Special Meeting: Audit Committee of the Whole | June 3, 2025

001Good evening. I'm Commissioner James Patterson, audit committee chairperson. I'd like to call the audit committee meeting to of the whole to order. There are no speakers for tonight. Oh uh correct myself. We have one speaker uh for tonight. Dr. Mack. Yeah. So even if you don't have it him on agenda, I'm going to allow him as a chair, you know, to speak tonight. So Dr. Mack, I think you'll have three minutes if I'm correct. Uh please uh approach the podium and uh present, please. Thank you. test. Good. Thank you. And I did sign up through the um website as well early this morning as I usually do. So, I just want to get right to it. I know you guys got a lot on an agenda. I'm going to submit up a report to you

002guys today. This report is submitted to the district uh to highlight some critical issues regarding early childhood education practices in the district's prek program. Based on my research, conversation with educators, and firsthand observations, it has become alarmingly clear that systemic instructional barriers are impeding student development and perpetuating achievement gaps that affect our most vulnerable learners. Okay. Uh a few years ago I conducted some research in early childhood as a part of my doctoral studies within the district approved study uh and published some recommendations in my book entitled preschool survival guide. Uh the purpose of the guide is to provide practical evidence-based strategies for closing the literacy and numeracy gap for urban students particularly in Rochester. Despite and I've shared this guide with leaders who I would not mention name because their names are not necessary

003not only in the district but also across the county. Uh despite sharing this guide with some of the district preschool teachers and leaders, I have since learned that key recommendations were not implemented and they weren't supposed to be but they were greatly suggested. Uh more concerningly, recent reports confirmed uh that our students are continuing uh to integrates grade school two to three years behind. That's a fact that we all know. Okay. All right. So, some of the uh and one of the things that they're behind is reading, writing, and mathematics. All right. So, the through the follow-up conversations that I've had recently with preK teachers uh and some leaders in preK, I've uncovered some disturbing information that I would call it as a parent and as a educator, I would call it disturbing. Teachers reported

004that they are not permitted only in a Rochester City School District, not permitted to uh directly teach foundational literacy and numeracy to prek class students in pre-K classrooms. Some teachers even indicated that they had to quote unquote sneak instruction into their day uh aware of the necessity for the student development. Uh one other teacher operated under these conditions for nearly 17 years and some of the parents in a p private school that I also included in this process uh had reported that their students were doing stronger academically uh than the students that were in compared in district-run schools. And this was a parent a parent who had a sister who had a a child in a district run school. Uh and so we need to make sure this is done. This is just information once

005again that I would hope the report would respond positively to. We need to make sure that you know our students are emotionally uh supportive environments and that they have routines and richness. But we also need to make sure that they're exposed to letters, numbers, and critical thinking uh uh throughout the day. Uh so I have some recommendations here uh that the current preK uh curriculum implementation instructional strategies that we need to look at that that we need to audit those. So the Rochester uh city school district you know we can no longer delay this issue people and we are we are we are setting these students up for failure if we don't address these issues at the early stages. And I would hope that people who have been responsible for overseeing this process over the

006last few years who are calling themselves leaders are listening because the it's not the school board who uh who we can fault for not taking uh taking care of this business. It's the people in leadership roles who had the responsibility of making sure that our kids had what they needed, didn't do the job, not doing the job. And and guess what? Now I'm I'm I'm calling it out. The research is clear and we need to address it. So kudos to those individuals who've gotten themselves to, you know, to the next level. But the ones who are here, we need to make sure that moving forward that we're doing what we need to do to make sure our students have what we have. And this report will be submitted. I'll have copies for anyone else. I'll

007send those to the school board since we didn't get them through. A lot of times you don't get stuff through the um that is hand delivered, but I'll make sure you get them in the email and hopefully you guys can uh set up some kind of committee to address this issue. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Dr. Mack. And there are no other speakers in the audience, correct? Okay, I'm going to move forward then um the review and acceptance of the minutes from December 3rd, 2024 audit uh committee of the whole. The minutes from the December 3rd, 2024 meeting are available online. Can I have a motion to accept the minutes? Motion second. Did you get that by Commissioner Griffin and President was it Malloy? Was it Mallaloy who was the second? Oh, it

008was Simmons. Okay. And President Simmons. Okay. Is there a second? Uh, we have. Yes. Any comments or discussion? All in favor? I I I I. Any nays? Okay. And it should be noted that uh uh Commissioner Elliot and uh Commissioner LeBron are online. You will note in the minutes that the Auditor General reviewed the Wilson Student Activity Fund report at the last meeting, but the report was not accepted by the board. Can I have a motion to accept the Wilson SAF audit at this time? Can I have a motion, please? Motion. Uh, President, correction, Vice President Malloy. And a second. Motion Griffin. A second is by Commissioner Griffin. Any comments or discussion at this time? All in favor? Hi I I that's uh seven zero. Thank you. I would like to turn over the next

009session of our agenda to uh our auditor general, Miss Henry Wheeler to facilitate the audit committee discussion items. Good evening. Tonight we have uh Matt Montabo from uh Dresser Mleki, our external auditors to present our external audit plan for the year end financial audit for the year ending 63025. Um Matt, good evening everyone. Um so I'm here to present the audit plan for the district's yearended June 30th, 2025 audit. Um Excuse me. I'll get right into it. Um the first slide, this is our audit team. Uh most of the members are returning members. Uh Amy Hanley was served as the senior auditor in the prior year. She was promoted this year to manager. Uh so she'll be returning as a manager. And then Schwarz Abalard uh moved into the senior auditor position. He'll also be

010our compliance specialist. So he'll handle the the federal compliance audit as well. Um, so it's good to have returning members that have experience with the district. Um, as far as the products of our audit, so this is the external audit. Um, typically it's a snapshot as of June 30th, 2025. So a very high level but comprehensive review of your financial statements. So from a a board perspective, when you're making your budget decisions, it's imperative to have reliance on your financial records as they're presented to you because you need to understand how your your fund balances and your b the restrictive nature of some of your balances in making those budget decisions. So this is it is a a backwards look as of June 30th, 2025. We perform a lot of the fieldwork in in September

011and October. Um but it is a snapshot as of that point and a look at the activity during the fiscal year. Um as part of that audit we do look at the internal controls but how they impact the financial statements. So it's not a process review on any particular area. It's a look at your highlevel controls and how they impact the inputs the final inputs into the financial statement. So for example the internal controls over your cash processes. Are you doing bank reconciliations? Are there reviews over that process? That's what we would look at to then ensure that those cash balances that are reported to the board and um to outside third parties are fairly stated and reliable. Um we also issue an opinion on your compliance with federal programs. Uh so a lot of

012your major federal programs significant dollars that really provide imperative funding for educational programs. your compliance is the compliance of the district impacts that funding. Um so we pro provide that opinion and then we also uh look at your extra classroom activity funds and contract for excellence uh reports. Um and then we will also issue an auditor communication letter and this provides any significant issues or exceptions that came up during the audit, any critical communications to the board that uh you need to be made aware of. As far as our overall strategy, uh it really starts today in presenting that audit plan to the plan to the district and the board. Um, we take certainly any feedback from management and the board as far as any risks that you're aware of that we should be aware

013of before we perform the audit. Um, when we actually start our fieldwork and our planning phases of the audit, we meet with a lot of the district departments and gain an understanding or if there's any changes in it in the internal control structure or any risks that could impact the audit. Um that's how we design our audit plan and and determine the real areas of focus and the high level uh risk areas of focus for the audit. Um after performing those tests of your account balances, we do also do outside confirmations. Uh we will assist in preparing the uh the financial statement reports, the independent auditors reports and that is what is presented to the audit committee, the board in the December meeting. um and then final issuance that go on to the regulatory agencies.

