001unmuted microphones. >> No whispering. >> Thank you. Uh good evening everyone and welcome to the uh Wednesday July 16th uh Cincinnati public schools audit committee. Um thank you for everyone uh for being here and thank you to those joining online. Uh we'll go ahead and get started um with just a very brief administrative item. Um you'll notice uh in terms of the the packets that we have are a little bit um skinnier than normal. don't think we're going to begin transitioning to uh either printing and bringing your own or uh bringing a device to save on printing costs given but budget constraints. It seems like it makes a lot of sense for us to kind of be on our own in terms of uh what you want to bring to the meeting. So, please do
002next time consider your personal devices or whatever you need to be able to review materials. Um I will go ahead and uh kick off our discussion around our fiscal year 2026 audit committee goals. Uh if you recall last meeting we did begin this discussion last meeting fell in um fiscal year uh 25. So as we wrap wrap up that year and conclude that year uh we did briefly talk a little bit about what might our goals be for 2026. Uh if you recall we felt um you know last year we had a couple goals one around uh being involved in the treasurer search uh that has concluded. We had some goals around uh what I would call current events such as the levy and uh various legislative updates that come and go and change and
003um they actually come and go and change between meetings sometimes for for how frequently meet we meet. Uh so we did discuss that uh having a holdover goal around those as well as our um our involvement directly with the board helping share what uh the audit committee does, what the internal audit function does um and its impact on the district and how we might be able to uh better share um share that impa impact and and get that impact out there. So, those were kind of the things that that came out of that last meeting um with the intent of uh having those items on on paper and thinking about those items, but then also spending a little bit of time at this meeting talking about what u what more or less we might might
004want to do from a goal perspective. um we would have some brainstorming now during this session and then um take that away uh work uh towards writing those goals up and then um as you can see on the screen um finalizing those at our October 8th uh meeting. So, uh, I will open it up to, uh, the floor for anyone that would like to further discuss those items from last meeting or add to, uh, items that we want to talk about knowing that we also do have a full agenda. So, we want to, uh, be as succinct as we can, um, in this discussion. Not everyone at once. >> I'll pick on board member Craig then since he spoke up at last meeting. Well, I well >> I can speak my >> um I think
005the um the budget there was some efforts put towards risk assessment with our changes in the budget and I think coming into this next next fiscal year that we that's something that should continue because uh we are we are probably not seeing a whole lot of extra revenue coming in next year maybe probably even less. So, um, again, that's going to be a real really important, might even be more important for this next year than it was for this past year. Before Jim spoke up, I was going to pick on board member Craig because he's he uh we've spoken in other meetings around that third item I shared about the impact that the committee has and that the audit function has. if you care to share >> I think you know again one of the
006things we've talked about and it's been something for the last year or so as we've revamped the role of both internal audit and then the role of this committee as a result is to be able to demonstrate the value that comes out of the work that's being done by internal audit but the work and the advice and the cons the uh consult that is done through the internal audit committee and so I think one of the things we were is definitely should be something on the agenda And definitely something to be considered for as we go through the next fiscal year is just being able to demonstrate in a more expansive manner. Whether that is demonstrating in a bigger board setting, so at board meetings, or being able to kind of put together some type
007of official uh statement of value kind of deal for what the committee's done, what the audit team, internal audit team has done. Um there are a lot of ways that we've been able to gain value from as a district and so I think it's just helpful to as a little bit of what we've talked about in the past. It's been helpful to see that. I do like that idea of sort of a statement of value because oftent times we've thinking back to the the last 10 or so years when the audit committee and the audit internal audit function has grown drastically and has done a lot more work. I think we lose sight over time of the things that we did do or and having that stated somewhere maybe in perpetuity so people have the
008ability to go back and look at it and remember those things I think provides value. >> I don't think it's just the statement of it. is actually showing after the fact cuz I mean anyone who's done auditing it's not always perceived to be the most um uh worthwhile event at a lot of organizations but when you experience the the fruits of that where you save money or you stop problems uh that's when organizations recognize uh the value. So being able to not just say this is what we want our our goal our goal to be or what how we want to show value but measuring against that I think is critical and being able however that is being able to help do that because I've sat in her shoes and you know not at a
009not at a at a a um a government entity but I've sat there and it's not fun when people look at you and it's see you as a cost all the time. So, and there is a lot of value that that your department does provide. Any other thoughts? I think the levy the levy is still something that's out there falls under that current event category. I feel like we've we do seem to always take up the events of the day which we don't know what they will be. So I I have always seen value in at least acknowledging that that's something that we will talk about and give guidance as needed. I >> mean just current event update. I was uh representing the district today at the um human services chamber and um gave an
010update about um how the district is doing and we got a 100% endorsement from the human services chamber in support of renewal of the levy. And you know some of the talking points around the levy is you know it's we're not asking for more money. This isn't going to increase anybody's taxes and at the same time we have a lot of great things happening in the school district. We've got a really good uh management team that's put forth uh re restructuring growth plan uh which is which is significant because it's could have been done 10 years ago and we finally got a superintendent who wants to take it on and we're creating these middle schools that are going to have a big impact on student outcomes both uh were those those grade levels because they're
011those are grade levels that aren't really high school and they're not really elementary school. So, we'll focus on those kids a little bit more and it will also make our high schools no longer be overcrowded. So, a lot of good things happening. We've got part of this renewal is the um preschool promise which is really it's it's split between Sside Public Schools and the CCP, the Sincai preschool promise. And um you know, the kindergarten readiness of kids who come out of that program is palpably different. And so that's it's a it's 15 million out of the 48 million. And so very exciting to be able to renew that and have that program continue, which is a a unique fairly unique program in major cities in the United States. So >> that's the update on renewal
012for today. How's that? >> Excellent. >> Okay. >> Great. Thank you. All right. Um so are there any other comments before we move on? So what if there are none we'll uh we'll draft these up and bring them to the October 8th meeting and uh present them for uh finalization. Eve >> I could Mr. Chair one thing on the risk and I don't know if this is a pertinent but the district not only for the renewal this year but obviously we'll be asking for money from the from the public next year as well. a much bigger ad that we really need the audit committee's help in helping formulate what that means. But also I at risk we are currently involved with a lawsuit uh a case uh suing the state of Ohio regarding universal vouchers
013and have had some success initially uh in at least Franklin County and hope for some more success. Today it was decided that uh even though we were on the winning side of three of the five counts, the steering committee for that lawsuit decided also to appeal uh count five, which we did not win. And that's based in part on discrimination racially and and what have you. The other the other piece besides that case is that as we now know too, we are becoming involved uh uh rather strongly uh in a case and a suit and uh I don't know the proper legal terms. My friend Brandon might know the right terms regarding the federal government's withholding of funds. Um so there's risk both at the state level and the federal level uh as you can
014well imagine and that's just doesn't even talk or speak to uh our stand on DEI which we all know about. So there are a number of risk elements that we have uh decided to engage in in the name of fair funding for our students and our kids and our taxpayers. So, it's going to be a big couple of years. >> Great. Um, thank you for all of that. Um, let's go ahead and move down to the next item on the agenda, which uh was levy and financial discussion. So, we got a little bit of levy already, but uh Jen, if I could turn it over to you. >> So, they stole my thunder. Um, so, so we have a balanced budget. Yay. celebration. Um >> yes, >> he did the line share of the work.
