okay I think we'll go ahead and get started thank you all for coming and Joyce if you'd do a roll call please dave Tally here deandre Camel alyssa Dobin she's online um Michael Dixon
mark I'd like to apologize for missing the last meeting for the record okay um Kathleen Wigel I know she's absent frank Barbie here okay we have Quarum great and we'll start down at
this end i guess Patricia is over here but at any rate you can go ahead and start off from wherever you are take your time good morning patricia Morales from the Office of General Counsel heather Frederick chief financial officer frank Barbert audit
committee in OIG randy Los's office dave Tally audit committee theresa Michael Inspector General carrie High Council to Inspector General joyce Edison Inspector General christina Daniels Office of Inspector
General tracy Shear Inspector General's Office michael Dixon audit committee leandre Campbell audit committee arc by master audit committee okay the agenda are there any additions
or deletions Terry to the agenda no sir okay if not I'll accept a motion to approve the agenda motion to approve second all in favor i all opposed passes 6 next take a few minutes and uh review
the minutes of the February 14th meeting and after you've had a chance to review those I'll accept a motion to approve that gloria oh okay gloria good morning i just want to let you know I was on the call okay good welcome
thank you motion to approve second discussion all in favor all opposed passes 6 okay public comments i see no public so there won't be any
comments we'll go next to the IG update uh Terry all right good morning everybody um it's been a while since we've met and a couple of things have been happening so I want to kind of get everybody updated um the first thing is um there and I
know that I've given my word to the audit committee that there would be no changes to a policy um of ours without first running it by you but there was a um a change that I found out about last night um that was due to some legislative issues um I
don't did not have time to prepare to add any of this and I haven't spoken um to everybody about how this came about but there's a change to the audit committee selection uh criteria uh to make it in compliance with some of the initiatives regarding DEI um I just
found out about it last night so I wasn't able to prepare and get your input it will be um presented in a workshop Wednesday and voted on Wednesday and essentially um the
change is taking out uh composition appointment the school board members are encouraged to take into consideration representation from various racial and ethnic groups and that's being strict stricken from the audit committee policy um typically I
would have run it by you all also checked with our accreditation and our association of inspector general to make sure but um I will do that i don't believe there's going to be a problem with that um and I do acknowledge that this um does impact the independence
that my policy was changed without um further discussion so that we're going to address that i just ask that you all give me a chance to take a look at this find out how this happened and make sure that there can be no policy changes to an IG policy without the
input and express um of the IG so I do understand that this is an independence uh impact uh but I will address it and I'll report back to the audit committee um next time on this but I don't believe this was anything nefarious or anything
like that so Miss Michael yes we can give a little bit of insight on that um the superintendent received a communication that came from the Florida Department of Education that was originally sent from
the US Department of Education asking to certify compliance with Title 6 and with um the new SFFA versus Harvard case with regard to DEI and as a result of that I believe
there are nine policies that are coming up um that had some language that we wanted to make sure that when he certifies to the state compliance that we were all in compliance and the original due date for that
letter was uh April 18th it was extended to No it's actually for us it is due the 18th the state to the to the US Department of Education is due the 24th right and we were putting at risk uh approximately $300 million of federal
funds that we receive and and as I said I understand the the the not I understand why i understand the need for it i have I have absolutely you know no concerns um my concern is that somebody
could come in and change an IG policy i'm supposed to be independent and without any you know um so that is as as an independent entity that's that's a concern so we're going to go forward and
and and make some adjustments i know that this was probably absolutely nothing you know they're doing a public workshop on it next week um it's not and it's being voted on and again I would not I understand the the process behind it i just don't got to make sure that
the IG is included in those when it's the IG policy and and I can make sure that that happens in in the future it was just because of the the speed in which we had to respond and I mean it came down on Monday and so basically
between Monday and yesterday um a lot of work was done to make sure that we were you know had a review of all of our policies and that whatever it is that could be questioned um we were addressing and and again I understand
completely the the the intent fully i I I really do and and I don't believe there was anything at all that was you know um you know deferris or trying to to to you know do something you know without
the IG's knowledge that is not my my intent at all and like I said so what you're saying is that it bypassed her only because of the the rapidity of how fast it came up because it was kind of disappointing that she was overlooked on
something that that was not intentional at all i I know we worked with with legal to even identify which policies we needed to address um and so finalizing that list and and then having to decide whether to repeal what minor
modifications needed to be done and so it was completely unintentional and and I can tell you in the future nothing would be brought forward without first u running it by you that's good to hear thank you i mean it was it was I mean this was unexpected for us as
well u and just making sure that we respond quickly so that we don't put our federal funds at at risk and and again I I fully understand and and I had talked to the superintendent because we had discussed some of the different things that we were reading and we're tracking
the legislation so I knew that there were you know some things coming down so I understand that completely so I just want to explain to the committee because I always told them I would not make any changes without first running it by them as well um I know you have a hand raised
online Miss Branch i just want to reiterate that Miss Frederick and Liga are 100% correct no one is being left out here so I don't want that to seem like it was i know Miss Michael you said you understand but it kind of seems that way so Miss
Frederick and Legal are 100% correct when things have to be done immediately so our funds aren't at risk that's what we have to do i just want to be really clear that Miss Frederick and legal are 100% correct
i have a question um Mr chair yes the now the other nine is it possible we could be first i'm ask a question u Mr hi are we currently reviewing some of our policies yes we are so are these the policies
that that's on the question now that we're currently reviewing this particular policy 1.091 yes so yes so are we still required since these other nine are coming down
do we still need to continue reviewing and making any recommendations considering um or we can or can we get those nine that are coming and participate as we are reviewing our current policies can can I address this