014Uh some of the recent developments out there um certainly the this is more of a budget impact uh but the f federal programs the COVID funding uh that you've experienced over the last four or five years starting to wind down. Um, so that was really a big benefit for uh not only school districts but public entities that experienced a shutdown and a reduction in their loss revenues. Uh this really helped fill that gap and fund a lot of your your operating programs. Uh so a significant impact when you're looking at your budget going forward. Um the uh you're going through a pretty significant system implementation of your financial software. uh that does doesn't go into effect until the new fiscal year um but could have an impact as far as uh you know some of

015the reports that we look at subsequent to year end. Um as far as public sector staffing, so this is more geared in succession planning. Uh this is has been a big focus in the public sector over the last uh probably five plus years. But going forward still seeing a lot of that, you know, kind of boomer generation, those significant amount of retirements at the same time. Um and it does impact, you know, how how the operations um the continuity of the operations and and really that that succession planning going forward. uh making sure that you know any key turnover in your staff you're you're prepared for uh you have cross trainining and and that next level of uh of professionals coming in and then uh just some on the federal level the US Department of

016Education certainly a lot of uncertainty that you know could impact school districts going forward as far as funding some of those major programs uh uh as far as title one and and some of the real really critical programs that that school districts um operate. Now, kind of switching gears, the recent developments and new governmental accounting standards. These are pro pronouncement that the school districts are required to implement each year. Um the more critical ones for the year ended 2025 uh Gazsby number statement number 101 that's regarding your compensated absences liability and what you project that the district is obligated um to pay in the future. So there there has been some impacts. We we've gone through several audits for our calendar year end clients that had to implement uh 101 and we are seeing some

017increases to those liabilities. um some items that didn't have to be recognized and and captured in that liability in the past are now um being brought down. So, a lot of uh we'll talk a lot about the obligations and liabilities, those long-term items as it relates to the district, but 101 is probably the most significant one for for this fiscal year. Um our audit strategy as it relates to the more key risk areas. Um certainly cash and investments is always that's always a big area just because of the liquidity and the nature um of uh volume in the dollars um from a from a audit standpoint. So we do do an external confirmation of those account balances um as opposed to just taking you know taking those account balances and bank statements that are provided.

018We go right to the the the source um and get that outside confirmation. And then as I noted earlier, we do review review bank reconciliations um as well as your collateral collateral levels, excuse me. Some of the other key areas, your receivables or revenue recognition. Um what we look at here is really the availability of the dollars. So you have a lot of a lot of a significant amount of dollars that are due from other governments that you're in. So whether it be the federal government, the state government, that you run programs and that is reimbursed by those uh those entities. Um what we're looking for is are those dollars coming in after year end or shortly after year end and allowing you to use that in your next year's budget. Um so are those

019essentially those receivables real at at year end? Um so that's the the significant portion there. and then on a a risk level governmentwide, a lot of it's surrounding these long-term contingent liabilities right now. So, it's important to value those. Um, it's extremely difficult because there's a lot of a lot of assumptions and a lot of estimates that go into projecting what these numbers will be. Um certainly on the legal side that has become a big focus for large governments right now in projecting out those legal liabilities that are potentially to to come due in the near future. Um also your self- insurance and your other post-employment benefits. So retirey health insurance benefits that you pay out in the future. So as a as a large government entity you have very large you know benefits that

020are paid out to employees and your retirement system. um those rely on a lot of expert opinions and estimates. So from our perspective, we review those assumptions uh talk to those experts, review their reports, and that's included in our uh our audit of your financial statements. As I mentioned earlier, there's a lot of large federal and state funding. Um the compliance is imperative. So we put a lot of risk in the uh compliance and the the analysis of your major federal programs. So that is a big component of the audit. Um we look at a lot of the controls around compliance and we test those major programs so to provide that opinion on the on the uniform guidance. some of the other areas, capital assets, capital projects. Again, the the district being a significantly large

021entity, you're running a lot of capital projects, a lot of funding sources. Um, so there is that there is a a risk level there. We we spend a lot of time on the uh the capital assets and and capital projects uh on the the fund balances. So these are your equity position. This is a lot lot of scrutiny on the state level as far as the restriction on certain funds and what you can use that fund balance for. Uh so we want to make sure that it's properly classified. Um so you as a board you're aware of the restrictions on your your fund balances. And then we certainly look at accounts payable, crude liabilities, a lot of the compliance with general municipal law and your your spending of those dollars. Um, as far as a

022timing perspective of our fieldwork right now, we we are entering the planning phase, the preliminary testing. Um, we're in communication with the district really throughout the whole fiscal year as far as answering questions and having discussions uh on how they would impact the audit. Um, but we do over the summer we will be in communication um with the accounting department and uh putting requests out, getting gathering information. Um, like I said, collaborating on questions and and concerns. Um, but our primary fieldwork really kicks off beginning uh the week of September 22nd. Um, that's when we're on site at the district. We're having those um those narrative discussions, questionnaires with the departments, assessing that risk and performing that substantive testing that I talked about in those key audit areas. Um, once we wrap up with that,

023it is a pretty quick turnaround. So we have a lot of staff here. Um the district has been in the past very very coordinated uh on keeping that process going and that that timeline um and hitting those those marks. So we expect that that'll continue this year. Uh review the financial statements uh required by the city. So a lot of those reports and financial schedules go to them by October 15th but no later than October 20th. Um we don't like I said we don't anticipate any issues there. and then the full draft aur um will be prepared and ready by November 7th. So then we can ha have this discussion in December on those draft statements um so they're ready for issuance um and move on to the uh the final issuance of those reports.

024Uh just a couple last minute items. These are really kind of our overarching um standards as auditors. Independence. That's a critical component of our audit, especially external audit because we're providing our independent opinion on the financial statements that they fairly represent your financial position. We need to be independent. All of our auditors need to be free of conflicts of interest with the district. So, no relationships that would impair our independence. Um, and then the the last item is the consideration of fraud. Um certainly that's an area we never want to you know hear the the word fraud but it does have a significant impact on the audit. So if there's anything that you know the district management or board is aware of please communicate that to us before we start our audit fieldwork because that

025would significantly impact the scope. On the flip side if we become aware of any fraud we're responsible to bring that to this group as soon as we become aware. Okay. Um, so that's that's the audit plan for the uh the external audit for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Um, if you have any questions for me, I put put my contact information as well as Amy's u feel free to contact me. But I'll take any questions um or concerns from management now. So what we'll do as far as uh questions um let's see question. We're going to start from my left and move down toward my right and then we'll go up to the screen to uh the two commissioners that are online. No questions. Just a general question um from with slide number seven

026and we recognize the increase with health care costs as you talked about the contingencies and planning for those as well as those grants on the on the following slide. Um is there uh are there any guidance general guidance outlines that you have received around um what to expect? For example, this past year I think insurance popped up like 20% and so that that's crazy. Um but when you're making those assumptions, you need to try your best to fall in that um line. What are you hearing? Yeah, I mean as far as um I mean the focus of our audit is a lot a lot of the times it's backwards looking. So when we're projecting out those liabilities and those assumptions, those are based on estimates as of the end of the fiscal year. But I

027think I think what you're referring to is a lot of more forward-looking budget impacts and absolutely critical when you're projecting out your budgets. So I would say I'm the district management. I'm sure there's consultants that you are contracted with. So when you're going through that budget process, those would be the definitely the individuals that, you know, you want to talk to your health care brokers. You know, what are we seeing as far as you know, increases and estimates, but that 20% range is not Yeah, that's not out of the order. No, I said maybe I can cheat and you might you might have some friends that I can tell you in my company, we're experiencing the same things as Thank you. I appreciate the question. Any questions? Any questions? All right. Next. No questions. And