015>> Um but there are and and we do we did that with the help of Governor DeWine who issued what 67 vetos 68 vetos. Um some of which are being considered for um reversal. Um the House is voting on July 21 on several of the issues that could be very financially painful to us. So we're monitoring that closely. if they pass three-fifth vote, right, they have to go into the Senate for the same thing. So, we're we're um waiting to see the results of whether the vetos will be overturned. Um there's still uh ballot language out there um that addresses property tax reform um that could wipe out $393 million worth of revenue um if they don't replace it with something else. They just want to like eliminate property taxes. Well, that's 393 million of
016our $600 million of revenue. And so, um, we're trying to talk to the legislators about what could the alternatives be, how can we come closer together on our opinions and um, so we're trying to set up some meetings with Bill Sites who is now over the property tax reform. He's been a longtime supporter of the district, a parent, a board member in the district. Um, and so we're still fighting those battles. Um uh Mr. Crosset's right. Next year's revenue um if at all will be flat. Um our union leadership very graciously by graciously bypass any kind of cost of living increase this year to help us balance a budget, but we can we we won't be able to get through that a second year of no cost of living increases. So we're going to have
017to find a way to make room in the budget for that. um as well as already negotiated step increases in the salary scales. So, we're always faced with more cuts because our revenues stay flat, but our expenses always go up. So, um it'll be a challenge for Mr. Gustin as your next treasur. >> Um we we do have a levy on the ballot this November and as Mr. Crosset said, it's the $15 million set aside for support preschool. Um, and we have some long-term um, financial strategies on new money for next year, what that might look like. We we're talking about trying possibly for an income tax, school district income tax levy, um, and a PI levy to help with the facility and master plan. You know, we had this billion dollar plan and now
018those buildings are 20 years old. They need new roofs and new HVA systems. Um and so that's a lot of money. Um so we've estimated like a a four mil PI levy possibly permanent improvement levy for that. So when and how we do all that and structure those depending on whether they some of the vetos are eliminating some of our property tax types. So we have half of our property taxes basically are in fixed rate levies. The other half are in fixed sum levies. And so a fixed on levy the millillage changes to to raise the revenues. They're talking one of the ballot languages is eliminating fixed on levies. So I don't know we don't know whether that's they're going to convert it over to a fixed rate levy as an automatic or do we
019have to go back to the public and ask for it to be renewed. Um so there's a lot of fear out there. So we don't really know how to structure the next levy and how to start marketing it and selling it early. Um because we don't know what our options are going to be. But we are trying to do that. I think in the past, if I'm not mistaken, some of the older audit committee members or or seasons, let's put it that way. Um I don't know if you officially did an endorsement on the levy. Do you remember? You did. Okay. So, we would formally ask for that endorsement. Um and so we're starting to collect endorsements as we go forward. And then, um with our levy planning, there's a team that's already starting. We
020filed with the uh Hamilton County Board of Elections. We're waiting on an issue number. It should come sometime in August or maybe even early September. So then we can really start um doing our campaign. I think Oh, the grants. So the grants were suspend on June 30. We received an email to say they're withholding funds. Our bud our budget year starts on July 1. So it was very unfortunate timing. the um there's I can't remember how many of the grants, five, five, four or five. It's $5.2 million in total that's being suspended. Um and so we've had to delay contracts and service plan services and we're we're trying to figure out how to maybe switch some from one grant to another. >> This is federal money. >> Federal money. Yes. I'm sorry if I didn't
021say that. Um and so we're still working through those issues. In the meantime, the state ODW upgraded their website and it's very very difficult to use and so we're trying to figure out how to properly file those things as well. Um, did I miss anything? Okay, you have any questions. Are there any new audit members that I haven't met yet? Because I moved out of state so I don't always join in person. Um, I'm Jennifer. I'm the exiting treasurer retiring. So, Jen, maybe you want to say what those services would be that are specific to those grants. >> I'll let Mike Angel just we're working on a report for the board, but >> Sure. Um, so so really there's like a couple big ones. There's title title two, title three, and title four are the
022big grants. And then there's some adult education stuff, which it's perplexing to me, but one of them is adult education, but for the ones, title two is what's called improving teacher quality. So, it really helps us do like professional development for teachers. Helps us basically recruit, ret re, recruit, retain, and skill up our teachers. We use it for a lot of professional development, a lot of curriculum development, stuff like that to make our teachers more effective and to allow us to to keep and retain good teachers. Title three is for students with limited English language proficiency. This helps all English language learners learners. So again, it's a lot of services um that we put in place to to bridge language gaps and help help those students get acclimated into our schools and provide textbooks, provide
023professional development for teachers um to kind of learn to work with that population. And then title four is a little bit of everything. So it's a lot of supplemental stuff. Um things you'll know a lot of the stuff we use it for like the yonder pouches that was a use of it. So it helps with school safety, security, social emotional learning. um it does a lot of our behavioral intervention supports are funded out of that. It's also some technology stuff. So, so really like a whole graag of things that are really awesome for our students and are really tough to live without. So, so we are as Jen said, we are working through contingency plans of of how how we're going to function until this gets resolved. So when you say resolved, is there some
024sort of likelihood of that resolution or is it the contingency plan is more likely than not needed >> there? We we're we have a couple contingency plans. Um one of the things that that we're looking at right now is carryover. All right. So So there's and folks who have been in finance committee know every year there's some carryover from year to year from grants. And so one of our plans is if all we had was carryover for this year, what would that look like? Right? That's right. That's that's a plan. You know, if we got a partial amount, we didn't get everything. We also looked at, you know, can we switch things from title three to title one? What does that look like? So lot a lot of different kind of whatifs because we really
025don't know at this point. I think one of the things to stress on this is that so one these are funds that have already been appropriated that are just being held and in theory you can only hold them for so long a period of time under the law it's 45 days I think is what it says under federal law that you hold them under review. Um but that doesn't mean that current administration is going to follow the law. Um, the second part to that though, and I think this is where it's very difficult for districts like ours, uh, but I think districts across the state of Ohio and everywhere else who's having this problem, is that you you make plans to do work with an understanding that you'll be repaid by the by these grants,
