001Thank you, Miss Barton, for beginning the corn the recording. The time is now 6:03 p.m. I'd like to call to order the October 6, 2025 board audit committee meeting. Welcome everyone. My name is Dr. Tiffany Ander and I am the chair of this committee and the district 1 board member. 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 and to actually just our committee members this evening. I would also like to welcome members of the administration, any special guests. We have Miss Gina Thorps here tonight. Um, and we'll now have introductions starting in this order. board members, PGCPS administration, board office staff,
002and any other guests. >> Hi, good evening everyone. This is Pamela Boozer Strruther, District 3 Board of Education member and um and vice chair of this committee. >> Board member Moss. >> I'm Felton Moss. Um, I'm District 7 board member and excited to be a member of this committee. I'm also a member of the policy and governance committee. >> Welcome, >> Miss Thorps. >> Yes. Um, I'm Dana Thorps and I'm the director of the Office of Internal Audit at Prince George's County Public Schools. >> Good evening. My name is Mia Barton and I am a board office staff member. Thank you everyone. Thank you for the introductions. We'll now proceed with the meeting. We'll now have the roll call board audit committee members. Miss Barton, could you please call the role? >> Dr. Ander, >>
003present. >> Miss Boozer, >> present. >> Mr. Jackson, >> Dr. Moss, >> present. >> We have three present. Perfect. Three members present. We have quorum. We'll proceed with the meeting. Agenda item 3.0 is the adoption of the October 6, 2025 agenda. The question is to adopt the October 6, 2025 board audit committee meeting agenda without objection. There being no objection, the October 6, 2025 board audit committee meeting agenda has been adopted. Item 4.0, approval of the September 2nd, 2025 meeting minutes. The question is to approve the September 2nd, 2025 board audit committee meeting minutes without objection. There being no objection, the September 2nd, 2025 board audit committee meeting minutes have been approved. We'll now move on to items 5.0 5.1 Public comment for registered public comment speakers. There are two registered public comment speakers this
004evening. To our registered speakers, you are allotted three minutes to share your remarks. The committee will not engage in dialogue during this portion of the meeting. Speakers are expected to refrain from using profanity or any derogatory language. A warning will be issued once. Continued misconduct may result in the speaker being muted or removed from the meeting. To support a professional and courteous environment, speakers are encouraged to refer to individuals by their titles such as chair, board member, superintendent, or principal rather than by name. Our first speaker this evening is Quu Poku. Individual Excel Academy closing. >> Dr. And I am trying to remove I'm sorry, move over. Uh Mr. Poper if you're listening when I send the notification please click yes and Mr. local history has joined. >> Mr. You may begin speaking. >> Good
005evening. >> Can you all hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Okay. Thank you very much for the opportunity. uh I decided to join this meeting uh concerning Excel Academy closure. My two children were supposed to have attended the school this academic year and I think I think two days before the school uh academic year opening we got a notification that the the school was closed. My question and my appealing is what is Prince George's County Public School doing to help with uh Excel Academy reopening for the next school year so that the parents and their children within that area can have the opportunity for child. And my second question is what is the TV county doing uh to prevent what happened this academic year concerning uh academic academic closure because it seems there was
006no communication between the academy and the PJ County public school because it took I think it should have taken you uh at least a week or two weeks before the uh this new school year reopening to see that the school could open. What are you doing to prevent that from happening again? Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. PU for your comments. >> Apologies, I was on mute. Thank you, Mr. Pu, for your comments. Yes. Um, our next registered speaker is Miss Vanessa McNair, Individual Excel Academy. Miss McNair is not here. She didn't join the meeting. Okay, with that we will proceed. Thank you for your comments and participation our registered speaker. We'll now move on to item 6.0 our presentations. Our presentation for this evening will come from our internal audit committee. I'd like to
007recognize Miss Dina Thorp, the director of internal audit to provide her presentation. Thank you, Dr. Andul. And good evening, everyone. I'm here today to present our um annual audit plan and to also discuss our accomplishments from fiscal year 2025 and the annual audit plan for fiscal year 2026. Um I don't see my presentation showing though. graph. Okay. And so this report or this um conversation is geared to the board audit committee and we can go to the next slide. Today I will be going over just some general information um such as like the internal audit organization and authority as well as some auditing standards that guides the internal audit department in our efforts to kind of be like that first level of defense for the BGCPS community and making sure that we are being effective
008and efficient with our procedures as a whole school district. Um, we will also be going over some internal audit reporting requirements and I will also highlight some of our fiscal year 2025 audit accomplishments. We'll go over some of the fiscal year 2026 internal audit annual planned and I will make sure that there is time for questions if there are any. So, the internal audit organization and authority was pretty much established by the board of education policy 8373. Um this gives us um the authority and responsibility um as established by the board of education um to pretty much effectively do audits of the um PGCPS. Uh we report directly to the board of education and um we have access to the board chair, board vice chair, the superintendent as well as all um staff that are
