001got to wait till Dr. I'd like to call the meeting of the Ponz County Board of Education a special meeting for January 9th, 2026 to order. All members are present. Will you please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> First item on the agenda, item A, it's a review and discussion of Pocahontas County High School financial audit. Dr. Williams. I Yes, we need a motion. Do I have a motion? And Mr. McC's made a motion. Do I have need a Do I have a second? >> Mr. McNab second. All those in favor sign I. >> Motion carries. >> Go ahead, Dr. Williams.
002>> Okay. Good morning, President Grimes. Board members, community members that have joined us and staff who view the presentation later. We appreciate all that all of our teachers are currently engaged in educating our students. I want to acknowledge that Pocahontas County High School is the flagship school of our county. We are all deeply invested in its success and committed to supporting it through every channel. We are stronger together. There is nothing I will share today that we cannot address and overcome with cooperation, hard work, and a growth mindset. As Carol Dick reminds us, in a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, "Oh, I'm going to reveal my weakness," you say, "wow, here's a chance to grow, to improve, to become better." [clears throat] This moment represents an opportunity for
003growth, one that we will eventually look back on and celebrate. We will reflect on how we identify challenges together, solve them together, and ultimately will celebrate overcoming them together. I am honored to speak with you today about the status of the audits from Pocahontas County High School. As a reminder, this meeting is being recorded and will be posted on our website. All do documents from this the debriefs including the presentation will be available on Miss Hamilton's page of our website. Um so I'm going to start the presentation. Um Miss Hamilton, our chief school business officer will be collaborating with me on giving the presentation. It is in your agenda book. So, what I thought we would start off with is just looking at a general overview of policy 1224.1 to calibrate our understanding of what
004the expectations are in law code. So, accounting procedures manual for the public schools in the state of West Virginia, again, this is policy 1221, states this. County boards of education subject to provisions of statute and the rules and regulations of the state board of education have the opportunity and the responsibility to require that records be kept of all receipts of dis dispersements of all funds collected or received by any principal, teacher, student or other person connected with the school and all programs plans, activities, and other endeavors of any nature operated or carried on by or in the name of the school or by any organization or body directly connected to the school. Those funds will be audited and to conserve such funds. All such funds so collected shall be deemed quasi public funds and shall
005be expended for the benefits of the students of the school. The policy opens up with those guidelines. The accounting practices and procedures prescribed in this manual applies to every public school in state in the state including multi-county vocational centers. County boards of education are encouraged to develop local policies and regulate that supplement the provisions specified herein. So responsibility. The school principal was responsible for financial management of the school, not the Pocahontas County Board of Education. The principal must ensure that all provisions of this manual and local board policies and procedures are complied with, that all accounting records are maintained accur accurately, and that all financial reports are prepared and submitted in a timely fashion. Again, I want to I want to just stop and pause here to go back to the memo that I read
006to the public last board meeting and the memo that I sent to all Pocahontas County staff where we really talked about chain of command. Chain of command does not start at the central office. A lot of people think chain of command starts here, but chain of command starts at the classroom level. The teachers in charge of the students. The students go to the teacher. That's chain of command. The teachers go to the principal. That's chain of command. The principal goes to the directors. That's chain of command. The directors come to the superintendent. The school board. The schoolboard when they have a problem comes to the superintendent. That's chain of command. When we have an erosion of any element of chain of command, we have to identify that weakness generates um strategies for solving it and
007overcome it. So collections of money and again this is verbatim word for word from the policy. All monies collected from school activities, including child nutrition, must be remitted daily to the school principal or to the individual designated by the school principal to be responsible for funds. As a former principal, as a former child nutrition director, I know that we have financial secretaries that oversees that process for us. And sometimes that's deferred to the principal to those secretaries to discuss with the principal. That's another element of chain of command. In situations where monies are collected after normal hours or on weekends, those funds are to be remitted the following school day. The total amount of money remitted to the principal or designate must be reconciled. And we're talking about reconciliation of accounts and funds collected with
008funds deposited today when this audit. That's what we're really looking at. um to the detail records that support the collections. And I'm going to ask Miss Hamilton to explain the form that we have near policy 24 well 21. We have a ticket sale form and when you all go to the ball games, um you'll see that they're selling some student tickets will be a generally a lower price than the adult tickets. Each of them are separated. You're either going to get a ticket that they'll rip in half or a double ticket where they'll rip off one and keep one. those tickets, whether they be the half or the whole, that's have to be retained at the office. Um, generally, you have your ticket log that's filled out and you'll have ticket sales and you'll have
009a ticket log to prove so that your ticket numbers are matching so that there aren't any tickets missing because a ticket to the school is money to the school. So, we're making sure that another thing to make sure that we're uh keeping our due diligence is our ticket collectors not be the same. they should only be doing it five times and it's good to switch them up so that it keeps everything um so the same people are collecting together and I'm pulling out forms from the policy. I'm reviewing those forms as we go through this policy to establish some of the framework for understanding the audit that we're getting ready to review. So that's the very first form that we have. So next is issuance of receipts for money collected. So a pre-numbered receipt must
010be issued for all collections at the time the funds are collected regardless of whether it is a collection in cash or by check. This includes, but is not limited to, all revenues collected from students and parents, vending machine sales, concession stands, cafeteria sales, gate receipts for competitive events, proceeds from carnivals, book fairs, and other student activities, fun drive collections, donations, refunds from vendors, tuition payments, and reimbursement from all the uh central board office. The total amount of receipts issued must equal the total amount of funds received. They have to equal um it was always a problem when I was child nutrition director and u Miss Dunlap you'll know this with GFS you get a rebate of 2.5% for using your credit card and they send those rebates in the forms of of things you have
011to process in weeas. So, my secretary, I would have to dig in and make sure that she reconciled those because a loss of those rebates was a loss of money, which was about $20,000 a year. It was tedious. That was a hard process, but you have to do it. You have to take the time to do that because we are responsible for those types of funds. Chrissy, can you go back to that one, please? And I would ask Mrs. um Hamilton to talk about this. you in each school and in in the accounting manual, they can print out the teacher collection sheet and that's so that when students bring the money, you'll have the student name and then the amount and whether it's check or cash and then that goes with a um with a
