001Thank you, Miss Barton, for beginning the recording. The time is now 5:35 p.m. and I would like to call to order the February 9th, 2026 board audit committee meeting. Welcome everyone. My name is Dr. Tiffany Ander and I'm the chair of this committee and the district 1 school board member. As a reminder, the primary purpose of the Prince George's County Board of Education Audit Committee is to provide oversight of the financial reporting process, the audit process, the PGCPS system of internal controls and compliance with laws and regulations. Welcome to our committee members this evening. And I'd also like to welcome members of the administration and any other guests joining us this evening. We'll now have introductions starting in this order. Board members, PGCPS administration, board office staff. Thank you. Dr. Moss, >> present. Introduce yourself.
002>> I'm Felton. I'm Felton Moss. Uh, District 7 board of education member. >> Good. Good evening everyone. I'm Brandon Jackson. I'm board member district 6. Dr. Andel. I'll be off camera until I get to my destination if that's okay. >> No problem. >> And Dr. Coleman. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Sherasa Coleman. I have the privilege of serving as the chief operating officer for Prince George's County Public Schools. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Ka Baldwin. I am the transportation and central garage um director. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening. Next we will have the roll call of the board audit committee members. Miss Barton, can you please call the role? >> Good evening everyone. Dr. Ander >> present. >> Miss Boozer. >> Mr. Jackson >> here.
003>> Dr. Moss >> present. >> We have quorum. >> Fantastic. Thank you. A quorum is present. We will now move forward with the adoption of the agenda. The question is to adopt the February 9th, 2026 board audit committee meeting agenda. Without objection. There being no objection to the February 9, 2026 board audit committee meeting, the agenda has been adopted. We will now move on to the approval of meeting minutes. The question is to approve the January 12th, 2026 board audit committee meeting minutes without objection. There being no objection, the January 12th, 2026 Board Audit Committee meeting minutes have been approved. This evening we have no registered public comment speakers live um pre-recorded or written. And so we will move on to item 6.0 presentations. This evening we are joined again by Mr. Kea Baldwin, director
004of transportation, who will be providing a update on the transportation audit. So I will go ahead and turn it over to you Mr. Baldwin. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dr. Wonderful. Um, I'm just going to share my screen here. Okay. Today I'm providing a brief overview of our partnership with formative um the scope of work they deliver for us yearly and the progress already achieved through our quarterly one and quarterly 2 reporting period and how their work directly supports our bus planner validation and operational performance. Uh keep in mind that this will uh we've been actually sharing quarterly reports since the inception uh bringing formative on board with the comprehensive audit. Um and so we want to continue with the updates to show uh the progress that we are making and and our actions
005and our goals to where we want to be. So with that being said, um I'm going to share uh our next slide. uh where Dr. Coleman can go from there. >> Thank you, Director Baldwin. >> Thank you. There we go. >> All right. There we go. So, this work didn't begin with uh software or dashboards. Uh it began with leadership and quite frankly the public asking for clarity. So, our former superintendent commissioned an independent comprehensive audit of transportation to objectively assess our operations, uh, what was working, where we had inefficiencies, and where we could improve services for families. Formative, the independent third-party consulting firm, conducted that review and provided 12 actionable recommendations. We made the decision to continue the partnership with formative and move from analysis to execution. So the audit confirmed something we already
006felt operationally. Uh our team worked hard daily, but we didn't always have the systems to see performance clearly or to be able to act quickly. Reporting was manual. Data was fragmented. Decisions were often reactive. We needed structure, consistency, and visibility. Rather than bringing in a one-time consultant, we intentionally retained Formative as an embedded performance partner. Their role is not to run transportation. It's to strengthen our internal capacity with better tools, better data, and better decision-making processes. And what I'd also add is they have brought the uh the strength of best practices having worked with transportation systems from across the country. So that perspective has helped us to look at what works, what does not work, and only apply those best practices to our district. Director Baldwin, >> the partnership focuses on five key areas. visibility
007through our dashboards, structured strategy se uh sessions, technical advice, quarterly reporting and action planning. This creates a continuous improvement cycle instead of one-time fixes. U we meet regularly, weekly bi-weekly with formative to discuss all five areas. As a result of meetings, they provide a quarterly report. In the first quarter for the 2526 school year, we focused on stabilization. We increased our capacity, improved utilization, strengthened staffing, and balanced our tiers. These are foundational method me uh metrics that make everything else possible for us. This is still part of the primary reporting that we've shared uh since day one about the number of students transported, our seat utilization, um the increase in our active vehicles, increase in available drivers, and again this is through the first uh quarter of the school year. In the second quarter, we