009within the PGCPS. Um and also this reporting structure meets the government's auditing standards or the yellowbook standards for 3.18 which is the independence requirement. And so this makes sure that we are independent from the school system and we do not act as a management function. we are instead more of a oversight um monitoring function just to oversee the policies and procedures of Prince George County and making sure that those are effectively um rolled out. Um and again with the board policy internal audit does have complete access to all PGCPS schools records as well as personnel records documents and any files um that may be relevant for any of the audits that we conduct. And we also have the authority to request assistance and also receive full cooperation from all appropriate PGCPS personnel. auditing standards that
010guide um my team include the association of international certified public accountants or AICPA. Um those are pretty much the general auditing standards that guide auditors to ensure that we are fulfilling our role as trusted public servants and also the GAO which is the government accountability office. They create the yellowbook standards which guide um government auditing requirements for internal and auditing entities in general. Um and going into our reporting requirements, as I mentioned before, the board policy 8373 which established the office of internal audit, we are required to provide an annual summary of um significant audit findings and recommendations in the form of a report. And this is due for each school year on or by September 30th. And the report should also include our plans for the upcoming or current school year that we are
011currently in. And in doing so, we also provide quarterly reports of our activities to the board of education. We do more reporting as well, like on a monthly basis. We provide updates to the board of education members. And um there's any other special requests or meetings that are relevant for our purposes, we will also provide those updates as well. And so our team to make sure that we are effective in our role, we make sure that we have a variety of different professional memberships. Some of these um are pretty well known in the auditing community such as the Institute of Internal Auditors. We are also members of ALGA which is the association of local government auditors. This is also who al um completes our peer review that we get done every three years. And then
012we also have NASA which is the National Association of State Auditors and Comprollers and Treasurers. So all of these memberships, they provide us with learning opportunities and tools to help us effectively roll out our audits and make sure that we are doing a great job. We stay on top of our yellowbook requirements to make sure that we have the proper continuing professional education or CPEs that we are required to have on a yearly basis. And so here is a screen that pretty much shows everybody that is on the internal audit team starting with myself and there are nine individuals that also work in the team. We have some vacancies that we are looking to fill soon this fiscal year. So there'll be more um names that should be showing on at least our landing page
013on the PGCPS internal audit web page in case anybody is ever interested in learning who all is on our team. And so moving into our fiscal year 2025 audit accomplishments. In total, we had a very productive year. We issued a total of 59 reports. We also received a total of 559 hotline reports and we also had 5.9 million in assets that were subject to audit. And so just to break down some more information on those um audit reports that we completed. So of those 59 audit reports that were issued, 28 of those were school activity fund audits. This is where we look at the school activity funds for individual schools on a riskbased um process where we identify maybe some high-risisk schools or different um activities that might be high risk and we prioritize those.
014We also try to make sure that certain schools see us annually compared to maybe once every two to three years. We also have some investigative audits. Those come from a variety of sources including those hotline complaints where we receive 559. We can also get other investigative audits referred to us from various sources like the employee labor and relations office or um maybe the superintendent or the board of education has received a tip. we can then receive that and prioritize it based on our current workload and capacity. So there were 19 audits there that were related to investigative audits. And then we also had 12 operational audits. This is where we're looking at more of the internal controls to make sure that on an operational standpoint teams and business units within PGCPS are effectively um completing
015their roles and responsibilities and making sure that they are accomplishing their goals as well. Um, we had 12 of those auto reports that we issued. And so, I know this screen probably isn't the most visible, but these are the different types of complaints that we receive on our hotline reports. And so, as you can see, year-over-year, a lot of those complaints that we get are pretty consistent. So, from a parent and community um, relations standpoint, those tend to be a little on the high side. But all of these are what we received from fiscal years 2024 as well as fiscal years 2025. And we just kind of keep track of this information to see if there's anything that can help us identify audits for our upcoming fiscal year um annual audit plan. And so moving
016into that here I have a graphic that pretty much shows you how we dedicate our time for an annual basis to different audit activities. And so for 30% of our hours, there's three different categories where we dedicate 30% of our hours and those would go to school activity funds, operational audits, and the hotline investigations and special requests. And then on certain occasions, we do receive other special requests or audit assistance. And so we dedicate 10% of our time to that. And so um like I mentioned before with the school activity funds or SAFS, we do this on a riskbased approach. And so in terms of like selecting certain schools, it's not something that we automatically have flushed out already, but we will continuously review our school activity funds and the schools that have those so
