001regular board meeting of the Lord Munal Schools of April 14th order. stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all the flag of friendship among United. Next item is approval of the agenda. We don't have our auditor. So we can move that down to action items. Make it C. Action item BC. Okay. Is there a motion to adjust the agenda to move action item A down to item C? I'll move the amended agenda as presented. Moving our auditors down to C. Motion by Mrs. Mrs. Eskeell. Is there a second? I'll second. Motion seconded by Mr. Doo. All in favor? I. I. Motion carries. Next item is approval of the regular meeting minutes of March 10th of 2025. Is there any questions or
002comments regarding those meeting minutes? I'll move to approve the minutes as presented. Motion by Mrs. Eskeel. Is there a second? I'll second the motion. Seconded by Mr. Delo. All in favor? I motion carries. Next item is board of education issues. Uh Dr. Lucas, just a reminder of the upcoming conferences. We have the school law conference in Albuquerque June 5th and 7th. The leadership retreat July 10th through 12th and supposed to be tough, right? Yes. But it still is not posted is what it officially is. And then the annual convention December 4th through 5th. Our next item is reports. Any questions for Ryan? Who wasn't on here? I was just wondering um I know every year we have issues with the microphones for graduation and the gym. Are those are we good on that one? Okay,
003that was my home. Any other questions or comments regarding the administrator report? Okay. She's like, "Yes, the whole, huh?" Okay. Well, hello everyone. Um, there's really not much to say except we're in testing season. It's time to review what we know and a lot of field trips and we're just coming down to the lawn to see what how much we've gained and learned. Any questions? How was today's field trip? It was good. I heard you all invited the a couple of teachers have invited the extension offices to start doing a few activities. They're expensive. Don't be don't take them home. Don't steal them. No, you cannot. Pretty much a lot of classrooms have eggs and the kids are taking care of them and seeing how they're going to hatch. partnership. She's excited to be going
004back for a couple more classes. Yes. Yeah. She's wanting to do more with our kids here. So, know the more the better. Yes. Any other questions for you can sit down? Good evening. Good evening. did the same thing. We we um did the majority of testing last week. Um we have makeups this week. Overall attendance was pretty good for it. Um we had maybe two to four students, maybe five students um hours on those days. So it makes the makeup testing go a whole lot easier and quicker. Um so that was really good. uh the drawings helped me to get there and um but overall it it went well. Um May again is a lot of testing this maps finals. Um that's just the way that it goes when we're just in that testing season.
005Um, we did have Oh, just with the the donations for the the attendance. Just want to um give a shout out to the ALS club because they did they did send some gift cards over and some of the teachers as well did. Um and then um our seventh grader Lily Delgara, she at the film festival, she uh her her film won um an award and it's called the the Founder Circle Award. So the way that it was explained to me was that all the members of the film festival get together and choose an award for just one and it's like an upand cominging. It's it's it's um kind of like a like a really it's not the best but it's really really great and you're headed in the right direction and it gives a $250
006um award to the the film class to continue and move on. So that was that was really good because that's um she's a seventh grader and this is only our second year with film. So that was it was good. Um and that's about it's about all that I have. Any questions? How did the kids receive the how were they receptive to the like the games and the prizes? And um you know they were overall I think it was it was really good for especially for our younger ones. Um sometimes our older students they're already too old for any like that. Even at that, I was told by parents that that um the kids um they really liked like on that Thursday, sixth and seventh grade don't have to test in science. So, we just kind
007of like kept them out of the building and had some activities out on the field. I think they they played kickball, then went into the gym and played something else, had a movie in the afternoon, and then um actually everybody did because we had finished science testing by then. And then had a volleyball um and pizza and and all that, just a celebration to finish testing. And so I think that they really enjoyed it. It seemed like everybody was into it. And you know it's a testing is a a stressful time for not only um students but also for the teachers. That's like the most tired week. The week that you are so tired because all you can do is stand there and monitor and walk. That's all that you can do. And so um