012money verification to the secretary to deposit instead of just putting nine students for fees. uh $5 fees being $45 student name who received that needs to be on there. What student paid each $5? So if you collected $5 for computer fees, then you put the student's name on there each student that you collected those fees from. [snorts] So you have record of check and cash goes on that receipt. So it continuing the issuance of receipts in situations where classroom teachers, which is what we just showed you, sponsors or other individuals are originally collecting fees from a group of students for some student activity, and this includes fundraising activities. I ran fundraisers for eight years. I ran it at the middle school. I ran it at an elementary school. And I was the sole source of
013overseeing fundraisers at the elementary school. 200 and between 250 and 290 students, three classrooms, a lot of fundraisers. They all came across my desk. I had to do this with all the fundraisers so I know how to manage a fundraiser. So when you collect fees from the students, your classroom teachers collect the fees from a group of students or some student activity. The collection may be recorded on a single list and that's what she just showed you. Rather than issuing each student a receipt, that list is your receipt for that student collection. The list must reflect the students name, amount being collected, date of the collection, whether the collection was by cash or by check, the purpose of the collection, the name of the individual who collected the funds, and the name of the individual
014who's remitting the funds. A copy of the list must be provided to the school principal or designate at the time the collection was remitted to the school to support the total amount being remitted and deposited into the bank accounting procedures manual. Still continuing on. We're working down through each of those and I've only highlighted it. The manual actually has um about 60 pages but I'm pulling out the main things that pertain to this presentation to the board today. Bank deposits. To minimize the risk of loss or theft, it is recommended that bank deposits be made on a daily basis. However, a bank deposit must be made whenever total collections on hand exceeds $500 or before a holiday break or before the weekend. It has to be done. Bank deposits must be made regard made weekly
015regardless of the amount. So, you have $2. That's all you've collected that week. It's Friday. The week's ended. We have to make a baked deposit. That's the law. Um, authorized expenditures. So, all authorized expenditures have to be publicized and approved. West Virginia code 18-5-13 allows schools to expend funds for students, parents, teachers, and community recognition programs using fund generated from fundraisers or donation solicitated activities. So there's a difference in a donation. Say somebody contacts board member McNap and they say, "Board member, I want to give the school district $5 million hypothetically." Okay. His role in that situation is to call and say, "Dr. Williams, superintendent. I have a donor. They want to give this. They contacted me. What is that process?" And I begin that accounting process with my chief school business officer and we
016work with the West Virginia Department of Education executive director Uriah Cummings and we say how do we do this? How do we regulate this? How do we set this up appropriately? Now let's say I need some money for cat food hypothetically. Okay. And I want Miss Dunlap to give me $10 and I want Mr. Gibson to give me $10. Mr. Mr. Anderson to give me $10, Mr. Morgan to give me $10, Miss Hammonds to give me. That's soliciting a donation. It's the same as a fund raiser cuz you're raising funds by asking people to give you a money. It's the same when you sell a shamrock at the gas station. That's a fundraiser. It's the same when you put the penny jar out there and you collect pennies. That's a fundraiser. There's no product exchanged,
017but there is money collected. So, it's a fundraiser. So prior to commencing the activity, the school must publicize that the activity will be for this purpose, an agreed upon purpose and must designate the funds generated for that purpose. So that agreement occurs by submitting the fundraiser approval form that goes through all the levels. I approve it and I can run the board agenda and the board members approve it. It's public. It goes out to everyone. Everyone has access. Oh, they're fundraising. Well, let me see. Okay, there's what they're fundraising for. And then the school advertises their fundraiser. Any funds generated must account for in a separate account in the general fund and not to be co-mingled with other school funds. Schools and school clubs may not make contributions to charitable or private nonprofit organizations unless
018a fundraiser is conducted specifically for that purpose. So, hypothetically, cuz I did do this, I every year did a a November Thanksgiving basket, right, for our needy families when I was a a principal of the school. And we would solicit canned food and donations for our families at Roupert Elementary to purchase items that we needed for those those baskets for our most needy students over the holiday break and the camp foods and we would put that together. We would fundra for that. That was a charitable gift to our community. That was our community activation and engagement. So that's an example of how that would work. So accounting procedures manual we're going to talk about purchase orders. So there is a procurement process that has to be followed. It starts off and what I have this
019has purchase order but our requisitions looks exactly the same. So here's what the manual says about this. A purchase order system is to be maintained at each school whereby all purchase of purchases of materials, equipment, supplies, and services are made through a pre-numbered purchase order approved in writing by the principal and designated before the purchase is made. So before the purchase is made is key there. You have to have that number before the purchase is made. Schools are required to follow the bid thresholds outline outlined in state board policy 8200 purchase procedures for local education agencies. All purchase orders must be approved in writing by the school principal or his or her designate and approval can only be made when sufficient funds are available. So this is really key right here. You have to have
020things updated so you're not spending money you don't have. Right. And if you don't have a PO where chain of commands been followed, you submitted it. Somebody looked in the bank account and said, "Oh yes, you do in fact have this money to spend. You can spend it. Here's your number to spend it." That's why we do that. So we're not spending money that we don't have. So that purchase requisition order process has to be in place. So I'm going to let Miss Hamilton explain what we have in place, how that works, and what the F form looks like. Form is you have a requisition where you go to the school and you're asking the building supervisor if you can purchase this. It has your signature on it and you wait and the building supervisor
021will either agree and approve it and then it will go to the secretary to create a purchase order. If it's not, it'll go back to you and it'll tell them why. I'm sorry. This is not an acceptable fund that you can spend. We cannot do this. It's not an acceptable purchase. We do have some that we reject. Once the secretary has it and she creates her PO, then she will give you a copy. Some of them are with the CTE are able to go to Glades and purchase some building materials that they're needed for a project that he's doing with a construction uh project, but he has it of do not exceed $1,000. And he's allowed to take that to Glades and pick up his stuff if he would go ahead of time. Yeah. Do
022And we has SFO. We have an electronic system in which all of those are recorded. And I do want to make sure that we understand that they are consecutive purchase orders. They're not random. You get something from the thousand uh purchase order or 2,000 over here. When I used to make uh buy technology and I bought a lot of technology, I'd buy a million dollars worth of technology at a time when I redid the phone system and the camera system. So I put maybe eight requisitions through for eight different schools. They were in consecutive order because that's the way they were pulled. That's one of the auditing provisions is that you have that consecutive order PO. Um collections we're going to go to collection. Okay. event receipts. Pre-member tickets are to be used at any