um we those nine policy the revisions that are being made are ma being made under emergency policy so they will need to come back in within the next 90 days so it would be very helpful if you did
review it because frankly the changes that are being made here are just a scaple to certain language um that's being questioned and so you know it would be very helpful to address the policy as a whole um and you know now it
would be now we have a timeline of 90 days really in which to do it so I don't know if that answers your question Mr camel yeah we could agenda those we could agenda those um immediately and that's that's been the plan i think what our timeline was hopefully by the end of
summer to have all of our IG policies fully amended reviewed and and prepared for workshop uh development and adoption okay so thank you we're still on track yes can I ask a a question here please
um how many IG people are there in the state of Florida about give me a ballpark 10 100 no I would say I Yeah well the between the state our state the state this is a state of
Florida thing okay so every state agency has to have a IG um all the universities have to have an IG most of the counties have IG's and clerks of the court okay so this is affecting a lot of IG offices these new policies not just this school
district here right there's there's quite a few um and I'm going to go through some of the legislative things that are coming down um that's next that we're changing and that's one of the things that have kind of slowed down some of our our process is changing because there's some um legislative
bills that are impact going to impact us directly and I didn't want to go forward with the change and I'd have to go change it again because legislature so we've been watching and that's what my next update is so and and this and the and this and removing this language is
is being done across the entire state um it's federally done it's a federal right it's not just the state of Florida right it's across the country and there there is absolute you know and and looking at everything you know the the change it
makes sense i understand it it needs to be done i have absolutely no concerns with that at all um um you know I will I do want to make sure that the because the association of inspector general has its own diversity inclusion equity committee i want to make sure that you
know what are they saying i need to to consult with them um you know just to make sure that we're run not running a foul of our our association um so you know just just things I I need to make sure that we're covered with and we'll
run through this but I didn't my word to you all was that I wouldn't change anything and I didn't want you all to believe that I was doing that without your knowledge no all right so to go on to the other the legislative change I believe that's next on the yeah
legislative updates okay there's quite a few that that that the legislaturator has been busy and I think they're giving the general counsel the chief financial officer as well as everybody an ulcer um so one of them is a uh CS for SB 166
it's administrative efficiency and public schools um this is currently in messages um in the house and this will affect us where they are repealing the requirement that schools have an
internal audit office they are also repealing the requirement all the requirements for the risk assessments that we do the internal funds audits um the whole section is being removed so that has a direct impact that would
you know affecting the office so that's 16 can Can I interrupt for a minute um the fact that these policies are saying that they're not requiring these types of actions at the school levels
the district levels doesn't mean you have to remove them correct it's just a requirement that Right all right right yes and I've talked to the superintendent about this and um the last thing he wants to do is not have an
internal audit um he you know he wants the internal funds audits to go on he's you know but this is something that will have an impact okay the next one is the CS for HJR 1325 succession to the office
of governor auditing and government efficiency this one is essentially wiping out the auditor general's office uh which will have an impact down the road as far as what the auditor general will be doing because they're no longer they wouldn't be um there anymore
they're going to fall under this new position which is a cabinet position uh the next one is um PCB 255 or former HB509 this is taking the auditor general's
office and moving that under the Florida Accountability Office and again it would have an effect because it would change it they would also make the the Florida Accountability Office um divest into two different sections
one would do the normal fiscal audits that the auditor general would do the other one is going to do more operational performance audits also whistleblowers so it'll affect the external audits that we have and who will be doing it um
again we're just watching it to see and looking at the requirements to make sure that all of our policies will be in line with that um is there any questions about those wonderful bills okay it is it It is what it is it is so
let's move on yeah okay next up is some great news uh CFA accreditation we have passed our Commission for Florida law enforcement accreditation review uh the team was here they reviewed the investigation section and we passed um I
will be appearing in front of the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement um in May or June June um in which they will award it unless I do something really stupid from now until then we will get that yeah uh also that's great
congratulations thank you and and this was the the investigation team really did an amazing job our accreditation managers and everybody um the next one is the association for inspector general peer review and this is the letter that we received and this is the the review
that looked at the audit contract oversight quality assurance and administrative um functions of the office and we passed that as well there were some recommendations that they made um one of them is that and it and you're going to
you know kind of laugh at this but uh we need to get digital workpapers we're still in paper driven uh we were able to find out that there is a way to leverage our current case management system that we use for investigations for audit
which would be a huge cost savings because the audit um software is as I'm sure uh Miss Frederick would know is very expensive um for a standalone so if we can leverage that especially in the tight financial times that we're in
we'll definitely do that um so that's one recommendation the other recommendation was that we obtain subpoena powers uh one of the problems that we're running that we've run into is that we can go so far with some of our investigations and audits and then
we need bank records um this especially happens if it's a charter school or a vendor and what we what we are forced to do is to turn this over either to the state attorney's office or law enforcement um school resource officers this law enforcement department here they're
stretched thin making sure to provide security much less to do a complex white collar fraud case so if we were able to get those records present the completed report to them and then they can then move forward if there's you know a need
for for criminal prosecution they would be able to do that most IGs like the county IG does have that ability they have subpoena it's not unheard of it's not it's matter of fact it's the gold standard for IGS um and that was one of their recommendations we have one audit
that's been sitting waiting for you know some action on out from outside entities that we could have taken care of if we had that power and that's been for what a year yes yes so um and again you know we don't have the control of that so that's something that that they