008so I think overall it with the majority of kids it was went well. Thank you. Any other questions members? Yeah, we did our s testing last week as well testing tomorrow. This is probably um and then hopefully we get all done this week. We have till next week to complet this week. Our students went to um National History Day there in Albuquerque. Everybody did real well. We had one student Bernal. She took second. So she's been she she qualified for the national to Washington DC. She has to make up her, you know, she has to determine if she wants to go by tomorrow. You know, see if she going to build the beat. So, so with that, what happens there as a board day? Um, he's the one who, um, I should have brought the
009t-shirt. Um, he designed a t-shirt for the natural national history day and and he won and he won $200 and then he got recognized there at the National History Day there. And then all this all the participants there, they wore his t-shirt. That's nice. Um, we had prom everything went well. seemed like it did. I'm going to get a turnout. Um so I want to thank um you know and py for for you know you know providing some drinks and stuff. I want to thank the wives for all the food they all the kids for prom that night. I want to thank Johnny and Sus because they did the after prom. Sure there's other people that are all involved but Susprom I didn't hear anything about so so you know news is good news you
010know but um I heard everybody had a good time and everybody else talked to me the next week everybody want prize got something so everybody's excited about that so everything went good there um our trip to Chicago would be next week they had a little fundraiser this past week a biscuit Then we had so many I guess so many supplies separately and some people found out about they had enough to feed everybody. That's why I didn't advertise too much because they just had what they had. Um, also just want to thank um, Joey K, Margaret Chavis because they've been coming to our schools just talking about different types of things, you know, whether it's vaping, just the suicide things. I mean, they're always around participating. So, you know, want to thank all them. Um, and
011and just the rest of your teachers just getting ready for the, you know, like I said, parent testing. Next week, we'll have our from the science. We'll be doing that next week as well. And just just getting everything ready for our end of the year um ceremonies presentations. Um one thing we're going to do this year, just so y'all know that so um that that last week when we have our academic awards, our athletic awards, and our clothing, and graduation, everything's going to be done in the gym. So, so we'll set the gym up on Monday with the stage and all the chairs. We'll go athletic in the gym academic sports in the gym Wednesday and then next week Um we have one about she's the cricket champion right now and um yeah she's is
012the best I think eight or something in the state I think she's 66 right now I think that's where she went into um she's only she's only a few inches away from the school record that's been for a long time in chat by the way and uh I'm kind of excited to see what she does I think next week she'll probably break it she didn't today I don't know if she broke it her distance. Um reminder, the SA Valley game, the softball game changed. I mentioned that last time here. Um it's Tuesday. It's next Tuesday. Um because they lost their field. Um yeah, tomorrow. Tuesday. They changed. Yes. Miss and then tomorrow um since our JVs were cancelled the game tomorrow still same time. varsity 3:00 baseball here. It's a single. So, just a one
013game tomorrow. And then, uh, also me, we're playing their double varsity for softball here, not over there. Okay. Um, we have our, uh, relays coming up next week. Next, uh, next Friday. I think that Friday, not Thursday, it's Friday. Uh, I think that's it. I think I'm missing anything else. May 19. Oh, yeah. But I told them that would be nice. I'll post it. I'll post it with our um uh what the parents have to download until I'll post it on our page. It's the seventh will be our junior high and the 14th will be our high school. And we'll try to knock out this seven. That would be awesome. and we can knock that out beforehand and they do the concussion test right right now too. So that'll be pretty nice going the summer
014everyone's already done and I think you're going to charge $15. No insurance $15 and I want to think all that with HMS. Uh yeah any questions? We have a lot going on athletics that it's non-stop. Anything? Anything? I think baseball, softball doing good. Um, track is really good. Those keep winning. And yeah, I don't know. Our boys are competing. No questions. We're all good. I guess my question is just a suggestion. It's not a question. Um just to let those that are not doing like volleyball like right off the bat to go ahead and do their physical for the year because it's pretty cheap to do the physical in May than waiting because you know some kids well it'll be every athlete will wait till like they enter that sport. So, just to like let