026right? So, it's not that you get paid first and do the work. You actually do the work and then get paid. And so in theory, if you delay doing the work, it makes it more difficult for you to then utilize those resources at a later date. So while we might be able to do some of this stuff and might have certainly contingency plans to to tide us over until we are authorized under state law to get the funds from the state that are filtered through the federal filter from the federal government down. Other districts make the plan for this is really to keep people from using the funds, right? So the the goal is that a district can't do X Y and Z and they can't start doing it then they won't do it and
027then therefore they won't need the funds anymore and we can call it back. Um so it's more of a delay than necessarily as effective a means of getting rid of uh but that does mean some of the programs some of the things especially like uh some of the after school care and other stuff that were funded out of these things you can't do it you don't hire folks you're not going to have them later to go back to hire so I think this is something that we should be we're you know process of dealing with but also be very cognizant of how much this could have changed how certain things operate. Any other questions for Jen or Mike or the board members? Um on the property tax um issue, can you just clarify is that
028um eliminating any school funding from property taxes in the state and does that mean that then all districts will have to add an income tax in order to fund their schools? There is a ballot initiative that is going to that proposes to eliminate all property taxes. >> Right. >> And that's it. Just eliminate. >> Right. >> So it's not just school districts. Yes. Not just school districts. So cities, counties, zoos, metal me, you know, >> um everybody will be hurting. >> Um there's other languages that are attacking specific types of levies. So there's just there's a lot of effort out there to relieve property taxes. Um so it's very complicated and um Mike has a tracker where he has all the different bills there um that are listed. There's probably 10 or 12 or even
029more. >> Yeah. So, in addition to the ballot initiative, which would would eliminate property taxes statewide, which is which is a wild idea, >> ballot initiative as in like 50% of the voters have to vote for it for it to pass. Okay. >> And I don't know that they've gotten the signatures yet to put that on the ballot. >> That's definitely discussed. A more likely, I think, scenario is there's a there's a bill in the House right now, House Bill 335, and it takes all of the kind of icky stuff from the Senate budget, and puts it into one House bill that they're debating. And and that that has a more like higher chance of some of it getting through, but that is, you know, eliminating inside millage, which would cost us 36 to 40
030million a year. that is the 20 mil floor stuff which could be up to $11 million a year. You know, reducing the types of levies that we can we can put on the ballot and a bunch of other stuff. >> Was it deemed unconstitutional for the way that that schools are funded with property tax? Was that something that was >> Yeah, that's the that's a D Roth case um cases actually there are multiple D Roth cases that said that Ohio's system of funding property tax unconstitutional. It's kind of how we got to the current fair school funding plan was that was the legislaturator's um response to that to try to make it constitutional. Now, what's interesting is, and especially in some of these budget proposals, the percentage of state share that's proposed is actually less
031than what it was when the unconstitutional lawsuit was filed. >> Well, it was unconstitutional because there was an over reliance on property wealth. >> Um, and so they used to do a formula where they tried to do an adjustment of cost to doing business and that didn't really work. So that fair funding formula, but the we became wealthier for no apparent reason. Um and our property our district share went from state share went from 36.9 to 33. Um and so they're forcing us back to the property taxes, but they say they don't want to have property taxes. So it's we're in a a conundrum and this is we're we've never been this historically have never faced this issue before. So, um we're really forging new territory and um what what our future looks like. So,
032I understand the um official announcement of the federal grant suspension. It's relatively um new and I also understand that you are uh looking through contingency plans for some of the programs. Um, but has there been any communication or information provided to the school families to understand what potentially may happen as a result of that suspension? >> I I doubt there's been any communication other than public board meetings um any formal communication because it we just received this information and we didn't have a balanced budget yet. We didn't know exactly um how it was going to proceed, but um you do raise a valid point. We probably need to start putting something together quickly. We just don't know what to tell them at this point. >> Just to ground us. So, I understand that the whole
033the federal cuts that we're talking about is highly relevant right now for the school year that starts in a month. what you're talking about for property taxes in the state of Ohio, is that really impacting your budget for the following fiscal or school year, basically next year, if that is enacted with legislation this fall? >> Some parts of the language might not this year, we're good for this year in terms of the general fund, but next year like the 20 mil floor change, we didn't even talk about that. That will hit us in 27, right? So because um property taxes a year in a rears and we're on a fiscal year or they're on a calendar year, it'll only affect us half of a year in the fiscal year 27 school year. Um if they
034remove the 20 mil floor calculation, um this is like a college level class. So the 20 mil floor is a rule that says every district needs to have at least 20 mills to operate. And so, House Bill 920 was a house reduction factor. So, it prevents property taxes on fixed rate levies that to grow with inflation. So, what they do is they calculate the millage of the tax rate on everybody's bills to collect about what the voters had approved. So, as property values goes up, the millage rate goes down. So, we collect about the same amount each year, but we get the advantage is we get new construction as each year's additional revenue. So as that millage rate drops and some of our levies were passed back in the early 70s late60s and so they're
035the millillage numbers are really low and so we drop below that floor on our residential property and so H the Hamilton County auditor automatically raises the tax bills to get us back up to that 20 mil floor. So that's extra revenue for us. Um it there's some effort out there to change that calculation. the fixed sum levies aren't the millillage and the fixed some levies aren't part of that calculation right now. So there's some effort to move the fixed mil some levies into that calculation. So we would with any new levy money that we would have to we would have to calculate the millage of what we need and then add on to it the loss of the floor. Does that make sense? So, it's like I said, it's like college level cloud, you know,
036it's long. It's very complicated, but um there's a lot of language out there that's going to hurt us. We just we're trying to figure out what's going to hit us first. That answer your question. >> Yeah, I think it's helpful to um one, that's a great explanation that I think I followed, but two, it it's helpful to know from a timing perspective kind of what we're talking about and how far out in the future this is, or lack thereof, >> right? Yeah, just as a additional thought onto what Jen mentioned there, I think this is in part why the different strategies that are being used to attack funding of how schools are funded are need us to be very vocal in support in a lot of ways because you know again whether it's the overturning
037the vetos whether it was it's the other pieces of legislation that are out there sitting to get support whether it's the initiative right which would not just kill schools but public libraries, uh mental health facilities that utilize um and disability children facilities that utilize real estate taxes, state or you know city local municipalities that use real estate taxes things. Um it all to all in total is efforts to take away how we fund public education that does not affect how private schools, how charter schools are supported and funded. And I think that's another aspect of what has been kind of the constant message that we've been trying to princ principal out um as board members, but also as a district to recognize that a student who goes and gets a charter uh I think they're
