oh, so
104you're stating publicly that what the superintendent bought up with respect to the needs for the auditors on the audit committee that you just told us that you had what extensive. So you're admitting to all of us, you hadn't thought of that. Okay. My Madam superintendents, your PC altering Dan. And I do think that's going to be the quickest way to get the execution of the work. We do have a number of people. We know that their drop is indeed. They are retiring. The other thing that I think that we've just struggled with with this auditor position is it should be set up where they're reporting to the board. But I think the issue there's no one day to day of them working, I think they struggle with who, who do they work with for how
105do they, how do they execute their way of work? And I don't, I don't know what the answer to that is, but I think we've struggled with that piece. So when you're thinking about that person down the line, that's where they have had difficulty. So let me ask the attorney because you're right. We keep going round and round about this. Let me ask you this. If we were to hire that auditor in that position and that auditor reports to the liaison from the board, Well, we've done it that way, but the board isn't a board member is not in the building on a day-to-day basis. I don't know it's and maybe we need to go find information out how other districts that have a similar setup or in a person may be have, or department
106has been in that role for a while and as function, because obviously we've tried it twice. We've not done, we've not done a very good job and being able to sustain or keep, and I don't, I don't know what the answer is. Okay. And, and, and rather than trying to force an answer, that's another justification for not moving fast in terms of replacing Mr. Griffin, because it is a difficult situation in terms of process and procedures to how we do it. And we don't want to do something that's not legally sustainable. So, so far what I'm hearing is that nothing has happened that would want us to speed up bringing in another audit. Number one, the two, the two things that miss that the superintendent has raised any anybody else. Okay. Did you have more
107questions? All right. Thank you, Dr. Brisa. All right, chairman better. I'm more pragmatic about some of this than, than the rest of the committee. First of all, it is a horrible hiring atmosphere, and it's not a great time to have to hire anybody much less somebody as specialized as this group or as what we were looking for. And the other question that I think needs to be factored in is a number of the members of our committee think that this position and having our own audit department is very important and that's one factor, but I don't think it's going to save any money in the long run. I think it's going to cost us more than it costs using CRI. And that's, you know, when we talk about hiring this position, we never talk about
108a budget. We never talk about where that's going to go. And I think that should be part of your thought pattern because these people are, I mean, I think Stewart costs way more than we thought he would. Mr. Griffin. Oh, Mr. Grit. Okay. Yes. And, and so, and then till you pay the salary until you add benefits on it and it gets to be real money And as we, and as we CRI has done it before in the past yes. And for them to come in and do it again is not going to be an issue moving forward. I agree with you. They're very, and they're very focused. I mean, you know, and they're doing what they have a whole offices full of employees that they're used to supervising. We're not used to supervising someone
109like this on a day-to-day basis. And I think Dr. Gruesome spent a lot of time on it and thank goodness she did, because I'm not sure I'd have been willing to do that. You know, I took a part of the job and said, here, would you do this part to make what I'm doing a little easier. So when we're short on people having to supervise somebody, unless it's Mr. Kennedy, it isn't a great idea at the moment. I think, I think we should wait a while. That's my personal opinion, But that's okay. You can have one, You can have one. Yeah. So the, the, so the sentiment is still the same in terms of the timeline and the priorities in which we're going to be moving forward. All right. And the committee functioning is, are
110up to snuff is more important. And I do think Barbara brings up a very good point about where we getting our money's worth. Yeah. I agree. I mean, she, she hit it. She did. Yeah. I think it sounded good. It was a good thought. I think when you go back and reevaluate it, I don't know that it has been as fruitful as we thought it would be. Okay. Just supervising those sort of people. This is a Laura Kidder, But these are the ones that are not, let me ask the board, I've taken us past our 10 30 break time. Do we want a five minute recess? Or do we want to press on that? It's just, I know what breaking in the middle of this report, but this, these are the only two people that
111are left for your report. Is that right? So I wouldn't say that either. I'd say, let them go let them report and let them leave. They probably had other Okay. Oh, that's right. Yeah. So where are your internal editors? But we are also CPAs and work in the wonderful world of public accounting in this timeframe. So anyway, what I, what I want to do is we have three reports that are being presented. The first one is the adjutant contract renewal par, which is a post audit review. So we had already done the audit on Ajit tech. And we had four exceptions that we was in our original report. And the district went back and put together an action plan. And then what we do is we come back and we review those and make sure
112that they're working and that it's taken care of the issues that we had identified when we did our original report. So what we found you, you have all had this report and we can go through it in detail if you'd like, but in, in truth, all of the exceptions were cleared. The corrective actions that were put in place are, are actively working. And so we had no more concerns related to the Aztec original contract that we did. Okay. Are there any questions on that, on the agile tech report? Just to be clear, there's been a lot. It just because it's this par just to summarize real quick, there was four findings. The administration addressed them. Sierra came back and checked that addressing and everything has been closed. So everything is clear. Good to go. So
