001Okay. This June 16th, 2025 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board Audit Committee will now come to order. I see online that we have Miss Lady joining us. So, Miss Lady has not notified the chair and clerk of the board that she is using remote participation as she is caregiving for an individual with a disability. Thus, Miss Lady must be counted as in person for the persons of quorum this afternoon and does not need to be voted in by the board. She is located in Williamsburg, Virginia. Miss Lady, can you check your audio and visual? Miss Lady. Uh, Miss Lady, can you test your uh microphone and uh visual test? Okay, great. Thank you. Test. Yes. Great. Uh, so we will proceed to item 1.0, which is the approval of minutes. Uh so we
002will now vote to approve the minutes of the April 28th, 2025 meeting of the audit committee. Um moved. Okay. So Mr. Moon moves that the audit committee approved the minutes from the April 28 25 meeting with leave for the clerk to correct any formatting or grammatical errors in this and any previous meetings of the audit committee for school year 2425. Do I have a second? Second. Great. Seconded by Nette. Um all those in favor raise your hand. uh that is uh unanimous including Miss Lady who is virtual. Okay, we will be moving on to item 1.03 which is the construction and renovation contracting process audit. So I call on Mono Chahab and Tim Tishman for item 1.03. Thank you everyone. My name is Muna. I'll spend the next few minutes summarizing our performance audit of
003construction and renovation contracting process audit. This audit was performed in accordance with the FY25 audit plan. The primary objectives of this audit were focused on evaluating internal controls and processes, reviewing contract compliance and accountability and benchmarking industry standards for construction and renovation projects. Our test testing sample included six projects or sites including one new school, one capital enhancement and four renovation projects in uh including elementary, high school and middle school. As a result of this audit, we identified one high-risking, three moderate findings and one observation. So the first finding is related to compliance with construction and renovation contracting requirements. We noted a few areas where we could strengthen our process. First is the construction project daily reports. So FCPS field construction representative is required to complete a daily report to document work completed by the
004contractor to track the progress document any material receives and also document any issues at the site. We noted that those daily reports were not consistently submitted for a project at site number five. For example, in July 2023, six out of 20 daily reports were missing. And in September 2023, 10 out of 23 were missing. Then uh we have punch list. Uh punch list is a document that lists all deficiencies or items that need to be completed by the GC prior to them moving to the next um construction phase. We found a significant backlog. Over 2,000 items across four projects were lacking completion of documentation. And moving on to submers review submitts, which is a document that the contractor provides to FCPS for approval prior to them ordering materials. We found that for site number five,
005two submills were not approved in timely manner which led to an additional cost of 68,000 because the material codes expired and we had to reprocure them at a higher rate rate. We also looked at pro PCO or proposed change order support and documentation and time timeliness of review. So a PCO is a primarily document submitted by the contractor that requires potential modification to the project scope, cost or schedule to the for the owner for them to approve it before it becomes a formal change order amending the original contract. So we found uh an approved PCO in the amount of 233,000 didn't have supporting documentation to justify this the PCO. We also observed that change orders for four projects were not approved within the timely uh within the 90-day time frame of the PCO or the
006proposed change order is issuance dates. Finally, we uh identified I mean finally within finding one, we identified some clarity within our policy 8240 regarding change order approval threshold. So we review a sample of change order ranging from 10,000 to 1 million amounts per change order. the current process which aligns with VPPA or Virginia public uh Virginia proc public procurement act which requires school board's approval of change orders exceeding 50,000 or 25% of the contract amount. However, our policy or policy 8240 uh requires change order I'm sorry requires school board's approval for change orders exceeding 250,000. So to address these phones identified in finding one we recommend the office of design and construction to implement a monitoring pro process for daily reports punch lists submittals and PCOS or proposed change orders and also to clarify change
007order approval threshold in the manual. Next we have finding two concern and construction and renovation monitoring. So while we have some control in place there are some areas for improvement. So for change order justification we found that while architects FCPS and the GC's or general contractors are sign off on the change orders there wasn't documented evidence of FCPS conducting its own cost analysis or pricing review it appears that cost justifications seems to rely solely on the general contractor proposal. uh regarding Asian punch lists which we identified in find in one lot of items are outstanding uh the root cause be our excel spreadsheet that um the punch list are based on it doesn't have due dates for contractor accountability or it doesn't priorit prioritize critical task next we have project schedule and progress monitoring we
008could verify the initial schedule review of all five project, but we couldn't verify FCPS review of subsequent update schedule. We also notified or I'm sorry, we also noticed that three out of six sample projects missed key contractual milestones without documented justification for the delays. For example, uh size two substantial completion was delayed by eight months and size three and four final completion dates are still outstanding as of our testing date. We further noted that the contractual 30 days date 30-day period between the substantial and final completion dates wasn't met in any of the review projects. Lastly, we have the bi-weekly progress meeting. We found that documentation for site two progress meetings were missing after it substantial completion despite the GC or the general contractor receiving a significant payment during that period. So for these monitoring