038trying to call them scholarships, but essentially voucher. Their the charge amount that they get does not change based on how much the school put up in levies, how much the property taxes changes in the it's the set amount. Ours is what's is what's decided by all these other factors. Hence why like when they found the legislation or when they found the the funding mechanism unconstitutional is because of its over reliance. There is no effort to find the over reliance on anything other than how much dollars do we want to give a students go to private school. Um, add into that again a lot of the things that are going on at the federal level and some other efforts to defund how we do schools. It is just really important that we have collective support and
039and a really big positive message about the great things that are happening in the district to echo why it is so important to keep funding public school education because I think that's the other part that we will rely upon you all to to also help us with is that messaging around the great work, the great things, the great programs, the great opportunities in CPS that don't often get mentioned in other spaces and among other crowds. Um because that that's the other thing that they've done is they've made public schools look a certain way so that then people feel negative about public school education. So you're now more okay with oh they don't need these money this money anymore. Um and so that's this kind of the counter message we're going to have to do in
040some ways as we think about future levies as well. >> I'm not sure how you communicate all of this effectively to the the nor the normal uh person, but it sounds like to me you need like a schoolhouse rock type of uh communication that goes out because it's just it's so complicated um that I don't know how you can be effective at getting the message out so that people can clearly understand the complexities and what you which you have to deal with. But you have to find a a better way of communicating because this information will go over the majority of our heads. >> I think you're absolutely right, especially if we try to communicate the financial aspect of it. What's going to be communicated is the political aspect of it. It's very obvious that
041this is a political effort. It's not an economic effort. It has nothing really to do with finances or money. It's the defunding of public education. It is the uh dismemberment, if you will, of the public sector and public unions. And the greatest number of all of that, both in dollars and in union membership, is in public schools. Because at the very same time they're doing this to us, they're giving a $1.1 billion dollar to vouch for vouchers to go to private schools, which are not being used by people that are economically disadvantaged. So that's over. So they're building that system like you have in the south where when they had to integrate they found a system of private school system and that's what they created. That's what's being created in this red state now is
042what they did 30 years ago or 35 years ago in the south. So you're right. We'll never be able to communicate this financial because even when we do it sounds like oh we can't wait to tax you. you know, it's it's it's they've already they've already claimed the the the vocabulary, so it can't look like that. This is really really about defunding public schools. It's about five basic principles of democracy. Uh it is really about local control and and it's and that's why we're going to be in federal court and why we're already at state court. And I I think I I just really want to second what you're saying, the financial piece. this crowd can understand stuff, but when you go out and you're on the, you know, on the campaign trail, you're not
043going to be able to communicate this unless it sounds like you want to tax and spend. So, it's it's other it's it's the political and sociological and let's it's all about DEI, too. They really don't want public schools. Just a couple other talking points that might be helpful to all of you is uh one is uh there's been a lot of uh there's a lot of visibility on real estate taxes by property tax owners. They said property taxes are really high but indirectly everyone who lives in the district pays property tax indirectly through their rent. So there's some been some talk about you know property tax isn't equitable. It actually is fairly as it's as equitable as an income tax. everyone's paying that either directly or indirectly. So there's a a thought around that. Um
044the other thought is um I lost lost my other thought. Um I can't even think of what it was but >> it'll come back. So what we were talking about >> it's what the other business sections if you need more later built in. Uh I think I think uh as as financial people, business people, you got to understand return on investment. The return on investment in the money that's going into privatization in schools is not changing student outcomes. The the voucher money is going to families that already are on a trajectory for positive student outcomes. And the charter schools privatization, the private charter schools aren't have been around for 20 years and they haven't moved the needle. They done nothing transformative to make educational outcomes better. So you've got a lot of taxpayer money going
045for education that doesn't make any difference in a student or student population getting better educated. So that's another maybe talking point that's fairly high level that you can talk to people about. >> Well, this is all a great discussion. I appreciate all the perspectives from the board members um and those from the administration. I think we'll continue to support as an audit committee the the needs of the district and the more you share with us and the more you ask for help the the more we'll be here to help. So we look forward to helping fight the battle with you all. Um if I could uh turn it over to Lauren and Isaac to go into our fiscal year 26 internal audit plan. >> Absolutely. Good afternoon everyone. Thank you all for coming to I
046think the last CPS board and audit committee meeting of the month of July. So after this hopefully everyone can have some rest and uh get back together for August. But with that being said, uh looking ahead into fiscal year 2026, we have some great uh progress to share with you and some plans that we look forward to seeking your feedback on. So jumping into our presentation side, Rob's pulling it up right now. Um, just a second. Great. So, since we last met at the end of April, we had the unique opportunity to go to the Association of Local Government Auditors, ALGA, a big group of people kind of like us, which is really fun. We get to exchange ideas and hear presentations. And essentially, this conference is all peer-led, so anyone can volunteer and give
047a presentation. So Isaac and I uh put together a presentation about all the work that has been done by our team around follow-up procedures as well as our dashboard and uh we presented to I've got my numbers here about 150 people in person as well as 300 online and then our uh video which is on the following slide was available on demand thereafter. But I think it was a fantastic professional development opportunity. Uh typically when you sign up for these things, you're put into these breakout sessions that are small rooms because people signed up for our session. We were put into the main auditorium that had big screens and big lights and cameras and you can if you watch the video, give us I think Isaac did great. Give me a little grace. I think
048my hand was shaking so bad when I tried to set down the clicker. But it was a good professional uh development opportunity and honestly it was really really exciting to get some feedback from other audit groups that are 10 times our size or more asking us questions asking how we implemented this work. Um and I think we've had probably a dozen or so emails thereafter asking to get together with us and for us to share ideas. So, it really was a wonderful validation of the project that we've done and certainly the work led by Isaac and um of course Emma who's I uh should mention welcomed her little girl on May 10th. So, we are very excited for Emma and her husband. Um so, we just wanted to celebrate this presentation. Uh and like I