008started seeing performance gains. More students served, higher efficiency, strong on-time performance. These improvements show the system becoming more predictable and reliable. But while we're making this progress, we're not declaring victory. We still face some real barriers. Driver availability continues to constrain coverage. Some routes remain too long, limiting pairing opportunities. The tier imbalance reduces efficiency. Our GPS data capture is improving, but not yet perfect. And like many districts, we're still balancing aging fleet pressures with increasing service expectations. These are exactly the challenges we're now targeting next. Bus Planner designs smarter routes. Formative validates whether those routes actually perform by connecting the routing data directly into our dashboards. We can automatically measure the on-time performance utilization and staffing impacts. This gives us the real-time feedback loop instead of waiting months to discover our issues. Today, transportation looks
009different. We're no longer guessing. We're measuring. We're not reacting. We're planning. We can show progress with real data. And what's next is about acceleration. We're rolling out the bus planner fully, optimizing our stops, shortening long routes, improving GPS fidelity, and strengthening our driver pipeline. Each quarter will set measurable goals, track and track progress. Our focus remains simple. Better service, fewer inefficiencies, and stronger real reliability for our parents and our students. And with that, uh, I will open it up for any questions that you may have. >> Thank you, Mr. Baldwin. I'll we can now open it up for any questions. Um, board members, do you have any questions? >> I I I'm sorry. Dr. Moss. >> Yeah, thank you all so much for the presentation and pulling this together and thank you for your work
010um with the transportation audit. You all didn't talk much about this, but um can you talk a little bit around how the pilot is going with the hub sites? Um I know that you all were piloting a couple of sites where we were trying to get parents to um you know use those hubs. We were also thinking about you know potentially down the road pairing those hubs with after school programs and whatnot to reduce some of our routes. Do you all have an update? I know that wasn't included in your audit but um the audit results made me think about that. Okay. So, we did not move forward with the hub stops because uh we put a survey out and the survey results did not yield um the inclination for our parents to involve with
011hub stops. Um so, we did not uh do anything with hub stops for this current school year. We still would like to at some point in time, but I think we have to build better capacity with our parents and and how we're trying to use it more. >> Yeah. And what led us to do to try to do the the hub stops? Um I think you're right. Um I started getting feedback from one of my schools early on like what is this? Um so I do think we have some education work to do around it, >> but could you just kind of share what would have happened um if we had adopted the hub stops? What kind of projections did we see in terms of reducing routes um and efficiencies would we have gotten? >>
012Absolutely. Well, the target focus was some of our specialty schools with some of the larger boundaries. Um for example, Adora Kennedy and Overlook um PE Williams. So because of their program boundary is so large, these are the routes that may have a 90minute ride time. So, by condensing the stops and utilizing the hub stops uh in partnership with park and planning recreational locations as the bus stop, we were hoping to minimize stops where parents could get to the hub stop. We would have buses there to pick children up that would then have a much shorter ride to the school because they have less stops. Currently, what this looks like, uh, we may have 30 students assigned to a bus to one of our specialty schools, and it may be 30 stops. That's one stop per
013student. And so we wanted to gain some efficiency by minimizing those stops into a hub, a safe location uh to provide parents a safe location to wait uh where we would have to travel less to pick students up to be able to offer an on-time arrival. >> Yeah. And if I could just add, I really appreciate this question, Dr. Moss because in our effort to improve the efficiency of those routes, especially for our specialty schools, Director Baldwin and I also had to have many conversations about what the potential impact would be on access to programs. Uh not every family uh theoretically could get their child, transport their child to a hubtop. and what does that mean with respect to their access to that specialty program if that becomes the model that we follow. And so
014we just have to continue to work through the pushpull of wanting to improve service and efficiency while also maintaining equity throughout the district and access. >> Thank you Brent. Mr. Jackson, did you have a comment as well or question? >> Um, yeah, I did have a question um just about um the organization overall. Um, we don't really and I think that I I don't know. we don't really uh get to get into the weeds of it, but I I would definitely love to better understand how the partnership like I know that we brought them on as a um you know to kind of like let us understand, you know, what's in front of us, the challenges, you know, just from like um a overall like I I'll just say like they did kind of a
015SWAT analysis, you know, on you know, our transportation um you know dimension as a whole. But as far as moving forward um I I just want to understand like so are they they're like consultants um with us moving forward are they going to be implementing um as well? I just kind of really want to understand like what they're positioning and how that partnership um is aligned um just to know a little bit more about that you know agreement. >> That's a great question. So in the scope of work that we have with formative there are a couple of action items that they developed last year in the second quarter they developed a dashboard for us kind of a a KPI measure and we've been working on that dashboard with the relevant data that we've been