023event where admission fees is charged or donated and accepted for a um amendments. Every example event examples include dances, sporting events, theater productions, shower performances, unused ticket stock, and this is really important. This is important. Unused ticket stocks should be kept in a secure location and issued to the ticket collectors immediately prior to the event. That's the way we justify our account in our gate admissions whenever practical practical support. Separate individuals should be used to sell and collect the tickets and no individual should be used more than five times per year. As tickets are collected from fans, they should either be torn in half and half returned to the individual as a receipt and the other half should be retained or you can do the you get a ticket and you get a ticket. So
024that we're keeping track of those. We count those. We justify our receipts. This will be important in a moment. All of this will be important for laying the framework of understanding. Cash um dispersements are not allowed. I want to be real clear about this. So, let's say Miss Dunlap over here raises money and on her way back she knows we need some copy paper, right? She need some copy paper. She's got $400. Why not stop and buy some copy paper out of that on her way back? That's not allowed because this is what it says. Cash dispersements are not allowed from event collections. All proceeds from school sponsored events must be deposited intact into the account and all procurement processes be followed from the money that's deposited into the account. We don't use cash in
025the school system and there's a reason for that. A ticket reconciliation report must be prepared for each event to reconcile tickets sold and cash collected. The report must show the following. The beginning cash bounce. That's usually what's in your box. First and last numbers of each type of ticket sold. Student, adult, and other. That's what we just went over. Total number of tickets sold by type. Price of each type of ticket sold. Total sales ending cash balance. Total cash in the cash box. The difference if any. In addition, total sales for tickets sold prior to the event must be shown. The reconciliation report must also show the activity, the date, and must be signed by the preparer or preparers cuz two people should be counting this and the principal. And there's an I already gave
026you the example of that. So that's the process for gate admissions. Trust me, I did this for years and years and years at all the football, soccer, show choir events at Eastern Green Middle School. Right, Julie? Fundraisers. If a fundraising activities are conducted by school, local pro procedures must be established to regulate such activities to ensure that they are conducted in proper manner and to all proceeds of receipts and deposited correctly. Fundraising activity is defined as a school activity which will this is a fundraising activity. The definition fundraising activities Fun activity is defined as a school activity which will potentially generate a profit for the school or a specific school group or club. So if you're collecting money and you're going to get a profit to spend, it's a fundraising activity. That's the definition and
027code. That's what it says. Here, would you like to explain this? Sure. Was your fundraiser worth it? Well, let's find out. You have to complete for every fundraiser presented, you'll have to complete a profit and loss statement. At one time, these were cumbersome on the secretary andor coach or whoever is doing the fundraiser. Not so much now. And SFO, that's our school funds online accounting system. If you the secretary will provide an event code in her accounting for every for every revenue and every uh expenditure. Then all she has to do do is put the event in and the dates that she'd like, hit the button, and your profit and loss form is generated. Now go over it. Have those that are in charge double check and make sure. But it's not as cumbersome as
028they used to be. But this will be where your your pre revenues, your money coming in and money going out. Was it worth your time? And it'll show you your profit, your net profit or your net loss. And then you'll know what you can claim for the next time. I'm going to take a pause here. You know, in the presentation, we want to ask the board members. This is a time for if you have any questions about the policy, anything that is not clear, anything that uh Miss Hamilton and I can do a better job of in setting the context for the next stage of the presentation. >> Just standard business procedure. Yeah, most businesses have the same accounting practices. Well, I would like to add that uh as a citizen uh work that you
029know that the the sports events and other things and human error does happen in this you know citizens do they'll be talking about cows in the field and when a guy hands the money we forget to hand their ticket and there's $6 not accounted for I guess in at that. And so, um, I think that just, you know, you have to look at some of these, you have to look at your your your people, your volunteers, and consider maybe some of the mistakes. >> So, here's what I have to say to that. I agree with that a thousand%. that reconciliation and that error can happen there but it should not happen at the end of the night when two people's counting it because then at that point in time you catch that there was a
030reconciliation problem and you know that you say okay maybe I got off on my tickets I uh uh have more money than I have given out tickets and you find that and you can justify that and document it on your form at night so that's where that reconciliation of those errors occur cuz you You know what? I've known that to happen before when I oversaw this process as a principal. So that can happen. But at the end when you count it, double counting it and you sign it, you're both saying that that was there and that was dealt with. Then when we go to the third step, which is the third person counting it, the principal or the financial officer, then whatever was sealed at the end of the night, those errors are already accounted
031for and it should count out the same the next day. >> I high school basketball game >> and it's not as easy as you think it is >> because you got student tickets and you got a dog tickets. Yeah, >> you know, usually one person's collecting the money, the other ones is giving out tickets. And at the end of the night, >> well, you get a rush. 10, that's where the ball game starts. It's not an easy process. But at the end of the night, mistakes are easily made. Yeah. >> But usually it's not much. >> And you know, you you figure out what you did >> and you find it at the end of the night. >> You find >> And you know what? It's no big deal. >> Yeah. >> Cuz you found
032it at the end of the night. There were for me, Miss Dunlap can say, we were over the school and there was a thousand people in it. So there's 300 people in line. You're trying to provide client services. You know, get them in there, get them through, get them in the gym into the concession stand cuz they're all hungry. They came straight from work. >> I understand those things occur, but you find that at the end of the night when you're counting two of you together, and that's why there's two of you doing it. >> And we don't want to discourage volunteers for coming and helping out with >> Absolutely not. because we need these people in the community to come and help and and look at this because you know a lot of times
033teachers have worked their day. >> Yes. >> So we got to get volunteers. >> I don't think we're going to find a lot of discretion at the volunteer. >> No, I don't what I've got a question which my son and I and wife and did the homecoming football game last year year before and like I say it gets confusing >> especially with that. So what we did at the end I don't and this is my question. We probably messed up and we knew it. So we just threw in any $60 or $80 at the end. What do you do with the over funds? >> Is that a problem or I mean that's the only way we could find a job. >> Over fun is better than under. >> I think we are the problem. >>
