it's not excited yet Everybody's good Right So at least you get it I just knew that Perfect I appreciate that Yeah Thanks for making the time Absolutely Thank
you Excuse me Good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting to order Uh roll call Here here here and Sid Patterson is not here She's in Washington DC so she'll be
excused for the night Okay Please join me in the pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all We could take a moment of silence please We the people of Colorado with proud reverence for the supreme ruler of the universe in order to form more independent and perfect government
establish justice ensure tranquility provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity to ordain and establish this constitution for the state of
Colorado Thank you Take a seat Amen Okay Approval of the agenda Can I have a motion to approval of the agenda please so move Second Second Roll call Hi Bates Hi Emeralds Hi Mr Holtz Hi
Motion carries Okay The uh we've got a fun thing to do here I see there are a couple of students here When I call your name stand up I'll be calling a lot of names Uh regarding the
knowledge bowl the Woodland Park High School Knowledge Bowl team attended the state tournament and finished eighth in 3A This is the toughest division that contains three of the top four teams in the entire state They were given 520 trivia questions over two days beating
other teams to 150 of the questions Very good Please join me in congratulating the following five team members who attended states Zehon Rogers I could have said ahead of time Hold your applause till I get through and we have a lot of names Aiden
Graham Alli [Music] Orano Natalie Douglas and Claire Titus Okay let's also congratulate the other team members members who were not able to
attend attend states but still contributed to their team So thank you Oh Julian Woodward Steuart Gear and Lillian Seagull And a big thanks to their teacher Jennifer Stone Okay next item the
Envirroathon A huge congratulations to our Woodland Park Woodland Park High School Environ team Our incredible students swept the state competition taking first second and third place They are headed to the nationals in Alberta
Canada this summer Let's give a round of applause for Fah I'm going to butcher this Fahad Alpha Buddy Mason or Oriano Aiden Graham Adeline Hughes Evan
Snider Eric Albu Sonia Kettler Brooke Gardner Claire Titus Caitlyn Meyers Ali Oriano Mark Mesner Emma
Larson Antaguan Tol I hope I'm not butchering that too badly A special shout out to teacher Jennifer Brochious and assistant coach Rose Bonsaf Uh we want to thank you all We're very proud of you That's that's a major
ordeal You're smart young people You're you're going to go places Thank you for joining us Okay On to administrative reports Do we have any board of education reports yes Okay
Um All right So uh first I just wanted to let the rest of the board know that I did make a post for our CFO opening on my own Facebook page with the link to the um application site as on my LinkedIn page and I've seen Is your
microphone on no Oh there we go I need to talk Sorry Uh so I just say that I I made a post for our CFO opening on my LinkedIn page as well as on my Facebook page and it has been shared and liked and so it's getting a lot of views
Hopefully that will lead to more qualified applicants Thank you You've done this before A little bit Um the other thing in in regards to things I do a little bit um is with our our superintendent search So I know we had
spoke at the last meeting um and discussed having a work session so you can kind of work through all the steps and get through our process Um since today we haven't had a meeting even scheduled um I went ahead and and
drafted a um job description for the superintendent So somewhere we can just kind of start from um when we do get together for our work session Um I did email it to all of you today Um so you know there's some things in there that we still need to figure out like um what
we want to set salary and stuff at but um I just thought I'd set up some qualifications Um so I tend to write long job descriptions but I find more information better Um and so the qualifications you know just looking at
like mastering education Um you know public school administrator license two to three years experience as a teacher two to three years experience as a principal um strong communication skills um deep understanding of school finance
Um and then you know demonstrating the ability to lead and some other things So we can add to those and and kind of pick what we want But copies everyone you know while we're on that note We've had a lot of people's concerns about our
lack of working on the superintendent's position We are working on it We talked about a little bit in depth at our last agenda setting meeting Uh there are a couple of people that have interest in in uh helping with the search So we will
have a work session to discuss that and discuss you know if we want to have both of these people present to us There are some open-ended questions However we are chugging along on that Uh there there's a lot going on right now but it's it's got its place in line and it's we're
we're moving on it Thank you Any others yes I had over the past week just a some wonderful meetings with some teachers some uh community people and uh I was
asking them questions about you know specifically it came up talking about our retreat and things to talk about and it's something that I've been talking about for some time and and I'm going to email this to everyone uh I finally have it all together but you
know some of the things the challenges and strategic plans that that I would you know I think that since we really haven't talked a whole lot about it is um you know I'm just going to read the top four things from talking to people
within the district and teachers is re how do we go about this rebuilding trust datadriven decision making ensuring financial stability and addressing en enrollment and I thought you know some of those things And then there's a lot
more here that we discussed and and it's just a wonderful outline there It's easy to go through and I thought it would it really I thought that the ideas that were presented were fabulous So u I
think you know I'm going to get this out to you I just got got the copy uh since I'm not a fast typer and organizer Someone else did it wherever he has sent it to me So I have not signed yet to Great Thank you You know Keegan you you
also had told me about some ideas Is that still fresh freshly available to forward over yes I sent it to every sent to everyone I can send it again though Recently you sent it again or that's been some time ago Um I sent it maybe a
month ago Would you send it again and then we have a conjunction of his thank you Okay Uh Mr Salt you are up Superintendent report All right Thank
you Um first I wanted to address the CFO search Uh we have had a handful of candidates a few of them that are not what I would consider qualified candidates and a couple that aren't Uh so at this point we only have two candidates that I would consider moving
forward with Um Courtney and I have not had a chance to schedule those yet We'll be looking at interviews in the near future they'll be you know options will sound the interviews go Um we did post both the CFO and the athletic director at the