016collecting and we're able to share out with you. We wanted to go more um in depth and matter of fact um we did include some of the dashboard work in Dr. Joseph's um dashboards for for vacancies. Uh there was a component there for transportation and on time arrivals. Uh this is what we are continuing to work. We've not made everything a public yet because we're still working. And with the addition of bus planner coming in now, what formative is doing is really validating the work that bus planner is doing for us. Uh we are transitioning from transfinder over to bus planner. And so all of the technical work in terms of the import of student data um that matches so that we can have consistent information coming from synergy into bus planner um is all
017being reviewed by formative which will then lead um into better data going into our dashboard that will better tell our story u from a KPI side of it. So they're um so they're looking at so essentially they're doing a lot of like making sure that our data has integrity. Um is there is there a team that reports because I know you said you meet with them you know regularly. I forgot the the battle frequency that you guys you know connect but you were telling me that they um meet regularly from a consulting standpoint. Do we have a team here on site um in in Prince George's County um you know or is it like a virtual meeting? I I just want to know a little bit more about how this partnership is shaped up. >>
018Absolutely. So it is a uh it's a virtual meeting and face toface. We do have the opportunity where they will come and kind of do a site visit to assess programs, but primarily I have a team here that meets with them regularly to discuss um all of the action planning in the backgrounds for validating the data uh related to our student information data related to our routing data um our GPS capture data everything that that we uh deem important and as a measurable KPI. I they're discussing and how it's being collected and and making sure the efficacy of the data is is good. So, um it is a again an active session weekly um that we that we get together and discuss. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. and and uh board chair Jackson, if I
019could just add because um director Baldwin won't say it, but this is one of those key um reasons why he was recognized uh by as as the national transportation director of the year. Uh because systems aren't doing this. uh they are not with the level of transparency uh uh collecting and analyzing the data utilizing dashboards to then ultimately make decisions to build a more efficient and effective system uh with the level of rigor uh that he's working with his team to do. uh formative is also you know you you want to teach people to fish instead of give them the fish right and so they are also helping to train our staff on how to utilize collect the data utilize the data analyze the data properly so that ultimately we have developed the capacity internally
020to do the work long term um so it it's it's been a very beneficial uh uh partnership because I can see the capacity of our team growing while at the same time increasing the efficiency gains of the of the transportation system >> and and Dr. Coleman and sorry Dr. N if I'm hogging the mic I'll just say this last piece is that um I will say I really appreciate the response um cuz um Mr. Bow and you know for sure that I've I've been the one that's been preaching KPIs and you know holding accountable different metrics and what I do know is that this is a 180 from where we started cuz I remember a lot of the questions that we had were always data driven asking about times and you know efficiency and capacity
021and you know all of these different points that we always had you know very uh qualitative answers but not quantitative answers. And I think this is kind of helping us um hone in on what we're we're looking to communicate to our community. And this is actually a response, you know, to the community and their questions or the pressure. So, I do want to give you guys kudos for um being responsive to um you know, requests from the community and the board at large. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um I do have a few um questions if I may but um some of which have already been answered but I think just general questions. So um and and one yes thank you all so much for for coming and and approaching
022this topic. I know that we just it feels like rather recently um heard from you all um at you know a broader board meeting but just to make sure I'm I'm connecting the dots. So so for I always call it formative too. It's for what is it for? Formative. >> Formative. Okay. So formative. All right. So formative you you had the the slide that showed kind of the components that make up formatives work. >> Um with the first thing being you know the creation of this dashboard. I believe corely reports were were there as well. So can you tell us a little bit more about the corely reports? I know you mentioned that some of the data um I believe you said some of the data coming from those reports actually fed into um Dr.
023Joseph's dashboard. Um at any point do do we see the do we see the quarterly reports or do we see aspects of it? Can you speak a little bit to what's in those quarterly reports of those quarterly reports? What specifically um are we seeing um and what how are you all using that data on a quarterly basis? >> Awesome. So that's a great question. I'm happy to share. So when we have given the past uh presentations say from last school year we were all sharing the quarterly reports review. So I get a PDF copy of basically what we have elected to um work on from the audit. If you remember they gave us uh recommendations and we chose these recommendations. we had the first five which uh to choose as the right now for the
024next school year we can implement and so there were others that we are adding to it. So that data is being kept um and reviewed and we build our action plans on that each year. So for example we have service levels that we have we we deal with our trip duration. We talk about our bail time balance, the you the seat utilization, um the vehicle utilization, all of those things we've shared in prior um prior reports and it's a PDF copy that's accessible for you. And matter of fact, I can I don't think I added the two quarterly reports um review to this topic, but I will be happy to send them over to you for your review. Uh but this is just the the work that came out from the audit recommendations and our