009area we recommend DNC or office of design and construction to establish formal guidelines for cost analysis for PCOS or proposed change orders. Implement a clear plunge lint monitoring process and establish a formal process for reviewing and approving updated schedule and time extension. We also suggest office of design and construction to re re-evaluate the 30-day completion period and revise its manual. Next we have uh finding number two which is update to FCPS policies and guidelines. So FCPS policy 8240 which covers constructions and renovation contracts and hasn't been updated since 2014. We understand that proposed updates are awaiting review and approval. Similarly, our the DNC or office of design and construction operating procedure manual is in draft or in work in progress. However, we found some areas where the procedure could be enhanced to better reflect the
010current process and provide clearer guidelines clearer guidance including uh the general contract pay requisition process control architects invoice review bi-weekly progress meeting and the contractor evaluation form. Our last finding is the key performance indicated and construction benchmarking. We observe the office of administrative services or OAS and office of design and constructions having developed key performance indicators or uh document their efforts for internal and external construction benchmarking. Um we recommend DNC or office of design and construction and office of administrative services to to implement or establish key performance indicator and document their benchmarking and last we have an observation and is related to the contractor performance monitoring. So FCPS has a process to evaluate contractor's performance via contractor evaluation forms. But this internal data or this perform this contractor evaluation forms isn't used when assigning new
011projects as current pre-qualification rely solely on external information provided by the contractor themselves. We recommend DNC or Office of Design and Constructions and Office of Administrative Services to work with Office of Division Council to construct a process to consider contractor performance evaluation while maintaining compliance with VPPA or Virginia Public Procurement Act. Um that concludes our the summary of our findings. We very much appreciate the management during this um audit and um I give it back to Brian for questions. Great. Thank you for the report. Um, do we have any questions or comments from our audit committee members? Mr. Moon, followed by Thank you for the presentation. Uh, I didn't see one particular number in your report and I might have heard you wrong on the punch list. What was the number on the items on
012the punch list? So the the outstanding items were um 256 of items that were not documented in the punch list as completed. 2,000 56 and that's that include the how many projects? Four projects because one project was still in the design phase undocumented punch list items were exceeding 2,000. Yes. Even though that's a four projects. Wow, that's quite a lot. or or I shouldn't be surprised at seeing such high number. It is it is a high number given that some of them are back that that some of them are already substantially completed. Um but per management some of the items they're not they're not critical. Some of them they could be just like cosmetic like missing paint or uh uh stuff that did not prevent the did not prevent the area or the face from
013being occupied by the students. Uh probably this was not within the scope of your work but you know I hear from time to time how contractors make money. They make more on change orders than the contracts. And if as a a someone who's going to have to pay the contractors, if he can avoid a the change orders as much as as possible, I know it's a almost impossible to avoid in 100% of change orders, you know, but if there's a way to minimize that if not entirely eliminating, that's probably the best way to save money. Correct. I think we cannot eliminate you know change order is for unseen situation we cannot eliminate in inforeseen situation the only thing that we can do is to mitigate the risk of the contractor uh providing us PCOS that
014doesn't have supporting documentation or something that is already included in the scope of the contract and that's the that's what we have identified here in finding two monitor yes the uh piece like we when we receive a PCO from a contractor, we we're supposed to be doing our due diligence or our cost analysis based on industry standards and not rely solely on the GC proposals. Do you have any response heard any response or why there were there were not documentations? So um we did have we did have a recommend like not a recommendation but we did have a corrective actions for this finding. Uh if you give me one second. Okay. So um maybe while uh Mona is finding more to answer um M your first question where the punch list number it is listed
015on page 17 and I'm sorry it's a pretty robust and have a lot of information in this report. page 17 um finding one under point number two. So that's is the elaboration about the punch list uh details. Sorry that that we try to keep high level on the on the summary and then maybe I'm wondering since I saw management here um if anyone would like to comment about you know the process of managing the punch list um kind of the actions that they would like to take after it is identified as an issue. I think that we've provided the management response which you and I reviewed I think Miss Co. Um and I was trying to think of what page it's on. Um page 21 21 I think 16. We're on 16. All right. So,