high school on case to try to get some more visibility from within the uh professional education sphere across the state Um we've seen some good success with the AD listing We've gotten a lot of traction um a handful of candidates
that we're we're talking about whether or not we're going to interview But again CFO we're still only at two candidates right now that have much experience from a from a CFO background sort of perspective Um speaking of board retreat I know at
the agenda setting we talked about doing uh policy governance training in the morning Uh I was able to get a hold of Matt Cook who is the policy he's certified in policy governance does trainings for CASM and so although we are not CASM members he's agreed to come
down and do CAS member pricing for us So it will be relatively inexpensive to have him come down and do that training in the morning So we'll be looking at a couple hours in the morning and then that would leave time to to work on any sort of strategic plan that you guys want to move on towards in the
afternoon Um staffing update I There's a lot of questions and concerns about that This has been a delayed process with the sales tax and everything else going on Uh I did meet with all of the principles today and we went through what staffing models for next year would be the um
number of FTE we're having to to look at cutting due to current budget situations And so they will start having conversations with personnel in the next couple of days um so that we can start getting some concerns addressed and start making
plans for next year Uh and then the last thing that I wanted to address is Gateway Um I know there's been a lot of concern about what's going to happen with that building in the future Um one of the options we're
looking at right now is to to uh currently gateway is being used as a testing center for both the middle school and the high school Um that is going fairly well We've got some uh technology and server pieces that we need or switches that we need to replace
Um Stephen knows all too well about the issues we've been experiencing this week Uh so we do have a plan or working on a plan to to go forward but it's going to cost about $10,000 to replace the switches and the networking piece that we need in there Um what our plan moving
forward is currently the the working plan is to leave it sort of a a half building as testing center for uh high school middle school and then the other half to be more of a CTE center We have several different CTE programs that we
can run out of there Now part of the concern here is construction cost to retrofit that building into what we would need for a CTE center And so we're still in the process of getting an idea of what that's actually what cost us to be able to do There are some grants out there that we're looking at that would
help mitigate the cost I do not have answers to those questions yet This is still ongoing Uh but in that vein I know that there's a lot of um community discussion about this and so Lindsay and I have talked about how to engage the community in this process moving forward
but I wanted to let you know that this is a conversation that we're starting to have uh internally Um these ideas have come up kind of from the staff at the secondary camp for junior year senior high Um and uh so this has been sort of an organic conversation that's come up
and uh I think that we're getting to a place where we need to start having more earnest conversations about it And so Lindsay and I will be working together towards what uh what that engagement looks like and how we um kind of move forward with that decision May I ask a question about that sure So
um when you talk about trying to figure out what the actual cost would be towards doing those renovations or improvements are we we're reaching out to to multiple have we reached out for bids yet or we're just kind of finances the biggest concern that we have right
now is moving the ProStart which is our culinary program down there so they can use a commercial kitchen Um that building is not currently sprinkled and so we are working through uh code and what needs to whether we need the sprinkle If we do do we have to do the
whole building or can we stick to just the um kitchen area gateway doesn't have a fires Is that you're talking about fire sprinklers correct Yeah Um so we're looking at other fire mitigation uh options there They make
hoods that have fire suppression part of it They make other independent fire suppression pieces that would exist in the kitchen And so we're just trying to get a grid for what's going to be required for code before we go out and start getting bids And so we're not quite to the the bidding process We're still trying to understand what the
scope of work we need bid out is if that's even an option Yeah Okay And there's a chance that the cost for this and you know if we have to do the whole building it's not going to be a feasible cost We'll have to go back to the drawing board so to speak Um but that's the the current path So we're reaching
out to like fire There's some state people that were having to go through Jason's handle that he's talked to one local person who didn't have all of the answers and they were so it's a process Gotcha Are there grants and maybe you don't have the answer but could we look
into seeing if there are grants for fire mitigation things we can look most of the grants we've looked at uh are we're not eligible for um in the scope of what we're talking about Um I haven't seen
anything that's specifically for fire fire suppression Uh most of what we've seen are CTE grants but they won't fund capital construction outside of direct program cost And since this is not a direct program cost uh the grants that we're seeking right now or investigating
don't actually go towards fixing that particular problem Well any other questions that's all I have Thank you Thank you Okay we are now at public comments Let
me read this ahead of time Please be aware that any personnel or individual student matters are considered confidential under Colorado law and it is out of respect of the law and our employees and students that we
require those discussions to take place privately in executive session Individual comments are limited to three minutes or a total of 15 minutes for a particular topic The intent of public comment is to give the board of education the opportunity to hear your
comments However the board will make no decision or take no action on public comment during the meeting Thank you Candace Gordon how many do we have today let them all 16 You mean that they all
speak that's one over the time limit See that's a real question But everybody might not use their three minutes Doesn't matter You can do 48 minutes Won't kill you We'll decide that sir Can
we all be polite tonight yeah I agree No I was just asking ahead of time because then she doesn't have to do that I didn't think you were Well we've extended it before but this is a matter of one extra person I'll bet you we can uh
approve that Hi there Good evening As a parent of four children in this school district and a taxpaying homeowner I have some thoughts I'd like to share regarding the possible sale of 500 East Kelly Road