025action plan to work to be more efficient. And so we're going to continue to build on this. This is kind of been the framework for us to start using the data in which we can better develop into KPIs and be able to give more accurate related information um to you uh when requested. >> Yeah. And if I could just add just thank you Director Baldwin. You know it it's I don't think it would be hyperbole to say that a couple years ago we were dealing with a crisis of confidence right where people didn't um have confidence that we had enough capacity uh to improve our system. And so bringing in a third-party independent group to essentially baseline our data of where how we're doing in key metrics and then to provide quarterly objective updates as
026we implemented our improvement plan was critical towards helping to build confidence that we actually are moving in the right direction. Nobody has to take our word for it. they can see in the quarterly report where the data is moving. And that's what director Baldwin is saying. We were sharing that information out regularly at board meetings and we're still continuing with that same cadence of collecting the quarterly report data and responding to what we see. So the the real value for us internally uh around the quarterly reports is independent validation of the work that's happening and and objectively showing that we're making progress. >> Thank you. Okay, go to round two. Dr. Moss. >> Yeah. No, thank you so much. Um, I appreciate you clarifying what kind of got Director Bowwin's um, award. I think it's
027the coolest thing ever. So, I say it as much as possible. Um, you know, I say all the time, you know, people in the county don't know what great people we have working in PGCPS. Uh, other folks around the world get excited when they meet someone from PGCPS because they know the greatness of our work. So, I appreciate you escal uh, elevating that. I've got a question. Um, I saw the report said looked at the number of 90inute duration routes. Um, I know you're going to tell me that the only way to get a 90-minute duration route is to to hire more folks. Um, how many how many routes do we have that are 90 minutes long or greater? And what other things are we doing to be able to get those down? I was
028excited because I saw a connection between reducing route time and the hubs. So, I do feel a little way um that the fact that we don't we don't have those hubs that help reduce routes, but I mean duration times I just think kids being on a bus longer than 90 minutes uh is it's just concerning for me. So, can we where are we with um routes beyond 90 minute and where are we in terms of getting them down? Um and director Ball, you may be able to share what's the industry standard. I may be in the wrong here um by feeling like 90 minutes is too long. Um but I know my ADHD struggles with a 90minute meeting. So >> I know some of those bus drivers and aids are having a hard time managing
029kids on a 90-minute route. >> Great. Um and and as much of I want to tell you the numbers, I don't have it right here in front of me. I can get it for you. But what we typically do um a a big part of the 90minute run is a planned because right now um everyone gets a bus stop. So typically what has happened is we would not have an actual wrership until after school begins. And for us, we'll trim down because for a bus that may have 30 students going to PE Williams and that bus is coming uh from Laurel all the way down to 214 is possible based on traffic and where that bus has to pick up children. So we depend one if a parent is not going to utilize transportation, we
030encourage them to opt out because that's a bus stop that we can pause that we can eliminate and take off the board for the driver. The second thing is really, you know, well, actually that is the major part. Um, parents telling us that they don't need the transportation. That goes a long way for us. They can always get it back if need be. But if you're not going to utilize it, we ask that you tell us so that we don't waste time going to a stop that we know a student is not going to be there. U, it is planning. It has been a a uh a practice that we route our comprehensive regular ed students 60 minutes or less, but if you're in that choice program, specialty program, it may be up to 90
031minutes. Now, we don't want to route 90 minutes, but in the in the past, we had to because with lack of staff means that you have to add more kids to the bus and to the route. And so now that we are starting to balance out with the number of staffing, we have been able to go back and try to reduce those 90minute runs as much as possible. We've been able to combine runs, for example, the Academy of Health Sciences, you know, that's a countywide program. So we come as far as Aakeet to bring students to the community college. And so, uh, we want them a more accurate ridership count in order for us to manage the reducing the the 90minute ride time. >> Just a and I just I just I'm sorry. I just
032wanted to add the number um because it is significant when you talk when we talk about staffing. Uh, Director Baldwin uh, several years ago was dealing with over 220 vacancies as far as bus drivers. Uh, as of this month, we are down to 65. And so, we're making tremendous progress working with our human resources partners on closing the staffing gap, which will greatly enhance our ability to be more efficient as a as a transportation system. Yeah, just last question if it's okay. Chair, um, Dr. Ander, it's okay. Um, so when a parent essentially opts out, how does how long does it take to like reassign a bus? Um, and I know like that's important because a parent is like fearful of giving up their seat. >> Um, and that has implications later. And then conversely,
033do we have a way of in terms of being more efficient, and this is probably way in the weeds, if a family knows that their child is not going to be at school the next day, um, of pulling themselves off the route so that we don't make that stop and it would save time for other kids. um or do we have any way of in real time feeding it in the system if a kid didn't come to school that day? We don't try to make that stop in the afternoon and a bus driver got to, you know, assume that a kid is not there. If I'm too much in the weeds, please let me know. But I'm all around, you know, reducing inefficiencies. >> No, no, no. You're you're not. Um it is fine. So,