028going up to the online. Uh, Commissioner Elliot. Yes. Thank you. So, I'd be interested in uh and Anissa, you can correct me if I'm wrong in asking this question. Uh but I would be interested in some um more attention to be placed on the Oracle system um to ensure that we are spending correctly um uh I'll just leave it at that but I' I'd like there to be um particular attention on the Oracle system and and the process of of financing that and uh you know have uh have we been integral in that whole process. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Elliot. Commissioner Lebron. Okay. Any questions? Commissioner Patterson, would you like me to respond at least to the question? No, that's entirely up to you. Oh, okay. I didn't know if you wanted me to,

029but generally speaking, it's would be outside of the scope of the external financial audit this year to evaluate that cost. That would be in a separate engagement, but there is going to be work done by the internal function. All right. Did you Thank you. Okay. I just want to make sure you received that information. Um once again, um Commissioner Lebron. All right. She does not appear to be on. So, we're going to move forward, I guess. Eh, let's see. All right. Um, again, subb office of auditor general update. Excuse me. Did we want to take a motion for this particular plan? You are correct. I'm sorry. Thank you. Um, let's see. I would like to request a motion to accept the 2025 external audit plan. Is there a motion? So moved. So moved. Second. Okay.

030I caught um Vice President Malloy. And uh who seconded on the screen first? Elliot. Elliot. Commissioner Elliot. Not second. I thought I'd made the motion, but I must not heard someone else who made it. Okay. So, you can second it then. I'll I'll Vice Crush Vice President Malloy. um a motion and um Commissioner Elliott will second that. Thank you. Any comments? All in favor? I Any nays? The eyes have it. Miss uh Henry Wheeler, can you provide your update at this time? Absolutely. Thank you, uh Matt. We look forward to seeing you this year. Thank you. Good evening. I have tonight Jacqueline Farabel is joining me from my team. She is going to work the slides as we go through our temporary employment services review um to not belabor it. So high level in our

031general audit process, it is intended to be collaborative and we do review findings, observations and ensure that management understands the control concerns that are identified in the audit. Um it happened to be inside of Dr. Miller's area and they have already started remediating the various concerns noted. So I did want to put that out there. As far as the background and the scope, we understand that um maintaining sufficient staffing levels has been a challenge nationally as it relates to how we function internally. We do use a third party agency to help us with paraprofessionals, clerical service. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but my screens are dead and I can't see that even with my glasses on. Is there any way to enlarge that screen? I don't want you to go any further and I can't

032follow along. Can you see? You can't see that one either. The wording, even with my glasses, it's too small. Can you look on my screen? Both of my screens are down. Can you look on my screen here because I can tilt it your way then? Go ahead. Sorry. Real problem. Um, so we also use the third party agency for covering like filling vacancies or temporary absences um inside of our departments and to handle peak workloads. We've intentionally in some cases we heard from Dr. Miller chose to use some temporary resources to support like our long-term product project of Oracle and to backfill some personnel as well. Um our annual spend with the temporary staffing is approximately 6 million a year and um we just wanted to make sure uh that was understood. In addition, at

033the time of our view, there was not an executed contract. However, um an RFP had taken place. I think it was just a paperwork issue where there was a concern associated with renewing on an annual basis versus already having an RFP that would cover them until 2027. For our scope of work, we evaluated the contractual relationship. We were looking at the process for obtaining the temporary staff, controlling the environment as far as how how we controlled the utilization and performance of that staff. And we looked at a period from 2022 up to 25. Our first recommendations around the contract again at 6 million a year of spend over the last 10 years about $48 million in this particular area. There wasn't an active contract, but the great news is there was an RFP, so this

034was the vendor we should have done business with and did have an agreement to do business with the with the uh organization. Um, one concern we had is not all temporary employment jobs are filled on a daily basis. this heavily impacts schools especially in the parah and clerical area. Um and currently as our relationship reads we have an exclusive relationship with the firm that we're using. Um and the challenge then becomes one of our recommendations is to possibly use a second vendor if we can't fulfill all of the need that we have. So schools aren't without the support that they're requiring. Under protocols and procedures, I know we generally have this challenge across the district in some areas. We're looking for additional protocols and procedures to really clarify. Sometimes we have operating practices but not

035documented procedures to ensure consistency. So we really wanted to make sure that some of that documentation takes place. In addition, we want to make sure monitoring is improved generally across the process and um we want to make sure we're really clear and intentional as a district to determine how long we allow temporary resources to work inside of the district. We had some that were there for quite for years. Some of that was supported by the Oracle project, but there could have been other jobs greater than 90 days that were there. So again, we're looking for protocols in areas such as duration of employment, uh, rates, recordkeeping expectations in the various departments and making sure we had escalation procedures when operating management doesn't do what they need to in approving temporary personnel time. We also want

036to make sure that there is senior level justification and approval when there is temporary resources that are in extended durations. Under roles and responsibilities, there is lots of hands and this is one of those complicated areas because while office of human capital is responsible for kind of the oversight, it's hitting so many different budgets and cost centers, it's not theirs. They are not responsible for the cost centers. It's each individual's um cost center. And that makes it a little bit more challenging to really manage this. And that's one of the challenges we've had as a district from a management standpoint. But we're really looking for more defined roles of what OC does, what finance does, what managers need to do, as well as cons being consistent about what we expect from the temporary employees. We

037also want clarity surrounding the budget development process because the budgets developed more so in finance and yet it's not clear exactly who's going to manage the dollars and how that works. So we really want to get a better clarity surrounding the defined roles and procedures again under financial under budget because there's so many budgets involved someone needs to take on ownership of monitoring the overall spend as it relates to this area. So there's a lack of monthly monitoring that's specific to this area because it's hitting so many cost centers and we really need to look from a global standpoint saying what is the amount of money that we're really expending in this area and what do we need to do differently. Um, in 23 and 24, we noted we were significantly under budget. Even for

038the current year, it won't be as bad, but we'll be under budget again. Looking into next year, it does appear that we're closer to what our spending level is as it relates to temporary spending. But the challenge becomes if it's not managed, it can easily go over. So, we're really hoping that we use historical information, we ensure that we budget the right number and not underbudget in this area, which causes us to have to pull funds from other locations, which is not the best practice for expense monitoring. One area is very hard to manage the expense when you can't completely handle the absentees. If there's an absent individual for that is a parah, well, the student under the IEP may need that parah and therefore you have to find someone to fill it. If we

039don't fill the job, then we're going to be out of compliance. So, we really want to make sure and just this uh just this past month um OC pushed out to the organization um communication and the intent to have leaders be more intentional about managing staff attendance. Staff attendance is a trigger because if the staff attendance, not only does it impact student achievement, it also would result in additional temporary personnel expense. So that is something that needs to be focused and targeted. Uh another area is we look at um when a temporary employee when we refer an individual that we want to have maybe um a school might have a particular parah or someone knows a clerical or a special expertise that's used. The term is called payrolling. We're bringing the person, sending them over

040to our third-party location and saying, "Hey, if you put them on your payroll so that they can work for us, we can have them do this this work for us." Well, in that particular um situation, they would then charge us a markup for the individual who's doing this temporary work for us. Um, one of the additional recommendation is to determine is it cost-effective to put some of those people on our own books or even with some of the temps that we're hiring, is it more cost-effective than the markups that we're currently paying to have some of these people come on board. Now, there are going to be times where there's additional services and very hard-to-reach areas that we can use a third party, but if there are times where we internally can identify the individual,