First of all I want to believe that your motive behind even considering this is good that you desire to be generous to a school that you feel responsibility over and that you want them to be secure However I ask you to consider if you are
taking from those who don't have enough for their own needs Is it really generosity or is it something else and what about the financial security for our other schools that will be impacted by this decision i know The argument is that merit would be taking a $3 million
liability of deferred maintenance off of our hands But what is the value of the building that is going with that liability the original facility resolution acknowledged its value by listing the sale price as no less than $5
million I implore you to understand how losing our second most valuable asset will affect the financial health of our primary government books The auditors will be presenting our 232 24 audit later in this meeting And a key thing to
understand is that even though Merit Academy is included in our district and in the audit they are a completely separate unit with a different set of books Our central district assets are not their assets or vice versa If 500
East Kelly Road were to be transferred to them for $1 we would lose millions of dollars in our assets and our net position would take another loss Proverbs 21:5 says "Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity but
hasty shortcuts lead to poverty." I ask on behalf of my children's education and their classmates and their schoolmates that you not lead this district into poverty by making a hasty decision Please make a good plan that benefits
every single student in school and do the hard work it will take to carry out that plan There is a way to address Merritt's facility needs along with all of the other schools equally and fairly It would involve having a work session but this time Instead of just
focusing on Merritt's facility needs and how to meet them have a representative from all four of our schools including Merit present all of the needs of each facility Then list them in order of most urgent to least The Long Rage facility
master plan recommended budgeting 3% of the replacement value of our buildings towards maintenance and improvements That is about $3 million a year When you vote on next year's budget in May make sure it budgets that amount for the facility needs of all of our schools and
then pursue revenue streams that will help cover it such as a county sales tax or mil levy override There is no need to sell off our district's second most valuable asset for $1 One more quick piece Never mind I want to give time to other people It's
okay Thank you on Green Street Good evening Thank you for letting us uh talk to you in this setting Um I just want to tell you I um I number one I don't take any pleasure in reading
audits I've already spoken to Tom I didn't enjoy it when I was on the board I don't enjoy it now but I have read through it and there are multiple problems and I don't think it should come as a surprise to any of you There have been many of us that have brought
forward concerns about the budget concerns about the way the budget has been done for the last two years We've offered to meet with you We've not heard I've either not heard anything back or I heard I have complete confidence in our
CFO and our superintendent or so we went to some of us went to the newspaper to try to help the community understand the issues in the budget If you don't if you were surprised by the
audit you're the only ones that are to blame for it because community members that care about this district really tried to talk to you about it I'd like you to stop the division in our community I'd like you to take
responsibility for where we are I'd like you to stop saying that people just don't like us There's a bunch of community community members from lots of different backgrounds that care about the most important thing in our community which is the schools that have
been coming to you I'd like you to stop saying it's people that don't like Merit Academy There are parents that have been coming to you that care about their kids' education as much as the parents at Merit Academy care about their kids
education Please just listen to the people that come to you in this room I'd like you to to remember that we don't actually know where we are in terms of budget yet And I'd like you to consider that when you make decisions about
salaries for Mr Salt anything that you're doing for Mr Whit And I'd like you to stop making big financial decisions until you've got everything straightened out We know exactly how much money we have We know if we have to
pay any grants back I'd like you all to start asking questions when things are presented to you From what I've seen when budgets are presented Keegan's the only one that's ever asked a question or questions whether things were correct in
the budget I'd like you all to really really work hard at your job Thank you Thank you Mr Kramer Good evening My name is Dana Kramer I'm a parent in the district Thank you for allowing us to speak tonight I'm
speaking tonight on behalf of almost 600 concerned stakeholders who have signed a petition requesting a full forensic audit of the Woodland Park School District The recently released 2024 WPSD
audit revealed 83 concerning findings including 11 material weaknesses four significant deficiencies and a federal compliance issue affecting everything from internal controls to the handling of public
funds Most alarming are the findings tied to ESSER federal relief dollars The audit documents that WPSD submitted incorrect reports missed deadlines and failed to comply with program
requirements This isn't a minor oversight It's a breakdown in trust and transparency involving millions of taxpayer dollars This community cannot settle for a partial or sectional audit We are
calling for a complete forensic audit that thoroughly addresses all 83 findings identifies systemic failures and helps restore public confidence With 23 discrepancies the year prior it would be
wise to include that year as well in the forensic audit A forensic audit would do what a standard financial review what a standard financial review cannot Trace how funds are used who made key decisions and whether there was fraud
abuse or mismanagement 568 of your con constituents have already spoken Please listen to them Let's do what's right for our students our educators and our taxpayers Thank you Thank you
signatures Yes Avery W I apologize for my Thank you Hello My name is Alison Avery Bonhov and I am a parent of the district Um I wanted to take a moment to thank you for putting the forensic audit proposal on the
agenda Um of course I wish we had never got to this point to begin with Um but no one's perfect Admitting fall and taking responsibility for one's actions and decisions and to then work to regain the public's trust is an important step in growing and with moving forward After
attending the work session on March 31st I was impressed by Merit's board of education and the care that they have for their students and staff Um I wish my child had a board um say for one that was looking out for him as much as Merritt's board is looking out for their
students Meritt's leadership saying that selling them the old middle school is the only way to move forward is a false claim Their argument is that we can't afford to cover the $3 million in building repairs Some of the line items provided were for things like new paint new whiteboards and resurfacing the