016it looks like that um there are a series of bulleted items that reflect uh training sessions, reviewing manuals, a process for reminders, standardizing time extension criteria um and so forth on page 21. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moon. I think Aparna and then Annette. So, Aparna. Yeah. Good evening everyone and thank you so much for a detailed report. Um so here are my questions or maybe suggestions um or clarification so to say. The first one is you did um talk about the change orders, you did talk about the financial impact. I I mean you did talk about the delays and you did talk about certain observations which were not met. So my question is is there a way by which we can you know uh probably segregate them as administrative or internal control related
017and also financial impact. When I say financial impact there could be impact because overrun there could be impact because of change order. There could be impact because of your other observation. Is there something that we can tie into the whole project cost to see how all of these observations impacted on financially and also qualitatively in terms of the project delivery? Is there something that can be done or is it probably out of scope of the work? So um maybe I can try and then if if team can support me on page 14 it show kind of like the payments that we made for the six selected projects. Okay. So it's table number three payment sample right so those are the payments that we select if we want to know about the extent of the issue
018if I understand your question correctly Aana right so or I did not understand you can finish then I think once you finish I will probably be able to get where you're going with this right so what we identify is it 200,000 some of proposed change orders that we did not see adequate supporting documentation ation or we didn't see the approval done appropriately by our management. So there's a process. It's not just change order for whatever the general contract we we refer them as a GC here. It's not whatever they submit, we will go ahead. There's a process in place. So before they become a change order, it will start as a PCO proposed change order and they have to submit to us FCPS documentation to to justify why more costs need to be incurred. So
019I believe what we found out is that 200,000 what is the exact number? So 23 233,328 approved proposed change order that did not have a supporting documentation to justify the cost out of all the six site right because these are all the samples that we looked at. So then you can get an idea about the proportion of exceptions if if that is your question. No I think my question more is um I think there were observations about delay as well in terms of finishing up the project. So I'm like that should have an financial impact normally you know looking at the whole project perspective. So I was like okay did we do an analysis like that in terms of the cost overruns and how these change orders contributed to a quality efficiency or inefficiency and
020also other observation how do they connect to the overall cost of the project and the financial impact that all these observations created. Okay. So to answer your question uh Aperna um so we selected only a sample of six projects. We did not look at the entire uh population but for example for PCOS or submillos that were not um reviewed in a timely manner. Just one example it cost FCPS in additional 68,000. So that's a financial burden because the subcontractor has to resubmit another um code and in addition to the material cost we have to pay an additional cost for us not the the sub the subcontract or submitt had the 30 days but because we did not uh reply to the submiller in timely manner. So even though this is one just one example but
021if PCOS in general are not um review in a timely manner there is a financial impact that can cause um um like that could call the FCPS to pay an extra because subcontractors codes have are valid that only is only for 30 minutes and as we've identified I think in finding two um I'm sorry in finding one and therefore We have a variety or a significant number of PCOS that were not approved within the timely manner of 90 days or PCO issuance days and that's in page 18. Okay. Okay. So, as a percentage of the six samples that you chose, do you know what could be the financial impact like okay the overall project should have costed X but it costed 1.1x or 1.2x or something like that. Do we have that type of an
022idea or maybe not? Oh, do you have the um I just want to clarify that the contractual cost of the project can only exceed um the contractual cost by way of the change order by way of change orders. So um whatever change orders we looked at that was sampled that that is what can what was above the contractual cost that is all basically always going to be hit because it's very detailed in the way that the the project schedule is is laid out by cost. So it's going to hit the contractual cost and then what we listed as the change orders that we sampled that would be over that amount. No, I think um she was mentioning about a 68k overrun. So I'm asking in terms of that okay we it looks like you guys
023have been able to get some numbers. So I'm just asking as a percentage for the six samples that was done. Do we have an overall percentage? If not that's fine. I mean it's just a suggestion to you know include that because that will give a very concrete idea of really what is the financial impact also. Thank you. That's that's a good suggestion but as of now like just for the sample that we selected that was the that was the financial order for that specific PCOS. Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Yeah, so I noticed you were able to do some benchmarking with some neighboring jurisdictions. Not a not a lot because they use different systems. But um the two that you were able to do comparisons with um was it strictly
024just using numbers and using those for benchmarking against your finding or were you able to talk to them about processes and if so did you find any processes maybe that these neighboring jurisdictions use that you were able to say oh you know maybe that's something we should look at doing here at FCPS. Okay. So our benchmark benchmarking efforts were focused on the mechanism of um construction method or the proc the the construction procurement method. So currently FCPS is using or utilizing the design bid build process with our benchmarking efforts we uh find out that um I think it's listed on page 15. Um, for example, Virginia Beach public Virginia Beach public school and Arlington County government have construction similar to FCPS design build method while Fairfax County government and city of Virginia Beach government utilize