034But we want to make sure we're [laughter] not changing. >> Yeah. We didn't do that. We just didn't We We probably missed something. So, we just >> we threw some money in to make sure we were over. >> There were there [clears throat] There can always be some discrepancies between tickets sold and tickets collected. >> You have to be somebody you that's when you have two people there. And when it happens, you just reconcile it. It happened at Eastern when I was there. I'm sure it happened when Miss Dunlap was there. She was after me. She took my spot. So, um you know, things happen. So, we're not talking about the initial collection, >> okay? >> We're not going to have findings at the initial collection level. We're having findings after the gate block has
035been gates box has been submitted. >> Do you see what I'm saying? And [snorts] we're getting ready to review those. So, now we want to talk about the timeline for how everything occurred. To be completely transparent, have we sat on this for months and not told the public about it? How long did I take in reacting to the situation and my chief business officer? What supports were provided and what have we done? Because I think that's a question for transparency. >> Okay. You have one more. >> Okay. >> So that's that that's really what we're we're looking at timelines to leading to. So finally I want to go to uh this is important and this is the reason the board approves all collections of cash and this is the reason that process is in place
036and we have that form because we're liable. This this school board is liable for funds and that is done uh through our insurance. I don't know if everyone knew that that the school board's commercial general liability policy through the board of risk and insurance management called brim generally appoints elected and appointed officials faculty senate members employees volunteers student teachers acting within the scope of the duties and regardless if they're on school ground or not. So when they're out representing you, anything that someone does, you our insurance company is liable for that. So that's important to remember and that's why I want you to have the opportunity to improve approve everything so that you're aware of everything that's going on and it also pro provides that transparency to the public. So the next um portion of
037this is again the timelines. We're going to look at some of the things that were found. And I want to say that this this this debrief is meant for transparency. This is not meant to uh beat anyone down. I would never do that. I love Pocahontas County Schools. I love our high school. I love all of our teachers countywide. I'm striving for excellence. We're on state of emergency. We have to acknowledge our problems and fix them as a collective team together or or it may go differently at that February board meeting. So, how did this come about? On December 11th, there was a report issued to the superintendent and myself. Uh, and once that report was issued, we first immediately began inquiring to see what was going on. superintendent and the CSBO and the director
038of finance were able to discuss things question. We had some concern and we contacted the building supervisor of Poconis County High School on September on December 12th. The school was closed. So instead of visiting the school and gathering a check that was necessary, the CSBO reported to the local businesses to see the amount that was donated and to see if we were passing some thresholds and let them know that we had some contract rules. Are you aware that there's only one here that can enter us into a contract and it is not me and it is not a staff member but is our superintendent. So there had been some issues with that and we had to make that addressed. On the 15th of December, the superintendent met with the local banks and head coach of
039the girls basketball team. Um, so we had some matters to discuss and let them know of what we could move forward with and what we had to do. On the 16th of December, myself and Dr. Holmes, that's our personnel director. We went to Pocahontas County High School, uh to collect some information about the funds that were raised that was no fundraising form completed or approved. And we wanted to see look the school safe. On the 17th of December, myself, Dr. Holmes, we made a report to the superintendent of our findings of what what we inquired and at that point the decision was made to have an independent audit. We felt that would be most necessary. When I was at the high school on the 16th, there were some issues identified, and this was what brought
040us here with all the following funds and and on-site collections. We're in the safe. The turkey trot, poinsetta sales, track donations, advent calendar funds, forest festival travel stipens, robotics, class dues, yearbook sales, powderpuff t-shirt sales, National Honor Society dinner collections, science lab fees, Skills USA club dues, Christmas t-shirt, shirt sales, FFA donations, FFA fruit basket sales or fruit sales, lunch payments, and basketball ticket and concession sales. I will remind you this was December 16th. >> Some of those occurred as early as September, as late previously in the year in September. >> All of this was still in the safe, all these funds. Yes, sir. So, I want to talk about I want to get back to get to ticket sales. I want to talk a little bit about that and I pulled an artifact from
041ticket sales that I want us to to read over together. So, I've taken the names off of this. So, any ticket collector is not associated with this. And in no way, shape, form, or fashion am I blaming any ticket collector from for this. So, this gate box was submitted. In the gate box, they say we had a $100 bill, right? I think we all know what a $100 bill looks like. We're pretty competent with money. >> Oh, I understand. >> But when money was counted for submission, it's marked out there was no $100 bill. Okay. We go down to uh the ticket collectors reported that we had 118 $20 bills. That's marked out. Says we have 113 $20 bills. So now we're $200 difference between the third county. So two people counted it. We have
042this much money. It's in the safe at the school. Now we're missing a $100 bill. We're missing five $20 bills. We go on down. We're missing 10. Two $10 bills. I believe it's marked out. It's supposed to be 13. Say we have 11. You can see over there on the side. We go down and we say it was reported we had $3,98.30, which you know, there can be some calculation errors there. That's marked out and said $2,878 was actually in the box. minus the box of $450. The total deposit was $2,429.56. So that's that's a problem. >> So you there's no way to get around that there's a discrepancy there and what was reported and what we see. And I use a $100 bill. uh to I'm using that because there's no way to get
043around there is or is not a $100 bill there. Everybody knows that. You don't mistake that for another bill. It's very um defined. We're all excited when we see one. If we'll go to the next one, please Christie. Some other sample issues that were found upon verification. The $225 point set of fundraiser was short $50. $1 bills were recorded on the documentation on your money sheet. However, when I verified it, only 66 were present in the safe. A double verification was done and there were only 66. Basketball uniforms were purchased without a signed requisition and/or purchase order in place. Additionally, the vendor you used was not an active vendor for our school system. A check for the science lab fees was dated September 9th of 2025 and the deposit went through in the 16th of
044December. athletic director was reported that referees had not been paid and over 39,000 was kept in the safe for several weeks. Um, and in most cases in most parts of the funds have been there for months. I personally took the money to the bank from the last two weeks in December. So again, I want to go back to that policy, the guidelines that we clearly outlined, we established that over $500 is deposited daily and a deposited is made every week. If it's $2, $4, $39,000, a deposit has to be made. So we can see that we have some security issues. This is a security issue that we're dealing with. So, I have another artifact from um Miss Hamilton's and she $54 short on ticket sales. You kind of alluded to this football game on 91424.