041then we really want to look at the cost benefits. So that's exactly what I'm asking for both cost benefit as well as really working intentionally to reduce the uh temporary expense at the district because it can be unmanaged and it could be a challenge. Under invoice payments, we noted that the vendor sends the invoice directly to budget. Um that was over the years implemented because it's hitting so many cost me centers and we need to make sure that there's funding in the various budget lines. The challenge becomes they did not formally send it over to HC to give them an opportunity to validate the bill prior to payment. Um so that became a challenge and that's something that HC is working with to ensure they get the bill first and do all validation necessary. In

042addition, temporary employment time is not verified for accuracy on the bill. We need to do validation procedures to make sure the person in fact worked what days, what hours, etc. And that is not just an OC thing. It's also in the various buildings under monitoring. One of the things our temporary service is required to do or identified in the contract is we're supposed to have a 97% fulfillment rate, which means 97% of our jobs potentially would be u filled. Unfortunately, that's not happening. And we really need to improve our monitoring to ensure that our vendors are performing as we need to. So, we're really looking for the required bi-weekly reporting and active monitoring of that point. Timely entry is another area that has come up. Um, employees work hours, they don't always enter in the

043system timely, which causes problems with our managers being able to approve prior to uh the payroll being run for this these groups of employees. So, that's an area that also needs to be able to be improved. In addition, we want to make sure that when the payroll comes through for temporary employees and managers have to approve, we want to ensure that there's some sort of documentation or log that's maintained in each department. So, they actually are validating against something. Um, there can be times where the employee might have left early, come in late. We should be formally documenting the time like a time sheet or process in some way to ensure we really know what we're paying for. So that is another area under timely entry. The timely approval gets a little bit bigger. Um

044we have managers just not following through and ensuring that the approval takes place. Unfortunately in the process um OC is put in a position to have to allow the payroll to go through. So they verify or they at least allow the approval of payroll for individuals that have not been verified at the building level. And so the difficulty with that is it's almost a blind approval. There's no way HC could know who was working at a school because they're not there. But unfortunately, should the third party employee be penalized because we're not doing what we're supposed to do. No, that's not okay either. So this is a process that needs to be tightened down. When we looked at it and started analyzing the data, there was on average about 90 entries a week that were

045not being approved. And on holiday weeks, it could have averaged around 200 plus entries where it did not get payroll validated for the temporary personnel. And it put it put OC in a bind to actually allow it to go through. Um, in 2425, there were at least 1,400 temporary employees time sheets that didn't get approved by the manager, which resulted in 570,000 in time being blanket approved. Now, we're not saying this isn't time work potentially, and we don't believe the entire number would be not valid time, but if you don't validate it, you don't know what's accurate. And so, that is um an area that is going to happen. The biggest issue really is they're managing a process where individual managers are not held accountable. And we need that to roll up the food chain

046because they don't report to OC. So this is a place where there's going to be a partnership where the follow-up needs to happen and there has to be consequences even to the point of if you cannot do what you're supposed to do and approve then you probably don't deserve to have temporary employees. So that was one of the recommendations as well. Um we need both escalation and we need a consequence. If if there's no approval then we we can't continue to do our business this way. Lastly is reporting. When we look at the reporting, um, we find that the third party we're working with, they have been responsive, but the current reporting that we receive could be, uh, modified or improved or enhanced to make it a little bit easier for our staff to be

047able to monitor that they're doing their job effectively. Um, when we tried to look at different reports, we had some difficulty to to really see if we are meeting all of the areas within the contract. So, we're really asking management to look at the reporting requirements and ask for specific data elements needed to improve the practice. That concludes this one. Questions on this? Shall I go on to the next or any questions on this one or can Why don't we take some questions right now? One to two questions from each board member if they have any. And um I'll start with myself at this point in time. Um so you you spoke relative to supplying and reporting um and and a question that I that you and I have spoken about you know in the

048past is uh not in the present vendors and them fulfilling their um their contract and uh you know supplying uh statistical data that depicts if the program is successful or not. So, I'd like that also to be one of my recommendations that we make sure that, you know, if we're we have these vendors and um you know, we're paying them, do we pay them in full? Do we pay them at the end of the contract and make sure they supply us with the statistical data that would indicate whether their program is successful or not or not? Uh that's something that I'd like us to look into. So we've concluded this particular audit but this is one of the things that's actually embedded in this recommendation and uh Dr. Miller and his team have already started

049requesting the various information needed. They're able to see some things but what we're really looking for is enhanced reporting so it makes it crystal clear how they're performing. Absolutely. So that is some of the work that that is already started. All right. And just my second question, do we pay these vendors in full at the beginning of the contract or do we pay them partial and that the rest at the end of the contract or? So this is just like payroll. If a person works then at the end of the week that person gets paid. So we pay as we go along and there's like a weekly pay that happens for the employees and then we pay throughout the month as the bills come in. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. And I'm going

050to go in reverse order this time back up to the screen. Um Mr. Elliot and then Commissioner LeBron. Um, thank you. So, um, Anissa, what is the, um, the percentage of the temporary, uh, employees that we hire in the district? Could you pose your question again? Uh, Commissioner, yeah. the percentage of the percentage of temporary um employees that we hire um in our district. I guess she's asking do we have a percentage of temps? Yeah, people that go from the from the uh temporary payroll to the district's payroll. That would be a question for Dr. Miller. Yeah, I can commissioner I can speak to that. We have um we on May 2nd as an example I'm giving on May 2nd as an example we had 167 employees hired through tests. Okay, so if we have

051about 6,000 employees overall just to give you a sense of who these staff are. 11 were daily clerical subs, 17 were long-term clerical subs. Four were food service helpers. Four were lunch room aids, which are substitutes for the lunchrooms. Nine were daily paraprofessional substitutes. 99 were long-term paraprofessionals. Seven were long-term teaching assistants. And then 16 were working on special projects such as Oracle. And that's a total of 167 people. meaning that we we move them from their temporary employment agency and they come become staff for the district. Yeah, that's a great question. So, some of these people hired through tests such as clerical, food service helpers, lunchroom aids, and even paraprofessionals, there are daily substitutes. So, they work as daily subs. But then we also have Yeah, I think what I'm trying to find out

052is or do we not? I'm just trying to find out if we look at some of those uh temporary hires and we say hm they may be good for us to bring on um permanently to our district. Do we have a that percentage is what I'm asking. Yeah. Or we do that. Yep. So for example, we have 99 long-term pair of professionals. Now, many of those long-term pair professionals or long-term teaching assistants, we work to hire as our own employees. We prefer to hire our own employees. We do not want to rely on temporary services. Um, but for the positions I titles I name, we we have to. And so, our goal is to transition those temporary staff to become our full-time employees. However, we have an agreement with the employment store tests that we

053will um we we can only um hire them on to be our full-time employees after they've completed their required length of service at tests, which um which is typically three months. Yeah. What I'm just thinking is that, you know, we have a opportunity to see those um test employees in action and, you know, we may want to at some point if they're good, you know, look at bringing them in uh for our um on our payroll. So that's why I was it gives an opportunity to see the you know the good ones versus the ones that are not need to improve. So that's why I was asking that question. Uh thank you Dr. Miller. Uh, and another question I have is that on one of those slides, I think it was slide five, I saw

054that the district has 10 million um without execute without an executed contract. Can you explain that? Um, Anissa, if I read the if I read it right. So, what happened was an RFP was performed and normally when we um perform an RFP, we'll have an RFP for the first year and you have to renew it. It's set for a five-year period, but you must renew it every single year for the next four years, the four remaining years. The renewal did not take place. So then there was no executed contract. We were still following the information from the RFP and the original RFP information, but there was not an executed agreement for that year. So that was over the course of another year and a half. And that is the reason why it had 10 million