025the design build method. And the diff the difference between these two. Design build method is a a mechanism where um where FCPS or the owner uh hires a design vendor or the architect here for to design the the the to design the project and then it solicits a bid for uh construction and then the owner become or the winner become the general con the GC for that project. On the other hand, the design build is a mechanism where um FCPS hires a single entity that will be responsible for both designing and building. So we're using a single entity and there one single contracts. Did I answer your question yet? So if I may compleimement a little bit more Nette so we focus on the contractual mechanism during the benchmarking and per my understanding the school
026board has already have that uh has a work session with management to expand the toolbox of contractual mechanism that FCPS can use. So now currently we only use design beat build but that is going to be expand very soon and that's why the related policy is currently under work is to incorporate more mechanism like different ways to do business to answer your question do we look ask the questions about processes that was not part of the scope within the benchmarking you great thank you for those questions Uh, anything else? Okay, seeing nothing further on this audit. Thank you, um, Monia and Tim. So, we will be moving on second to item 1.04, the critical process review hiring audit. Um, I'll call on Luke Robertson for item 1.04. All right. Thank you. So, I'll be summarizing
027the results of the performance audit OAG conducted of critical hiring processes in accordance with the FY25 audit plan approved by the Fairfax County School Board. So, FCPS employs over 25,000 full-time equivalent staff members and over 3,400 new contracted employees were hired between July 1st, 2023 and December 31st, 2024. Hiring is primarily facilitated by the office of talent acquisition and management within the department of human resources and is also has other offices within the department that are responsible for certain aspects of the process as well such as background checks, investigations, um employment eligibility um and other onboarding related tasks. The hiring process consists of various recruitment, selection, appointment, and onboarding tasks completed by staff, hiring managers or the program managers at schools or offices and then candidates as well. So the a the audit scope was
028July 1st, 2023 through December 31st, 2024 and included the objectives to understand the business processes and acceptable risk level determined by management to evaluate the design and operating effectiveness of controls to identify key or redundant controls and to propose recommendations to management to improve process effectiveness and efficiency. In order to achieve the objectives of the audit, we reviewed applicable laws and FCPS policies, regulations, and standard operating procedure documentation. We reviewed prior audits completed by our office containing findings and recommendations relating to the hiring and onboarding processes. We conducted walkthrough meetings, interviews with HR personnel to gain understandings of the hiring and onboarding processes, um, such as their goals, objectives, their key risks, systems that they use, and controls in place. We evaluated the systems utilized by FCPS during the hiring and onboarding process, including their
029HR information system, Lawson, their applicant tracking system and their onboarding system through brass ring. And we researched best and leading practices from the Society of Human Resource Management and other industry leaders. We benchmarked hiring practices for certain positions against other neighboring and comparably sized school districts. and we analyzed hiring data for new contracted hires and examined hiring and onboarding documentation within dedicated systems. So as a result, OAG noted three moderate risk findings and one moderate risk finding. The first finding is titled the streamlining the design of hiring and onboarding processes. So, OAG noted challenges with the design of the hiring and onboarding processes, including decentralized instructional hiring processes, stagnant candidate pools that were not being regularly cleansed to remove uninterested applicants, duplicate efforts in the verification of employment history um through two different forms. the
030applicant information silos where it's not being captured and stored for other program managers to be able to evaluate um for candidates where they were already screened or interviewed as part of the hiring process. Uh communication delays with non- selected applicants due to the timing of requisitions needing to be closed before final uh notification is sent out to candidates um and manual recruitment and screening processes. So best practices state uh from GAO's standards for internal control in the federal government that management should design appropriate types of control activities for the entities internal control system and periodically evaluate methods of communication so the organization has the appropriate tools to communicate quality information throughout and outside of the entity on a timely basis. These challenges that we have identified may lead to inconsistent application of hiring practices, loss
031of interest from candidates due to the time it takes, data silos that disrupt workflows and don't allow um hiring managers to look at information collected from other hiring managers that are hiring for the same positions and ineffective use of the applicant tracking system to its full potential. Um so OAG would also like to note that FCPS is currently in the process of transitioning to a new human capital management system called my path. This will replace many of the current systems used that I've mentioned such as Lawson and brass ring um and will also impact the work on the performance evaluation and management side as well payroll um those sort of systems. So work impacting the recruitment and talent acquisition aspect of this audit is uh currently scheduled to begin implementation in January 2026 and go