015them know like, hey, if you're thinking about doing basketball later on down the road, just go ahead and do this since it's going to be cheaper for your parents, right? And for instance, we're just talking because the sixth graders to play fifth, sixth, seventh, think about that for basketball. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully not all athletes. I thought it was just only sixth graders next year. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. And then on truency um DTMS and RBT had RBT had 20 and BTMS 23 contacts for a total of 43 and the high school had a total of 30. So that's a total of 73 parent contacts with TR. Next item on the agenda is public forums. Do we know this the auditors? Yeah, they're on but they'll come. We move them to the agenda. So there's no
016public forum. We'll move on to the next item which is consent agenda. Approval of accounts payable and payroll liability transactions. Is there any questions or comments regarding those as presented? No, that's Do you have anything? I don't I was just curious where it has listed um employee vendor um and it just lists other charges. I just didn't know what that page indicated on the check register or [Music] yeah it says dispersement detail listing. So it must be the check but there's quite a few of them that pop up in different places but they start on page 14 and then it goes to page 15. Yeah. But it doesn't delineate as to what or why or who or who that is probably the like the referee. Do you know what that is? We have more. Yeah,
017we have them listed as just listed as employee but these just are very vague. Well, there's eight nine that I see a check because I couldn't get on tonight. So, one check was not out to mark for um Yeah, he's listed. He's listed on here. Yeah, there's this one that just says employed 33265. It's the same check number. Yeah. 33265. Yeah. And we have one for 33262. Okay. So, it's just showing as employee vendor, but on on the check it actually shows Deborah Hood. So, there you go. Yes. I don't know if there's a way to fix the way they Yeah, I'll look at how we need to make that look better. Yeah. That's then it just has other charges in where is this going to and why are we paying it? Yeah. Other charges
018being that it's not a tangible item, right? But but you're Yeah. Get that taken care. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any other questions or comments regarding the accounts payable and payroll liability transactions? If there is no comments or questions, I will entertain a motion to approve the accounts payable and payroll liability transactions. I will make that motion for accounts payable transaction. Motion by Mrs. Esav. Is there a second? I'll second the motion. Seconded by Mr. Delo. All in favor? Motion carries. Approval of budget adjustment requests. Yes. So we have 25 of them. Well fairly quickly most areas with everybody out there 25. Yeah. Um so the first one is a decrease bar and it's just adjust u budgeted cash based on actuals as of last summer. So the first one is a decrease bar
019of $24,367 and that's an instruction. We have another decrease bar and again these are just chewing up our cash. So another decrease bar of 31,158 in food service. Another food service decrease bar for $5,992. Another decrease bar for $4,545 in instruction. An increase bar um and instruction is $52,77. Another increased bar for $90,37 in student support services. Another increased bar for $36. uh for student services. Again, another increase bar for $10,000 and support services. This one says 10,000 on the actual budget adjustment request, but on the line item list, it shows a,000. Oh, on the Yes. On the actual request though it has 10,000 but on the on the list it has a thousand. Yes. Really that's computer it's all generated off the same. Yes, but it is 10,000 but we will double check it
020to make sure you Yeah, I can. I'll actual. So you need the bar number. What is it from? Okay. Oh no. Sorry. 29 107. Sorry. And then 31. So the as we move on the next one is a another increase bar for $331,73. [Music] That's another issue. And that's we have 311 3173. Yeah. 311073. Okay. I thought you said another number. Yeah, you did. Did I? Yeah, that's um another increase bar for 29,000 920 tax decrease. This is capital outlay $62,772. An increase bar and capital outlay for 78. A decrease bar in debt service for 173,817. an initial budget um to adjust the cash values for [Music] $5,50. Another increased bar for $23 and support services students. Another increased bar in instruction for $2,758. This is a maintenance bar just moving within the same fund