055spent out of an AR with no executed contract. So, have we corrected that? That has been corrected. Yes. All right. Thank you. That's it. Thank you. Uh, Deputy Turner, did you have anything? You're good. Okay, she's good. All right, you can go ahead. Go forward. Uh, okay. Got a question. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Did you want Yes. Yes. Uh, thank you. Um, Commissioner LeBron, did you have any questions? I don't. Thank you. Okay, we'll start uh from my right and we'll move to my left. Uh, Commissioner Griffin. Um, thank you, Anissa, my misser for that information. Um, I have a couple of questions here. I'm glad to hear that we have finally started hiring a lot of the temp agency, temp workers permanent throughout the district. However, um I would like to see how

056we did it from last year to this year, how many were hired because there has been a big concern of mine from the beginning with the temp agencies and how how cost effective they are with the with the district versus having in-house uh temp services through the district. So, my question is really twofold. Um would it be cost effective for us to do this in-house? um uh as far as the temporary services um versus having it outside. And then I I have my another um part of that is when we are hiring when we're doing these temp um hiring these these uh people from the temp agencies. I have concerns that they're sitting there at the temp agency over years and this is this is factual information and they were not hired by the district.

057I know there's a custodian out there that has not been hired by the district and has worked for the district for over five years and we know that that person at this time would have a lot of be able to to do the services well or they wouldn't still be with that temp agency. So, how are we tracking these workers that have been with test for or or any I'm sorry, I take that scratch that. But how would we how are we recording the the information regarding each temporary work and how long they've been there because I know some have exceeded 3 months and knowing that their track record is good, but we're not hiring them. How are they being overlooked over those years? Um, that's a big concern of mine. So did you get

058that all those questions? Well, actually I can answer a few of them. Hold on. Okay. So we're going to answer one two part one question with two parts and then we'll move forward to our second question. Okay. The first one is recommendation six is exactly perform the cost benefit of seeing if it is more cost-effective for the district to have the temps in house. So what you're talking about is one of the recommendations in the report. Um this worked for the district years ago. I was an in-house temp. That's why I went reflected on that and it actually worked better that way years ago. Um I think like Maurice Bell and and and Gaya Shakes and everybody worked inside at that time along with um Dr. Peeperro. But at the end of the day, it

059was cost effective and it also um it it definitely was beneficial to the overall to to the schools and to in-house. So, what we're going to do here, uh, so we stay in order, is we're going to allow that question to be answered and then we're going to go on to your next question. Um, uh, Deputy Turner wants to respond to your second part. So, let her answer your second part and then we'll go from there. Thank you, Commissioner. That was a a great question. So, one of the advantages of having temporary um employees is being able to see one if they enjoy the work, if they're doing a good a good job, if it's a fit for them and also for the district. And oftent times when uh folks have completed their three months

060and they're doing a really great job and there's a vacancy, the whoever's in that department primarily in the schools or food service individuals want to hire them and we do hire them. There are sometimes concerns where you also get to see the other aspect where folks attendance in the three months might be really really bad. Um or they might work for a month and then find something else permanent somewhere else and then they choose to to leave. In a few set few incidents where folks were not um fulfilling the job responsibilities, we've also uh terminated their temporary employment. Okay. I guess and and I appreciate your response, but I guess my concern is if they were that bad and they've been there for two to three years and their attendance was affected. So, I mean

061that I'm just concerned about the ones that have been in temp with the temporary agencies over the 3-month period yet we overlook them to be hired and hire somebody outside. My concern is that that information and that data is out there. And I think that that's what we need to look at. Where where is that data that that states that these people we have temporary workers that have been with us longer than three months, more than a year, and they have not been hired, but yet they're good enough to stay with the temp agency. Do we have that data available for the record? We can get it. Yes, we'll put in a board log, and we can certainly get that. You have it. So, you're going to we're going to board log it. We're going

062to board log it, but in the open meetings law, if that information is boarded, we need to do it again in the open meetings at the next meeting. Is that that's that's correct. No, that's the general counsel is saying that's not correct. But that log answer log is available for the public review. I'm just I'll defer to general counsel, but he was nodding his head. It is it is I would defer to counsel again. Um so we stay in order here. General counsel, would you mind responding to that question? Um uh thank you uh commissioner. Um no. If if uh it does not have to be readressed at another board meeting unless the board raises it again at another board meeting. Um again I think as um Dr. Turner was beginning to say uh I

063believe some elements of the board log are public and so if it's provided there we will be available but there is nothing that says the uh it has to be brought back for another discussion unless the board specifically directs that. So the board could absolutely put it back on the agenda at another meeting if that's the board's uh wish. But there is uh no requirement as far as I'm aware that that happens by um default. Okay. Can can you please for the record can you please just give me that information that's saying that we don't have to bring it back so then I I won't have to put it out there to the public for them to be confused about open meetings law and what it pertains to. I think I just said I said

064I just asked for the codes or what it is. I can't I can't respond to you. Yep. I I just responded to the best I can. I can uh you know send you an email or something like that if that will suffice. But um I think I just answered the question. Okay. All right. Well, I I would like that number that information that you got that from saying that we don't have to give it back to the open meeting because the open meeting law says that we don't have to do it um publicly again um to the public and if it was a public question. So I just want that information that I I can I can relay it to the public at the next meeting if you give it give it to me by

065email. Thank you. All right. So, do you have a second question? Second question. I thought you had Did you have it, Anessa? It basically pertained to um the one with the answer. Good. Okay. They were answered. The two. All right. Thank you. So, we're going to move all We're going to move We're going to move forward. They were answered. So, uh President uh Yeah. I just uh first and foremost, I I like the way this audit spells out because it does speak to a lot of things that I' I've heard over time. Um and with um our temporary employees, would you say there's a great degree of turnover typically with them, right? I mean, I think that's standard for any temp agency. Um but it's it's a lot with this particular um just type of

066work in this district. And I do believe that some of these protocols, clarity of roles and things of that nature will help to um ensure folks are have the clarity of role or what have you. So um you we talked a little bit about people applying after being a long-term employee, but I would say we're not really retaining most of them. Right. Yeah. One of the things that we're doing in working with TESS is to ensure that there's um improved onboarding, training, and support so that people that are hired know what it is they're doing and what the expectations are, how to get help when they need help, and how they can continue to grow in the role and to grow in our district. So, that's what we're working on both internally for our own

067hires, but also with temporary services. Okay. And then on slide 13 where we talked about um that one was very alarming the time sheets and 570k of time being blanket approved. Yeah. Um that that's alarming and that's 2425. That's this year, right? And so guard rails and protocols are so very important. And so it sounds like we're moving in the direction of putting I heard Anissa say things are already being put in place to um navigate that. Thank you. Thank you very much, Vice President. Thank you. Um similar to what President Simmons um was just talking about, um I really like that we have recommendations that are in place and that there are plans to remediate a lot of this. Um it is very boring. Um I just have two questions and then other questions

068that I have I will put onto the um board log. So I see that there's it says there's a markup of 33.5% for payroll which is done by tests. Can someone just explain the 33.5% markup? It was potentially a negotiated rate and so if I make $25 an hour they will multiply that $25 by 33 and a half% and that is going to be the rate we're going to be invoiced. Whereas the employee gets 25 the cost for them on boarding that employee they're going to have to play the employee portion of taxes and things like that and they're truly their employee not ours. So it's the cost to put them on the books on our behalf. Okay. And so I guess that kind of lends itself to the next question that I had was