track Not exactly necessary improvements A great repairs equitable for all of our schools is to prioritize the most immediate necessary fixes The report could then be created in a way where the necessary fixes are not listed by school building but are anonymous which would
rule out any claims for uh favoritism This would help combat the narrative that one school is being prioritized above the others It is not necessary for us to transfer ownership of our newest building to Merit Academy We can offer them a 5-year facility usage agreement
we can rewrite their contract so that more of their per pupil funding is allocated to their current building's maintenance It is certainly not necessary for us to give them the building for $1 Miss Patterson and Miss Kimble suggested at the work session Merritt needs to take care of its population but we need to take care of
ours as well If we surrender this facility our own equity would decrease dramatically Unless this move really is as it appears to be a facility grabbed by merit leadership a facility grab that you are complicit with Just another example of you funneling resources away
from our public ed students Why not instead of doing that um take care of the kids who are actually elected to take care of thank you for your time Thank you Gentlemen Miller Johnny Oh sorry I yield my time I want
everyone else to speak Kelly Hunaker Hi my name is Kelly Hunaker I'm a member of the community I was tied to the schools for a very long time through one of your longest running teachers who left the district I'm here to speak about the
superintendent again because I saw what you put on for your executive session and it's important to remind you that when you hired Ken you paid him the most of any district of our size or part-time work And when it was time to review him
you chose not to do so despite being reminded this was good business practices I believe if any of you owned your own business you would never do that because you would be spending your own money to pay someone who didn't get reviewed I don't believe you would do
that If you did that would be bad business practices as well You also allowed him to run rampant in our district talking down to people treating people badly parking in handicap
spots The list went on very long And you might remember I gave you some of it last time So now you're going in there tonight to talk about both Mr Salt's pay and what looks to be what you want to do to finish out Wit's
contract If he's owed something still under the contract that's on you because you didn't read that contract despite the fact that Keegan argued you should and that Mr Rosterhold said "Let's take a week and read it." You didn't read it
because you raved about how great he was What a great job he was doing And I guess our audit proves you right He was doing a great job at screwing everything up He was giving you disrespect and he was giving every member of this entire
community disrespect but you didn't review his contract Now if you go in there and you give him more money that will be on you And yet we will have to pay for it And by the way that contract was probably reviewed by our district
attorney And if that's true then that district attorney was looking out for the superintendent and not the schools His job is to work for the schools not the superintendent Your job is to work for the schools for everyone here for
the students for every taxpayer in this community that isn't here That's your job Not to help Mr get rich not to help Mr Carlson and Mr Miller get rich Your job is to take care of the
students They should be first Community members families and staff should be first If you go in there and you decide to give him more money you should take it out of your own pocketbooks to pay
him Thank you I'm Michaels a teller county resident of 25 years I'm one of the silent majority I'm here again to encourage you to all continue to do the right Yes to continue to do the right things I've learned in
my 20 years in the US Army that there are two ways of doing those things There is doing things right and there is doing the right thing Thank you for doing the right thing Please don't forget that you brought a second rate school district
with failing academics to being first rate district with a distinction rating for composite performance schools There are some who would park weaponize their children as pawns to advance their social agendas These people should be
ashamed The young adults who today gleefully tear down statues of the founding fathers were incubated in our very own schools Children just want to be children not propagandized into being social justice warriors They needn't and
shouldn't be ideologic activists They are here to learn how to think not what to think as they would mindly march to radical office As referenced in Proverbs 22 our job as adults is to train up a
child according to his way And when he is old he will not depart from Don't be discouraged There are many of us that pray specifically for you our school board and the children of county I hope that you are also bending your own knees
in prayer Your success will depend on it Our father God works miracles even here in Park Thank you Logan Ruth Thanks for letting us speak I hope that everybody does the opportunity to
speak Um I'll try to keep mine short just because I think that this is probably going to be a longer meeting I'm sure that all of this want to get home So um I think the the most pressing issue is obvious obviously the
audit the findings Um well I won't I won't speak to much in the audit because then I think that we'll hear from the professionals that will speak clearly about it on my team just kind of ramble on about this
Um it is problematic that you are taking the same course that you have taken in the past with with moving forward in regards to finding the new we'll call him CEO because honestly
that's that's what he is right you guys he's a CEO he's not a superintendent you guys want to make sure you you boost up your CEO that's that's clearly what it is so I really urge you to take time to
meet with individuals in the community and listen to their input because that there is a lot of it There are so many individuals that have stopped reaching out because that they don't even think that you guys listen at all anymore because I
mean your actions speak louder flatter than well your lack of words So I'll yield the rest of my time but please do a better job Thank you
Brian Meyers Brian Myers Jessie Pool I'm Jesse I have two kids in the district None of you knows me and have lived here but I'm sure my because I've already told you through legal action that I will not tolerate your impertinence when it comes to my rights
or the rights and welfare of my children The last board meeting was an exercise in apoplelexy certainly but I cannot speak highly enough Barkley ever screaming into the bully as she's forced to say things like I am once again asking you to follow the law or I am
committed to this community Join me in that won't you and she was the only adult at the table suggesting a forensic audit and saying "Who is responsible for this?" Meanwhile Mick hemmed and hawed and stammered and stuttered but couldn't tell us who he had discussions with or