recommended and we're moving forward with that um they also made a recommendation that we return to our original structure of having a separate unit that does performance and
operational um audits and then you have the internal funds audit section so kind of separate the two and they also do more contract reviews and procurement reviews um I agree I'd like to do that we need two audit supervisors to do that
and that's been a hard issue to get so we are working on that um we have the position it's not like we're asking for a new position we already have it it's just a matter of finding the person um to fill that position but we are actively working on that uh but other than that the audit
team did an amazing job um you know it always is is stressful when the auditors are audited um but I really wanted to to congratulate Randy and Nicole for the excellent work that they have done and the whole team and thank you very much
for taking one big headache off of my hands i appreciate it and also I'll just mention that uh this Flora Miller the one that's a team leader uh she and I had a Zoom meeting and she chatted with me a few minutes
and asked me some questions and you know I just assured her that everything was in line and that that Terry was doing a good job so just wanted to let you know that and that's it for my updates
okay any questions of Terry one question uh Mr share uh the likelihood of some of these thing being these being implemented um in what's the time period of some of those some of the implementations that you just spoke of the electronic
workpapers uh I'm right now we have to get I'm speaking with the inspector general that was part of this team because she did the same thing she leveraged it so I need to sit down um Oscar Restrepo who is the director of invest investigation is most familiar
with that software i Randy and that IG are going to sit down so I'm hoping by the end of the summer we will have that where we could at least figure out the price the cost and depending on um again the budget too i mean we're we are
hitting a major um shortfall so um although this is a I would like to have it is not a necessary so I'm not you know have to be careful on that the um subpoena we're moving forward on that with our policy change so soon as we get
that um one of the I forgot to mention one of the uh bills 166 is changing the um how we have to go through and get policy change and taking it through the formal rule making process if that goes through and still remains in there we
won't have to go through the extreme Byzantine um rule making process that we do currently with with policy so that might speed things up um and then lastly finding the person for um the supervisor position i am hoping that maybe with the
um I hate to say this but the the federal auditors that are um finding themselves looking for a job maybe now or maybe some of the auditor general auditors might want to come and uh work in sunny uh West Palm
Beach so we're hoping to kind of uh take advantage of the fact there's some excellent talent um that are at those two offices so I've got my fingers crossed right then for the future reference on that change to the auditor general that might change have extreme
effects on all the procedures and policies in the in the near future yeah so that you know that's why we've kind of taken a pause as I watch that and the auditor general does some amazing work and they do a lot of work um here um so
you know we're we're we're waiting to see how this all shakes out and I'll keep you all updated well again on behalf of the whole audit committee I commend you Terry and your staff for for coming up with such a great uh pure review opinion so
congratulations to all of you you're doing a great job okay if there's nothing else there we'll go on to the fiscal year 2024 internal funds audit nicole yes um good morning everyone um Nicole A
supervisor of audit today we will go over the results of the fiscal year 2024 internal funds audit we completed all 177 schools this year thanks to all the hard work of all our
auditors our annual audit of the school's internal funds is mandated by the state administrative code and has specific requirements including that we must present this signed reports to the school board and include comments about
financial management and non-compliance that we notice while our team is at the schools this also includes any failures that do not comply with Florida statutes and those that do not comply with schoolboard policies this is not only a
financial audit but it's also one of compliance so here is the background of what are internal funds this is money collected and spent within a school for school activities this is considered non-budget funds
these are items are like field trips athletics fundraising after school programs and any money collected at school sites each school has a checkbook with multiple accounts managed by the school treasures track to each activity
including input and output of money this is the money used to finance activities that are not otherwise funded through the general budget during the school year 2024 we have 177 schools one middle school and
one high school more than 2023 there was a total revenue of 53.5 million and a dispersement of 52.4 million the overall fund balance of all
school was up 1.7 million totaling 25.8 million this is historical information showing the number of schools versus the collective funds each year districtwide it began when the office
took over the function of auditing internal funds this is the average school balance broken up by region and level and presented each year as a general information this year the number of
schools with no non-complianances decreased and overall findings increased compared to last year here are the highlights this year we had a total of 18 schools that had no reportable findings of those 18 schools
one school had six years in a row of no findings one school with five years of no findings one school with four years no findings and three schools were two years back to back this does not mean that there is absolutely no problem at the school it
just means that there is maybe a minor or insignificant issue however we discuss every situation that we observe with the principal and the treasurer while we are at those schools the overall conclusion fall into
three major areas and we will talk about each dispersements money collections leasing of school facilities beginning with dispersements there was a total of 52 million spent through internal funds via
checks and auditors test 3,968 checks totaling 11.2 million which is 21% of the checks written to outside vendors our sample of dispersements
excluded VO checks as well as checks written from schools to the district the schools also spends 16.8 millions through PECARD purchases and auditors tested
1,828 PECARS transactions totaling $1.5 million 9% of total PECARD usage we look at the documentation for compreinance to make sure that it gave enough details to explain what the
purchase and purpose was for at 37 schools we had no supporting documentation of the purchase such as invoice or pay receipts for payments through school checks 104 schools had insufficient
documentation such as vendor account statements or packing list without details of the purchase i want to point out that this is not this specific number of transaction but rather than the number of schools where
we saw this occur we also checked to ensure that transaction were authorized properly for example any purchases of $1,000 or more need a pre-signed purchase order by the
principal the purpose of this requirement is to inform the principal of a potentially large purchase and to verify that sufficient funding was available before committing to the purchase at 76 schools were encountered