113that one's done. Okay. I'm sorry. Ms. Foreman, Ms. Chill. Alright, go ahead. Second report, I got report is a sales tax report. And this, this audit actually went pretty smoothly. There were a couple of things that we followed back up on, but those were all resolved. They did not impact any of the, well, we didn't have any exceptions in the report. This report is, is clean. So we don't have anything to go back and follow up on. And the items that the audit committee had questions on were addressed, Mr. Dye address part of it and Mitch Teitelbaum address part of it. So we are, so that one is cleaned too. You've had the whole report in front of you to read if you'd like for us to go into any detail on that when we
114can. Okay. I have a question. Yes. I believe that one of the reasons that the, the report had to go back to the audit committee was had to do with a charter school using sales tax funds for a building that has not been approved. What's the status on that one? So on that one, and I'll have mark step in on this a little bit too, to help me answer this question. But this one we worked with Mr. Teitelbaum on, and our understanding is that the request for the funds, since it was for improvement for the children, it was acceptable. It was okay that they had the funds for that. And the issue of the site being approved is a separate issue. Yeah. So the charter school is free to use their funds. They actually amended
115their application from improvement, remodel to new construction and submitted that to the finance department there. The district is still doing their due diligence on allowing students to attend that site, but they were free to use their funds for building a location. And students are not yet there and have not yet been approved. That that was okay. All right. No other questions. Okay. So the last report is the budget report and what we did with this. So this was a new audit that we did a new audit area and it was, this is going to be done in phases. So this is just the first phase. It was about the development of the budget, how the district goes about developing the budget and, you know, are they in compliance with state statutes? Are they doing the
116things that they have to do? Are they in accordance with their board policies or district policies? And so those are the kinds of things that we looked at. There will be a second phase as Ms. Batter mentioned next fall. We're going to go back because this was about the development of the budget for the fiscal year. We're in 2022, we will be going back and looking at the 20, 22 budget after this year end and how it compares to actual. And we'll be following through on some additional considerations there. But at this point, I'm going to let mark just talk about this report for about two or three minutes, and then I'll come back and talk to you about what we're doing the rest of this fiscal year, which I think we'll address a couple
117of the things that have been coming up. Okay. All right. The budget area was a medium score on our risk assessment that we did previously. So that's why it was on the audit plan for this school year. Part of what we looked at was the preparation of the budget and a big piece of that is working with the schools on seeing what staffing levels and teachers they need, and as well as departments with what kind of projects or funds that they need. So we looked at the preparation, the budget. We also looked at the school board approval. You have a lot of different sessions with the finance department workshops. We looked at those meetings minutes and we looked at the tentative budget approval. That was, I believe in July. And then the final budget approval
118that was in September. And part of the budget piece is the truth and millage. So we looked at the compliance piece of that. The district puts together all the information certifies. It sends it to the Florida department of revenue who then reviews it and then approves everything. So that includes the advertisement, the figures being used in there, everything that they have to fall in line with with truth and millage. And then as far as state agency approvals, I talked about the department of revenue approving and also the department of education gets sent a budget information, and then they also review, and then there's no issues from the department of education on the budget. Part of the other thing we looked at was budget amendments, which you get a report every month of those. So we
119actually looked at some detailed testing of amendments seeing if, why budget transfers were done approval for those reasons and make sure that it was appropriate when they did those budget Tran amendments. And throughout the school year, we looked at this current school year. And then the last thing we looked at was a budget review process by the budget department, looking at different reports out of the people soft system, looking for any kind of discrepancies or things that need to be addressed. And then their communication reaching out to departments or schools, trying to see if there are any issues or funds that needed to be moved for budget purposes. So overall we had, it was satisfactory. We had no exceptions. We did have a best practice that was kind of discussed earlier, but it's more on
120having a backup for the allocation administrator. That is a person, the district within the budget department that works with the schools on calculating the FTE at each school. That person doesn't have a formal backup. And our recommendation was for formal backup because they do control that process. All the spreadsheets, you know, that process was very good and thorough, but it just needs a backup in case that person's not available to work with the schools and have more structure and procedures around around that. So that was our report. Golden. Can I speak to that? Yes, I am the backup. This process I've been overseeing for seven years. We brought it in after the change with the financial issue back in 2012, it is a formula and the schools really don't set their allocations. There's three of