034we have some grassroots efforts right now. parents will call us, especially um more so our special needs parents than our comprehensive parents. They will call us and let us know if their child is not riding the bus for the day. Doesn't happen for all parents, but we do have a select few that will do that. Uh we toyed with the old system stopfire last year. It had a text function to where parents could text in and so some of our parents did that. Uh we're working with a within the Chipmunk app for parents to be able to do something like that. It's not a right now. This may be a future phase in that we're able to do. But what will happen for our drivers is if um they they will be able to skip
035stops. Uh we're going to get them a tablet to use. And so if they know a student is not riding the bus from that standpoint, u parents can tell them the next that you know for the next morning they're not going to ride the driver will be able to use the tablet and skip a stop and it will reroute them around that stop from better. So um all of those things sir I would like to but it's going to take a collaborative effort with our families um to use the the instruments that we are putting out for notification. uh we're gonna it it's going to take some effort for us to get to that level where we can do those things that you're mentioning. >> Yeah. And if I could just add one piece, you
036know, this is a we've tried to frame that this is a multi-year improvement plan. Uh and as a part of that process, we would we are h we have discussions around but we're not ready to implement uh an actual optin uh as opposed to an opt out. Uh that would allow us to only route those stu those families that affirmatively uh confirm that they need transportation and is a much more u would would theoretically build a much more efficient routing system. Uh we know that there are a lot of steps that have to happen in order for that to be successful for families. So, we're not there. Uh, and we're not going to be there next year either. Uh, but certainly it is it is a a concept that director Baldwin and I are continuing
037to discuss uh and look for the opportunity to shift to the opt-in to make the most efficient system possible. Thank you. I do want to be mindful of of time. Um, as I know we have Miss Dorps here. Um, I'm not sure. Mia, did you see my note? I did. Uh, I was told that the transportation team had to leave by 6:30. >> Okay. Okay. Um, does anyone have any other uh any additional questions for uh Mr. Bman or Dr. Coleman? Any additional questions? If you email them to me, I will make sure that you get a reply. Perfect. Okay. In the interest of time, um, and I know since you all are, um, going to another meeting, thank you all so much for coming. I know that there were a few other questions. I
038know I had at least one other, but I will make sure that um Miss Barton um gets them to you. Um but otherwise, thank you both so much um for your time and for sharing a little bit about what has transpired since we've had the audit completed. Thank you both. >> Thank you. >> You opportunity. >> Good evening. >> Take care. Okay, at this time we will proceed with our with item 6.2, our semianual internate audit work plan. Um, I'd like to recognize Miss Dina Thorp, the director of internal audit to provide her presentation. Miss Thorps. >> Thank you, Dr. Andel, and good evening everyone. Um today I'll be sharing our main highlights from what we have been able to accomplish here at the office of internal audit as we made progress on our fiscal
039year 2026 annual audit plan. And so this is our semianual internal audit work plan update and I'll just be kind of um you can go to the next slide. I will be going over um a lot of the things that we have accomplished from just general um audit projects. So our student school activity funds, operational audits as well as um high level on investigation um reports that we have issued, where we stand compared to our annual audit plan and how much we've accomplished so far year to date, as well as what we have um underway. And then if you guys have any questions, I will make sure that you have time to ask those. And so pursuant to board policy 8373, this established the office of internal audit and it provides us with the responsibilities
040to make sure that we're giving regular updates on our activities um to the board of education as well as the board um audit committee. And so again, this update is just comprising like what we have accomplished for the first and second quarters of fiscal year 2026. Next slide. >> There's a delay. I hit it. I'm waiting. >> It's okay. No worries. Um I think the next slide pretty much talks about our responsibilities as well as our mission. And so our mission with internal audit is to pretty much assist the board of education in their oversight of the um Prince George's County Public Schools as a whole and achieving their objectives as the board of education. And so we achieve this by making sure that we um take a systematic and disciplined approach to evaluate and
041improve the effectiveness of the risk management um items within the school system, any internal control um effectiveness or deficiencies. We try to make sure that we address those issues as well as just the overall governance process. And so our responsibility to achieve that mission reflects the fact that we have to do these audits. So we conduct audits in accordance with various standards that have been established by our governing body such as the AICPA as well as GAO which is the government accountability office who has established the yellowbook standards. And so in addition to these responsibilities related to conducting audits, we also do a handful of other activities for PGCPS as well as the board of education and not in a management capacity or anything like that but more so just to review board member expenditures.