purchases over $1,000 in which there was not a pre-signed purchase order for the expenditures we also came across 28 schools that issue the school checks without a signed check
requisitions vendor performing service on campus without consultant agreements a part of the consultant agreements to make sure that background screening requirements have been met before the vendor comes to school sites while students are present
at 27 schools where wenders performed the service on campus the consultant agreement was not obtained and signed by the consultant and the principal moving on to the revenue collections in fiscal year 2024 the
district had a total revenue of 53.5 million and we look at 4,867 money collector reports totaling $2.3 million in deposits for money not being timely
deposited state rules require that from the time the staff member collect monies at the school it is supposed to be in the bank within five working days the district also requires staff members to deposit all collector funds into the
drop safe lot on the same day of the collections by the end of the working day those were the two area we exempt at 39 schools staff had delays ranging from 1 to 54 working days in depositing
monies to the drop safe at 17 schools the treasurers recorded collections into the accounting system for bank deposits within an average delays of seven days we also look at fundraising
activities for non for compliances with schoolboard policies and district procedures non-compliances was found in the following four categories on the screen first insufficient or lack of
documentation of products for resales for examples a yearbooks or t-shirts at 31 schools sales item inventory reports were missing either missings or not used this documentation is necessary to give
the principal assurance that all the monies that should be collected has been collected it's a way for the schools to reconcile the collection to what they actually got to deposit for at 24 schools the sales item inventory report
was found to be incomplete we also looked at authorizations fundraisers must receive pre-authorizations from the principal before they can start which includes approval for purchasing or selling
activities at 13 schools fundraising applications were missing in addition another 12 schools started the fundraising activities before getting approval from the principal at the conclusion of the sales
schools are required to present the sales item inventory report to the principal for approval this report allows the principal to identify any excessive given away or lost items and their respective reasons as well as the
remaining inventory in stock at 16 schools the sales item inventory report was not reviewed or signed off by the principal the district mandates an annual online training for all activity
sponsor who are planning to hold a fundraiser this e-learning course helps the sponsor stay up to date on any changes to the procedures at 22 schools the sponsor did not complete the required
training in this last sessions we also verify the accuracy of the report's revenue and confirmed it agree with the estimate provided by the sales item inventory report at 22 schools we find
instance of revenue shortage this happened because of the incorrect inventory recorded at the beginning or end of the fundraiser we also find situation at 10 schools where the revenue was recorded
in the primary activity account instead of a separate account what we call a decimalized account and the money became coingled with other activities which makes it difficult to determine if everything was collected
we look at the pre-numbered documents including the drop save law school checks classroom receipt books and any financial documents that are pre-n numbered and used for collecting or recording money
the district created a document custodian position that is assigned by the principal and their responsibility is to maintain the inventory and controls of this pre-numbered documents we so we look at the
procedures to make sure this control was occurring at 69 schools no inventory was performed on some pre-numbered documents in most case this happens because staff only complete the drop save law and
didn't realize that they still need had to track the school checks and classroom receipts in addition some school have pre-numbered tickets for events like school dances and the school did not do
periodic inventories for those we make sure to point this out to the school when encounter and this was corrected as we go moving to the listing of schools facilities every school has the
opportunity to lease out space within their facility there is a district-wide fee schedule that is approved each year we look at leasing at the schools when they had this
activities as 43 schools we encounter where the lease agreement was not properly signed such as the manual signature of the lease e and witnesses were missing or the school collected leasing fees
from the lease e but did not have the corresponding records in the system nor assigned the lease agreements ments these are legal documents that need to be signed and retained at the school level the district also has a rule that
payments must be received at least 48 hours in advance and at 33 schools we find that the payment was delayed thank you for your time today and I welcome any questions
any questions of Nicole comments frank mr chairman um can can the audit department give us a list of uh habitual I'd like to see how many schools have repeat findings um so that we can determine whether there's an error at
the school that needs to be corrected in training or something um that's my first my first question the other one is why do we only have 177 schools um there's 182 schools maybe Blue Lake and and Garcia High wasn't in this audit but
there's 182 schools in the district now the 177 schools are those school that they maintain internal funds but for some other schools that they may not have internal funds I believe you know head may have some you know you know insight into why some of the school may
not have the internal funds you know the re you know the audit is focused on those internal funds only for those school that they don't have internal funds we do not order it understand okay as and then I'm sorry i was just going to mention that what we're going to
implement this year because we do have a significant amount of training last year we autoenrolled all the sponsors that we knew would have to take the fundraising training but we're still having findings so now what we're going to do is we went
through the report and every every school that has a finding they're going to be required to take a training related to that particular finding so whether it's the the bookkeeper the sponsor the principal if it's related to dispersements they're going to have to take the dispersements finding if they
have fundraising training they'll have to take the fundraising training so we're going to make it more directed to say if you have a finding you have to take the training related to that finding and so that's what we're going to try to implement this year and then we have a report that we send out
monthly to the principles that gives an update to show you know how many have taken the training within their their school site there's also a a in the policy that that um has been done and was actually from my understand
um by superintendent uh Johnson johnson was that if you have a repeat finding from a principal um that is the same thing then that that has to be reflected on their evaluations so that is something that we are tracking you have to make sure it's the same individual
same process so that will also be included as well another question Mr chair another question so I thought when we instituted the leasing program some years ago that it was failafe and a school couldn't get by with leasing