021but just moving in the different functions. So it's they all zero out. The next one is a transfer bar which is moving out of different funds into other funds and again it zeros out. Another transfer bar and it zero out again. Next one's another transfer bargain. Zero. Next one is another transfer bar of several items which is a zero. Then the maintenance bar which again is all the same function. Then we have an increased bar 52,251s in central services out of operational for software. Another increased bar $17,000 um for computers related [Music] equipment. Another increase bar for $11,040 students or school administration support services. That is all. So which figure was right on that? It's 10,000. 10,000. So that the bar was ident. Okay. Yeah. Is there any questions or comments regarding bars one through
02225 as presented? There's no questions or comments. We all entertain a motion to accept the bars as presented to the board. I'll make a motion to approve budget adjustment request. Is there a second? A second. Motion motion by Mr. Mrs. Es and seconded by Mr. Del. All in favor? Motion carries. Next item is discussion items, the 2025 budget. Just a [Music] good I have just a few things that we learned last week at the school budget workshop. that um and these are the things that we're going to use to fill the budget for next to be presented next week. Um so we did get the initial unit value of at $6,81.35. Um that's a 4% increase of the FY25 unit value was 655375. So it is a little bit of an increase. Um but they
023again increased our the medical 9.95%. And dental 4%. Um also new teacher minimums are level one teacher is 55, level two is 65 and level three is 75. And of course it'll go on the salary scale. How that goes. Um, there was an HB2 uh bill that was the average was going to be a 4% salary increase across the board with a $15 minimum, but um Dr. Lucas said that he heard today that that was actually signed with taking the average the average out. So maybe a straight across the board 4%. That's what was told us in our superintendent meeting today. There was also a rumor of a 30,000 for IAS, but we haven't heard anything about that. 30,000 minimum for IAS, but we haven't heard anything about that. Um, school registered nurses are now
024required to follow the same salary guidelines as teachers. So, you'll have your 55, 65, and 75 for your school nurses. Um, and there will be more guidelines on this from PED as to what qualifies as 11, two, and three. So because there's like we were discussing there's lots of different um licenses lensures for an RN right so so that there will be more to come on that um since the level three minimum increased principal salary minimums have also increased and those are on the salary asurances on the pen website and then um so the Lordsburg uh budget due date is May 22nd and we will have the budget ready to present at the May board meeting for you all which will be May 19th. Then we'll have committee meetings and and Dr. Lucas will set
025this up. Yeah. Are there any questions? So this will be on the contract for the upcoming. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions or comments? Thank you for updates. Next item is the 2025 2026 federal grants. Right. So, so far the title one and title two are open. Um, everything's delayed with the situation with at the federal level because all our money's come to the state and then from the feds and then to us. So, title one, we're due about 268,000. I've already submitted that application and I'll submit tomorrow the title two of about 34,000. We're still on IDAB and title four to open up. questions on that. Next item is action items. Action item B, discussion and approval of the 2025 2026 school calendar. So, we sent out three calendars to be voted on. number two
026had the most votes. Um, it does not include a full Thanksgiving break and we got everything back without enough notice to send out or revised, but we did do a draft 2.5 which if you pull it out, it has this coming back three days earlier. Well, two days for regular teachers, new hires will be three days earlier than the previous uh than what was on two. So instead of starting all staff back on the 22nd, all staff will be back on July 17th with that one. But that would give the full Thanksgiving break in November. So, as I said, we we did not have a chance to send this out. I know the principles like the 2.5 version. Um, so that's what we would recommend. Just bring everybody back two days earlier. Okay. It is
027your decision, but know that most folks went to the two the two to the two. Yeah. And then and it was clear by the union as well. The 2.5. No, the 2.5 was not. All we did was we just just we didn't get the results back in time to draft the calendar back in and the 2.5 is just bringing back a little bit earlier with the whole Thanksgiving. Right. So it takes the two days that we would have had off for thanks or would we had to work for Thanksgiving and put it in two days to do before we get Thanksgiving and it is always entirely your choice. I mean you could go with one two or three or 2.5. It's always your decision. I just want to say thank you Ryan for working very