121us that are involved to, to make that happen, Mr. Sauer, with our projections and myself. And then once we received the anticipated and we determined the projections of enrollment, we populate that into our allocation formula. And like I said, we've been using this for eight years. I've been overseeing it for the past seven. And I think Ms. Metter said there was, we were, we were pretty close on the margin. I believe you've been to a finance. Yes. Yes. We're it's and you're right. It is the bulk of the funding comes from the allocations. Leslie, I believe I've trained three people in that position now over time. And we did speak to Mr. Bergeron and he, and another person in his department now based on the recommendations will also be trained so that we are going
122to expand that. But we do have a backup, but, but it's me, This was not an exception. This was just a best practice, But we will make sure that there are more people that it's very critical to the financial. Absolutely. So, but I just wanted to interject that. Yeah. Thank you for the presentation. Two questions satisfactory. Is that the top? I mean, or is there like ultra satisfaction? You know what I mean? I'm just, just from a, can we be better stance? You know what I mean? That's all I'm asking. Yeah. I mean, we kind of, I think we do satisfactory needs improvement and unsaturated. So from your scale, that's the highest, okay. Okay. Preparation. So when looking at the, some of the functions that you guys looked at during this report, the preparation of
123the budget, when, when, when you said that the preparation of the budget are you, are you, you're looking at, you're not necessarily looking at what we say in our budget is appropriate for the district. You're actually, you're, you're just talking about the numbers. Yeah. I'm looking at the processes of working with the different departments, getting their feedback, Working the FTE, you know, that, that piece presenting to you, different workshops, holding meetings, you know, the preparation, that's just not throwing figures on there. There's, there's pro there's steps behind it. And if you look in the budget book, they have their whole process outlined by month on what they do, we're provided with the extensive presentation that they provided on, on when they do things, the timing of it, who they meet with how they put it
124together. So we just want to make sure that there, you know, the process was well and there was something they could follow annually when they put it together. Okay, Good. That's it? Yes. I, I have, there are two words that appear frequently in this report that I would one I have a concern about and the other, I would like clarification on first one is spreadsheets. That's. My concern is because you had said that you were gonna look at ERP within how it's functioning within each audit. Is there an ERP system, whether it's the one that we have now, or an add on that can spreadsheets, as, you know, spreadsheets, people make mistakes on spreadsheets. Yeah. And this was actually discussed in the audit committee meeting. So just, you know, they, they had, they had questions
125about it as well. So we do look at the ERP system in each of the audits. And as you might recall, back when we did the payroll audit, they were using spreadsheets and we brought that up and I think that's all been cleared up now, but this is the budgeting process. The current ERP system does not have modules that contain this. The budget does go into the ERP system once it's developed. And once they have the final budget, it goes into the ERP system and then any amendments or changes to the budget, go through ERP after that. So this is really just coming up with what's the number is total salaries. I'm making up numbers 10 million, should it be 5 million? How do we come up with that number? That's what they're using the
126spreadsheets for. So it's not monitoring the budget once the budget is developed, we can, and we told the audit committee, we, we can look into what softwares, if there are any, nobody was aware of any in the audit committee group. And I don't believe yeah. Add to, And I believe this is just for that allocation. It's a formula for the allocation. And there is no to my knowledge, there, there's no software that has this formula driven by all the categorical funding that you populate an equitable student allocation once it's done. And that's, what's presented to the board, it's put in PeopleSoft. And that was the add on module that agitate did with HR. So it is in there, but the derivative of it to come up with each school's allocation sheet is done on a
127spreadsheet formula Because each school has its own Sheet based on student enrollment, number of ESE students, Esau students, vocational programs, and basic allocation. So it's a formula that generate all those weighted and unweighted student allocations. Okay. I would like to hear Mr. Bergeron came up and I would like to hear what he says, because he has worked with different systems. Yeah. It was just going to add that spreadsheets are really just a tool to get us to the point where we know what numbers going into the ERP system. And then once it's in there, that system takes it. The example I gave at the audit committee meeting was the school's discretionary supply allocations. We take the, these schools, enrollment projected enrollment is adjusted throughout the year, but initially we take the projected enrollment by school
128and multiply that times a factor that is the allocation amount that gives us the total budget for the school. And then that's input into the ERP system. And from that point forward, all the amendments requisitions that are entered to check against that budget. So the spreadsheet goes away after, you know, the initial use as a tool, it would be just, you know, 20 years ago it would be, you know, on a piece of paper potentially. Yeah. I mean, and so it's really just an electronic tool. That's very efficient. We do use the use spreadsheets to do analysis on an ongoing basis, but you know, everything is housed in the ERP. That's the official data set at the district. So I just want to emphasize that we're just using those as tools. Thank you. The other,