045So, this was in there. This this information 91424 $500 gate blocks. This is the note. I took one $50 bill and four $1 bills for $54 bills from the concession stand box. Now, I just said we don't take money out of a box. We deposit that together. We let this happen. We we reconcile this. Okay, we're short. Okay, but we don't go over to a different money box and take money out of that box because two people counted that box. So now those two people are being held accountable for something and their box was right. Do you see that problem there? That exists. So then it's initialed and it's put in there and the gate box is made right. But now the concession stand box is wrong. That reconciliation is not correct. I I would
046like to make a note that our independent auditors we have to audit FY25 2425 school year and that's where they started. I'm legally responsible. It has to be done. We have to report to the state on that. Um all all everybody does in in here will be reconciled to in audited in January. So this is part of the FY25 where we can we've had some errors. So after we collected that information, after I sent them out to inquire about facts, gather the facts, bring them back to me. So I was uh um an independent review of what have been collected. We made the decision that it's best to get a baseline and call in a professional financial auditor to look at starting last year all the way through December. We wanted a baseline for our
047school. What's going on? Is this an anomaly? Can we explain this? What do we do to make sure we're we're we're having a growth a growth moment here? How are we going to grow? And what do we need to grow on? We need an outside agency to help us grow. So the report I have copied it and pasted it in the presentation word for word, but you also have a copy of the report in your packet. So column one is that policy that I've been referencing. Um, and it gives you the policy, the section number, and the section title. So you can reconcile what is in policy 1224.1 specifically where it's found. What was the risk assessment that was done? What kind of test? What did we pull? And then what did we find? So
048we're going to go over it all start to finish and review every finding. Complete public transparency. Um, so we will start with Miss Hamilton talking about the policy and the test. Okay. Yeah. In policy 1224-1 1/12, we have collections and all monies collected must be remitted to the principal or by their designate daily and and we've discussed those. So how can we why do we do this? Collected monies that are not properly safeguarded and/or accounted for could result in misappropriation of funds, therefore negatively impacting the cast position of the school and ultimately the opportunities for our Pocahones County students. What did the auditor test? How do you test for this? to determine if the collection monies are remitted to the principal daily or the next school day and if the evening or weekends they were
049reconciled to support record and uh properly endorsed. So, she's going to go through some receipts, a sample of the deposits, and to determine if checks were made payable to the proper party, and another to determine if the funds collected were from the students and field trips and the meals are properly documented and retained. Did we hold on to those tickets? If the funds were collected in groups, determined if the list of specific information was remitted with the funds, did they have the student collection there or is it just, you know, $500 for collecting water and we have no clue who who purchased it. The findings from the initial test on collections are we reviewed teacher cash receipt summary reports and noted they were not reconciled to detail records that supported the collections and were lumped
050into large collections of cash with no support to approve the amount of full to approve amount was the full amount collected before it was turned in. That's finding number one. Each of these that I read off is a funding. Feeling number two, we recommend proper documentation be submitted with every collection. This is what we have to do to to grow and be better. A detailed cash receipt report should be completed by the collector documenting the amount each supporter contributes held from an event should reconcile to the cash register receipt or order forms that reconcile to the amount of collections. Finding number two, we noted that there were instances that cash amounts were written on the receipt summary in the cash bill, however, were marked through and not included with the checks in the deposit. I
051showed you that I gave you an example of that so you know what that looks like. Funds for student meals are provided to employees and are to be distributed during trips. We reviewed collections that were returned by employees for mills provided to students and noted detail reports were not submitted and listed the student names and amount remitted. Also, in one instance, $500 cash was obtained by an employee and not used on the trip, but was not returned to the principal for over 36 days. We also noted that in one instance a four kickball fundraiser was held in April. Cash was not cash was collected but not submitted to the principal for over 60 days. We reviewed fundraisers and noted that detailed records were not obtained or kept on file documenting or reconciling the number of
052sales to the collections receipt. So that's our findings in the areas of collections. The next section will be policy 1224 um.1 bank section 116 of that policy the deposits it and we are familiar with how we need to deposit. So what is our risk risk assessment? Deposits that are not properly documented and accounted for can lead to a misappropriation of funds. Furthermore, checks that are held for any length of time stand the risk of becoming insufficient. If I give you a check today, I hope you get it in the bank soon because three months down the line, if I don't reconcile my bank account and I wouldn't know, then I wouldn't done it on purpose, but I may have forgotten that I've given it. The test that we use, a sample of the school deposits
053to determine if a deposit slip was filled out on the day the funds were received and that the deposits were made in a timely fashion. So in the time frame of July 1, 2024 to December 22nd, 2025, there were 492 receipts collected. They reviewed 298 receipts in detail for the month of August, September, October, May, and June in 2024. And every receipt made in 2025. That's the audits. That's the provisions I asked them to do. During our review, we noted that deposits were not made daily and whenever total collections exceeded $500. So, we did not follow that part of the policy. The next part that we are going still so each bullet is an issue. So, I'll read each of those. Deposits were also not made weekly regardless of the amount. The auditors determined that