028hard. Yes. Yes, I'm trying to accommodate everybody's needs and wants and um and I just want to say the only reason why we did the three with the Fridays is because we have to accommodate with ourund days. Yeah. So that's the only reason why we have Friday schools. Yeah. Um for like the first part of the semester. Six weeks. Nine weeks. Yeah. So that's the only reason why um just to start later in August and then start later and accommodate adding that the fall break. Thanks [Music] very motion to accept the draft of 2.5 as presented to us. We have a motion for accepting the 2025 2026 2.5 version of the calendar. Is there a second? I'll second the motion. There's a second by Mr. Dela O for draft 2.5. All in favor? I motion
029carries. This is pretty much putting us into all year. Yeah, just right off. Next item is consideration of an approval of a resolution proposing general obligation school bond ballot question and other matters relating there too. And we have uh Kaylee with RBC. She's going to pres do a little presentation on bond and kind of go over what it'll do for taxes, where we stand. come forward with the motion. Thank you, Superintendent. I appreciate the um the introduction. Uh good evening, Madame President, members of the board. My name is Kayleie Wymer with RBC Capital Markets. In front of you is a resolution that allows the district to ask voters for $3,250,000 of uh general obligation bond authorization. That amount was determined off of keeping your tax rate level at its historical debt service tax rate of
030$6.71. You know, before we get to the resolution though, we do have a brief finance plan update for you guys. Um, so without further ado, I'll begin to share my screen. Just want to confirm, is everyone able to see my screen? Yes, ma'am. Great. Thank you. So, first starting with your assessed valuation. This is your tax base. It is comprised both of residential and non-residential values. You know, your residential values continue to be very stable. Um, your non-residential values have some fluctuations. This is mostly due to centrally assessed uh businesses that run through your district. Um, in total though, the district's 5-year average growth rate has been increasing by 1.3% and your 10-year average growth rate has been sitting at about 1.8%. Um, to be financially or sorry, to be fiscally conservative though, we anticipate
031for financial planning that your AV will only grow by a half a percent year-over-year. That's just to be conservative in case your current growth rates do not keep up. You know, one thing we wanted to talk about was some constitutional amendments that were passed this past November election. Uh, constitutional amendment one essentially widen the property exemption for disabled veterans. In the past, you had to be 100% disabled to qualify for 100% of property tax exemption. Constitutional amendment one updated that to where you are now uh able to qualify for exemption by the rate that you were disabled by. So, for example, now if there's a disabled veteran, if they're 40% disabled, they can qualify for 40% uh property tax exemption, 70% 70% property tax exemption, and so on and so forth. You know, additionally too,
032constitutional amendment two increase the property tax exemptions for all veterans regardless of their disability from $4,000 of property tax exemption up to $10,000. So, this is just kind of lays out how those exemptions will impact your assessed valuation. You know, currently this year, you know, veterans uh were exempt from $390,000 of property taxes. Disabled veterans were only exempt from 53,000. You know, once these constitutional amendments take effect, your veterans exemption will jump up to 978,000 and we expect that your veterans or your disabled veteran exemption will jump to 237,000. So in total, we're anticipating these constitutional amendments to impact your assessed valuation by about $770,000 or only about a half a percent. But our projections for the 2025 election do take this AV drop into account. It's something that we're watching and we'll continuously update
033as we get more information on its roll out from the legislature. Looking at the district's history of tax rates, the district uh has a operational tax rate in place. You also have an SB9, a 2 mil levy tax rate in place for $2. The historical debt service tax rate has been $671. Um, again, the election amount of $3,250,000 is based off of keeping your debt service tax rate level at $6.71. So that all in all, your total residential tax rate will continue to be level at $9.15 moving forward. Looking at the district's general obligation debt, the district has $4,995,000 of general obligation bonds currently outstanding. Um, you'll see in the bar chart here your district's uh outstanding principal and interest payments. And you'll see that we structure the district's debt to rapidly decline. This is