129the other word I would really like clarification on is zero-based budgeting. I have heard, heard, it said that people accused that we are not using zero-based budgeting and I can understand their, their point because every school is starting out with X number of students and X number of teachers. And so could you please elaborate on that? In what way are we doing zero-based budgeting and is it true? Zero-based budgeting Based, buzzing it, budgeting has done it. The departments, not the schools. So These are done separate differently than the departments, so that departments are done. So if they're looking for equipment they need or different things like that, they have to come and say, well, we're looking for these three pieces of equipment. Doesn't matter. Last year we got 50, 60, 70,000. What do you need
130this year? So that's the zero based. That's done schools. It's just for the departments, But it's not done for personnel. I mean, they already have personnel in there. If they need additional personnel and department, they talk about it. But you know, they don't, I don't believe for personnel. They're wiping the slate, clean in a department and starting all over again. But that's where some of the budget amendments come up. So cause changes do happen. And so they'll make an amendment and it's very granular, the GL system that they use. So they may have to move a budget item from one, I'll call it a GL account to simplify it. I think they call it heart strings. You know, they might have to move it, move a little bit out of this chart, string into this
131chart, strength to keep it at zero because they only have, they only have X dollars. That's all they have to spend. Right. So in Crio opinion, the departments are using true. Zero-based budgeting. Yeah. Based on what we discussed and looked at. So we'll look at this again when we do the second phase, but yes. For the development of the budget, I think that we, we say yes, the answer is yes. Okay. Thank you, Kennedy. I just want quick one. Laurie, what are the, what are the next phases? Okay. That's what I want to talk about next. So we have two more audits that we want to finish this fiscal year. W before we leave the budget. Yeah. I had It. I just need to know the process that you are auditing. When have you found
132that that process begins? I knew it ends when you input the numbers into the ERP. When does it begin The process for developing the budget? Yes. I'm gonna let you respond to that. They're starting, they're working on it now. February. Yeah. January. But as soon as the state allows us to determine our enrollment projection for the next year. So as soon as they open that up, it begins the string of events. Well, this process audit that you're talking about is over time. And that's what you're evaluating. I want to ask you the following question. The budget that is inputted into the ERP is that the budget that we operate from, So the budget that's input into yes. The simple answer. You don't want any additional cetera And I'll just stop There. Yeah. So the budget
133that's input, that is the budget. Everything before, that is what you announced standing before us telling us that you have audited to determine the procedures and the processes that go into getting that budget into the ERP system. And you're saying that that process is satisfactory. Yes. And we also look at amendments for this school year as well. No, no, no, no, no. That comes after the budget goes into the ERP. Don't confuse me now. I'm not very bright. So I don't understand this. What I'm saying is I know what happens after the budget is inputted into ERP and how we do amendments to those budgets. I do that up here with every agenda. What I'm asking you is until you put it into the ERP, the processes that take place to get it there, you
134have found them to be satisfactory. Yes. Yes. All Right, Mr. Chair, I'm sorry. Yes. One more question. Okay. Each of the department heads Create their budget. Is that correct? They work with the budget department. Okay. With them School board is a department. Does the chair of the school board work with budgeting? Hold on just a minute. I think it's something we need to talk about. No, that's fine. Except that we, you have positive something that you say is true that the school board is a department for budgeting purposes. And I want to know whether or not legally that is something that is tenable, because if that's not true, then in the discussion that we're having is founded on faulty premise, because I was under the impression that the school board is a statutory body created
135beyond geographical boundaries. They call them, I think, multi district. We are multi-district entity that stands as a consequence of the constitution. And so maybe what I really ought to ask is what do you mean when you say that the school board is a department, The school board, when you look at the budget is a separate line item. It's about $500,000. Okay. None of us, you know, our salaries do not come anywhere near 500,000. And so I did ask questions about it and there are, you know, I mean, we have certain expenses and we have agency clerk and we have, but we also have, they have charged to the school board line, the additional charges for Florida unemployment tax that that came about because of COVID and they, they didn't have a place to put it.
136So they put it there. So someone comes up with that $500,000 number and we don't do it. You know what, that's a very good question. And since this is my first term as chair of the board, and I've not yet voted on a budget, I'm going to ask the last chair how that was handled in the budget and process Our school board. Yes. I never, I don't think this is news to anyone. I never talked anybody with the budget department. So two, I think this is foremost criticism or I shouldn't say criticism, but her observation. Yeah. I, I, I don't, the school board budget line is done with zero-based budgeting. We also don't however, have a lot of moving parts like student enrollment and employees. There's five of us. We know what our salaries are.