049said, if you all are interested, the recording is on the next slide and shared in the Google Drive. It's about 45ish minutes, but I think it's fun to hear some of the feedback. you'll hear all the Q&A side as well. Um, and then just in terms of celebration, and Kevin, you reminded me or made me think of this as you're talking about celebrating the ROI, the value, and the impact of audit. Um, so actually on the the previous slide, Rob, if you don't mind, this year we put together Oh, I guess maybe we have different slides up. Um, nonetheless, there's an impact report that's linked in our Google Drive and Superintendent Murphy uh invited us to participate in this broader district effort where each department is putting together a report celebrating some of the KPIs,
050number of recommendations in our case, things of that nature. And then bits and pieces will be pulled together for a district-wide impact report, which will be a great way to showcase and tell the story. Um, I'm looking at our our director of communications, I think, will be leading this charge. Uh but a great document to share with our community to say the wonderful things happening here at CPS and we're very grateful to be included. >> Fantastic. So I will um with that being said turn it over to Isaac who really led the charge in a transformative risk assessment approach this year. >> Thank you Lauren. Good afternoon everyone. Uh before we get started, I want to mention that these slides are more of a kind of highle summary of all the work that was done
051for this year's planning. Um and throughout the presentation, I will be referencing various uh pages in the audit plan just so you can kind of connect the dots as to what I'm mentioning. So, as you may recall at this past April audit committee meeting, we reported on the completion of the department development project titled organizational risk matrix. Um, it was included in the summary of work document that was provided. Um but this project was used to create a enhanced and robust framework uh for our risk assessment process. So to accomplish this we performed extensive research and created templates for a risk assessment and put together a comprehensive approach for this year's uh risk assessment. So, this visual kind of highlights uh a few key differences and improvements when comparing our historical approach to this new
052approach that we used this year. So, for this year's uh risk assessment process, we kind of followed uh fourphased uh approach to the work. Uh we finalized a new audit universe and then went through to ultimately developing the internal audit plan. Next, thank you. So risk identification and inputs. This can be found on the top of page seven in the internal audit plan document. This visual summarizes uh all of the kind of inputs that we leveraged throughout our um risk assessment process um and ultimately to develop the internal audit plan. These were utilized in some capacity throughout all four phases of the work that I mentioned on the last slide. Um, and so this kind of helped us assess all of the specific risks across the district and gain an understanding of the operational and
053control environments of each. So this slide actually relates to the second printout that we provided to you all today titled the fiscal year 2026 risk assessment audit universe. So this first step in our new approach is establishing the new audit universe which is a comprehensive and dynamic list of all potential areas that could be audited um throughout the entire district. So shifting away from our historical approach of assessing risk by budget unit to now utilizing this audit universe um is likely the most significant change that we made to this process. So this new audit universe is comprised of 84 functional areas throughout the district and they are categorized or classified um into these eight groups and the audit universe will regularly be updated and revised as changes occur throughout the district. Um, I'm pretty sure
054a few things have even changed since the board has, you know, finalized and approved next year's budget. These these details can be found at the bottom of page seven of the plan. So to assess risks and associated with all 84 functions of the audit universe, we utilize this two-fold approach uh which is actually commonly used in internal audit as well as enterprise risk management and it essentially includes uh rating impact and likelihood for all functional units. The formula is pretty straightforward. Impact times likelihood equals overall risk rating. However, there's a lot that goes into each of those two uh assessments impact and likelihood. And I'll kind of dive into each of those in the next slides. So moving down to page eight I believe on the audit plan when assessing the impact of a potential
055failure we considered uh eight different types of risks for determining the overall impact score. We wanted to ensure that uh we were capturing a a diverse um range of ways that the district could be impacted uh not just financially impacted of course. And so the definition of each of those are outlined in the table on that page. And then we also included some examples of impact level scoring there as well. So moving on to page nine for uh the likelihood assessment. We considered nine operational and control environment factors to help us determine the probability of a failure occurring or a specific function or process. So, the presence of multiple of these control environment risk factors um increases the likelihood that a risk or an impact to the district could occur. And the definition of each
056of these are also outlined in the table on page nine as well. And finally on page 10, we introduced the concept of plotting the functions onto heat maps based on their impact and likelihood scores. This specific heat map provides a highle view of the eight audit universe classifications and these were based on averages of each of the functions in each of them. Starting on page 18, um there are the breakouts of each of those classifications and more detailed heat maps of the entire audit universe. Um I believe it's under appendix one. So this tool was able to clearly highlight critical areas throughout the district that kind of came up throughout our risk assessment. And while our historical approach um around the risk assessment would ultimately u result in similar results um this new kind of
057methodology is a lot more efficient and it also is more aligned with um the internal audit standards as well or I hand things over to Lauren for the projects in the plan. Any questions around the risk assessment? I guess just overall if you could flip back to that previous slide where you have the heat map as you guys compiled this under the new audit universe and actually mapped it out. How did this line up with I guess your expectation and does it make sense your highest and lowest rated for example? I mean like onesie twoosy things aren't really going to pop in this, but the overall lay of it, how does that line up against what you expected in kind of history? Yeah, I think it aligned really closely with um a lot of what
058we see in school district like other school districts uh risk assessments and I personally was since we had never done anything like this with the heat map. I think we captured um a lot of the data numerically in um you know Excel sheets and whatnot, but it was really interesting to see it kind of laid out on a heat map to kind of add a visual aspect to it. Um, but no, I think it was really similar to, you know, stuff we've seen in the past with our risk assessments, but it just provided a kind of a different approach to like visually being able to see it all. >> And one thing I might add too is that the benefit of this approach is not only for audit purposes, but can be broadened if the
059organization would like to further pursu pursue erm. So the the thing I always say and it's not to discredit our work, it's just that the representations that you see here are based on the feedback we were able to gather, the conversations we had. But the flip side of that, the more people that you have involved in the granular detail, the more valuable and robust this does become. So I think there is a lot of opportunity now that Isaac has led this work in mapping in this approach and methodology that uh we can use this for other purposes. One of the things that comes to mind is as we look at these heat maps, we may see areas that are in the red or the more orange or yellow areas that may be worth noting, it