034what allows us to layer in future debt issuances and uh future elections without needing a tax rate increase. You know, additionally too, as your municipal advisors, we're always looking for potential refinancing opportunities, but seeing how the coupons on your outstanding debt, you know, range from only 0% up to 3.8%, 8% you know there just aren't any feasible refunding opportunities for the district to pursue at this time but that's something we always look out for overall debt management plan. So as I had mentioned the district does have SB9 um in place that lasts for 6 years. We last renewed that in 2023. So we don't need to worry about SB9 until 2029 for general obligation bonds. You know the last time we went out to voters was back in uh 2021 for $2 million. We have
035since issued all of that authorization, which is why we're looking at uh going back out to voters this upcoming go. Again, that amount of $3,250,000 is based off of keeping your tax rate level. It is a bit of an increase compared to your 2021 election amount. That's because the hire your debt is structured. It rapidly declines. We pay it off quickly. And it's also because your assessed valuation has continued to grow year-over-year, too. You know, additionally, too, on this page, we have the district's legal bonding capacity. State statute allows school districts to bond up to 6% of their assessed valuation. So based off of your 2024 AV of $152 million, 6% of that is about $9 million. Since we only have about 5 million outstanding, that leaves $4 million left to legally issue. The reason
036why we're not going out for $4 million though and instead are going out for $3,250,000 is because of that tax rate constraint. you know, going out for a higher election than $3, and $250,000 could potentially require a tax rate increase. And here's just kind of an overall view of uh the district's elections. So again, November 2025, upcoming here, $3,250,000. If the growth in your tax base continues to be strong, like we've seen, then we could expect a larger election in November of 2029. Currently, we're projecting an amount of $3,500,000, but we refresh those numbers annually as we get updated data. You know, that really does honestly conclude most of my presentation. Um, you know, a couple things I just wanted to note about the resolutions is that for one, election authorization lasts for four years.
037So, once voters approve this upcoming November, we'll have that authorization until November of 2029. You know, additionally too, in the election resolution, it states that it's the board's intent to maintain a tax rate of $7 or sorry, $6.71. Just want to note that that is a goal. It's the intent. It's not a promise, though. You know, unfortunately, we cannot predict the future. Should your AV drop, it may require a tax rate increase to be able to pay for your outstanding debt. But again, our goal is to maintain your tax rate level at $6.71. You know, with that, I stand if there's any questions, you know, about the district's plan of finance or about the upcoming election or even the election resolution that is in front of you. Any questions or comments? Thank you for your
038time. Thank you. I'll stay on the line for the approval. Okay, there's no questions or comments. I will entertain a motion for the consideration of the approval of the resolution proposing general obligations full bond ballot questions and other matters relating there too. I'll make that motion motion by Mrs. E. Is there a second? I'll second the motion. Seconded by Mr. Deloo. All in favor? Motion carries. Do we need to do a roll call? Alyssa. Hi. Myself. Hi. And today Amy Samuel and John Plan are absent for the record. And I'm probably good. Next item is action item C, the discussion and acceptance of the 2023 2024 audit. Scott, are you on there? Yep, I'm on here. How are you today? I'm doing well. I'm doing well. We moved you to the end there. We uh
039Well, that's that's fine. I have other things to review while we're uh Okay, we got started. I just was afraid we'd miss you, so we moved you. Okay. Um I'll go ahead and take it away. Good evening, Madame President and board members and superintendent. Um, I'm here to just go over the results of the audit as required under the state audit rule. So, the state audit rule says that once the audit report has been released, um, that the auditor should meet with governance in an open meeting just to go over the results of the audit and the results of the audit and some other sort of items that that are required to be discussed. things like audit findings um sort of the overall process that we went through to ultimately create the financial statements. Um
040so we did start the audit last uh summer and we did some work in the summer and that consists of you know the testing of the internal control structure um and do updating our documentation of the internal control structure. Uh so those that internal control structure would be things like the financial closing reporting which is bank reconciliations and journal entries and some other items that get closed out every month. Um then we look at the cash receiving transaction cycle, the cash dispersing transaction cycle and the payroll transaction cycle. And then also uh the state audit rule requires that we look at certain compliance areas. So we do that every year. things like looking at compliance with the budget, which you guys just went through the budget tonight on some budget adjustments. And that's obviously important