054thousands of dollars were held in the safe and not taken to the bank for over several days, especially after game ticket sales and concessions were well over the $500 threshold. They also noted there were deposits held in the state that did not have a prepared deposit flow and were sealed in deposit envelopes until they can be taken to the bank. They noted that one instance where ticket sales collected came up short. So the fundraisers were taken out of the concession box to make up the difference. They notice cash brigates were taken out of the bank on 8 22 2024 but not deposited back into the following August 81 and then taken back out on 819 2025. >> Oh, hold on. Hold on. I got This is a year later. >> The game boxes, you know
055how you get the change boxes? >> Yeah. Yeah. So, this is a football game. >> This is all the This is the gate boxes from a year. >> Yeah. Okay. >> It was a year later. >> Yes, that's what I was trying to do. >> We also know that copies of checks were not made before they were deposited. So, it could not be determined if every deposit was made timely. We recommend all deposits deposits be made timely in accordance with the policy, which we have reviewed that policy now, and copies of checks be made before they are deposited. That's a requirement. You're supposed to make copies of those. Um, so the next section we're going to look at is section, it's still in policy 1224.1, purchase orders section 1-9. As we discussed, you have to
056have the requisition signed off by the building principal building supervisor and then a purchase order has to be made. And what is the risk assessment involved in that? Quasa public funds should be handled carefully and responsibly. Obtaining bidding and following the required bid thresholds preserves the financial position of the school. What was the test performed by the auditor? Select a st a sample of the school expenditures and over $5,000 to determine if the bid threshold requirements were satisfied and they were prior to incurring before we paid for the expense. So, our findings on this section, um, during their review, they noted that purchases over $5,000 were not properly bid out for three quotes, and three quotes were not obtained. Their recommendation is that we follow those guidelines of policy 8200. We get three quotes when
057it's necessary to meet the threshold. Continuing on with that same um purchasing orders, they reviewed purchase orders during the audit period of July 1, 2024 through December 22nd, 2025 and noted that there were 627 created during that time frame and of them were backdated to a date that predated the invoice. However, uh we're actually encumbered in the system well after the order date and in some instances after the goods had already been received. What that means is we went out and purchased and got stuff and did not follow the policy on 294. So, I'm going to take a moment here. I have receipts. I'm gonna ask Miss Hammonds to bring up that document for us because we're going to highlight a few of the areas that are of the most concern for us. >> It's
058B in your presentation. Those are the 294 I consider everyone stay. >> That's okay. While she's pulling it up, we'll go ahead and start we'll start talking or would you like us to wait till it's pulled up? President Grimes might be a good time for a break if anybody needs a break. Would we like to take a brief break? >> Dr. Holl. >> Let's take five minutes to break. So if we can just travel for five minutes to take the breaking operation. Okay, let's go. Let's start back. >> I'll be back on M. Okay, so what we pulled up, we just got back from our little bathroom break, our midm morning bathroom break. Um, so what we've pulled up now is just again, we're not going to go through all these. It's not necessary. I'm
059going to hit some high points that we wanted to talk about. Um, so here's what we have. Um, page one, you can see that we're dating back. The first one there, date of cash receipts is August 10, 2024. August 27, 2024, August 7th, 2024, August 7th, 2024. So you get the date. So, I want to make sure you know how to read this. So, the first column is the receipt number. The second column is the amount. Thank you, Chrissy. The next column is the name of whatever the event or or what occurred was. The third column is the date the collection was collected or received. The third next column is the date of the check. The next one is the date of the cash receipt. And then the next column is the date of the
060deposit. The next column is the dates days not deposited on time or correctly. And then notes, special notes by the auditor regarding the collections. So I wanted to go down through here. Um, on page one, I wasn't really going to highlight anything on that one. On page two, if we go down right there where it says um, receipt number 209, $3,950 banner fundraiser. If we go across to that, um, we are looking that that is 10 10 20 24. that's from the audit from the previous year. Um, those are dates of some checks, not copies of all the donations. So, that's an instance where we did not have a copy of all the donations or the checks that were made on that deposit lip. We can't verify or justify that particular event. That's what I'm
061trying to show you there is the point of that one. Sher, you want to say anything else about that? the the two checks that she was able to pull one was dated on August 10th and the other was dated on 911 on the date of the check and it didn't go to the bank until 1010. So well over that time period there in the $500 threshold. On the next one um next page we're going to start with July 2025 receipts. There's a couple there I wanted to really look at line five down 2247 and 2248. This is money that was collected for yearbook sales. Um, and I do want to say something a couple of points here that some of these dates that I am discussing and these events that occurred were before I was
062ever a thought of being your superintendent. This is not something that's a dereliction of duty or reflects in any way, shape or form, but my responsibility is to be have good stewardship to find the problems and correct them. So, and this is not something that the board members could have known unless it was brought to them, which it is being brought to you today for transparency. So, these the dates the collections were made were 513 20225 52725. They were deposited a month later. But the thing, one was 30 days late, one was 16 days late. But here's the point of showing this one and highlighting them cash collections not itemized on both of those that need it to be done. We have to itemize when we do yearbook sales. So I'm going to drop down
063to number 16, which is 2259. It's a $700 West Virginia Envirrothon FFA 4252025. It was deposited on 612205. It was 48 days late. Um on the form that was submitted by the educator. It had $192.65 of cash collected but was marked through and only the checks were deposited. Um, Hamilton, you want to say anything about that one? >> Is accurate? That's that was that was part of what the audit found and that was mentioned earlier in the audit report. Okay. If we drop on down to line 28, 2271, $20,000 was collected, a carpentry donation on 618 2025. 620 2025 that was deposited 2 days later, but that's a pretty significant check to not retain a copy of the check. There was no copy of that check retained for our records. So, I'm highlighting that one.