069how are Tess employees evaluated? Obviously, they're evaluated by the agency, not by our CSD. So, we have the right at any point in time to say, you can just take that one back and we will not have that one again. Um, so we can at any time say we no thank you to someone who is a test employee, we can reach out and say no, this person didn't work out. We don't want that person to return. So we do have the luxury of it is if it were an employee we would we would generally if it was an employee have to worry about a whole union process and a longer duration and a more complicated process when it's an employee but when it's a third party temporary agency we can say okay you know what

070that last hour you just worked was it for us and you're going to have to go home now. So we can always send them right on the spot and so it actually makes it a lot easier for us if someone's not working out to have them not return. Okay. So I guess uh in terms of that 33.5% then um are we paying additional fees on top of that two tests to contract with them? That is the fee. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Okay, Commissioner Santiago. So with this plan uh when will the recommendations start to be um accomplished from the administration? So the recommendations from the audit plan. So, there's multiple dates and multiple parts to it. Some have already started. I think the latest date might be September, no, December 26 when there's

071a long-term cost benefit process that they're going to have to go through. So, what usually happens, and I kind of talked about the process at the beginning, we make sure that the risks are understood by management. Some things are, I could quickly fix that and I'll have that done in another month or so. Um, certain procedures when school starts, what we expect from buildings, etc. But there are some where you're talking about things that require longer range plans and they had to put later dates on those things. They were responsive to the various items, but as it relates to the dates that are identified, they really have components and um collaboration with others in order to build some of the processes to fix them. And so my my question is we we have a uh

072administration that'll be changing soon. Um and so just just off the question of fidelity, ensuring that uh these recommendations are um accomplished in the best way possible. I'm still here. Yeah. Well, you're you're still here, but but there's an administration that that still has to strategize on how those things will be done. And so I'm just wondering how are we making sure the bridge connects so that the work doesn't fall. So actually um I did run into Dr. Roser who actually mentioned that he valued audit as a role and thought it was very good in support of the things that we do to identify how to make things better. But in addition, we would then follow up and since I'm still here, whoever um with Dr. Miller being over HC, many of these dates will

073be very close. I mean, many of the dates are July type over the summer type items. But as management changes, we then will circle back with whoever the new manager is and say, "Hey, are you aware of these particular things?" And you notice that happened somewhat with like the graduation audit. There were a lot of changes that happened, but it didn't make us go away as far as doing followup and saying, "Hey, where are you with this? We still need something to happen." So, we we take that on to keep the consistency. Commissioner, if I could add, our goal is to have almost all of these accomplished before the start of the school year in September. Okay. Very good. All right. Uh if there's any additional questions by my colleagues, please submit those to the

074uh board lock. I'd appreciate it. And would you like to continue? Yes. Thank you. Um next, we just want to kind of talk about our work plan. It'll cover some items that the board has been talking about, but we did walk through. Just want to let you know I'm still here to help the board and support the board in providing oversight responsibilities by having independent and objective assessments of areas. And that's generally what we do. Um specifically when we walk through the process, we do go through a broad range of um interviews with various district personnel in different areas and realms. So we'll hit the various union functional areas in buildings, senior leadership team, a random selection of individuals, look at audit concerns, repetitive things inside the board question logs, um audit controls, testing, we

075look at our budget, we look at industry trends, we try to understand things that will impact education, um significant financial items that come up and risks of penalties as well as the complexity of certain areas that happen. And we want to make sure that we're looking at what's new. Uh, one thing that is informative and that's up on the screen is kind of looking at some of the trends that are going on in in internal audit in the industry. We did take the time to glance and see over the last year what is the comprollers's office looking at and what do they find to be important because they always can show up and they're in the areas of financial management information technology claims and payroll. In addition, just looking at national audit areas such as

076Institute of Internal Audit and the Internal Audit Foundation, they're talking about similar things, cyber security, uh, business continuity, human capital, and digital disruption. And so, it just is an acknowledgement that there's a data security issue that's going on. And that's really raises the element of uh technology in our oper place. I think that postcoid that just got a little out of control with things like cyber security and AI and interrupt, business interruption, etc. um talent management and retention has consistently been a challenge um across the board. So those are just things that are happening and industry information from the various interviews and also the even assessing risks. The top concerns that came up were Oracle, our leadership transition, financial management, human capital, payroll accountability, supervision and safety. And there's a lot of repetition it seems

077every year the things that we're concerned about. But um first and foremost, I think Oracle with the size of this implementation, it being a comprehensive business implementation across all of the core processes, some of the feedback that came back, hey, it's an unknown and a new control environment. We don't know how it's going to work. And so that's an unknown. Whenever you have an unknown, people are afraid. Um we have undelivered functionality. Are we going to get everything that we thought out of the system when we're ready to turn on day one? um is it going to do all the things that we thought it would do when we walked forward saying that we selected Oracle as a product? Um what are the resources required to implement and maintain this system and really having an

078understanding there were concerns in that area as well as the heavy use of consultants because we needed consultants to either back field jobs or help implement etc. And now the question becomes do we have the bench strength internally because we really needed to use an expertise the implementation methodology as well as the cost in the implementation methodology. We really were looking to get some change in the business side and what I kept hearing was it's a business transformation. We identified a product and we're trying to implement this product using best practices and sometimes our practices aren't the best. So you have the challenge of making sure we really do know and understand what our internal needs are and being proactive enough to make those changes as well as the costs associated with implementation. Lastly, there

079were concerns surrounding testing and training because it's something new. So that's what came out out of Oracle when we look at leadership transition. Yet again, we have another leadership transition. That's always a challenge as an organization. The loss of institutional knowledge when you lose kind of the top three of the organization. is like, okay, what's going to happen now? And how do we make sure there's the continuity? Similar to what uh Commissioner Santiago kind of brought up, how do we make sure the right things continue to happen and we stay on the right path of decisions that have been made? People become fearful of change and that happens again and again and it causes a certain amount of instability in the organization because we really don't know what to expect with the change that's coming.

080Um, and then it does affect staff morale. So we don't want people to become so concerned about change that they don't stay with the district and continue to do the work that needs to happen. Uh the next area is financial management. Uh this is a new internal control system, new financial management system. There's a concern as it relates to that. Um there's uncertain times because we're dealing with unstable revenue sources. We don't necessarily know what cuts might happen with our funding sources. Um the budget process was new. We had a new leadership in that process. There are concerns about the budget as a whole and whether there's funding for everything we wanted to do and needed to do. It's general fiscal responsibility recognizing that fiscal responsibility belongs to everyone in the district not just the

081finance team and everyone needs to be responsible and accountable as it relates to how we spend and transition in key positions. our financial uh team and our has had quite a bit of transition also in those positions and that makes another challenge. Um moving on is overall with our 256 plan you will note that the whole side is really about the Oracle implementation as required and expected from the fiscal accountability legislation. We really need to be able to identify what the control environment is at the district since the historical control environment or what we used to operate under with peopleoft in our prior systems and processes. We knew what that was and now we're coming into something new. So we need to get into system access. Who can do what in the system are the

082controls in place that need to limit ability for individuals? What are the controls that are inherently included in the system as information is processed throughout the system? Uh payroll is an area which is also going to be new under the system and we want to do an audit inside of payroll to really understand how is payroll in the Oracle environment. What are the key controls? Same for accounts payable, financial reporting and human capital management which is a separate module of the system. So there's a financial side and then there is kind of a human side um of the system. So those are all Oracle implementation type work that needs to get done. Not sure how long it'll take as we get into what's in the system, but it is critical work that has to happen