017that we can make sure we are prioritizing them as needed. And so for our operational audits, um again, this is 30% of our time. Um these consist of a variety of different things such as reviews and assessments. So for data analytics, this is something that we also dedicate some of that time to. Um this gets us to how we identify which schools we want to do a school activity fund audit on. And so we review the SAS to determine compliance with the accounting procedures manual or the APM requirements using school funds. And then there's also the online software reporting analytics that helps us identify where we should dedicate our efforts for SAFS. From a continuous audit standpoint, um there are periodic reviews that we typically do. Um it could be on data or maybe we
018look at policies and procedures and we try to identify potential outliers and non-compliance with those things. Um, for instance, I know last year we completed one on leave, leave requests and approvals. And so that's something that we tend to pick up every so often just to make sure that we are complying with what we are required to do as a school community. And so for fiscal year 2026, we plan to look at the I expense process as well as do SAF audit action plan follow-ups. And so with that, we typically go to the schools where we had findings to see if those action plans to address our recommendations have been implemented so that we can make sure that we are um holding people accountable or schools accountable for where they may have had some issues
019or exceptions in their audits and to make sure that we're making improvements so that we don't have repeat findings. And then we also have a facility use um engagement where we'll look at the um timeline of those facility use um requests and things of that nature. And also for this year we are due to um complete our risk assessment. Um the last risk assessment was completed in fiscal year 2024. So we typically do those every two years. This is our year to pick that up this year. And so we will be completing that and that will also guide us in how we want to select audits for the next two fiscal years after this one concludes. And so for our operational audits again these are done to determine compliance with board of education policies and
020procedures as well as any um administrative policies and procedures or standard operating procedures established by business units. And so the list here includes our grade validity audit. We do this every year as mandated by the Maryland State Department of Education. And there's some that are carried over from prior years. So we have a capital improvement program that we'll be wrapping up here shortly. And there's also the CO 19 and other unodudited grants that we are carrying forward as we are wrapping those procedures up for our Treasury operations follow-up audit. This one was carried over from last year. However, due to capacity constraints, we had to halt that audit in order to pick up the CO 19 grants. Our goal is to go ahead and get the Treasury operations follow-up audit completed sometime this fiscal year.
021Um, we also had the HR salary setting process and tuition reimbursements that were carried over from a prior year that we're going to look to make sure that we can get involved in this year from new newly identified audits. We have HR hiring efficiencies. So, making sure that we're looking at how efficient the hiring process is from a candidate experience standpoint and making sure that, you know, we're getting the bodies in place that we need to so that we can all collectively achieve our goal of making us a great school system that we are. And there's also the office of general counsel operations where we'll just be looking to get some highle information on how that office kind of conducts their business in terms of complying with laws and regulations. There's a facility maintenance request,
022fleet management, purchasing and procurement, um budget management follow-up and transportation followup. So, for those two last follow-ups, um these are audits that were previously done whether it was internally or externally that we'll look into to see if those action plans were implemented to address any findings that were identified. Um, from a fleet management standpoint, that audit came from a previous board meeting where it was identified as an area to be investigated. So we included that in order to just look at the entire fleet management process of PGCPS. And with purchasing and procurement, this is just something that's obviously a hot topic. We want to make sure that we are doing the best that we can from a purchasing and procurement standpoint as PGCPS. And so we'll be looking at their RFP process there to make
023sure that we are effectively rolling out those um needs there. And then we also have our technology audits. This again takes up 30% of our time. This would include um things that we carried over from prior year as well. So we have zonar systems. This was um an audit that we started and pretty much wrapped up this past fiscal year and it was related to um transportation related systems and how they keep track of maintenance and um the fleet of the buses specifically. We have ectrina evaluation platform. This is where all PGCPS employees are kind of evaluated on an annual basis or as needed. I believe some are also quarterly. So, we'll look at that and the IT access rights and security um controls around that platform to make sure that there's no risk of
024um maybe information leaking out or being subject to people who don't need to have access to it. We also have the discoverer. Um this is a reporting application for staffing, budget, and position management. And then we also identified a transportation clearing house um audit. This one is one where they are looking at transportation as well. I know transportation has been a hot topic, so we wanted to make sure we looked at it from a few different angles. And then WebCRD is another area where we are going to be looking at um the background checks and how they're going about hiring individuals there. And then the HOS background check audit is another topic that we are going to be looking into. Are there any questions? >> Board member Moss, feel free to go before me. Um,