042This is to ensure compliance with those board policies and making sure that the expenses where board members are being reimbursed are properly documented and accurate. We also assist with identifying the external CPA firm who completes our annual comprehensive financial report um as well as a single audit. And so we make sure that we help vet out those CPA firms that are being considered. We also potentially assist with some external audit activities. A lot of external audit firms rely on internal audit um staffing and our experience to assist with kind of getting an idea of where some risk may lie. And so we assist with that front as well as some other task if they ever need assistance in those matters. And we also are responsible for administering the hotline um where we receive those hotline
043complaints or allegations of potential fraud, waste, and abuse. Next slide, please. And so for the first two quarters of fiscal year 2026, we have accomplished a variety of things here. We have issued 10 investigation reports, which I will go over some of the results of those reports later on in this presentation. We have also issued 10 school activity funds um audits. And again, these are audits that have been conducted to determine the compliance with the accounting procedures manual for school activity funds. And we also determine whether those assets within PGCPS schools are properly protected and accounted for. We have also issued five operational or IT audits. For operational audits, we pretty much also cover IT audits, but I like to highlight that it's kind of both, but they do fall all under one category, which
044is operational audits. These are the audits where we really get our most bang for the buck. We conduct these audits to evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness, and economy of PGCPS's procedures and processes as well as systems and internal controls. And this is how we find areas of weakness or redundancy. So again, like Dr. Moss mentioned, he's all about efficiency. So where we can find ways to streamline processes and make recommendations where there's opportunities for improvement, that is where internal audit adds their greatest value. And then we also um again administer the hotline. This is where we receive those allegations of um complaints related to fraud, waste and abuse. Year to date we have received 160 hotline um complaints that we have processed, reviewed and either done an investigation on, we have it in the queue to
045complete an investigation or we have referred it out to management for their proper handling. And so comparing where we are compared to this time last year, we have received a little less um hotline complaints compared to last year. So again, we received 160 from July 1, 2020. Um I should say 2025 to 20. Yeah, July 1, 2025 to December 31st, 2025. compared to this time last year or the year before rather where we received 268 hotline complaints for that same time period in 2024. Next slide. It doesn't like me. >> I am trying. >> It's okay. It's the next one. So, this next slide is going to highlight where we are fiscal year to date compared to what we have planned for the um fiscal year 2026. And so once that slide is back up,
046you'll be able to see like our annual audit plan for fiscal year 2026. I have notated on um the rows where we have completed audits. So these are audit reports that have already been issued. Those are highlighted in green. And so compared to all of our operational audit activities, we have completed 20% of our planned operational audit activities. And we have an currently 30% planned um operational activities that are underway. And so we are gearing up to start pro um procedures on the yellow highlighted items. So these are the audits that should be reported on within the next few months or so as we begin working on our planning fieldwork and reporting on those audits. Next slide please. Okay. So for the operational audits that I highlighted, we issued for the fiscal year. We I
047included this first one just because we issued that draft report at the end of the fiscal year, but the final report did not go out until later in this current fiscal year. So this purchasing and supply writer services contracts audit, we looked at um the management of writer contracts and how we are going about procuring those um contracts and services. So that draft report was issued in the prior fiscal year, but we did not get to issue that final um report until November 17, 2025. Some of the reasons for these delays where you'll see like larger gaps, typically we ask for the audit to provide their management response and action plans within 30 days of issuing these draft reports. And so sometimes there's some delays from the audit with providing us their responses. And so
048that holds us up from being able to issue the final report. And so the purchasing and supply services writer contracts, that is one that kind of fell into that scenario where we didn't receive a response timely to get that final report issued. We also had the special education follow-up audit. This was started in fiscal year 2025. And so that report was issued earlier this year. And so we are actually in a process of preparing that final report to get it issued with grade change validity audit. This is one that is mandated by the state. And so we were able to get this one accomplished pretty quickly since it's mandated by the state. And so we issued that report in September with the final report issued also in September 2025. And then one of our other
049audits that we launched last fiscal year was capital improvement program audit. And so we issued that report in October. Again, waiting on the action plan and responses from one of the teams that we had recommendations for is kind of holding us up from being able to issue that final report. We also had an IT audit, Zonar Technology Systems. We issued that report in December and we are waiting on management's responses to the recommendations there so that we can also issue that final report. Next slide. And so for our ongoing and upcoming audits, um the other grants audit, these are audits or these are grants that we reviewed that were not subject to the annual single audit procedures by the external CPA firm. And so we found out that these were a risky area because they're
050not subject to audit procedures typically. And so we are wrapping up that draft report. We conducted our exit conference in January of this year and we are just waiting to get the draft report issued in the next week or so. Um, EDOCrina is another item IT operational audit that we have launched and we are wrapping up currently. So, we recently just got that exit conference scheduled for later this week. So, that's one that we were still in a process at the end of the fiscal year. And then tuition reimbursement. This is a new audit that we are just now gearing up to get started for this current quarter and we conducted that entrance conference on January 13th, 2026. fleet management. Um, this is pursuant to our annual audit plan for this year. And we initiated