who sent him an email These are not hard questions And then he repeatedly threatened to believe the room if we could not maintain decor decorum But Sue said the quiet part out loud and let us know what you think about the stakeholders of this district This is your meeting and we don't care what we
think If you can't understand that you are beholden to this community you will suffer the consequences of the rage of this community at the destruction you have wrought on something they used to love and no longer recognize Everyone sees you dismantling public education so you can monetize a social institution
Strip our children of the individuality you find so distasteful and reduce them to units of profit Let me disabuse you of the notion that any of us is willing to sacrifice our progeny at the altar of your interests The kids here are so big and brilliant and beautiful and we will
not see them water themselves down or make themselves smaller so that you find them more palatable With all due disrespect I am confident the entirety of Woodland Park would sooner choke than cut our kids into pieces because you seek to consume them But your hearts
minds souls and mouth are so small that you can't handle everything they are when they're whole I don't know how any of you sleeps at night how you wake up every morning and choose violence when it comes to your responsibilities to children It terrifies me And irrespective of the outcome I will show you what it looks like when a terrified
pissed-off mother stands up to the people who are harming her children when I face you in federal court And the children I am raising understand that biological sex is complicated and gender is a social construct that exists on a spectrum and they are separate things They get that there is nuance in the
science The biology psychology sociology that repeats the incipid rest holy and penis vagina false dichotomy perpetuated by every fringe conservative ideologue and torpid sickopant who is alarmingly obsessed with children's genitals My kids are tired of being failed by weak
men and complicit women over and over And they want me to let you know that you don't get to tell them who and what they are It isn't up to you You don't need to decide And you may not agree that they are not asking for their permission I have taught my what they can expect from adults with a duty of care and that when someone mistreats you
they lose access to you So they are acutely aware that if you intend to retain the positions you have time and again proven yourselves unfit for you have to do better They are entitled to their childhoods and their educations and their identities and their futures They know you owe it to them and I will
forever demand it on their behalf Thank you Jessie Simber Oh I'm so sorry I apologize I didn't mean to put that on there to speak I apologize Oh we have time for everybody Are you sure you don't want to
We just saw her at the Supreme Court yesterday and it was awesome Okay Would you believe I came in here with nothing to say I'm Aaron Oonnell Wen Park resident Um I made a couple notes because it's interesting Um Cassie you shook your head when it was suggested
that you recommended the sale to merit for a dollar and say "I didn't do that." So who did are you blaming it all on Sue should we blame Sue for the dollar amount i'm wondering if it didn't come from you Are you going to turn it and blame it on the person who's not here rest holes Those four things you
mentioned from the community those are things we have been asking for for years I said stood here three years ago and asked for those very same things as did almost every one of these people And we had those things until you all came in And Erin have you considered when
you're looking at what to do with Gateway have you considered an elementary school so that the students who are shoved into portables with leaky roofs and ineffective it can actually have a school where they can safely and openly learn Mick you said you want to
focus on the superintendent search but you don't have the time because it's so busy You do realize that all the problems that you are facing are ones that you have caused if you would stop jumping into decisions that are huge costly and detrimental to this district You wouldn't have to be choosing between
which fire to put out So please consider that I was at the Colorado Supreme Court yesterday facing off against your district lawyers None of you were there but why would you be you like to paint me as latigious You like to paint me as someone having
frivolous lawsuits I don't even care if I'm talking about it The decision hasn't been made yet I am standing up here because the people that I'm fighting for matter to me They matter to this community Your lawyer painted me as someone who wanted to get money and just point out a
mistake so that I could get attorney fees Do you think this is fun for me you have damn near bankrupted me over the last three years because I am fighting for accountability to the students you are supposed to represent and you do not represent them So we do and we will
continue to and you stifle our voices And when you all first came in this podium was faced this way The camera could see us We had five minutes You let us in a bigger room The second you saw descent you cut our time You moved us back into a smaller room You turned us
away They should see us They should see us Oh get off of me We matter And I'm going to take the rest of my time to look in the people who are watching who are not able to come here or who can't stomach it anymore because you disgust them because you harm them day after day
decision after decision We will keep fighting I don't care how long it takes We will not let you keep destroying our community without objection [Music] Amen Good girl
[Music] Garrett 37year resident of Wooden Park I have three comments First I am pleased to see that it is being publicly acknowledged that the merit board and Ken Wick Bates Cassie
Kimbro and Suzanne Patterson were responsible for the loss of the sale school sales tax money Without your resolution it would be in force today Two at the work session March 31st it
was interesting that Merit board member Nicole Wagner stated "Merit is a quote faith-based school." Going on their website and reading their handbook that is not mentioned Faith is
that all faith being a faith-based school gives this charter school a special distinction I think that should be included in their mission and their vision Three were my comments on
considering separation monies with Ken W Others have spoken about all of the problems and it's difficult to know exactly about our finances under his tenure since there was never any transparency and adequate recordkeeping
But when I look at the monies that were spent on Kenwit and I'm going to add the attorney fees here and probably both salary and over $100,000 in legal fees those are the things you need to
consider And when you're considering your budget and you talk about losing teachers or staff how about losing an attorney that is way too expensive for this district out of his league So
please look at those details when you consider during your executive session Thank you Thank you Nate Williams Thank you Before my time starts I just want to play a quote from Andrew