032live in 2027. So our recommendations can be considered um for the current systems in place and processes as well as during the implementation and design phases of the recruitment aspect. So with that being said, we recommended that HR should consider centralizing their instructional hiring tasks to flow through the applicant tracking system brass ring to consider reorganizing the onboarding workflow to prioritize and frontload critical tasks such as background checks, employment verification. Um consider implementing automated processes within the current hiring workflow such as resume screening and candidate matching. Establish a talent pipeline of previous applicants automatically qualified for f future requisitions. Retain applicant information from screening and interview. Um tasks within the applicant tracking system for other hiring managers to access and review. And regularly cleanse talent pools for instructional positions to filter out uninterested candidates. And
033lastly to improve the timeliness of communication with non-selected applicants. So for finding number two, also moderate finding, this is establishing formal goals and milestones for hiring tasks. We did note a limited number of measurable goals and objectives established by the department that are tied to milestones throughout the hiring process. So HR reports on some established KPIs related to onboarding times in their HR staffing dashboard and other key management reports, but we did not identify any um measurable KPIs related to completion of hiring tasks prior to the onboarding process. Um so we did take a sample of a 100 newly contracted employees um with a start date of 2024 and we calculated the average time to fill for those applicants as 78 days and an average time to hire of 34 days. Um OAG also found
034that expectations for hiring managers regarding timely completion of hiring tasks were not formally established and documented. So organizations can utilize Society for Human Resource Management benchmarking data as a tool to help evaluate decisions and activities that affect their programs. And again, the standards for internal control for the federal government um states that management should establish a baseline to monitor their internal control system and evaluate and document the results of ongoing moni monitoring to identify issues. So without formally established goals and milestones specific to hiring practices, it may impact the ability for management to adequately measure the effectiveness of current hiring processes and initiatives and may make it more difficult for management to identify and improve ineffective processes as well. So, OAG recommended that HR should identify milestones within the hiring process for TAM and program
035or hiring managers at the schools and departments to track and establish formal goals for timely completion of the entire hiring process as well as each milestone that is being tracked. Finding three which is titled HR system data reliability. OA ag found that data for hiring tasks completed in the applicant tracking system specifically HR status updates for applicants may not accurately represent when certain tasks were completed throughout the process. So 41 out of a hundred of those newly hired sampled um individuals that we reviewed in the applicant tracking system move through multiple HR status updates in one day uh due to the manual steps within the hiring process that take out that take place outside of the system uh which are not updated in real time and to reflect um accurate and timely information. Um so
036management should design appropriate type of control activities and best practice so that transactions are completely and accurately recorded and high quality data allows organizations to identify KPIs or key performance indicators to measure the performance of various programs which allows teams to improve or grow them more effectively. And the use of multiple systems and manual tasks in the hiring process creates challenges for capturing accurate data. And this unreliable data may prevent management from effectively assessing and monitoring the processes. So OAG recommended that HR should identify the data needed for monitoring purposes, implement a method for ensuring that data is accurately captured, establish a baseline for monitoring purposes, and measure and report on data within the HR staffing dashboard. And lastly, the low-risk finding for communication of principal hiring practices. During the audit scope period, FCPS advertised
037the use of a principal pool to source candidates. Prospective candidates could apply for entry to the pool during multiple windows that were posted throughout the year, and candidates in the pool would receive notifications of upcoming or current vacancies that they could apply to for consideration. Changes to the principal hiring process were made in May 2024, but were not communicated fully internally and externally to current members of the pool, as well as uh interested in prospective candidates wishing to apply for entry into the pool. So while the principal opportunities were being posted to the administrative gateway on the FCPS public website during this time, the guidance on that website still indicated that candidates must first be admitted into the pool to be considered for um these positions. And we did see that as of March 2025,
038this this uh change this update was made um to the public website to now reflect the current process. So there's no more um external guidance that is not in alignment with how the current practices are working. And this may have impacted the ability for FCPS to source quality candidates due to a lack of transparency on the process and clarity into how it works. And we recommended that HR should document, communicate, and evaluate the effectiveness of the current principal recruiting and hiring process and to develop a formal strategy for recruiting and hiring principles and assistant principles going forward. So, that concludes the summary of our findings and recommendations. I'd like to thank HR staff for um collaborating, being so willing to give us information, meet and with that, I'd like to turn it back to Ryan.