041to ensure that you keep adjusting your budget so that you can be in compliance and also using it as a tool to ensure that you're not overspending in categories. Um, we look at things like the school personnel act, uh, which has, uh, maybe six or eight different categories we look at there. you know, things like training of new teachers and uh the con the teachers contracts and um some other items in the the school personnel act. Um, we look at procurement, um, mileage and pdium, um, travel, look at how the district is paying, uh, ERP and RHCA, making sure they're collecting the appropriate amount from the teachers, for example, and submitting the the teachers portion and the district's portion to um, you know, the education retirement board or retirey healthcare authority. So, we we look
042at all that. We try to look at all that before the books are closed out. So the books get closed out in the fall and then we start our audit process on the numbers that go in the financial statements and we did provide uh a couple weeks ago we sent down copies of the financial statements. Hopefully everybody on the board got copies of the financial statements. Um it's a good read. I think it's what 90 some pages 96 pages something like that. Um but in those financial statements it covers a whole lot of things uh of which I'll just talk about a few of them. The audit opinion which is an unmodified or clean opinion and then we also issue a report um of the audit being done under government auditing standards. And um if
043there are any audit uh findings we'll we'll just briefly mention the finding number there. And then also the third place that um we'll look to is uh the federal award audit and in 2024 I think the dollar amount was around 2 million and the esser funds alone were close to a million. Um of course those go away here. Um the there is a increase in the threshold for federal audits. It's not this upcoming audit year uh which starts here in a couple of months but the year after the the threshold will will increase from 750 to a million. So I think in the future you may be pretty close to um having a single audit or not having a single audit. Uh just depends on how all the federal funding comes in. But um a
044little over a year from now the threshold will be a million dollars instead of the $750,000. Um and then once we got done with the account balance work, you know, testing cash, uh receivables, payables, debt, um capital assets, etc. After we got done testing all that, um we did um put together the financial statements. So, so we were also contracted to put the financial statements together and then we did meet um with a member of governance at the very end um when we went over the uh results of the audit and um I think um looks like Julia was was there um as representing the the board at the audit exit conference and so we did go over the results of the audit there. We did have a couple of audit findings. um they're actually
045pretty low level. Um but they still are audit findings required under the state audit to to be presented in the report. If this was another state, if we were over in Texas, uh it would not be in the report. It would be a separate little letter that got that got issued. But that New Mexico wants to ensure um you know full transparency with um audit findings. So I will just briefly go over those. Um so on page 92 of the report, we did have an audit funding that was repeated from the previous year uh related to budgets and there was one category that was over budget by $60,000. And you can see, you know, the recommendation is just continued to go through and and reconcile the budget and ensure that you're doing your budget adjustments
046timely. Um the district acknowledged the finding and we'll continue to work on that. The second audit finding is controls over per purchasing. This is an other matter again another lower level sort of finding. Um, we noted that during the process of of looking at the purchasing controls, we know three purchase orders were created after the vendor invoice. And really the way it's supposed to be, you start with the requisition, then the purchase order, then the order is submitted, and then the vendor provides you the good or services and sends you the invoice. So, I think in a couple of cases here in our sample, um, that those purchase orders were created after the fact. And then we noticed a couple of other small items observations um related to you know signoffs and approvals and um