137We have a legal budget, we have an auditing budget. There's really not too much to that's going to fluctuate or, or change too greatly. So I, So the real problem, the real issue here is what constitutes the line item budget for the school board. And I appreciate your bringing that up because I can promise you that that is something this year that I will be looking at so that I can give a better answer next year, when you asked me what it does. I, I, I'm not quite so sure what all is in there, but I do want to make sure that, you know, we have candy and stuff like that, that, that goes in. Yeah. Just want to make sure, but, and thank you Mr. Kennedy, for at least giving me a direction because
138apparently the parts of the budget for the school board line item pretty much well fixed, I will find out why we are not dealing with workman's compensation as a part of that. I'm sure that there are answers and the superintendent has her hand up. So I'm sure she knows the answer, but before the budget is inputted into the ERP system, I assure you, I will know why the amount of money that we have allocated for the school board itself is what it is. And I will be happy to report that to the, to, to my colleagues. Is that fair enough? All right. Madam superintendent, you've recognized, And it is similar to what you had already discussed. It is your fixed cost of salaries, you know, as well as who works and reports directly to you
139as well as there is some travel monies in there for you to be able to go to conferences and things of that. But it is not a department where there's a lot of, you know, moving parts and discretionary, but we certainly can pull out all the line items, make sure that you're all set what's in there so that if you do have concerns as a board questions, or you would like to discuss any possible changes to it, we can bring that up, you know, at the next meeting. That's a great idea because I've been here for years and I've never been asked that question before. I've never heard of general Question. Yeah. I've never heard of chip being asked that question, but I'm glad it's coming up now. We're Holding you responsible. Okay. Thank you
140so very, but it is that it is that good. Okay. Thank you so very much, pour a great report. And particularly under the answer about the process, how long it takes and what constitutes a budget. A budget is what we say it is when it goes into the ERP process and that's what we work from. And that's what we amend. Okay. All right. Thank you so very much. All right. I think I last report, Mr. Kennedy. I'm going to put this in your hands right now. And I also have here three public comments that are attached. I've got them too. All right. All right. Yeah. Yeah. We were on recess for five minutes. Back in session. And I learned something during the, the five minute break that while we are not a department, we're a
141line item in the budget as, as, as members of the, the board and the person that assists us administratively in submitting the line item is the agency clerk, the school board agency clerk, whom I would like to introduce now, cause no, I want you to just stand up. The agency clerk for the school board is Ms. Amanda means, And I even found out something more. The superintendent has someone that works and does her budget for other people that reports directly to her. And this is Mrs. Collins. Why don't you stand upstairs? Okay. So that, that is how those two line items get inputted every year. And I appreciate Mrs. Foreman for asking that because I never knew that cause I will have a discussion offline with Ms. Means about our board retreat that we like
142to have in Honolulu next up next year. I can't say why we can't do that, but, but I, I appreciate that, that, that, that was a good, that's a good question. And I appreciate knowing that we have two very, very able administrate halls and not secretaries. She is the agency clerk much like the clerk of the court for the 12th judicial circuit. So I appreciate them being, looking out for us and making sure that we all stayed, stay on task with that. Mr. Kennedy, I must be headed out. And I'm going to ask you if you will continue presiding all the rest of our workshop. I think we still have one item. The citizens, financial oversight committee, bold Red and gold and safe trip to you. Thank you very much. Okay. All right. Our final
143item board members is, are consuming, continuing discussion of the citizens financial oversight committee. I will defer to you both. If you'd like to start with this, if you have some thoughts or anything to share, I have a few things very briefly, but I'll defer to you guys first. I do have a few things, you know, we all received comments, copy of the comments from the members of the committee who chose to respond to the questions. And I, I, you know, I'm sorry that we did not get to review them ahead of time. Karen was concerned about sunshine violation. So, so we can tell we're receiving them now, but I had gotten them along the way and they were divided. There were people that feel that the committee needs more Leeway. And then there were others
144who feel like it's not functioning at all. And so I have a couple of points to, to bring out out of the comments that were made is that one, this committee was never, well, I shouldn't say never, but it is not an advisory committee. It is an oversight committee. And so their input hat before monies are spent, I think is problematic. And I, and I don't see that as being part of the charter. And we can talk about whether we think that that's appropriate or not. The other is I forgot my other point. Okay. Oh, the functioning of the committee, you know, for those that are saying that the committee is dysfunctional as a Member or not, I'm not a member, I'm a liaison I can. And Mr. Mr. Kennedy, you sit in on most