without going through the system to put the insurance and whatever in so I guess it's not so failafe if they can just not put it in at all i mean I thought that there was no way to lease without going through that system i would say that there's I'm not sure if
Miss Garrison is online but there are always ways around controls and so what we do is we try to put in mitigating controls as many as possible um but without looking at the specific one i mean there is always the possibility that you know they
could you know just because of timing say okay we know who you are you know yes you can come and rent it and yes and then we know they know they're going to get the information afterwards you know so I'm sure that's still possible um I don't I don't know that there's any way
around that because it's it's purposefully circumventing the procedures in place patricia um just really briefly we use the Triga system for the leases um and one and one of the things that they're going to be
implementing I think to make it a quicker process is they're looking to have electronic signatures be available for you know the lesses you know frankly that has been I guess the problem um
certain times uh I guess the leases end up being executed probably closer in time to when they want the property they want to use it and so they're trying to fix that so that it can be done in advance so you can get the certificates of insurance
and everything in order so there are some processes that are being right and that was that was a recommendation from Mr law uh that he that we actually allow the electronic signature some schools were doing it it wasn't actually
in the procedures um so now we received the okay that we can proceed with that it is going to be an actual programming change so it won't be as quick as that we want it uh but I know Miss Garrison has already reached out to the IT team so that they can make that change yeah what we found at the school site is some
principal also raised a concerns about having some less came on campus while students are on on site so they want to you know streamline the process that's why I know spoke with uh uh Miss Frederick about you know whether it's a feasible to implement the digital
signatures for the last years and now they are trying to you know to work it out and see how can you know streamline this process without you know or may be able to eliminate the no less signatures on the lease agreement prior to using
the uh uh school facilities and then another things to answer Mr barbarious questions about the u repeated findings uh Joyce has some difficulty in putting up one of the report we generate a reports every year by school showing
which findings that they have been repeated or no findings you know list out each and every findings and then with the check marks for the past five years when we visit the schools we will give out a copy of that you know a summary sheet to the principles either a
new principal or or the existing principles they will be aware of which areas might be their concerns so that they could take actions accordingly and we've been very fortunate that both
um the CFO's office um and legal and the superintendent's office that when we're making recommendations they are acting on them they are implementing them they are doing the best they can you know like the digital signatures going cashless you know for many of the
schools doing a lot more electronic a lot more so we are getting some very good responses on the recommendations and the followup and good cooperation um from the the stakeholders on implementing those so we've been very fortunate
okay any other questions i I have a couple go ahead uh just one com is I I know the the the the violations are tracked by school but are they also tracked by the personnel involved to where if they're switching schools if
they're still repeat offenders at a different school i'm just wondering if that if that process is being tracked also we do have a list of uh which staff members did not comply with procedures and then uh for those more critical uh
areas we give the information to accounting services people too so that accounting uh the accounting department can uh you know uh provide a targeted training to those individuals and I one of the the advantages of having an IG versus just an internal
audit is that when the IT when audit is out doing these internal funds and they see an issue and they're looking at oh this has happened before oh this is the same thing they that will trigger um Mr law will come in and speak to myself and a lot of times what we found is that we
then initiate an investigation because it you know you might have somebody that is actually intentionally circumventing it and we will start an investigation from that um so that's the the the good part about the two units working together so they will redo that and I
think we've had two or three um just this year that have started that way and we'll at least do a review to make sure that this isn't just poor training but you know if it was nefarious or intentional another thing I want to you know update you you is you know uh uh this uh
committee also recommended whether we can move to more cash less and uh you can see the uh the revenues in the internal funds have been you know red uh reduced uh you know somewhat because uh
two years ago in fiscal year 23 they implemented a new software for the after school program which incorporate with online payment features so that's no long you know most of the parents now paying online and those money will go directly to the budget account without
going through the internal funds meaning that the school people will collect less money the after school program account for over $30 million a year so hopefully you know over the years we may see a bit of reduction in the cash handled by the
school site and it reduced the you know the money handling risk too thank you thank you so much any further questions yeah I I'd like to make a couple comments here uh Nicole good job on that presentation
um number one uh number two uh we've been talking about these internal funds for years and it appears that they're growing every year by 2% 3% whatever that number is i think my own comment
here as a committee person this is a too global for me to come away with anything positive or negative it's too global there's no dollars in here there's no material concepts in here um numbers of schools doesn't matter to me because a
number you could go on there for a $100 mistake and that's a school but going back to the spreadsheet that's in here which is a great spreadsheet I think part of this report should have supplemental information for example
last year's uh need serious attention should be addressed and and and whoever it was and the the auditor should report there is still a serious problem or it's been fixed that tells me globally I
don't have to deal with the percentages and the numbers of schools and things like that i I would like to add that as a constructive comment in our report as a supplemental I don't want to touch your report because your report is very detailed and that's fine but I think supplemental in because I read this and
I'm think is it $100 or is a $100,000 or is it $10,000 because that's really what's important because materiality is important and numbers of schools really doesn't doesn't do too much for me uh but I Frank you had a good point i think
well I just said it they bring back what was wrong last year what we saw really as a problem and the other part of this which is really confusing is turnover serious turnover and I understand that defeats the purpose for compliance when you have 40 people new
treasurers last year I think it was 40 402 whatever it was so these are just things that when I read it I was looking for like feedback on this like could the auditors say "Yeah we have this turnover at 42 people but you know what we still