051this audit so that we can review the internal controls around the management of our PGCPS's fleet management or program where vehicles are assigned to different departments or individuals. And so the team currently is in the beginning phase of planning and we plan to get that audit announced by the end of this month of February. transportation followup. So, that wonderful update from transportation, we're going to take all that insight that we learned from them and begin our planning procedures to um launch an audit just to make sure that all of those recommendations and action plans that they implemented to those recommendations have been implemented. And then apex audit. This is one of those IT audits as well. So we are in the beginning phases of um planning for that one once EOTrina is wrapped up. Next
052slide. School activity funds. So as I mentioned earlier, we issued 10 of those reports and here are the 10 schools that we have completed. I've included details or at least like the total number of findings that we had for each of these. As you can see, they can kind of vary from school to school. We have some that did not have any findings and we have some that have higher number of findings and there's also some schools that have repeat findings. So the next slide will actually show you kind of like how many different categories of findings we have across multiple schools that had those issues. And just one other point that I want to add is that we have currently 16 school activity fund audits that are in the pipeline either being under review
053and ready to get issued or we are wrapping those audits up. So there will be a lot more reports coming out in the few upcoming weeks or months as we get through our management review on those engagements. And so this slide here shows our trends as it relates to the different findings that we're seeing across school activity funds. Right now we're seeing um kind of consistent issues related to the manage mismanagement of funds received, administration of fundraisers, donations, and mismanagement of dispersements. We also have delinquent monthly bank reconciliation and administration of fund transfers. And so some of the things that I know off the top of my head that we typically see with the administration of fundraisers, for instance, not completing that annual fundraising report and making sure that the grants office or the um
054accounting office receives that report so that they're aware of the different fundraisers that have been conducted. Some of the mismanagement of funds received relate to not making sure that you're timely depositing things or um not properly keeping records of what was received and things of that nature. Next slide. And then this lists out our investigations that have been completed for the first two quarters of the fiscal year. To maintain um confidentiality with those, I didn't include where these exactly took place, but as board members, you guys also received these um audit reports. And so I did want to highlight the different issues that we're seeing as well as the determination of what we um identified based on our investigative procedures. And so there are some that have been unsubstantiated. We have a handful that were
055substantiated and then quite a few that were also partially substantiated. So for those partially substantiated, maybe there were three allegations included in one complaint and only one or two of them were actually determined to be an substantiated claim. And so our hotline issues by the year are highlighted here. I tried to color code them to show you how things stack up against each other by the different categories year-over-year. So, this is showing a three-year trend from fiscal year 2024, fiscal year 2025, as well as what we have year to date for fiscal year 2026. And that pretty much wraps up what I wanted to share. Um, are there any questions for me? I had a quick question. Um, actually, do you mind just going back to the last slide? Um, I wasn't really able to
056to catch it. The hotline um by complaints. >> Yes, if you can. >> It's the next to last one. Yeah, thank you. I just wanted to take a look. This is really um helpful to see. I appreciate the um kind of year-over-year um data here. Um it's just in looking at it and I could probably try to do like a quick you know eyeball trend analysis here but what have you seen in any of the issues in particular um topics that have significantly increased um in terms of issues um year-over-year um and and vice versa decreased. Do you know off top of hand or >> um so not off the top of my head can I truly answer that question but I can see that again we actually have a decrease in total calls coming
057in and there's actually some cleanup that I think my team and I need to work through related to these complaints. So, because we get these complaints from anonymous sources and they all report on this website or they'll call in complaints, how it's logged in the system is how this data is laid out. What I've come to learn over the last couple of weeks or so is that how those complaints are actually coming in are not actually they pick the issue title. So, I know for instance, I've seen one that says kickbacks, but it's not actually a kickback. is probably more school and office management or personnel related issues. So my team is actually going through and making cleanup of these issue categories so that we can have a more accurate depiction of where we're seeing
058actual complaints coming in. um how this stands right now, it's not 100% accurate that what you see for workplace violence and threats is actually the number of workplace violence and threats um complaints that have come in. We have typically just left things how they have been reported to not manipulate it, but I find that it doesn't give us accurate trend data to really say where we're seeing an increase or an influx of hotline issues. >> Okay. But absent, you know, just the variance in and how folks may, you know, select what the issue is, the process, the tool, etc. has not changed. And so assuming that people, you know, although, you know, people differ obviously, assuming that, you know, people are just reporting in the same way that they have in years past, it would
059the best way to ensure >> like the least um kind of variance in what's reported, right? just because the tools and things have been the same in the reporting structure. >> All right. So then if looking at this, you're right. I mean obviously yeah it look you can see that the number of issues reported has decreased this year as opposed to um last year and even the year prior um certain areas you know that >> even for this year have still like you know they've decreased more. So, theft of time, >> theft of time is always a hot topic um that comes through the hotline. Office and school management is another one that we typically see I would say. Is it on here? I see parent >> policy issues. Parent and community relations is another
060hot employee relations. That's the one I was looking for. Employee relations continues to be one. Um it can be team team members making you know complaints about other team members or supervisory level type positions. So we see I would say primarily a lot of those types of complaints. We do see a lot of bullying and harassment complaints that come in as well. >> Um >> safetyation I see as well. Okay. >> Yes. And that could be as simple as somebody saying that there is no um toilet paper in the bathroom. We get a lot of those types of complaints. That's not necessarily fraud, waste, and abuse on the surface, but we do get a lot of those types of complaints, too. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Martin. Um board member Jackson, Chair Jackson. >> Yeah,