025could you talk a little bit more about the 5.9 million in in assets and what that means? Um, just for the general public. Um, I think that's good work that your office is doing. Um, I'd love to you to just talk about it a little bit. >> Sure. So with that, uh, we don't always quantify all of our audits, but for school activity funds, we can because we know how much they've received on a yearly basis. And so that 5.9 and assets is primarily, I'm going to say 99% all related to school activity funds. Um, some of our audits does have like some monetary value that may not be a school activity fund, but I know the large majority of that is all related to the amount that we looked at from a school activity
026fund standpoint. >> Thank you, Miss Torps. Um, I have a quick question. And I know we've discussed this, but um again for the public um great to hear that, you know, we are circling back and preparing um to conduct a risk assessment for this year given that the last one was completed two years ago. Um I know board member Boozer Stru um has mentioned this um several times and so I'm really excited to see this kind of coming back around and this being a priority for this year. Can you speak a little bit um about that? Just giving everyone a sense of what that will entail? >> Sure. So typically how I have done risk assessments and how I believe it was done in the past at least in 2024 um the internal audit department
027will work with our team to come up with like questionnaires and um different tools to kind of help us get information and intel from some of our stakeholders that could be internal or external. So, um stakeholders such as you guys as board members, um directors within PGCPS, some of the chiefs within C PGCPS, maybe even Maryland State Department of Education. We'll reach out to a variety of different stakeholders to just get what are your top of mind thoughts that keep you up at night in terms of PGCPS and what we need to kind of keep in mind. And so using the insight that we get from those questionnaires and interviews will kind of help us to identify like maybe our hot spots where it's really important for us to get into because obviously this is
028a big concern and we want to make sure that we are addressing some of the major concerns so that we can get in front of them before they're too far gone or um an issue comes about which is what we want to avoid. So by identifying the major risk that are relevant to internal and external stakeholders um it just helps us learn where we need to focus our efforts >> and I know I'm out on a timer here but um what how long does that usually take to to conduct or to complete from start to finish? So I have not looked at the previous information. I do think to some degree there will be some revamping. So there will be time needed to kind of get into that and then time needed to actually get
029the questionnaires and the interviews set up. I would say two to three months time just because of scheduling purposes trying to get in with board members and figuring out where you guys have availability. Same thing with the chiefs and the departments um directors and things like that. It could take a little bit of time for us to really get in. Some of that stuff can also be done like through like a survey monkey or you know an online electronic thing. But there are some individuals where we will need to look at them. And then taking that data and analyzing it to identify, you know, where those hot spots are for us to really start diving in and figuring out how we can leverage that to help us with identifying audits and projects for us to
030complete. Are there any additional questions from board members? Okay, great. Well, thank you so much, Miss Thorp. Um really excited about the the path ahead. Um thank you so much for coming to share your um from your office um and specifically accomplishments from last year and what we can expect um moving forward. Um, one thing that I will share just with the public before we proceed to adjourn, just to restate what you can expect for the rest of this school year as it relates to our board audit committee meetings. Um, next month we will not have a meeting, but we will return in December with the capital improvement plan operational audit findings and recommendations. As Miss Dorps mentioned, that will be wrapping up shortly. And so, Miss Dort will be returning um to speak to
031that alongside um believe Miss Shayla Jackson potentially um or another team member from our capital improvement um program team. Um we will then um not have a meeting in January as we return for the new year, but we will then return um in February um with the transportation audit update. I think most know that there was an audit completed years ago, an external audit. Um, and so we will, as Miss Dorps mentioned in her work plan, um, just come back to report on progress being made in that area. Um, reflecting on the previous action plan and where we are, as well as hearing from our sim, we'll be hearing um, about our semianual internate audit work plan. So, we will hear about progress from Miss Thorps and how the this year's work plan is progressing.
032We then will not have a meeting in March, but we'll return in April with the procurement audit again in May looking and starting to look into um some concerns that were brought forward around on-site student records um and privacy within schools and then closing in June with a return of our human resources um department. Then providing an update on the audit that was issued last year. um and the the audit that was completed last year and the findings that were presented. So we will receive an update on that audit and that will conclude our year. So we hope that you all will come back and join us um again in on December 1st for our board audit committee meeting that again will be focused on the CIP operational audit findings and recommendations. And so with
033that, we will proceed to agenda item 7.0, adjournment. Any follow-ups from tonight's meeting will be shared upon receipt. There being no further business, the time is now 6:35 p.m. And the October 6, 2025 board audit committee meeting is adjourned. Have a great evening, everyone.