are improving for this reason and not just blame turnover." That's all I wanted to say thank you Michael i have a question the document custodian is that a new Did I hear that to be a new position no it's it's not a new position um we
have a supplement for the document custodian for the drop safe log and that was something that was implemented uh at a recommendation I believe of Mr barbie and that was where so we we are making sure that they're they're doing the the inventories on the drop safe log it's
just there was confusion that they didn't realize they had to do everything else as well uh so so that we're just making sure to reenhance that that training and reinforce that training that you still have to do it with the checks and and all those other categories as well so that's why for
everybody who has that particular finding they're going to have to take the drop the uh pre-umbered documents um training okay understood the other thing I do see on page 17 of the report specifically there are some uh there
were some decreases from prior year um some improvements made i also saw that there were some um some other things made as well so we still have uh some work some work to do
uh so increases in like the ticket sellers report that would that increase I don't understand a very how is it that certain things not just on the leases some of these
requisitions and maybe this is just because from a professional space what I do how is it that checks are paid and there's no authorization from the the uh principal
for the internal accounts it's a very manual process it's not they do not utilize an ERP system um like we utilize for the bulk of the district budget and so there it's a paper requisition you know paper purchase order um their
checks that are signed and it's it's due to the the amount of um the staff that they have available at the school sites the technical abilities of those staff and then just also the the timing you know
we have looked to centralizing it and having those schools route everything through the district we have our AP department process the payment it is just not possible because the pizza guy is here for the the the fifth grade class celebration and somebody forgot to
tell them and then how are we going to get that check written quick enough and so that's what a lot of it is just how a school operates um and so we try our best to put as many procedures in place and as many mitigating controls in place as possible but it's just the way a
school operates and so I mean I do appreciate the comment with looking at the materiality because a lot of these are very small dollar amounts although procedures need to be followed every single time but that's what my team looks through when they're going through the report they're trying to go through
and assess okay really where is there a problem you know there's because schools are always going to I don't it's very difficult when those schools have 100% no findings that is amazing because when the internal audit goes in and looks at those schools they are very detailed so
for anybody to not have anything is you know truly impressive and I I didn't mean to interrupt oh no no no you you you answered the question um perfectly so you no interruption no need to I'm just It's the So the checks could get
signed so all this rest on the treasurer so let me that's my real question the requisition and all of that rest with the treasurer and the principal it does okay all right and what I think we've seen is is a lot of times that the principal has a lot on their plate and
they are counting on that the the treasurer the bookkeeper has has done the paperwork and has had the orders and and has done that um and come to find out sometimes they lose it sometimes it just hasn't been done because they're they're doing so many things um but I
believe it it a lot of times the principles are are trusting that the that the bookkeepers are are doing the documents and we are working with our current school cash vendor which is what we use for our school sites which is pretty much it's even easier to use than
QuickBooks it's ins and outs that's it at the at the school level but we are working with them to see whether there are things that they can implement within that system where we can have you know it at least electronic requisitions you know have the checks go
through that system to create some of those controls but it is things that would have to be built into the system so we are working with them to try to implement that but it's not that that will take more time because it is an outside system that we're utilizing but I'm excited to read about the um
successes that we are making from 23 to 24 that is good i I do recall some time ago our conversations over internal funds were not as pleasant this is a little more pleasant um a little more easier to read it because it's down to
procedures uh but what will it take for us to have a dollar amount associated is that a lot of manpower from the office when you're doing presenting the internal funds to include that dollar
amount so we'll we're just not so much for from a just knowing something we want to as we said this morning sensationalize however we just want to know if it's how significant the finding is if it's a $100 or if it's $1 we'll do
we'll do next year and uh try to capture all the dollar amounts in terms of the uh actually we do have the number of transactions and the dollar amount that we sampled it and the dollar amount and number of transactions with exceptions but the problem here is you know uh a
lot of school have like uh Mr dixon already pointed out a lot of school had a change in personnel when you talk about the repeated finding that repeated finding is not related to sing the same person because you have changing personnel the new people may not have a
good understanding yet maybe there are new bookkeepers so that's may be a problem that contribute to you know increasing number of findings or no reduction in findings okay that would be very helpful i'll tell you on page 17 inaccurate
information because I there was a 69% increase is that actually cash or is that just paper it says revenues is that real revenues problem or is that just a which page page 17 of this report
inaccurate information number three 22 this year 13 last 69% increase that I have that's where you That's where I want to hear what's going on okay okay so So like I said you know we will try to capture all the information and then to present it to uh this committee you
know for the next year's audit okay all right that's fine i'm still not answering the question but Okay gloria and then Frank hi thank you i just want to reiterate a few little few minutes ago miss Frederick is 100% correct the school the
schools have having been a substitute myself and being in a school every day like she said when the pizza guy comes there's a lot going on you have to give them you know a little bit of leeway on that because she is 100% correct there's a lot going on at the schools and for
little things like that you got to give them a break a little bit okay thank you Frank yeah back to the leasing um I know the board gets sued on a regular basis for injuries i'm not sure how many of those associated with
least leased to property but when you do your audits when there's the lease hasn't been done properly do you check to make sure that there was insurance in place by the vendor is that part of your audit yes okay yes do you find many of those where they're where they skip the
insurance or then insurance was never it's a very a small percentage you know uh most of them they are in compliance with their insurance uh requirements that they will they are required to submit a set of insurance and maintain at the school site okay and uh there