064um 2273 $4441. The soccer derby concession was done on 532025 deposited on 5624 2025. It was 52 days late. That's a significant amount of time. Um kickball fundraiser uh 74 days late. So collected on 411 2025 deposited on 624 2025 appears that teacher held the cash for 60 days is what it says on the audit findings. This is all prepared by our auditor. Um, if we go down to check 2280, $500 money for student mills while traveling again 512025 check date was 326, 2025. So, this is March of last year. Um, date deposited was not until 6:30 2025. It uh 60 days. So, but not also not returned until 512025 in deposit at 629 20225. Student dispersements not itemized. So, whatever was given out, it wasn't itemized. Do you have anything that you would like
065to highlight on that page, Miss Hamilton? >> Yes. Then, you know, no student was when you take a student to the meal and then there's money to be returned. It's not what student who didn't go or who didn't eat as we can return the money. And it appears that the money was returned and put in the safe on May 1st, which is great. We can put it back, but it didn't go back into our local bank until June 29th. >> Um, on the next page, do you have anything you want to highlight? just that she the auditor indicated on 22.99 and that was the gate boxes that we discussed that were um taken out in FY25 and put back in an FY 26 >> 24 in 24 put in 25 but that's that's the 20
066last year >> okay got >> and then um put back in in the and by the 1224.1 we have to put the gate take money back at the end of the year has to go. That's a that's a bottom line from the state. You don't cross fun spending years is what the the point is of that information being shared. So on the next page, if we come up from the bottom, we have 23.891 powder pup admission 1017205. It wasn't deposited until 1128 2025. That's 42 days. If we go right up above that in 2387, we have another one that was 109. So you you get the gist of it. On the next page, line 33 up from the bottom. 2411 2025, the poinsetta sale 124 2025. And that's where she um makes some notations that
067the fundraiser went from to 124 12 days late on both of those fundraisers. So the point in showing you the receipts is to highlight some of the high points or some of the issues, the flagrant issues. They're all findings. I want to make sure that we're all on the same page. We have 294 findings on this one section of the policy. That's a lot of findings. Um, would you like to highlight anything else? Think you hit it very good. >> Okay. So, if we could go back to the presentation, Miss Hams, please. And I want to stop right there at receipts and allow the board an opportunity to ask Mrs. Hamilton questions and me questions. If I haven't been clear, if I haven't um illustrated with transparency the issues that we had, please ask me
068now and we will do our very best. And we're not perfect. We make mistakes. So, any questions? Well, I can just say that I worked at two schools and I didn't realize till today how blessed I was. I never worried about finances because I had people that I trusted and you know I would double check everything but not not in the detail that this requires because I knew that my secretary was doing that. There is a time as principal that you reconcile everything and you check everything. Your secretary brings you everything that they're signed. And I will tell you if I saw something as a principal and somebody had them and I'm like this as a director my my uh as a superintendent but I wasn't a director there for a second. Um my directors
069know that I look at every PO that comes across my true or false. >> True. >> Uh every program code that's on it. True or false? Sometimes I catch them up and we play a little look in the charter of accounts, right? I look at everything. I check everything because the mantle of leadership is a heavy mantle to bear. Will there be a couple of things that will eventually slip through? Maybe. Maybe I'll be sick one day and have a high temperature and not read well. I don't know. But overall, I check everything. I check every code because I am responsible to the stewardship of this board and to this community and I don't want to let you down. >> How often if if we hadn't recognized this problem there, how often do we audit
070the school better? Is it yearly and this was not caught last year? >> It it correct. Now last year's audit hadn't been done the FY25. >> Okay. >> So that's >> but 24 should have been correct. >> 24 should have been. Yes. Up to this point, we've had good audits. >> Uhhuh. >> Up to this point from FY24. >> Mhm. >> The audits with >> what was done by the former CSBO. Yeah. One of the schools and the state auditor. We did not have >> the amount of findings we have today. >> So, we're saying this has just been within the last within the last year. saying what what we have found out has been brought to the attention. It doesn't mean >> that there was something further back. >> We did not go further
071back. We went back. We started for the previous year and this year. And when you're looking at when you have the findings like we had um I have to have a starting point. >> Yeah. Got it. And I h the starting point will be the previous year to me being here because that one had not been completed for that year yet up to the point that I am in the school year. So I am looking before and looking at this year to see maybe if it was pockets but it is a pervasive systemic issue. So we don't go back to previous audits. There could have been something in those audits. Probably not because they do they pull the the test is done. But those audits were clean under and it we cannot deflect this to
072anybody at the central office whatsoever because it's not a central office. >> Sarah, how how difficult does this make your job trying to catch all this stuff up and do any of this? I mean, is this really going to burden you to get everything back correct or it is already correct? Now, >> we are working and we we throughout the report, you'll see what we've done for processes in place for making our corrections and getting it um for moving this point forward. I would the on-site reconciliation when I went to help make the de bank deposits showed a true story and that was we will continue to do that. We'll talk about a little bit of those things to answer your question. It has been all consuming since mid December. I would tell you I
073I'll be honest with the public. I've probably slept 20 hours this week and maybe 20 hours the week before. It requires a lot of time. It has required both Sarah and I to work evenings and weekends. >> Let's say >> I don't want to get off course here. That that's what bothers me is we're dealing with stuff that we should not have to be dealing with. Taking your time. We need to be working on like you and I have talked with the getting these CTE classes and stuff in here and getting our our SK our test scores up and teaching our kids. Instead, we're fooling around with you're all spending all your time on stuff that should never have taken place. >> With that said, Mr. McNab, I have been working on CTE as well.
074[laughter] >> I have not dropped the ball on those programs. So, there is no ball that's been dropped. I work with Mr. Anderson. We've got all of our compliance things in. I spend time with Mr. Gibson. These directors are like my children. They each get time every day. And if I don't get them in the day, I talked. What time we talked last night, Mr. Gibson? >> About 11 o'clock. So I >> the day before that nothing goes without. No. Eventually I'm going to get tired and have to get some sleep. >> That's what worry. So, >> it was 11:00 at >> that was 11:00 at night. And finally, I told Mr. Gibson said, "I got to go to bed. I've been up since 3:00." >> And don't [laughter] and don't text me at 4:50
075like Mr. Gibson does. Um, >> thank you for that. >> So, if we can move on to the next slide. So, >> here we are. Uh again, I I want to say this because I've I've read that you have to hear something 45 times >> to commit it to memory. So I want to commit to memory that we are looking at policy 1224.1 that regulates finances and spending in our system. We're looking at purchase orders. We're looking at section 1-9. Miss Hamilton, >> we'll continue with this. And what is our what is our risk assessment? How what did they need to do and why would the auditor be needed to do this? The school principles are responsible for the financial management of the school and should be aware of the financial position of the entity.