083for us to become uh stable as a unit as a whole to really understand what our control environment as an organization. Vendor performance that was all over various individuals brought this up. Vendor performance management not only in the selection and we kind of talked a little bit about it here today and various commissioners have brought this. Hey, how are they doing? What do we have? How do we know they're doing what we paid them to do? And how do we know this is good? When we think about the budget, we have a plan to cut back on consulting dollars or contracts and things such as that. And the question becomes, how are we going to make the decisions to move forward with the certain vendors? And have we even evaluated, hey, is this really good

084money that we're putting after this? So I know it is I've heard it fall on so many ears and it is a very important topic because with our limited spending and how we're going to be cutting back in this area is critically important that when we do have these contracts we actually are getting the value that we need out of the contracts and they're performing as expected annually. We do still do the financial audit. We are the facilitators and we also review the acter. Um so that will always happen every year and we're doing that. student activity accounts. It is an actual separate financial opinion that our external auditors must give. We always need to do audits in that area to ensure that's functioning as it should. Specifically, that's the financial activities that are happening

085in school buildings with the students just to make sure that we have a sound control environment. There's follow-up work that we're having. For example, we had a big special education audit this past year. We're going to be in this upcoming year checking in on them and see where they are with the special ed recommendations that have been issued to ensure that we've been making progress in that area in addition to special projects and requests. Not that we'll probably have time for a lot of that because we have our hands full. But that would conclude the list of items. Okay. Um thank you very much um auditor general and uh uh for a very thorough report. So thank you very much. Um so I begin with myself as far as questions at this point in time.

086So I'm looking at the uh screen four and nine specifically. So um the 202526 audit plan. Um in an effort to be go into slide four if you want also but I want to go back to nine. Um, so it talks about New York State controller and industry audit trends and you name a few areas there, but u moving back down to nine more specifically. Um, I would like to recommend that um also added to the audit plan in an effort to be transparent. I think all areas of the district should be audited. And one area that I haven't seen in three years that I've been here now my fourth year is also included including the um the office of um uh no no council uh general counsel I don't see that we're doing any

087audit there for example you know how many uh vendors uh being attorney firms are we working with I think on the last meeting there was something relative to it listed all the firms or somewhere that we're working with um uh retain uh how much money is expended, you know, on issues that we deal with or they deal with um the t the correction the um council's office. Um how many uh firms are on retainer? Are we paying a retainer fee to have them on retainer? Um how many calls are made? Um how many minutes do those calls uh last? How much are we paying per minute? Things like that that are very important. And again, I bring you this expertise from, you know, my prior experience, but again, I think that this district, I think

088we're doing a good job um being positive moving forward with transparency, but I think we can do a better job always. Um so, I would just make that a recommendation, you know, for the 2526 audit plan. Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't know. We have a lot on the plate, but specifically um any contract at the district would fall within the scope of under the better vendor performance management um evaluation actually for the scope in determining what items we are going to test. We'll do some sampling of the various contracts that the organization has. So we potentially would have something coming out of general counsel's office and the various offices that we have inside of the district in addition to the majority of the contracts are generally from for e educational type things but

089it would still fall within the scope. We've also done contracts work within general counsel's office. So we have done audits in that particular department just okay so I'm asking you specific to that specific questions specific things that I requested so please put that in the question log um we can have a a conversation offline but I think it's very important that as a board now our fidicial correction sorry uh our fiducial responsibility is that we not only owe that to ourselves and this board but to the community. So again, in order for us to be totally transparent, I would suggest just a suggestion that uh we also audit the um uh uh council's office. I'll be sure I edit. All right. Thank you very much. Um so again, I think I started to my from

090the screen and I went to my right to left. So I'm going to this time I want to include the um state independent monitor if he has any statements or questions. I'm sorry. No questions. Thank you. All right. Do you have any I'm sorry I missed you the first couple. Um did you have anything you'd like to include that you would have included earlier? So I I apologize for missing you. No questions. Thank you very much. Um Commissioner Santiago. No questions. Uh Vice President Malloy. Thank you. Thank you so much for um the audit report. Um, I think I just have a concern more than anything else of just about the implementation of our Oracle system and just concerned about potential rising costs and running behind schedule. Um, you know, not being able to achieve

091benchmarks potentially and just yeah, getting behind schedule. We've spent so much money on this and um looking at how much that could cost us if we don't get on top of those things. So I am interested to know more about what the holdups are on which end are those holdups occurring and that's more for the question log not to be answered tonight. Um but more than anything else we've made this huge investment and would love to see a better return on the investment. Thank you. Thank you. Um President Simmons. Yes. Thank you. Um this is also in alignment with Oracle implementation. Um, again, I think this might be a a question or a conversation that we can have um with administration because I am interested in knowing what our contingency plan will be for because

092whenever you're implementing a a great uh system like this, when I say great, meaning all the great detail that comes with it, it um you know, there's always kinks and things of that nature. And so, I I want to know what those contingency plans are. And just to level set for historical context, Anissa, um can you kind of touch on the inception of Oracle as far as um and I don't even know if it's the inception I want to go as far back as but it was implemented a number of years ago or voted on to bring this particular system in and I believe it came under ARPA dollars if I'm not mistaken. Oh, is it ARPA dollars? Yeah, ARPA dollars. And so these are things that we um it's not something that if we

093didn't care for the system we could even walk away from, right? It was something that before this iteration of the board was kind of brought in and we've been pushing it forward and and this at this point in time we finally got to a space where we're trying to push it in and make it functional. Um actually I want to actually create a chronology because I do recall with the selection of Oracle it was when we had CFO Pierce here. Mhm. She was the individual who selected it, but I don't recall if there was actually ARP dollars at that time. I just don't remember in fact if it was there, but we had a monitor job. There was there was Okay, I just wanted to say there was. Yes. Thank you. So, I do remember

094that was when there was the selection of the Oracle system, but certainly we can make an effort to um try to provide a history and a chronology. I don't offhand have that and I don't want to be incorrect and I won't answer unless I know what I'm talking about. So, I am going to provide that or put that together in case someone on the team has such a um I know they're more involved in Oracle, the leadership team than I um if they don't have one, then I'll try to put one together for you and um provide that back to them. Yeah, I just think it's okay. Um important to have that context so that we understand where we've been, where we are, and potentially where we're going. But yeah, I think that puts some

095things in in um puts it in in place. Oh, but yeah. Um, I'll follow up with with any other questions I have. Thank you. Commissioner Griffin, one second, please. [Music] Um, first I want to say I I totally agree with with what uh Commissioner Patterson was saying as far as uh general counsel in that department. Um, and I don't know if this fits in anywhere, but the office of accountability as well. um with it is it's it's not a recommendation we should have that as as commissioners if we don't have that information and that data is not available to us how are we making sound decisions as elected official we can't do it by the seat of our pants and that's what I think has been happening um we are not getting the information we

096need and that's why we have a failing district uh for so many years so I just want to put that out there for the record um this information is something I've been asking for since last year and still to no avail. I'm glad to see that we are finally uh making decisions to give the commissioners the information they need to be make sure that our children are getting what they deserve and we can see a return on our investments. Um I want to also add that um I want to ask this question. Do we currently have a checklist for our vendors um that we currently follow or is there no checklist? We just you know like a checklist say hey this is what we're looking for this is what you know like um um comparing

097a comparison quantitative and qualitative information regarding the vendors. Do we currently go by a checklist or we just say oh this one looks good to us and so we select it. So we don't have any type of checklist currently for the performance of the of the vendors that we select. Are you trying to say criteria? No, I'm trying to say do we currently have a checklist that we go by that is you know you have a checklist. Is it this? Do they have this? This is what we this is what we want. This is what we're asking for from the district. Do you currently go by any type of checklist from the vendors or is it's random? So, if you're talking about a contractual relationship, I can speak specifically for the ones that I've done.