060is a higher risk area. However, it's not highly auditable or it may not need an audit, but it may need some conversation by the board or audit committee to say, are we comfortable with this level of risk? Do we want to accept it or do we want to put some sort of intervention in place to bring that down? So I think this just helps uh utilize the risk assessment work not only for audit planning purposes but hopefully equips the leadership teams with additional perspectives on risk as a whole. >> Another aspect that um was a huge improvement is there wasn't always necessarily a clear linkage between our risk assessment results in the past and the projects that we selected. um just based based on the fact that some of the budget units are you know
061really you know substantial compared to the others and auditing um the treasur's office is you know very unlikely we would audit a very specific function or process of it. So having all of the kind of functions outlined in the audit universe is uh a significant improvement and rather than trying to piece everything together next year when we come back to this we'll be able to kind of keep an eye on the audit universe to kind of keep a a current and up to-ate um list of who owns what and whatnot. Um, I think real quick the um the impact and likelihood I think it sounds like you said are kind of standard internal audit like classifications. um the um the cl the functional areas and those eight big buckets and then all of the areas
062underneath that. How did those get developed? And I think my question is like how are you how are you gaining comfort that that is comprehensive? is that like because I assume these things are specific to the district as opposed to like you're referencing internal audit standards. Um because I think um you know when you look at like a budget area like you know this is the list and you can check all those off. So like how do you feel comfortable that you captured everything in these classifications? >> Certainly. So there were there were many things that kind of went into each of these. Um I will say that we did perform a lot of the analysis that we historically have performed just to make sure that we were still capturing you know all of the
063financial aspects with our historical approach. Um but we every year we meet with pretty much every uh senior leadership member to to ensure that we're capturing each of these risks. Um one of the big um focuses this year was on the um the budget constraints and all of that. Everything kind of kept changing throughout and so we kept having to re revisit some of those areas. Um but then we each each of us also went through and performed our own kind of assessment on our own and then we came together to make sure that everything um kind of aligned and so we weren't kind of way out in left field on some of these. I don't mean to speak for Liz, but I I thought what I heard you say wasn't the risk categories, but
064actually the the units, the audit units, so the the individual units that make up the eight the eight characteristics or eight areas. How do you know that that is complete and accurate? I think is what the question was. >> Yes. So we I think similarly when we visited with every member of management we kind of went through to make sure that we were capturing um everything they each of them was able to provide a lot of feedback around um you should think about adding this I don't see this um I don't think this falls under us and so um throughout you know the future we'll continue to kind of adapt and adjust uh you you know, all of the functions within the audit universe, but those eight that we created were more so just to
065kind of group things together as best as we could. >> I'll just echo that I think it's every year that we've done this risk assessment, we keep thinking this is the best yet, and I think it is, but I think that's part of this ongoing multi-year approach is that I think this is the best we've ever had, but I think next year's will be even more robust as we learn more. But I think the thing that's been really overwhelming for me and I think the thing that Isaac did so well this year to ground us was that there isn't a diminishing return on analyzing risk for everything. So what are the most critical areas for us to include? So I think through those conversations like Isaac said with leadership we were able to say if
066you had to sum up your areas in these you know X fields can you give us 10? Can you give us the most critical? So I think that's a decision for the future of how granular we'd like to go and kind of that return on the time to analyze at that level. That's a great question and that's the difference. The budget units are the budget units. That's easy. It's a complete list. But I think this has been very helpful. >> Dan, let me share one quick thought also. I think one of the things that will be helpful in seeing this in in kind of its you know throughout the year rest of the year is in really that idea that we talked about last year which is understanding what are the risks that are necessarily
067the organization manages that risk or organization controls that risk versus those things that are outside because I think some of the stuff that comes up in the green or some of the like yellow may be things that we have no actual ability to control and so Therefore, we can't really assess if any given action that we do as an organization affects it. Whereas, there's other things we have complete control over and that we know completely that we are the reason why it's not running correctly. It's not or it's not running at its best level. And that's things that we were improving and things we can focus on and really have the biggest bang for what was the use of time for the internal audit team because I think that's the other thing we were kind
068of grasping at or realizing is that we had a lot of things that to be truthful there's just no way for them to come with any real reasonable recommendations if the the risk itself is just there is no system in place to do X right or there is nothing that they're consistently doing with Y whereas this might be able to give at least a little bit more of that guidance around this area is something that is where we need to focus our attention, focus our time, focus our reviews as a committee to ensure that the internal audits getting the best image of it. I think that maybe goes a little bit into what will be part of the summary, but I that that idea of the different types of uh support the internal audit team
069will provide even you know you'll be able to assess the risk in those kind of categories. You may be able to say okay well this group like we need you all to get these things in place and we can advise you and help you but until that's in place there's nothing that we can truly assess. Um, so that score may actually change as they become more uh prepared to be audited. They may become more high risk or they may become less of risk. And so I I look forward to seeing what that looks like as it goes on and how maybe those um spots on the heat map might change based on what uh you all are able to kind of assess. >> Great. Well, thank you for the feedback on the risk assessment. We'll
070hop uh briefly into the content of the audit plan. Now, um so it's important to bridge the first half of the conversation with the projects that are selected. And I think you can see where we're headed. Essentially, we utilize those risk heat maps to say, is this an auditable area? Is it well suited? Have we recently audited? Are there outstanding recommendations that already address these areas? Um and then really the coupling of the mathematics side of things with the art of it with saying is this audit of this area going to provide value and um is it properly timed. So essentially what we've come to propose to you is the breakdown of our fiscal 26 uh plan by project area. I think if I had to succinctly describe the overall approach would be that we
071are trying to remain agile this year. We are trying to do audits that are not overly burdensome to those groups and departments and schools that are now working with so much less for the f so much less for the first time. I say that although each year it seems they're doing more with less. Uh but really being cognizant of we don't know exactly what those budget cut impacts will be. So we want to be able to give quick meaningful feedback via our audits. Uh and then via our uh planning conversations with our audit committee chairs. There was a great suggestion around this advisory project of helping and assessing the impacts of the budget cuts for the year. Essentially what this looks like is management has done a phenomenal job in quantifying and uh in both