061thank you so much. Um I I just want to um I guess just say just say one thing for sure is that um so I've so I'm coming up on my uh completed my fourth year on the board and um I think that you've you've transformed the audit function um to a place that we've we've never been and I just know sometimes I just believe in you know giving people their flowers you know while they're still here. So, it's just I I think that, you know, we've never had this level of granularity, especially around like trend analysis. Um, I know we're, you know, looking at more uh information in regards to like metadata. Uh, just being able to hone in on where we are and just to hold, you know, our, you know, $3 billion
062entity accountable. Um, and it's just given us as board members, um, you know, pieces of information to kind of look into and to drill into further and ask the questions and create policies that can help shape our, um, school system to be better. So, I do definitely want to just, you know, say thank you for the work that you're doing and um, we really appreciate that. >> Thank you. Thank you. I couldn't do it without my team. So, I'm grateful to them for being able to also work with me and bear with me as we shake some things up here and there, just trying to get to the place where we can actually see more trends. Um, yeah, it's they have definitely been um open and receptive to things and willing to, you know, try
063new things out with me, which I'm grateful and appreciative for. So, >> thank you. And then the the last thing I do uh want to talk about is the um I don't know if I want to just call it the miscatategorization of of just issues in general. And um >> I I just I don't know. So like when it comes and you're the expert on this like from like the audit um perspective but because a lot of the times the the feedback I get from the community um like you said kickbacks or like even people creating offices or people creating you know state policies or just the idea or the narrative that's out there about PGCPS a lot of it comes from you know the um the feedback we get you you know from audit
064and so if a lot of the times that the issues are miscatategorized um it it sends a false narrative so I don't know how do we >> I guess atone for the mischaracterization but at the same time >> we don't want to manipulate the data that's being input by the public >> and so like I don't I don't know if you have any ideas around how to balance that out a little bit more >> I have been um thinking of different ways to do that Like I know the internal audit website um on PGCPS's website, I guess our web page on the website, we have like FAQs. My goal is to once I get to a calmer state because I have like 16 SAF reports to review um coming up soon. But once things kind
065of calm down or at least delegating, once team members have been able to accomplish some of their assigned audit engagements and assignments, um my goal is to actually come up with a well laid out description of what certain issues for the hotline should be. And so I kind of want people to refer to that when they are reaching out to make complaints. This way they can have a better understanding of what the actual issue is and not what they want it to be. I think to some degree some people just pick what seems like it's going to be an attentiongrabbing issue category because they want their complaint. Everybody wants to be heard and so I want to hear them too, but it would help if we understand where we're seeing actual issues. So I think
066education from a community standpoint to just help people understand like what those issues are versus like what you might think it could be would be key there. And so um clean up on our side too is another thing. I have instructed my um investigative auditor that we're going to work through this. So, he's already kind of gone through and ma I won't say mapped out, recategorized where we needed them to be recategorized for fiscal year 2026. I don't think I'm going to touch fiscal year 2024 because if I'm looking at a three-year analysis, 24 is going to be falling off here soon. So, I'll focus on cleaning up fiscal year 25. We'll continue to make the updates in the current fiscal year and forward. So this way once it's time to actually understand like where
067we're seeing higher trends or numbers for primary issues in the hotlines, I think that'll be a better depiction. Um to some degree, we could also send follow-up responses or like an update to the person that made the complaint to let them know like, hey, we are actually going to go ahead and re um select what your primary issue is after getting a better understanding of what your complaint is because it's not really a kickback. Maybe it's employee relations. So, I think that's another way to kind of help educate the community in terms of how those issues should be defined or categorized when they're making complaints. >> Yeah, I think though I think communication is key and um and I know a lot of times internal audit um we we don't really engage with the communication
068um space with inside of PGCPS. But I think this will be a great opportunity um as you develop FAQs and also I was even thinking about videos um as people go on a site to report their issues like maybe there be a possibility of you know different scenarios um that can explain you know several categories on on exactly like what this looks like >> just so people can have a better understanding of where to place you know their concerns and Um I don't know if that's I I think that is possible actually um to work with communications and then um you know we we have a communications person coming on board pretty soon too. So, we we should be able to, you know, work together collaboratively to to develop some some short videos and maybe
069some FAQs just to inform people cuz I think it's important to really tell the story of what's going on because if you look at the the data at face value, it just tells a completely different story like everybody getting kickbacks and everybody getting all and it's just not the case. So, thank you so much. >> Of course. Happy to um explain that. Thank you so much, Miss Thorps. Um truly appreciate you coming to um present the internal audit work plan. Um are there any additional questions from board members? No. Okay, fantastic. Um with that we will proceed to adjournment. Um just to note of our upcoming meetings. Um next month we will not have a board audit committee meeting. Our next meeting will take place in April will occur on April 13th and the focus
070will be on procurement audit. Um so please join us at that time. It'll then be followed by a meeting um in May on May 4th and on June 1st with the first being focused on on-site student records um and student privacy and the last being focused on um providing an human resources audit update. So, thank you all so much for joining us this evening. Any follow-ups from tonight's meeting will be shared upon receipt. There being no further business, the time is now 6:40 p.m. and the February 9th, 2026 Board Audit Committee meeting is now adjourned. Thank you all so much for joining and have a good evening.