047and such. We know that there's not that many people in the process but we're just saying that uh there should be you know those sign offs um appropriate and accordingly. And then the last finding is on uh cash controls. another what we call another matter again a lower level audit finding that would be normally in a recommendation letter and we just uh looked at that process and had a couple of uh suggestions for improving that process um from the cash collections at the schools and um training over uh cash controls and so um management did agree with the uh um that um audit finding we'll implement some better enhance the controls that are already there is probably a good way to put it. So that's what's required. Um I think overall the audit process went
048went quite well. Um we did of course submit on time which is obviously important because two years ago that did not happen. Um our first year last year we were able to work with um management and get it resubmitted on time and and this year again on time. So I think you know overall a couple of things to maybe enhance the processes but overall good audit and that's um what we're required to talk about any anybody have any uh questions because I I certainly answer any questions anybody might have you know it's an exciting read on that on that 60,000 you know the the cash was that the one that we had been I think from previous years that we hadn't been able to balance and finally got it when y'all came on board or
049was that a different one? So, are you talking about the budget or the the the difference on the cash that was there in the previous year? Yeah, the cash that was there in the previous year because that was a finding I think we've had before. Yeah, she had it for I think a couple years but it was resolved this year. uh this last year under audit, we looked and and did our testing of uh the bank reconciliations and tying the bank reconciliations to the trial balance and looking at all the reconciling items. I think that worked out just fine. So I we we considered it resolved. And just one more thing to add, I know it's it's a it's a lot to absorb if you read these financial statements. I think a couple of key
050takeaways is um that the district has a lot of funds which creates these huge financial statements uh because in the uh virtually every federal funding source and every state funding source, it gets its own set of statements, its own balance sheet and its own income statement. And that that creates a longer report than you might expect. Um so it does you know obviously the accounting process uh requires a fair amount of time just to continue to reconcile and and post and um when mistakes are made to go back and make those those corrections. Um, and sometimes the in some of these federal funds or state funds that pass through the public education department, sometimes they'll deny a small expenditure, um, for whatever reason. And maybe they say it doesn't meet the the the programmatic requirements
051or whatever. And when that happens, journal entries have to be made and moved that that expenditure over to the general fund because the general fund picks up um any of those type of expenditures that are disallowed. And the general fund is where the SEG obviously goes through and that's the main operating fund of the organization. So that's I think an important uh fund to pay attention to is the the general fund. But again there's there's a lot of funds. There's the the general funds. There's more than one general fund typically general funds but there's one general operating fund. There's a whole bunch of special revenue funds that are have special revenue sources um state, federal, local even sometimes. And then there's capital projects funds and of course um the debt service fund for which property
052taxes are are collected and used to pay down the debt. And then you recycle back through and then issue new new general obligation bonds. And and that happens every every so often. And the district of course has as all school districts that's how you that the property tax mill levy is the ultimate source to be able to uh pay for improvements and enhancements to the uh school buildings. So that's my my overall report. Um think that um you know district is doing well. couple things to clean up and continue to work on and and the finding that the superintendent was talking about that had been there for a couple years that was resolved uh this year that related to the cash reconciliation process, the overall big cash reconciliation process. Any questions or comments for Mr.
053No, our overall opinion is unmodified, correct? Yep. It's an unmodified or what we call a clean opinion. We didn't have any qualifications. Thank you for all the work that you put into this, Mr. Allison, and for your prompt completion of of the audit and getting it in time. Appreciate you. Yes, I think it's important to get it in on time because you don't you never want to be on the bad list. No. Thank you. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the 2023 2024 audit as presented by Mr. I'll make a motion to accept the 2023 24 audit. Motion by Mrs. Esk. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Delo. All in favor? I motion carries with all of the items to be discussed by the board have been taken care of. Meet
054at 658.