145of the meetings and I think we can, we can say that it's having difficulty. The, The committee's ultimate responsibility is to present a report. And this is in the charter that when the 60 days after the AFR, which is the annual financial report is certified, this is the terms that are in the, in the charter. They are supposed to re submit a report. So I contacted Mr. Bergeron and said, okay, what is it talking about when it says the annual financial report? Are we talking about the AFR, which is prepared that that's our basic, by the end of June, we have a financial statement and there may be things going on before the auditor gets hold of it. Some changes to it. So it's not necessarily a final, but we approve it. And we, then
146we approve the act for a C F R, which is the annual Okay. Comprehensive. Thank you. Thank you. You're, you're both throwing out the word for me. Thanks. The comprehensive annual report and that one we approved on February 8th, Which means the due date for this report, according to the charter is April 9th. Their next meeting is April 6th And They're in trouble, you know? So they're going to need another, another meeting to meet that, unless we're willing to, to let that slide, but They're still scrambling with the information requested what, what they want because they have different ideas. And I think I, I, Now I'm struggling. I really admire the work that Dr. Gruesome put together for the audit committee, the procedures, I was thinking that maybe we need something like that. I did
147come up with a few things that could, could be incorporated either into their, their charter or Listed in procedures, but there are certain procedures that they do need to have in terms of requesting information when to perform their, their duties and, and so on. But the, the items that I put together for, for the charter as first, I'd like to have that AFR versus a CFR clarified in the, in the charter so that we know exactly what we're talking about. And then One of the suggestions I have is adding that the clarify oversight versus advisory to say the committee is charged with oversight and is not considered an advisory committee. The committee operates as a whole and no individual may represent the committee without the approval of a majority of committee members. And because I
148think that that has been an issue where people are expressing opinions, but there that's fine. You can have your opinion, but you're not speaking for the committee. And I'd like to have it added in there. Does the committees charged to verify comment and report compliance with the school boards pledge of the use of funds from the, from the Advil, Lori admitted millage. Another thing in terms of functioning. And this is procedural, is that when we need to clarify whether they can still attend by teams or attend in person because of the number of people on the committee and the number of people observing it has been moved to Wakeland and that's a, that's a burden on the staff, but then when people are coming in by teams, that's an additional difficulty, you know, in terms
149of the, the logistics of that, sometimes the, the volume has been, the audio has been a real issue. Also there have been meetings where the chair was not in attendance and tried to conduct it via teams. And that was that, that did not go well. So I would suggest that my suggestion for it, and I will take heat from the, from some members of the committee, but members of the committee are expected to attend in person. If the chairs unable to attend, the meeting will be conducted by the vice chair in the event, neither the chair, nor the vice chair is present. The attending members may elect a committee member to preside. And that way we know that we always have someone physically in the room presiding over the meeting. And those, those are the
150suggestions I came to this meeting with today, but I also would absolutely encourage either the committee to, after they're done with the report, to the, to the board, to put their procedures in writing also to coordinate with Mr. Barger on, in terms of the information that they request and how that goes. So that's what I have. Right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So yeah, along the same lines is what Ms. Foreman are my ideas and my thoughts. I think that there's, there's definitely a lack of, of a, of a procedural process with this committee. I think some people in the committee wants something, some people committee believe, other things you can tell by some of the responses that we got with questions. And I don't believe, I don't know if we got answers from everyone on
151the committee. So there there's obviously some that aren't, and there's also some answers with committee members that are too, too early to have an opinion, either way. Obviously there is a procedure issue because it is April, like you said, April 6th is our next meeting. And the ninth is when it's due. And they, from what I've been told and what we've been told on have done nothing yet. So there's obviously some kind of procedure issue where there, and that probably needs to come from us and say, Hey, here's your procedure. Here's what you need to do, maybe with some input from, but, but there needs to be a procedure and a process followed with dates. So I completely agree with Ms. Foreman. And, you know, I think that, I think that th th the, the
152members of the committee, there are certain opinions of, and what the definition is of oversight. And I think we need to tell them what we want that oversight to look like. I think advisory that term is, is perfect. Advisory is you're advising and you're in, in there with them and doing, doing the actual work. I don't believe that that's what this committee is here for. I think this committee is a check from, to reassure the citizens who have voted for this, or even not voted for this, to make sure that we are doing what we said, we're going to do that. We're going to put the money to the use of what we said we're going to do. I know in the charter, in, and in some of the, the referendum language, it does talk