Mac We need to increase our scope and we need to be far beyond just dealing with individuals We need to be dealing with communities And man as many people as we have in this school here we ought to take over Woodland Park
Andrew we need to increase our scope And if you and you and you are on this board because of the truth and liberty coalition only with their California lobbyists and their outofstate
money Period You want to pretend like you're the fox in the hen house but you're the chickens with your heads cut off You are losing every lawsuit that you faced You've lost three already and I was at
the Supreme Court yesterday and you're going to lose your suit against Aaron and you're trying to sue the city and they did everything properly That's two more lawsuits and oh I still have my name tag on from visiting the state
attorney general today You're going to get an injunction for your scam sale of the middle school building to Merit Academy and you're going to pay Whit more money Why did he retire early we
need to know that We need to know that you're pushing your agenda through as fast as possible because you and you and Absent are going to be voted out in November and you're going to be
recalled and the only person we're going to have left is the voice of democracy It took you wanted to sell merit for a dollar and then you said "Oh it's going to take $3.5 million to
renovate The land alone is worth $4 million." So what happens when the city just condemns the property and takes it away from you because they can do that and this fiscal audit you have your
legal fees need to be itemized because you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on inadequate lawyers Your lawyer yesterday at the state supreme court Bryce Carlson was a fool He looked
like an idiot in front of the court Why are we wasting money on lawyers period We're getting ready to be in a Trump session and we're having a all real estate has to be sold at a 5% discount in order to sell because
otherwise it sits on the market for 9 months and your enrollment is dipping down It's gone down every year since Ken Wit took his place and you're about to lose more tax money than you could
imagine Not just your little sales tax you're gonna lose property tax revenue And I haven't even got halfway through my But how can you sell a building that exists within the district to
itself merit's in the district How can you sell it to itself the district controls merit Sir your time is up Thank you so much sweetie Ling heart 36 years 33
years don't care and I actually backed stop I felt there was no hope Then something happened I moved my best friend up here um two weeks
ago and we found out she's going to have grandchildren come up here And I went "Oh." And she goes "What do you think?" She said "You've been telling me about the
astronaut you've been telling me about the lawyer that argued at the Supreme Court Isn't this amazing and I said "Well yeah kind of." I said "But but our school board has nothing to do with
it." This year maybe we'll see some results The results I'm saying is we had a forensic team of over 15 kids last year and we have six I'm having a hard time I don't agree with a lot what's going on I hate the
paranoia in this town because the second thing that happened is let's go have a cup of coffee And I was had two people in the back of my car and they go "Oh can't go there That's makeup Oh that's They're over here What I would like to
see we can't go back All the errors have been made is maybe just once coming together as a community Stop the backstabbing Stop the little tiny clips Whether you're a
Democrat school board Republican or Greek I don't care The community that I worked with two of you on was a community that worked together lived together and
appreciated good solid business practices and integrity Somehow we aren't going to go back to our astronauts our archaeologists our lawyers um our
engineers but maybe we can figure out a way to go forward And I didn't know what to tell her but her friend that was in the back seat said "Well okay they're working on it They're working on it." So she called by
and her kids will be homeschooled because of the size of the classrooms And the other thing is is if we let Merit take over the middle school we have nowhere to grow without building a
new building up on the hill that somebody wants to buy already We have nowhere to go So think about it And as far as what don't resent his
um resignation and make him before you do anything come back and show what he did because without him there are a lot of things that'll never be answered Thank you for your time Not even three days
That's it Okay The young lady in this second row You were willing to forego your time Did you want to speak still sure Okay Thank you What I was gonna say was already and I really really really appreciate being in
talking about the super and you guys collaborating on it I really appreciate that Like this means thank you I I'm all three and I'm relieved to see Ken gone But while I'm relieved I'm also
sad to see what the priorities of this board are Could you talk just a little louder please thank you I really hope that you'll prioritize very soon fixing the electrical problems that merit
That was really scary to hear and that shouldn't be happening There shouldn't be that kind of safety issue So please please get on that And it's been that way for years It was like that when I was here Yep
And with that other safety issues at the other schools could you please prioritize them next that'd be awesome But electrical issue that's very frightening I would like to start seeing money spent
on our students and teachers and I appreciate the movement on set of lawyers getting a new superintendent I really appreciate it Thank you Um it'd be great if they lived in Tiller County and had all that experience that Miss Barkley was talking
about So I just want to see our teachers being supported our students and um I'd love to see that instead of this petty retaliation on city council
they were the one check and balance on this board and they did the right thing Yeah Two things are responsible for losing that tax not the city council So Please do the right thing Please
listen to parents We're all begging you to put our kids first and the teachers and staff Thank you Continue to lose every time Sir you've had your time
Okay moving along here The cons the consent agenda I'm looking for a motion for approval of the consent agenda Pardon i apologize for interruption but my name is
Get up there My name is Lorine We had five speakers that were under two minutes You know why are you I want to hear what you say but why are you being rude i'm not being rude Sorry Lorine I just think that superintendent instead
of merit school based on attendance and based on test scores Sorry about that So I you know I always think I'm funny
Nobody else thinks I'm funny about how those genuines I'm going to laugh Anyway thank you for your time and letting me speak tonight Sometimes I forget that at the end and I do appreciate the
um I want to bring up something that I I I don't want to use that word witness I'm not an auditor I'm just not But I do want to question when you folks are writing a contract for new people