098So, as I work with general counsel's office and we identify, there's an area in the contract that allows you to identify what you're going to evaluate the vendor on. And then I would specify, but it was be specific in each particular contract based upon both the type and with the services as to what exactly it is that we're looking for and how they would be evaluated. So, that would be how we'd look at it. So, I don't know if you'd call it a checklist, but the criteria would be identified in our cor contractual relationship and general counsel's office facilitates that and allows the operating manager depending upon how specific they want to be. And I know I'm painfully specific on mine, but um it depends upon the individual to understand what the contract is and

099then exactly what the criteria would be needed in um for them to be assessed by. So if I asked you for an example of one of your checklists you use, you would have that, you know, available to us or you not a checklist, but I can identify what the criteria is. It's the same thing. Is it a checklist? The criteria is the same thing. You're just using a bigger word. We want a checklist of the information. The checklist is a criteria. I'm just for for layman's terms, it's a checklist. We going by and say this is what the criteria is for this. You check it all. It's just the same thing. So at the end of the day, we don't have one that we go by and haven't been going by that. That's my That's

100my concern. It would be dependent upon the contract. Okay. But we don't currently have one. That's a bl that's a blanket checklist that we would go by for each individual vendor based on the needs of this district cuz do you understand your question? I'm not the best person to answer your question. Okay. Who would be that who would be the person to answer the question so we can make sure we can get the question the answer question answered for the general public? Who would that be? Can you tell about the RFP? So is is this the RFP process? We do we do vendor evaluation before we select them for a contract. Okay. So you do have a checklist. Okay. Thank you very much. But that would only be for an RFP. That's only for an

101RFP. Correct. So we we do have that information that you go by. That's what I'm asking. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Okay. Do you have a second question or is that it? No, that was it. Okay. Wonderful. Um, I'm going to go up to uh Deputy, would you like to say something? I'm going to now go up to the screen to uh Commissioner LeBron. Any questions? Yeah, not necessarily a question. I just want the listening audience to know that there is no data point that is not available to both the public and the commissioners. We actually don't have any more privilege to information than most people think. I think we do. We get to have advice from legal counsel. We get to hear on human resource issues and legal issues and contractual issues behind

102the scenes. That's when we go into executive. But any data point is always available to the public. The problem is that people don't know how to find it or look for it and that's a whole other conversation. But it is available. Um so I just want to say because you know there was a comment made on the record. I've been asking for that since last year. It's all available to the public. You have to know where to look for it. Um, and then I just want to also remind the listening audience that it requires the full board to come to an agreement. Um, or at least four for any type of audits or big lifts for this district. That's all because it drives me nuts that we're we're we have commissioners who constantly put out

103misinformation. It just drives me nuts. Okay. Thank you very much. Um, Commissioner Elliot, uh, did you want to, uh, ask those questions that you spoke of earlier at this point in time? Are you on mute, ma'am? You're muted, President. So, thank you. So, so yes, let me, let me just start off by saying uh, this is significant. This is huge and this whole project is something that the board needs to be looking at on a weekly basis. Uh we're supposed to go live on this July 1st. And I'm hearing that we're not going to be able to go live on some of these things. And so just so you're clear, um um Commissioner, you're talking about Oracle for the audience. Oracle. Thank you. Yes. Yes. And so um my concern has to is is about

104um what's going what's delaying it? What we need to do in order to move it forward. Where is what happened to cause uh this delay. Um there there are just a number of things and and I'm going to be asking a lot of questions about this because and I think the board needs to we need to do this and put this in a special meeting. We need to put it in every meeting so that we're kept informed about this whole process. We've spent a lot of money on this. We've got uh um uh consultants that um have a we've spent a lot of now I'm told well we're spending in the budget but the fact is is that we've got some delays. We've got some delays around um um um HCI um and then what

105do what do they do? Do they have to use people soft in order before this gets started? So there are a lot of um questions that I as a board member have because it's too much money that we being we are spending on this uh particular effort. Uh I think it's a good um for us to have all of our administrative seat uh systems working in one unit. I think that's a good thing. My concern is is that uh somehow uh it looks like there has been some balls dropped. there have been um um some people who've come at the last minute to say we're not going to be able to do this uh and its fidelity and so I think that we have to keep this in the forefront about this and I'll just

106leave it there and uh until we go into executive session. Thank you. Okay. Thank you very much. And I I think uh if I can also make one last statement relative to this, as a matter of fact, um the um president Simmons would like to make the last uh comment, but um just u uh uh dovetailing back on what you said, Commissioner Elliot. Um I think uh for me, I would like to know the initial cost of uh this uh oracle, the present cost, uh cost overruns, and the future or long-term projected cost. So, those are some of the questions that I also have too when we really dive deep into, you know, Oracle. And you're right, uh, you are correct. We should, as a board, um, as far as our fiduciary responsibility, um, keep

107an eye on this. So, thank you for, uh, your comments, uh, President Simmons. Yes, thank you. Um, and I I do agree. I'm glad that, um, Superintendent Strickland has continued to place Oracle updates in his weekly board report. And if you click on that link, it will show you the current schedule and updates. However, that is not um that does not negate the opportunity for additional conversation which we must have and I have um certainly been consistent around trying to understand what the contingency plans are. So I um am excited that we can dive in because we do have some concerns um around this. But please make sure we are looking at our weekly board report that gives you updates on at least the project side of it um as we need to unpack it

108further. Can I can I say something though? Let me just sort of push back what the president said because um I have been keeping up with this. Um as you all know, I've had some health issues and so I haven't been keeping up as much as I should. But even when I went in to try to go on the link, it gave me an error so that I had to get it from uh the chief of staff. So don't think that I'm not paying attention. Have not been paying attention from its inception. But we're at the point when I heard at a meeting that this thing is not going to meet its timeline. That's when it brings up a concern for me. I appreciate those comments, but my comments were my comments and they were

109not directed at anyone, but they were to provide clarity that we do receive weekly reports and that we do have opportunity for additional conversation as I stated and I stand there. Thank you. Okay. So, we're going to I'm not trying to argue with you about this. I'm just making a statement. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, so at this point in time, um, Melania, I think I going to obtain a motion. All right. Uh, so can I have a motion to accept a temporary employment services report and the 202526 audit plan? So moved. Second. It's, uh, Vice President Malloy and President Simmons. Any comments and or discussion? All in favor? I any nays? Once again, all in favor? I'm sorry. All in favor? I. Any nays? We have one commissioner missing. So that'll be five

110and one. Who's the nay? Or correction, that'll be six. Okay. One commissioner missing. Okay. Okay. Um so I think that completes my report. Um at this point in time with the commissioners uh please complete your u meeting survey before we leave the deis. Uh uh we're going to this meeting will recess an executive session which is closed to the public to discuss matters related to matter related to matters permitted by section 105 of the open meetings law or to receive the advice and counsel of the general counsel. Can I have a motion to recess into executive session? So move motion by the president seconded by whom? There's no executive session. There is they added yes. Okay. Second second by the vice president. So at this point time for the general public uh we will not

111be coming back into I'm sorry. Did I hear the vote? Yeah. No. I heard the motion. All right. Okay. Just all in favor the motion in the second. We just didn't hear what the vote was. All in favor. Thank you. A Thank you. Okay, we're recessing. All right, so um we're going to move into executive session. We will not be coming back up um to the deas and we're going to um close out, you know, from executive session. So, thank you very much to the audience.