seems to be some uh issues with uh people that may not have their own insurance in the past the district allowed them to use the district's you know uh a big policy okay to purchase uh the uh liability insurance it seems that
the district may you know stop offering this option i'm not sure whether it is or is not going to be happen maybe Miss Patrick can you know chips in i'm not aware of any change to our current process so I'll have to bring that back to the next committee because that's
what we heard from you know some uh schoolside people that right now we have to pull uh insurance policy like a a big policy people can purchase it and pay the insurance premium to the district and then we'll get the uh required
insurance so all right thank you okay there any further question one more question that Mark for this a lot of this comes down to change in personnel so we we have the the training issue on on new employees that the my question is
obviously the new person comes in they're first probably learning all the normal operations and and then moving on to maybe the internal funds or is the training all comingles is is it all is it is it all together when they when
they start or is it in in pieces it's going to be up to each individual principal because the the treasurer is a a direct report to the principal and a dotted line to accounting services and so they are pulled to work on a lot of
different things and so it is up to the the principal in terms of of their how they have access to the the training yeah because I think the conundrum here is is the internal funds is probably not on the top of the priority when they're when they're getting the training done
and that's where you probably see some of these gaps and procedures well and a lot of it is too when it happens yeah you know you might take the training and then you don't see that for a month and actually experience it so that's that's part of it as well is is the the training and the timing of it so we do
have a team a support team here in the district um they are they have a a group of schools that they work with and so they're they're there as kind of the a phone a friend a hotline whenever they have a question uh when we have turnover at schools um or there's somebody new
that needs training they'll come out and they'll do a one-on-one session with them uh we also have a lot of virtual meetings we used to bring them in at least once twice a year u but the principles really didn't like them leaving the school sites so we do those meetings virtually now and then we've
recorded all of the training so that they can watch them multiple times so it's not just one time and they miss it now they can go back and wa rewatch it you know especially when they're when Okay well now we have to actually um I need to make sure those fundraising documents are right they can go and
watch that training again and and walk through it okay through the chair mr tally may I make a comment um Mr by master just so you are also aware that the IG itself um provides outreach and supplemental
training that is specifically targeting future principles so we will go meet with like this past year auditor Danielle Thomas and I went and met with a group of uh future well current assistant principles and and future administrators who are aspiring to become principles to really begin
explaining that a lot of this stuff at least from I guess from my perspective as a lawyer you can prime and set a foundation for people thinking that when they make decisions involving money it it's not your money you know and I
really feel like and I don't know how much that's incorporated into the training they receive now from the district at large but a lot of times that simple message when you're explaining this audit process all of a sudden you see this light sort of go off where they think well this isn't just
about following procedures and it isn't about checking boxes and and the auditors aren't out here nitpicking it's about making sure that we are safeguarding money that doesn't belong to us you know and I really think that you know to the extent that we can continue with delivering that message hopefully it will help because I think
that often times people view our audit findings and they just look for ways to avoid the audit finding and that's not the goal the goal is to safeguard and ensure that we're using cash in ways that are responsible and efficient and effective so just know that we also engage in that outreach and and again
maybe that needs to be ramped up a little more last question Mr chair is do we have are this are you able to what's the word I'm looking for each school you have an average amount of what the internal fund looks like at
each school on an um I know it varies but averaging we just want to say um Palm Beach Central High on an average they're doing X amount annually in their internal fund is that broken down in that way as well not so much in this
report but is it somewhere documented yes we have it by school by school okay thank you and actually we also have the individual uh school profile statement that shows the in and out for how much by individual schools that is in the
almost 700 page full report for this the one that we presented today is only the measurement letter the first section this 32 pages but that full report is almost 700 pages so each individual school with all the findings with the school profile who is the principal who
was the uh bookkeeper who is the bookkeeper at the time of audit and so on and so forth they are available in there and the dollar amounts are also included in that report and that's what my team goes through to target which are the schools that have truly significant
findings you know not just based on number of schools they might have you know 10 different findings but we look at the findings and say is this a significant we look at it for materiality and then target those schools for training okay and we also
will when I'm look review each each school um after that there's a synopsis that's written of the findings and I review those as well and part of the risk analysis and assessment that we do I look at to see if I'm seeing trends if
there's issues that that you know what are we missing you know why are we having an increase and then we'll get together and maybe we need to do a review of the athletic program or maybe we need to do a further audit of this area so that that's constantly being done and and I think we maybe need to do
a better job of documenting that and communicating that to you all it it appears that there's a lot behind the scenes going on which is good so people have eyes on this whether it's 700 pages or summaries that your office is doing with your personnel that support the
schools maybe a caption of a couple of those things in this report would be helpful so we don't have to ask you questions and bother you with it yeah we need to do a better job of communicating the the analysis and the work that we're doing behind the scenes on on this stuff and and I will definitely make sure that Thank you Mr dixon this is one of the
example uh page uh maybe Joyce can you put it as a a full page that's fine now this is by individual school we have this profile the school name you know who is the principal the treasurer is
you know the uh during the fiscal year and then during our audit who is it if it's a uh if it's an elementary schools with after school program who was and who is the uh after school site director and then the bottom is showing all those are in and out you
know by the functions of the uh internal funds and the ending balance too okay are there any further questions and then after that will be the detail finding by each of the school so each school you know will be like this maybe
scroll down next page Joyce please so these are the the actual detail finding that we send it out and then even with the dollar amount like if you look at the deposit of money that deposit number and so forth with the dollar amount too the next page will be the uh dis dispersement of finding