Um I'm a photographer and I study the four seasons and I will say Green Mountain Falls is the place 10 minutes away But this is what when you first hired Kenwit
I didn't really know who he was but I know who doesn't love the pantry I'll just say that Okay And so I support them But this man and it was Ken Wit I finally asked
the help is he an owner here because I saw him spending money my money all the time there And I decided not to pull a a cor request because I saw it I was down there every day to do
my research on the geese and the photography And that was interesting Okay And then I don't I never understood why all those meetings that he had had to take place down there I never understood why that I finally got to the
point that I said to myself I cannot afford to pay my breakfast bill and his also through the district So I quit going in there to spend money But I still did my photography and it really
bothered me the days that I'd see that old white maintenance truck come down there cuz you could hear it and all the interviews that happened down there and the business meetings that happened down there
Like I said I love the pantry but I don't understand why all that money was spent out of Ter County There's so many restaurants up here But that brings me to another point Why do all these business meetings have
to happen around breakfast lunch and dinner how much money was spent I'm not going to go into that on dining out and I'll just say Mr W alone We're striving for money here Now how
much money was allowed in his contract to be spent on travel up to the school and to take the company vehicle on places out to eat Thank you And violating the open
record Okay back to the consent agenda Do I have a motion for approval so move Second Second Roll call Hi Bes Hi Him Hi Mr Holtz Hi
Motion carries Okay Moving on on staff appreciation week And I lost my page haven't yet Okay Whereas the dedication and
commitment of education staff are essential to the success of students and educational institutions And whereas the tireless efforts of educators support staff administrators and all those involved in the education
process deserve recognition and appreciation for their invaluable contributions And whereas acknowledging the effort of staff creates a positive and supportive work environment encouraging encouraging morale and
promoting continued excellence in education Now therefore be it resolved we the members of the board of education of Woodland Park School District R2 proclaim May 5th through 9th of 2025 as staff appreciation week And be it
further resolved that the Woodland Park School District RE2 encourages all stakeholders including students parents and the community at large to join in recognizing and appreciating the dedication and hard work of our staff during this special week
Thank you Do I have a motion to approve make a motion to approve the staff appreciation week Second Second Okay Roll call Hardly Hi Bates I Kimbell I
Professor Holtz Hi Motion carries So the only thing I have to add to that is I just hope that in addition to declaring a week staff appreciation week that we can um actually show our appreciation by one
making sure we can get our contracts out as soon as possible so that there's some security for our teachers They know they're working next year um and making sure that we hire you know a superintendent and a CFO who can
ensure the success of the school district Thank you Okay Next item under action is rescheduled May's regular board meeting Um can I ask a question this the noise that
we're hearing is kind of canceling out what I'm able to hear but I mean it's this mic right here I'm the one with the hearing problem but Candace I'm okay Thank you Interesting
Do we have a microphone that maybe would normally be for soup that we can switch it out or is it just because it's too close to the speaker we're getting feedback exactly It's feedback It's this mic Can we move the podium okay Right But but we'll have people
speaking going forward So anytime we turn it on we're going to get I I don't have a the IT guy We could move it up a little bit Even when you respect [Music] working Okay Is it back on yes it's on
Due to scheduling conflicts it is recommended that the May 14th 2025 regular board meeting be rescheduled to May 7th of 2025 Um a motion is requested to approve
rescheduling May 14th regular board meeting to May 7th Do I have a motion so move Second I have a discussion Okay So it's been second You second
Discuss I can do it remotely but I have to announce I'm not really old enough for this but oldest grandson is getting married Um and I won't I'll be in Pennsylvania Will you be able to attend remotely yeah Okay Thanks for the heads up
Are you okay with that has anyone spoken to Sue well she she won't she's only missing this meeting Is that what you're asking well I'm asking if anyone spoke to her about the change in date to see if that is it I don't know
Um if Sue is available for that new date is what I was asking since she's not here today to add anything to the discussion Um panding a response from Sue Uh well let me see Well I mean if if David can still attend
remotely then we'll still have quorum It's not That's true That's true Yeah I I'll even if we're driving or flying you have to be here All right So I have a motion in a second Any other discussion
roll call Hi Face Hi Kim I I will follow up with Sue right away Only my ears got old Oh my hair did too So hard to watch like It's terrible
Okay Uh discussion information First up is holding audit presentation Did I say holding i'm Tom S with company I'm the audit partner uh that oversaw your audit this year Like to also introduce uh Chris
Bant uh he uh was the audit manager and was really on the ground part of the daytoday auditing Um so I may point you to him for some you know for more specific questions and I'll introduce deathy too Uh she did not work on the
audit at all but but but she did for many many years for public comment Um and also I I did send out a a summary of my presentation tonight I'm really going to focus on the first four items
in in number one here Uh because I think that's what people are most interested in Not get too much into the numbers unless there's there there's something we need to delve into a little bit I'll I'll touch on a couple Uh but just wanted to cover that ahead of time Uh first of course there was a number of
audit challenges I think by now you all you all know that um really a lack of preparation for the on site work Um the field work was rescheduled from September uh to ne November due to Jack being hired That makes sense He was
hired in September You hadn't had somebody on board uh overseeing the uh financial department at least at that level for a while So that made sense Um we did provide a comprehensive 65 item get ready list uh very few item very few
of those items were ready for us uh when we were to uh start the audit Uh multiple trial balances so all your numbers uh were provided by Jack and multiple times they didn't balance So we went back and forth multiple times just
trying to get the numbers that were there presented to us in a way that we could use Few balance sheet and and many significant income statement accounts uh were few of these were reconciled at
year end Uh grants were also not balanced at year end uh significant more significantly more work was required by us uh to reconcile grants and other accounts Um as a result of this lack of preparation field work was rescheduled