039Great. Thank you, Luke. Questions, comments from the audit committee. Um, yes, General Co. Thank you. I also want to say uh our team actually spend a lot of time to creating or putting the processes in a chart like process format so you can actually see kind of it in details and community members can see it too because it's a public report like the whole process from start to finish and thank you uh Janet is being mapped out um so we can really see where the processes can be further improved so really thankful for my team and also our HR teams to support us with the audit. Hey Ryan, can I say some things? Uh yes, Miss Lady, go ahead. Yeah, thanks. Um so, uh I just first I want to uh thank um the office
040for doing this work. Um I can't emphasize enough how important this work is. Uh I'm shocked and disappointed to realize that when we changed the principal pool to not no longer being a requirement that wasn't effectively communicated. But I will tell you that in all my years of working in Fairfax, there was a saying from everybody which was that HR was neither human nor resourceful. Um and I believe that under William all of this is changing. But I cannot emphasize enough um small things like I appreciate the recommendation that if you didn't hire somebody that that you let them know. It's been common practice in this county that you interview for things and then you assume you didn't get it cuz nobody that never nobody ever lets you know. Like no one says, "Hey, thank
041you. We've moved in a different direction." I mean some of us did. Um but that needs to become more commonplace especially for internal candidates. I mean we just need to treat people better. um and the time lag between how long a job is posted and then the time it takes to bring it to fruition. Um I'm not surprised to know if I understand what was said that there were no uh goals or expectations between HR specialists around how quickly one should move on each hire because I do know as I had different HR specialists that had you know Chantilli I got completely different results um and you know it I mean, the difference is incompetence to highly effective. Um, and begs the question, why are some of these people still working? But anyways, this is
042great work and I trust William's going to, you know, work with it with fidelity and and do everything he can to to make sure that from the first time a person applies and whatever response they get acknowledging receipt of that all the way to being hired and onboarded will all be improved. So, thank you. Great. Thank you, Miss Lady. Anyone else? Mr. M. That thank you for the presentation and thank you for the recommendations. You know, some of the things that pointed out were uh some of the things that I had previously shared with the HR chief and superintendent and based upon my own limited personal experiences of hiring staff and encouraging community members to apply for jobs within FCPS. A lot of times they were expressing their frustration about the a certain timeline or
043lack of responses in a timely fashion from HR and etc. Uh with all that said with all that said again this might not have been within the scope of you know audit at this time whether we've been able to gather data or information related to percentage of employees who are really considered to be the top contenders. But due to the time was taking for us to hire that person you know losing those people to uh other employers whether whether we have those information maybe uh let me try I I I think Mr. This is a great question, right? We want to find out that if we are losing great candidates because our process should be further improved. Unfortunately, we don't have the data to analyze because as one of the finding indicated that within the
044current HR system, it doesn't really keep track of the various dates. Um so one of our observation is that we saw someone get scanned and hire and and interview with the same day which is not possible. So it indicated that those data may not be the accurate data but I'm thinking that with the new uh human capital management system I don't know if management you would like to comment on it would this be will this be possible to do in the future then I don't know anyone from HR or superintendent or or I think that the new system will provide more opportunities to be more efficient with um with human resources. Okay. You know, obviously we want to be able to attract the best qualified and once we find them, we want to be able
045to hire them as quickly as possible before losing to other employers, right? And when there's a time lag, you know, applicants, they have to make a decisions which way to go. But I've seen I've heard some of those from the applicants in the past and hopefully with a new system or new practices we can avoid or we can minimize those. Thank you Mr. M. Okay. Uh seeing nothing f further. Thank you Luke for the the work and the presentation. Uh and we will be uh moving on to 1.05 05 FY25 business process audits. So I call on Britney Hamilton for item 1.05. Thank you. Um so for item 4.1 is our summary of our FY25 business process audits. Um the objective of business process audits is to evaluate the effectiveness of processes in compliance with