076Incurring expenses without obtaining permission and encumbering the funds after a purchase is made will negatively impact the financial position of the school. and allows for spending in excess of the funds that we have. So what is the test that the auditor will perform? They select a sample of purchase orders and determine if the principal approved the requisition in writing prior to incurring the expense and also were the funds significant. Okay, so the auditors selected a sample of 20 to review in detail and noted that the following issues. Emails were printed and included with some POS documenting that PCHS employees requested vendors to change the date of the invoice. Some checks were written with a date that was before the date the invoice was actually uh the date of the invoice. Order summaries were included in
077documentation that provided items were ordered before the PO was encumbered. And lastly, the principal would sign POS, but a fictitious date would accompany the signature in a different color of being making the appearance that someone was falsifying the documents. And we have details of that. Um we recommend the proper purchasing uh procedure be followed for purchase orders to ensure funds are available and encumbered before purchases are made. We also recommend the principal maintain control over purchases, ensure maximum value is obtained and prevent unauthorized expenses. The accountants review the chart of accounts for Pocahontas County High School and determined. Now remember I told you this is why we have to have a purchase order. and determined at least one account in the chart of accounts had a negative balance. So that means we spent some money
078that we didn't have to spend. So again, I'm going to pause before I go to my final thoughts and tell you what I'm doing to reconcile this, what Sarah's doing to reconcile this, what all the directors are doing to reconcile that. This is all hands on deck for this. So, any additional questions at this point? So, what have we done to this point? After we looked at this and I got the audit findings back, every school is getting an audit right now. I am going to set a baseline for the county as far as funding goes. Where are we? What do we need to do? And how are we going to move forward together? Because we're not going to do pockets of improvement. Together, we're stronger. So, when we find a problem, we need to
079see if is it systemic or do we have it at other other areas. Um training will be required for all staff members via vector or another solution in which everyone will read, train and make sure that they understand the appropriate spending protocol. Now I'm sure that most people do understand the appropriate spending protocol and we have gotten derelictked in our duty of doing it because we did have auditing years where we didn't have these findings. So it's not that we don't know maybe m you know you know when mom is away the kids do play so we have to we have to look at that how do we get our heads back up principles and school secretaries will be trained on time management financial procedures and organization it's a that they are a team so
080they need to understand the policies that regulates them when you accept the mantle of leadership which I've done here I don't want you to know there's nobody standing over my shoulder saying Dr. Doc Miss President Grimes isn't standing over my shoulder and saying Dr. Williams did you read policy 8200? We hired you to be superintendent but I don't know. Do you need me to get somebody to help you with policy 8200? Have you ever had to do that to me? >> No ma'am. >> So we accept the responsibility of being an educated self-motivated learner. If we don't understand how to do something, we ask the people that knows. I am a thousand% confidence in my choice. This is my very first hire superintendent of Pocahontas County, Miss Hamilton, and I am confident that when somebody
081calls her, she has the answers, the skills, and the ability to assist them. I am confident if she is not available and they speak with Miss Dunlap, Miss Dunlap has the skills and ability to help her. Mr. Anderson has the skills and ability. I have the skills and ability. We are not without support. We will get back to you. If it's at 11:00 at night or 4:50 in the morning, [laughter] >> we got you. So, um, all schools are undergoing the independent audits. Principles will be required, and I know this is going to be heartburn. This is going to be heartburn for our schools, but we have these fundraisers flying in here like nothing I've ever seen. And if you can't manage it, you shouldn't be doing it. As principal, you are the gatekeeper. You
082say, "We got eight fundraisers on the calendar and I'm not approving another one until we get that down. We get our bills reconciled. We get it deposited and then we'll move forward. You plan them by the month." I did that as principal. This is what we have in October. This is what we're doing in November. This is what we know in December. This is how it's going to work. You organize that and you manage it. So, I'm going to ask principles will be required to limit the number of fundraisers occurring at the same time and to place all fundraisers on both their school calendar. I'm going to ask them to organize a calendar, put it in their office for their staff to see the dates of the fundraisers, the dates that it ends, and the
083dates that things are due so that we can get this a little better organized. And there will be an electronic calendar that they will be responsible for putting it on so we can see countywide fundraising what's going on. As a final oversight after June 30th in July, we will do another audit of all the schools. We will say we got this baseline. Did we improve on our auditing practices? Did we meet 202 24.1? What's the areas and where's our targets? Where where do we need to target support? Um, so with that said, that wraps up the entire audit, all of the information. I want to go back and I want to read this quote one more time from Carol Dwek. It says, as Carol Dwek reminds us in a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather
084than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, which we have revealed some problems, concerns, some growths, here's our chance to grow and to glow. I look forward to our audit in July being substantially better and coming back before this board and telling you how much we've approved improved. Any more questions for me? President RS? >> Yes, ma'am. Uh, superintendent updates. >> I do have a couple of updates that I would like to share with the public. Um, I'm going to move to my chair now with my team. I'm happy to report that the other night we had a delegation that come before the board on the college the common app for college applications. I have received an email from Mr. Hardy um where he sent it to Miss Bland and
085to Miss Wagner thanking them and Miss Hill for their work on the college common app for college applications. As promised, that situation is being reviewed, worked on, and potentially resolved. I will be going up and meeting with those two students this afternoon. So, I want to know that that delication did not fall on deaf ears. We are all over it. And I want the public to know that not one of our students have to worry about their college applications. They are taken care of. I also wanted to report out that Miss Dunlap, we identified students that were in jeopardy of not graduating. She has put a substantial plan in place. Would you like to give an overview of that to the board, please? [clears throat] >> The school is working on the stat meetings and
086on families and to make sure that we providing the supports the students need. uh whether it's um if they to determine if they can salvage what they got for semester or what the plan is going to be next semester to make sure that we make sure they meet all requirements for graduation on time with the graduation code for just great >> and and in all it's a sub substantially smaller number of students this year than we've had in previous years. So >> that's good working with these students to provide those supports for them. Well, we have a small graduating class this year, too, don't we? >> Yes. Yes. And but I'm talking high school. I'm not talking just at the top of the list. And um we u they do have this one be as
087a good team support make sure these students needs are being met. And then I would like to just finally say in superintendent updates that there are so many people that are working hard every day at our high school. They get up, they come to work, they're there on time, they're where they're supposed to be doing what they're supposed to be doing with those students. I don't want um this to color that any other way than we have some awesome staff members that I'm very proud of. We have some things that we're going to work on, but it doesn't mean there's not great things going on at Pocahontas County High School and in Pocahontas County schools because we are doing great things here and we will continue to do great things. >> Thank you, father. >>
088Yeah, Mr. Grimes. At this time, I'm requesting uh uh we go into executive session for personnel. >> I second that. >> Mr. McNab has requested executable personnel and Mr. Gibson has seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Motion carries. We will now now go into executive session. Do I have a motion to come out of the executive session into regular session? >> So moved. >> Mr. McCome made the motion and Mr. McNab second or seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. >> We are out of executive session at 11:15. Next board of education meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at the Pass County Board of Education conference room at 6 p.m. We are hereby adjourned.