153about giving them, giving an opinion on if it's working or not. I, I don't, I don't, I mean, maybe it's not in their words like that. Maybe that's, I know some committee members have suggested that they should be looking at that if, if they are looking at, is it working or not? To me it's is it working on the actual, the, the, what we caused the referendum that money to do? So, are we retaining teachers better than we did the year before, or without the referendum in general, right. Ours, our stem program or steam program. If we want to start calling that now, you know, moving with the arts, are those, are those programs being better? You can tell by, I think it was a couple of meetings ago, all the awards that the TSA
154programs and all of the things we're doing, that is a direct reflection on, on what we're using the mill dollars for the referendum dollar store. Not to say that maybe we would be, I don't believe we'd be in the same position if we didn't have those dollars to help support the programs. So I think the proof's in the pudding, someone said that earlier today, about the proof's in the pudding of, is it working? We can get numbers very easily. Are we holding teachers? Are we retaining teachers? Are they leaving the other counties? And if that number is better than, okay, that's a check. I don't see this committee though, as being boots on the ground. So to speak of this money should go here, here, here. That's, that's not their role, but they do need
155a process to follow because obviously they don't and it's all over the place. I've never, I haven't been personally at the meetings. I did hear the last one and it's just, it's just all over the place. I do agree with present. I think it'd be very tough to, and I didn't see that meeting where the chair was on teams. I think it'd be very tough to, to run a, a meeting and not be present. It doesn't mean they can't be on as a chair. Of course, they should still be able to be on it. But I think you gotta be present to run 12 people. I think you, you, you, you gotta be present and if you can't pass it to the chair. So I do agree with that as well. That's pretty much all
156my thoughts. Okay. Thank you to the, by the way, real quick, thank you to the committee members who did give us their feedback, because I think that's important. I think it's important to hear what they believe and I'll even say, thank you to Mr. Nelson. I know he's come up several times and talked about that committee. And so thank you for that feedback, because it's important to know what they're thinking, because we obviously have created this with them in mind. So thank you to those, those folks. All right, thanks. You guys have said it very well. So I'll, I'll be even shorter than I thought. Mrs. Foreman. I do agree. I think we, we moved the group over to Wakeland due to COVID protocols and we could much more spread out there. I think now
157that we're, we have defeated the curve again, perhaps we can move back to 2 0 3 cause I do I do I sell find it to be a better meeting space. So I support you on that. I also, as you're both hitting on, I think a not just written procedures, I agree that with Mrs. Foreman, that is important, but perhaps we should set aside some time. And I know Mr. Dias has presented to them on, on legal issues on being a committee. But I think we should do a training on like Mr. Choda saying, this is your role because obviously the one very long response that we got who is, and he appears to be very upset with the committee, but part of his comments show that he doesn't understand the role of the committee
158like Chad, Chad hit on. So if we could give them that training written procedures, I think it would go a long way toward improved work. The other, I, I think I talked about this, a couple of meetings, I should say. I know I talked about, I just can't remember which meeting it was, but you know, my initial idea, as you all remember was why don't we just disband this committee and give this work to follow the Sarasota model and just give this work to our auditors and let them provide a compliance report on, on the expenditure of the funds. I, that idea did not go anywhere with the board and that's fine, but I, but I, I think maybe the better way to do it. And I appreciate the board, you know, hitting the brakes
159on me because I think it even better way to do it would be to still do that, to haven't have our auditors, compile a report, complete a report, do the research, complete the report, and then present that to the committee so that they have something to work with and then they can get into, well, what metrics do we want to include in our annual report to, to give to the board? Exactly. Exactly. So that would be my latest suggestion, but yeah, w but, but I think we've hit it, you know, written procedures, board training. So everybody understands their role. I think you guys are, I think you guys are spot on, Well, just to kind of reiterate what you just brought up and, and we, we kind of talked about this earlier in the meeting
160with when river golden brought up, do we have to have CPAs on, you know, on the audit committee? You don't, you don't know what you don't know, you don't know how to work and look at up at how the functioning of a budget and an auditing of a budget overseeing what that budget is doing unless you've ever done it before. So we don't have any requirements. I don't think in the sifaka as of now, as far as who goes, sits on it, I think we can pick anyone. Right. And that I think is part of the struggle. You know what I mean? You have people from all different backgrounds who maybe have never really looked into getting reports from, you know, a financial report and let alone educational financial report. And then now figuring out
161what do we do with this? What metrics do we use? How do we look at successful or not, you know, in terms of, so I think, you know, having an audit committee or having a report, you know, from the committee to give to them, just have, here's a basis of it may help move their process along and, and be able to help them organize what it is. I think it's just kind of hard to ask folks who've never done it before to do it. I think it's rather, it's rather difficult And that's, and they've been kind of basing their work on the previous three annual reports. So they did have, you know, kind of some templates or ideas. Yeah. If people leave and come off and new people come on, it's likely to change Well.