046applicable uh regulations and policies and determine if internal controls are adequate and functioning as intended. And lastly to determine if transactions are reasonable and do not appear um fraudulent. Um BPA are performed um due to either changes in management or staff uh results of continuous monitoring um audit processes or situations as deemed necessary. Um and ever so often we may also get an um an audit requested from a principal. Um so in particular Sanberg business was um um Sanberg um business process audit was requested by the current principal. Um so the scope of work includes appropriated and non-appropriated transactions and processes taking place in the physical year of 2025. Um and up until the date of the site visit. Um we completed eight business process audits. Um and from those eight visits um there were
047one high-risisk, three moderate and 20 lowrisk uh findings. Um and just to break it down at a a high level for each school, there were four risk findings for Centerville High School. Um, three low risk for Forestdale Elementary, one low risk finding for Hayville Middle School, no findings for Mason Crest um elementary, and one low-risisk finding for MLAN High School, one high, two moderate, and three low-risk findings for Sandberg. And then one moderate and four low-risisk findings for South County High School. And lastly, um, uh, four lowrisk findings for Woodley Hills Elementary for a total of 21 findings for eight schools. Um, to just go through and touch base, um, on the high and moderate risk findings. We won't spend too much time on the the lowrisk findings. Um, but we'll start with uh, Sandberg.
048Um, and if it's possible, could we go to 4.7 business process audit report for Sandberg? So if we go down to page six, um there was a high-risisk finding um for the financial management report which is also known as the FMR. Thank you. Perfect. Um so starting with column nine um nine of nine months sample were not reconciled and approved in a timely manner in the online application. Um so from July of 2024 to December of 2025 the online FMRs were not approved until February of 2025 and then January through March of 2025 the online FMRs were not approved until May of 2025. However, during the end of February and March, the financial technician position was vacant. So, if we move over to column four, we have the physical copies of the FME, which stands
049for the financial management expenditure report. Um, so we'll see from January to March of 2025, the reconciliations were not completed timely. And then in column five, the physical co copies of the FMPR, which stands for the financial management position report, will show from December of 2024 to March of 2025, the reconciliations were not um approved timely. Additionally, there were three appropriated and one non-appropriated PECARD statement that was not timely signed um and dated by the principal and financial technician. um in particular our January through March um 2025 statements for appropriated um Sanberg is card and February and March of 2025 statements for the appropriate PC card for Sanberg as um card was not reconciled and approved timely and also the non-appropriated SA card as well for March was not um timely as well with um
050reconciliation and approval. Um, OAG recommends that the principal and financial technician um complete and approve reconciliations in a timely manner. Um, and then if we can go down to finding two. Um, there's one moderate risk finding which was related to sufficient documentation. In particular, one PECARD u purchase was made without proper supporting documentation totaling in uh $146.34. Um and sufficient documentation will include but not limit to purchase orders, receipts, invoices, um and other supporting documentation. Um in addition, two of the 10 sampled cash dispersements were made without proper supporting documentation totaling $1,853.38. And lastly for that same finding um one sampled cash receipt um cash receipt selected was not completed in an appropriate manner and that one was for a total of $1,926.71. The deposit slip was filled out entirely by the former financial technician
051rather than the teacher or sponsor. And then the list of students with um the amounts paid was not provided as well. Um, additionally, a cash the single cash receipt um was dated for one day. Um, it was used to document student fund collections that occurred on multiple days um for a field trip. Um so OAG recommends that all expenditures be supported by proper documentation um and completed approved purchase orders and um original itemized receipts that the school financial deposit slip contain all details um required details to ensure funds are accurately recorded to benefit the students submitting these actual funds. Um and then moving down to the second moderate finding, which is finding three. Um this was due to untimely payments for vendors. Um totaling in $32,000 um well $32,1443. Uh four vendor payments were paid