usually like a pre- the document or the fundraisers what happened and so forth all the details are in this 700page report by schools okay if there are no further questions I'll accept a motion to approve this
report motion to approve second discussion all in favor i all oppose passes 6 nicole again excellent presentation thank you so much okay we'll move on to item
number six compliance and QA with Terry all right i am coming from Mr bliss uh we have uh the quarterly report on the procurement activities that he attended there was only one where he found a
issue or potential concern and that was addressed at the time involving u accuracy of backup documentation um regarding a cork meeting on March 6 and he's going to work with them and I think they took care of it immediately at the
time to provide that backup um the followup and recommendation status report there we've had a market improvement there's some um extremely old um corpses that were on here before from 2019 and those have been taken care
of and which much more uh up to date and one of the uh changes that we're working towards um in the uh change to the follow-ups is doing a risk acceptance on those issues that it just doesn't make
sense to spend the money and time to fix an issue we'll do the risk acceptance and we can stop bringing something back up for 10 years at a time so that is something that we're going to work forward and it's also something that the stakeholder if they believe that this is something that that you know it's not
worth the juice isn't worth the squeeze they can also present it and it will be brought to the audit committee for review on the final acceptance is the way we have it proposed can I can I ask a question going back I'm sorry real quick on your uh procurement related activity schedule
there's three entries on here with an architect and it just says send it back because of concerns concerns is that a normal thing three times to meet with an architect for for a contract i mean what are the concerns that keep coming
back just a question because it says in this report three times okay so you you talking about the second page i'm talking about the first page uh third item down okay for the Roosevelt High School
okay contract just just curious i mean oh second negotiating meeting with the the architect and then they pushed it again is it just timing there's not really an issue i would could be that it could be scope determining what is the scope
going to be because for the architect in order to do the work they need to have a scope of the plan and so it could just be defining the scope things could be coming up as they're going through permitting of they thought they could do they can't do so there's so much that goes into construction and you know
you're lucky if it's everything goes smoothly i think that's more that building yeah that building is like started and it's sitting there and there's very little activity there that's why I was asking just sitting there seems like something stopped okay
I can I'll need a scope yep so I will I will get back to I can get back to the committee on that gloria Miss Frederick was that because remember they they ran into some issues because of the historical stuff with the flooring because I was on the construction committee yesterday i know
they've had some issues with that so I think that might be the reason just wanted to throw that out there okay yeah so I'll I'll have to confirm but I know that there's like Miss Branch has mentioned there have been specific issues with that site i'm sure thank you
okay any questions of uh Terry on either of these reports if not we'll move on to item seven the committee's review of board policy 2.62 which is the audit recommendations and followup this was uh presented initially
in February and the board had asked for a month to look at it and they've had two months now so I wondered if there are any questions or comments to Carrie or to Terry i just have a general question sorry you
can see I'm back to work here um the audit committee policy 1.091 is there anything in there that really a committee person really should pay attention to that we don't already know because it refers to it there in
addition to the duties of policy one point I've never read that policy i didn't even know it existed but I'm here so is there anything there I should pay attention to off the record I guess that wasn't the right thing to do that that that policy
is one of the policies that we are putting forward um one of the things that we're changing is number one it's your responsibilities as far as if there's a independence issue if um you you're supposed to assure that um I get
uh the information I need um that everybody's cooperating um with us there's also um as far as if there if there's an issue where something is not being addressed um that you all communicate that to the board and it's
basically advising the board and consulting the board my performance is included in that um and you guys do that through the the evaluation which by the way I am revising my evaluation tool all right to try to knock it down i I'm
taking the general counsel's evaluation tool and I'm trying to use hers because it it it it it's good it's to the point and I don't feel like I've had a colonoscopy that way so um it's crisp it is it is i'm taking a lesson from the
the general counsel's office there um so um those are the the general duties of that and we are bringing that policy to you all for review and uh before any changes are made you all will have that okay thank you thank you any other
questions or comments the only one I see is and then the definitions you have material weakness but do you still have significant deficiencies should that definition be in there usually when you do an audit you could either have a material weak weakness or
a significant deficiency maybe that should be defined okay so uh adding significant deficiency as a definition okay that would make sense yeah and understand also that this is
purely focusing on the recommendations and follow-up process that that we are bound to to use by our standards whenever there is an audit finding really of any type we have to make sure we follow up with the uh the audit to see if they are doing what needs to be
done heather so I have an update to Mr barbie's question uh so we used to have a poolled policy that ended two years ago you know the providers stopped writing that policy since then Beacon Group for any leie that is unable to
have insurance or find insurance they help them find find coverage thank you okay anything else um I'm going to go back to the recommendation implementation
status report and I just want to say thank you Miss Frederick um I I also am recognizing the decreases and the improvements being made there but you also pass that on to the CHO the human resource um officer as well so I'm I'm
watching the numbers go down and things being addressed um from your office so thank you they they appreciate it and I I think Mr bhutanowitz is on to if you ask for an update on the background screening they're down to I believe 146 that have to be the last few that are
reviewed related to the the background screening that have to be cleared out so starting from the wherever we were 40,000 to be down to 176 it might be off by the next meeting so that's I think that's our goal okay anything else hey we'll move on the
FYI investigations the three investigations listed were previously sent to you uh by Joyce uh are there any uh any comments uh from the board members if not I'll accept uh our next
meeting is scheduled to be Friday May 16th uh if there's no further business I'll accept a motion to adjurnn motion to adjurnn second second meeting adjourn thank you all for coming all right