072quantitative terms and qualitative terms stating what areas were reduced and what those impacts may be. So, our goal as an audit team is to partner with leadership and go department by department or school by school to say, uh, do you have a new plan? I keep thinking of this, uh, budget cut as we used to have these nicely linked chains all throughout our district. And now we've had to remove some of those chains due to these reductions. And so, our job hopefully is to come in and help ensure those chains are repaired. And by that it's either the responsibilities of course we won't be making decisions but more so advising and facilitating. Um and again it could be internal controls or or process uh that needs to be adapted and repaired and changed. Also this
073becomes a full circle conversation. It informs our risk assessment that we do throughout the year. We can plug that information back into our heat maps. It also says great now we've repaired it. Can we give a quick audit through our algel auditing? So you can kind of see how these projects all work together in a way that's very different than our work in the past which has been predominantly when we talk about our audits larger audits that are larger scale that are very deep and in depth where this year I think is more of a quantity that is focused on the most important things. So happy to answer any questions. I hope you all had the opportunity to review the descriptions in the plan. Um but happy to answer any questions you may have about
074specific projects. And I'll let everyone mle that over. I'll share with you the next slide briefly. Uh so per the audit committee charter, it's actually a requirement that we share with you all our uh internal audit resources and budget for the year. And I thought this was a notable time to just share that all all uh departments and schools really did face significant changes. um an internal audit shared in in those reductions with unfortunately the elimination of our internship and Justin has been a critical component and we can't uh say enough about the contributions he's made. So that is certainly a notable um reduction in in skill and talent. Um and then we did reduce our non-personnel by 76% essentially keeping just enough to have the memberships for some free trainings and maintain lensure this
075year. Um, so you know, we are part of this organization. We are all in it together. And I think, uh, you know, we all will do more with less this year because that's that's what we're here to do to serve the the families and students of Cincinnati public schools. So, with that being said, um, before we jump into the dashboard, are there any questions, comments for the fiscal 26 plan? >> I don't really have a question, but just a comment. Uh I I think overall one I appreciate the the shared burden. I I think that's admirable that what your team has been able to do. And also I think with the projects you have listed for 2026. I was particularly um I I particularly liked the focus on I I like your explanation of agile
076auditing hitting more areas with maybe less burden on the department that you're working with. Um, also the focus on specifically budget cuts and maybe how how does that really affect individual schools or departments versus the financial impact that it was kind of made that at that level decision. Um, and I also like the focus on the the student data reporting. It's something that has been top of mind and topical in a lot of these meetings recently and so I think putting another set of eyes and and your team's backing behind it um is a great idea. >> Just a vote of support. >> Thank you. And I will add that since you mentioned student data, that is an area we've only peripherilally touched via charter school funding, voucher funding. We did a few other smaller
077projects, but not really in this sense. And I think it's a major undertaking in a major area, but we'll never we'll never uh kind of start to learn about how we can be helpful if we don't start somewhere. So, I think it's it's prime time to do it. So, thank you for the support. >> Any other comments or questions? Jim, the heat maps are cool. >> I agree. Isaac's done a phenomenal job with this work. It's why I said it was transformational because it really to see it this way is is awesome. Yeah. Very exciting. >> Well, thank you for the great feedback and I suppose we would like vote of approval for the audit committee or from the audit committee for the plan, but also for my goals. So, just I just say this
078now so I don't forget. Maybe we could do both um at the conclusion of my goals. >> Okay, >> great. Um so, with our dashboard, I'll be I'll be brief. I know we're uh kind of closing in on our our estimated time here. Uh but the audit committee dashboard has been updated to reflect all of the projects within our fiscal 26 plan. Nothing like updating and all that green turning red again, but I guess that's part of the cycle. So, uh we're at it again. Hopefully turning things green. um it really doesn't mean a whole lot right now. We kind of just have placeholders in a lot of projects except um our planning and risk assessment section is fully complete. Included that for the first time just to see the uh vast amount of tasks
079that went into that work this year. Um but I think the other notable item was around uh the past recommendations uh roll or excuse me the past recommendations for escalation report. I did add a later note at the top to request your review. So, my apologies that was just added yesterday. Um, however, Isaac is going to talk a little further about that and provide some context. Um, but yeah, thank you all for your preparation and and reading the audit plan. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Isaac to talk through our past recommendations. >> So, thank you. So, all of the new recommendations that were reported and communicated at the last meeting have been added to uh the tracking process as well as all of the visuals here at the bottom of the dashboard.
080I will note that five recommendations have been completed since the April audit committee meeting. um despite almost all of the district leadership being busy with putting together the the budget that they finally passed. Um and like Lauren had mentioned, the second item that we asked you to review um is the escalation plan visual a little bit farther down. There were a few. You could click that link please. If you click on the dashboard. Yeah, that visual. Mhm. There were a few uh recommendations that have been added to the 60 to 120 days past due uh since the April meeting. And per the escalation plan, um it's up to you all if you'd like anyone to come and present further information around those recommendations. Um I believe Julia is attending today to talk about the benefits
081um ones that were requested at the last meeting. Um >> she's been Okay. So, if you scroll down a bit, um, lines 9 through 13 kind of capture the ones that could be considered. Um, believe each of those may be um kind of fall under the treasur's office. So, if you'd like uh them to come and present more detail around those, uh, please let us know. But lastly, um document 4D in the Google folder um is a summary of all of the completed recommendations throughout this fiscal year. Um there were a total of 39 recommendations and we wanted to recognize all of the hard work and prioritization that um went into completing those. And huge kudos and congrats to management for accomplishing that. So I believe that's all of the past recommendation stuff. Lauren, were
082any of those jumping out to you all as um items that you would recommend that we ask management to come in to talk about? >> I don't believe so. Most of them relate to district-wide initiatives. And so with that kind of being a bigger undertaking, I think it's harder to estimate when that'll be accomplished. And so I wouldn't necessarily say that those are warranted. Um the I think those were the only ones. It's kind of districtwide. Um okay. So, since we can't since we can't conduct business uh outside of the public meeting setting, I would just ask that if anybody from the audit committee reviews any of this after this meeting and has any opinions about the next meeting and content, they can certainly reach out to me directly or to Clarice or to Lauren