052after the vendor's due date, ranging from as late as one month up until 8 and a half months late. Okay. The invoices do not reflect late fees. Um however, OAG was unable to ver verify whether any late fees were assessed. Um OAG recommends that all obligations be paid promptly to avoid penalty fees. Um the principal concurred with the findings um and recommendations with corrective action steps due by July 21st of 2025. And then we'll move down to South County High School. Um, we noted with South County there was one moderate risk finding and it was due to the financial management report. The January FMR was not signed and dated by the principal. Additionally, the appropriated and non-appropriated statements um for November, December of 2024, and January of 2025, three months, which were all sampled, were
053cannot will not consistently sign and dated by the principal and financial technician. Um so, OAG recommends that the principal and financial technician independently sign and date statements to show evidence of completion. So, management at um South County concurred with the finding corrective action due date for July. Okay. For next steps, we received management responses for all of our high and moderate risk findings we mentioned. Um OAG will wait until corrective actions are due and follow up um and then come back to audit committee and present on these these um these results. Okay. And with that, I'll hand it back to the chair. Wonderful. Well, thank you for all this work. Um, we know it takes a lot of effort to go to all these schools and and produce these results. So, thank you. Uh, any
054questions or comments from the board either on the um, uh, high-risisk and moderate risk findings that we discussed or anything else? Okay. Uh, seeing none, thank you uh, Britney for the presentation. Okay. Next, we will move on to 1.06, audit follow-up, and I'll call in Daniel Moore for item 1.06. Okay. Good evening. Thank you. I will be providing the um audit recommendation and followup. This is as of April 30th, 2025. Um so, we currently have five audits that are currently open with audit recommendations. Our first audit is the food and nutrition services. So, this is the audit that we've had open um since December 2023. There are currently two um recommendations that are open and in progress. The first recommendation is as it relates to benchmarking and key performance indicators. And so we noted that
055the action related to the KPIs which are key performance indicators is currently closed. Um but the action relating to benchmarking is still in process. Um FNS is still in the process of collecting data baseline data from for year year-to-year comparisons. And so they've asked to um extend their due date until July 2026 which OAG has agreed with. The second recommendation is as it relates to the update of the food and nutritional services regulation. Um and this is the this process has begun. However, they have encountered challenges with the implementation of the new all-inclusive software um which was scheduled initially for March of 2024. um the awarded vendor has not met the agreed upon implementation dates prompting FNS to collaborate with the controllers's office in addition to the the require to obtain the requirements um under
056an e-commerce RFP. So they have asked to move this due date from March 2025 to January 2026 which OU has also um agreed with and so we are in the process we will continue to follow up with with them on these processes. The other four um audits are the procurement process audit which we just um issued back in March 2025. So nothing is due as of of April 30th. As well as three business process audits which are the warehouse audit, the Great Falls Elementary School and Mount Vernon High School. Those are also audits that we just presented on and they are not due as of April 30th. So again, we will probably follow we will follow up again with them and present in our next audit committee meeting during FY26. Great. Thank you so much.
057Any questions or concerns? Okay. Well, um, with that, I would like to say that we have dispensed with our business for today. Um, and the good news is that, um, if there are no further questions on any of these items, uh, we will move forward with cancelling the June 30th meeting, um, which is our last scheduled meeting for the end of the year. Uh, and, um, so seeing nothing, seeing no concerns, uh, we will move forward with cancing that meeting. So, thank you all. Um, we will now uh make a motion to go into closed meeting. Uh, so the audit committee will now make a motion to go into closed meeting to one discuss personnel matters pursuant to section 2.2 3711A1 of the code of Virginia. Two, discuss personnel matters not related to public business
058pursuant to section 2.237 A4. And three, conduct consult with legal counsel regarding specific matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such council pursuant to section 2.23711 2 3711 A1 A4 and A8 of Dakota Virginia specifically personnel matters. Uh I do have motion from Mr. Moon. Second um from uh Miss Henderson. Uh all those in favor that is unanimous uh for those at the table. Uh thank you. We'll now move into close meeting.