162And the original, the first year, there were two CPAs on that committee. So they had Straws And Mr. Snell, and they had strong influence on how the report was laid out in the data and how it was analyzed. I think there's a lot of merit in look having CRI do you know, it's good, we're going to spend money to do it, but to have them do a, an internal audit on the funds and a report to them. Okay. Not to the audit committee report to the citizen, financial oversight committee, one of the differences or the basic differences between having that and H and H the way it is now is they are given data. Okay. And Mr. Wagner has had a department people that are listing every single expenditure for, for stem, and they look
163at it and go, yep. That's per the referendum. No, this isn't, you know, and go through one of the, they are not doing okay that an auditor would do an auditor will, will do a sample. Okay. That day we'll pull a sample of it. And, and then they will look at the invoices. Okay. They will not only a pine on whether it meets the terms of the referendum, but they'll look at the invoices. So they will actually go take a deeper, deeper dive into some of the transactions. Okay. So, so is that acceptable to us? You know, I think you would have probably, they, they would have a stronger, independent voice from an audit because they're not auditing the citizen financial oversight committee is reviewing, they are not auditing. So, so I think it's an
164interesting idea. I think one that we probably should think about and consider for Raul here, when we're all here. Yeah. Well, and we would need to vote on it. Sure. Oh yeah. No, but I, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. I'm sorry. No, I just wanted to say, I think that as far as all five of us being here and voting, I think that's, if Mrs. Foreman you want, I mean, you've already kind of taken the lead on this. So I shouldn't say take the lead cause you already are, but approving some written procedures for them approving some minor fixes to the charter and we could kind of take care of all that and at the same meeting. So they're ready to hit the ground for July 1 22 when the next, when the
165next resolution goes into effect the, or from, from last November, We get past tax season. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Well, I'll do that. I, in the meantime though, I would suggest that we have the superintendent work with, or Amanda work with chair Ballard and get a meeting set up, you know, before the April six meetings so that they can work on their work If you would like. And I had met with Dr. Crusoe before on, and that's how we came up with, I think we need for everybody's sake kind of written things that we had discovered that when we had transitioned to the ERP, we didn't have a lot of procedures written out. And for people, especially if they change, it's important to have written guidelines, have written procedures. You have, they're all there
166and familiar and getting along and understand it's moving forward. But we're, we're sitting in a situation where they do seem like they all collectively don't understand the process or what they should do. So if you would like, we can certainly set that up. And cause I don't know if he, the current chair understands he's got a deadline, we can certainly share the procedures that were already established types of things. It'll have to be tweaked to fit the citizens group, but it's very similar and then find out what he needs to do. Does he need another meeting? We can have it over here. I can, we can get an idea from what, what are his needs so that he can execute the work that you're expecting him to do so we can help him deliver what
167he's charged to deliver. So when we come back from the break, I'll be more than happy to meet with him asking Mr. Barsha. Ron can be there too. We, we will be here to help them, but we need to get them back on track with what type of report financial report was done in the past. They can't be out in the weeds right now. We got to get them here to move ahead. So w we certainly can do that. Good. Good. I'm support that as well. Okay. Well, we will put this aside for now and return back to it after tax season and Mrs. Foreman, thanks for your liaison work with, with the committee. All right. That's gonna wrap up our three items. That's going to bring us to public comment. I will skip the
168spiel. I have three speakers listed, Mr. Jolena. If you were still in the building now is your time to address the board. Don't know if he stayed. I'll just keep going, Mr. Nelson. You're up next? I'm norm Nelson. No, Nope, no questions today. Just comment like I priority. First is board board workshops is looking at attendance at the last step of workups. Tough to see all five here, us to me, this is a big learning session for you people and should be a high priority. And I know you've set aside possible Fridays going to meet a workshop. I would think you would appear and look at my calendar. I put down, don't schedule me with the doctor or whatever on Tuesday to start Fridays and keep that open. So I hope you could say, Hey,
169from the rest of the year, we will use Tuesdays and Fridays, not on a month to month basis, but if we need to work top, you have it on and you have an attendance. Second one is, thanks for the curriculum. Is that it says whether you have Reverend golden, we ask, do you have, how do you know this stuff is being taught? Well, you have drew. And I don't know if you remember this document. This was observations in meeting agendas. So how is my school board doing? It's a list of 20 items I did for six months and their less 20 items were the, on your agendas requirements of you. They were the, on the agendas. And did you talk about them? That was my method of saying, Hey, are you doing what you're supposed
170to do? And a further evidence of the checklist when I was having dinner last week at the Japanese place, sat next to a anesthesiologist. And he talked about, he loved to talk and we'd love it. I ended up using a lot of the question, how he did it and how did it work? Well, his assistants got a checklist and when the finally surgery, he gets a phone call up and what does he do? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, checklists. That's what's gotta be done. They just look at it. When you say it, what are you observing? What are you observing? And the last thing is, let's go back to the C F O C. I looked at, this is your responsibility. You told the public you'll have a special committee
171and how it operates, how it functions and how it's made that your job. So even though that not effective functioning, that's my observation. I've been to many, many meetings, same thing, including your last one, where you had a document that was part of the report. And it was a chart on there. And nobody could agree with where the chart came from. That was in the final report. It's your fault. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. And finally Richard Tatum, Mr. Tatum had signed up for public comment, but I believe he left early, so, okay. That's going to complete conclude public comment, Mr. Nelson, thanks for being here and making that comment and continuing to do so. And Mr. Nelson, I also, just from my perspective, I appreciate you hitting us up via email as well before the
172meeting. So hopefully you're, you've been getting timely responses to your questions. I hope we can talk about that offline after this, after we adjourned board members, anything else? Nope. Have your break. All right. Yeah. I hope everybody has a good break and deserves a teachers deserve right. A good week off before the, the long nine weeks, the Memorial day weekend. So I think everybody for having us ready for today and hope everybody out there listening. Oh, I don't have a gavel in front of so looking for the gavel. I don't have, I'll just use my phone. Everybody have a wonderful break and we'll see in a couple of weeks, we're adjourned.