083as we begin to plan our agenda for the October meeting. I think that's all allowable under sunshine rules. Is that correct? Okay. Just don't send a email to everybody. Uh so we could we could factor that into the next meeting if we feel like that's something that we we feel like uh feel passionately about. Okay. Um any other comments before Lauren gets into the her goals for the year? >> Yes, Steve. Sorry to be so slow on this, but following up what Jim said about the heat maps. Number uh five and number one I think are fascinating. do well for board members to to look at at number one and see the lack of impact the governance of the district actually has and that the real work of the district that goes along without any
084of that crap of that we usually can dish up on a monthly basis. But then also how wonderful five is where the the uh uh impact of the teaching and learning and extracurriculars are so high. I just I'm enjoying the the uh pictures. Okay. Uh Lauren, if you want to keep us moving. >> All right. So, very briefly, uh it's the time of the year again. I think I'm actually a little ahead of technical schedule, but since we're meeting in July, we'll go ahead and get this done since we don't want to wait until October. So, my goals for the 25 26 year are outlined up on on the document that you see on the screen. they tend to follow a very similar categorical structure. However, I every year as I think how can I
085reframe rephrase these goals. I think the reality is that the work changes within this plan. And so each year it really is this new rendition of how are we going to change our risk assessment approach which I believe we have really rethought um as well as our internal audit um plan itself. So I think the final focus that I really want to take to the next level this year though is the further development of internal audit department which I think really correlates with the goals that were shared from the audit committee side as well. I think we had a wonderful opportunity to be included and invited to so many other presentations just as Jen's board presentations and perhaps there's opportunities to take that even further this year. Uh so I definitely open and welcome all
086points of encouragement, guidance around the goals because uh I really do think we we adapt and grow each year. But uh some additional point of feedback is certainly welcome and appreciated. The only comment I would say is a I think you guys did a really good job on the on the risk assessment. um that follows what I've traditionally seen in other organizations that are for-profit. So that's normal process. Your goal one, I wouldn't say is to redevelop that. I would I would phrase it more as it continue to enhance >> because you have a good base. You don't I don't I don't think redevelopment every year is is is a good thing. um enhancing that, tweaking that, making it better is really where you want because you you heard the board members like the the
087heat map. It it shows that visual thing, but that's all driven by the the assessment that you guys developed and knowing that it's in conformance with the IIA standards and things like that helps that solidify that that uh the methodology is solid. Um and just tweaking hey in this one do we consider this high low as you tweak and get better understanding of those units is where I think that that's what that really because I don't think you need to redevelop it based on what I see. >> Thank you. >> I would share just I I thought your goals are are uh really good. I think the one thing maybe I might add in that idea of developing your team is also to develop your processes for your team to to develop. So I think
088that's the other part to it, right? Is is making sure your team has their consistency so that they can kind of focus on other things is is part of the developing of the team. And so um I know that's something you've talked about before about wanting to ensure that you all had your own internal processes. So as you went out to others, you had a kind of consistent rhythm and rhyme to it. So, >> yeah, thank you for that feedback. I think uh having the IIA manual and IA standards on the plan for the first time last year, this year, I think we're really ready to hit the ground running and I think further emphasizing that in this goal, I think is a a really really great call out. Thank you. >> Okay, any other
089questions or comments? beginning of the meeting we talked about the value in doing audit. I think that maybe that the impact and have it be very specific uh could be part of goal number two. >> Lauren, do you want to update these and have them voted on the next meeting or do you wanna I can further refine them. I >> That's a friendly amendment. We'll approve that today if you want to just pencil it in or Okay. >> Yeah. I can just um strengthen the call outs within this document if you are comfortable and then we can put it in. I'll bring uh the final version. But if you're all comfortable with these amendments, we can approve them formally. >> Um yeah, that's great. That allows us to proceed proceed really. So, um, can I
090ask for a motion to approve the internal audit plan and for the chief audit executive goals? >> Clarice motioned. >> Can I have a second? >> I second. >> Okay. Uh, Lauren, I guess we should do a roll call vote. >> Yes, please. >> Okay. >> Uh, Dan Hold House, >> yes. >> Clarice Martin, >> yes. >> Rick Janette Addie Carson, >> yes. >> Laura Deiviera, >> yes. Liz Gutrich, >> yes. Seth Harmon, >> yes. >> Kevin Hoffman, >> yes. >> Paul Kitsm Miller, >> yes. >> Carol Mitchell Lawrence, >> yes. >> Jonathan Young, >> yes. >> Eve Bolton, >> hi. >> Brandon Craig, >> yes. >> Jim Cassett, >> yes. >> Thank you all. We sincerely appreciate your feedback and support. >> Excellent. Okay, so um I had only one other bit of other
091business. Um, seeing as it's Jen's final audit committee meeting, um, I wanted to just, uh, say congratulations on behalf of the audit committee on your retirement and thank you for everything that you've done. And, uh, I know Mike will do a great job, but you will certainly be missed, um, as part of the district and here in in this in this meeting and in this room. So, thank you. You know, this is my um first final goodbye. I call it my farewell tour. Um you know, I I really I just wanted to formally thank the audit committee for always supporting and encouraging and just being there um as my Verizon network. >> Um there don't think that your role is just to show up here every couple months and sit and listen. Um there have
092been times when I've been on a limb all by myself and reached out to a few of you for guidance and support. So, I really thank you. You have a huge impact on this district and the support of Lauren and her team and Mike and his team. And um Mike and I have worked together for more than 10 years. He actually is finishing my sentences for me now. And so, um we think a lot alike. And um so I I leave the district in in really good hands and I'm so grateful to be and honored to have served the role as treasur and chief financial officer for 10 years um and the other 20 years doing other stuff. So, thank you. We appreciate the comments. >> Okay. Um, so our final bit of business uh
093for the evening is we do have some executive session topics to cover. Um, so I would like to ask for a motion to go into executive I'm getting very good at this. I think >> I would ask for a motion for executive session to discuss personnel matters and pending litigation. >> I I motion I'm not as good as you did. >> Can I have a second, please? >> I'll second. >> That was John. Um Okay, so Lauren, could you do a roll call vote? Absolutely. Dan Holt House, >> yes. >> Clarice Warner, >> yes. >> Rick Janette Addie Carson, >> yes. >> Laura de Oliviera, >> yes. >> Liz Gutridge, >> yes. >> Seth Harmon, >> yes. >> Kevin Hoffman, >> yes. >> Uh Paul Kitsm, >> yes. >> Carol Mitchell Lawrence, >> yes. >>
094Jonathan Young, >> yes. >> Eve Bolton, >> yes. >> Brandon Craig, >> yes. >> Jim Cassett, >> yes. >> Thank you all. >> Okay, so we're gonna enter executive session. Um we will uh adjourn out of executive session. So the the meeting will conclude at that point. And just as a reminder before we go out of public that the executive session is private discussion that shouldn't leave the room. So, I just want to make sure