to January Uh then significant progress was made after Jack's departure and the uh contract CFO was brought in Things really moved along at that point Um really the result of these challenges of
course uh a lack of accurate and timely information to the board and to the community and uh to grant and funding agencies So internal control and compliance findings we had a number of them We had uh 16 in total uh and and
I'm going to run down them Um and uh maybe further explain a couple of them Um but a lack of appropriate uh closing procedures that kind of covers everything in many ways just not being prepared for the uh fieldwork ineffective controls and documentation
over pecards Um and I think that's some of what people have asked about for forensic audit maybe delving into that sort of thing Uh lack of travel policies increasing the risk of fraud or abuse Uh lack of effective controls over grant accounting As I mentioned a lot of the
grants weren't balanced at year end uh bank reconciliations uh were not completed timely Some some for more than six months were not done Obviously a critical control over cash uh ineffective controls over reconciling
uh pupil activities Uh pupil activities were recorded at the school level um during the year but not uploaded into the uh district's uh general ledger their accounting system um until the
audit was happening and we were looking for that information Uh ineffective controls over recording and reconciling Bosey's activities Uh lack of appropriate controls over component unit reporting Uh so that that would be merit and the merit activities were not
reconciled till uh November of 2024 Lack of appropriate controls over controls and review of journal entries Uh so a significant number of incorrect or unsupported journal entries were made that had to be researched and corrected
during the audit Um and a lot of additional audit time was spent doing exactly that Uh lack of controls over required uh reporting to CDE So in the in the end the numbers were right like
we got to good numbers but CDE did not get the correct number So that's something that's fixable and hopefully it's been fixed since Um but good numbers can be provided to CDE because we got the good numbers at year
end Uh lack of controls over recording uh recording and reconciling uh salary rules Uh lack of controls over recording sales tax activity Uh same thing with long-term debt investment activity uh
and capital asset activity Overall many of these things fell under a lack of segregation of duties as well where you really just have to have the appropriate people in place to do the work oversee the work and improve the work and reconcile the
work Uh let's moving on to financial statement findings So that was that was really internal controls The financial statement findings is actually more or less the good news if you will and that is that in spite of
these findings as of June 30th the financial condition of the district was strong uh the the numbers turned out good at year end for the most part Now there's some cause for concern looking ahead and
we saw a I don't remember whether it was a 10 or 12% decrease in student count this year and but we didn't see that full impact of the revenue hit because it gets averaged over five years So you may see the results of that coming down
the road Um but the in the end we issued an unmodified or clean opinion uh some recommendations Um you've already hired a contract CFO in a third party firm to help with monthly flows Um so that seems
to be working so far until you have a permanent good situation there that's a or a permanent situation that's a good stop gap and seems to be working Uh management should consider where whether the finance department is appropriately
staffed Um so we we recommended uh that you consider hiring a grant accountant um to oversee that function years ago Uh when Sheila used to work here she used to just do everything Um but having somebody with
that expertise like she used to have over grants would be great Uh management should ensure that all staff are properly uh trained in accounting in in their specific jobs Not everybody's going to know everything um as well as the accounting software Uh management
should consider continue monitoring the accounting and finance function Um and then last continue as a board Uh we met with the board or I should say we met with a couple
representatives of the board Thank you a couple representatives of the board during the year to make sure that at least uh the uh a contingent of the board was
aware of what was uh where things were at Interesting Um I mentioned that the um again the numbers generally turning out well Um if I'm looking at number four here if you have my summary uh the general fund the
ratio of unassigned fund balance to expenditures sits at 115 days uh an improvement from 102 last year Um that that really is a good number 90 to 120 day 120 days is maybe what you're
shooting for If you're sitting at 115 that's a decent spot to be in That's a good spot to be in Uh internal controls again were a big focus of our audit I talked about all those already Uh federal awards uh also another big focus
of our audit and the the we we had the one finding on uh reporting again very fixable Um but generally the report the the uh compliance over federal awards was good
except for that Okay Um and I've mentioned this a couple times but really all these findings are fixable This is a year this is year one or year zero whichever of problems Uh previous year
we had no findings Uh we have in years past I think we had one you know three or four years ago and then a number you know a dozen years ago So um but with with hopefully with
getting on top of these things uh with the board with management getting on top of these things more confidence in the administration of the district's finances uh will be seen by the community of Wood So happy to answer any questions
Thank you so much for the brief summary Um I I do have a couple questions Um I I was very glad to hear that these findings are
fixable and I'm going to ask some questions on behalf of the community uh as well U I've spoken to a lot of people who want to have a forensic audit of our
school district So I have two questions for you Well actually three First thing is does your company do forensic audits we don't Okay Well then you're the perfect person to ask so you don't have any so to speak dog in the fight Sure
Sure Um what would a forensic audit provide to the board of education i would say if you were doing it you you should be accountability Come on You should be focused on
specific areas of concern So basically you don't want to be and they would guide you to that right but a forensic audit isn't going to be doing what we did you know like a comprehensive audit but at a much more
detailed level you want to drill down into specific areas of concern Would that be PE cards would that be travel uh would that be you know certain things and then when you when
you can set a good scope they can get you a not only a reasonable price but delve in deeply to those areas And they will they will just outline the findings They won't tell you whether it's right or wrong You know you might
say "We don't like it when uh we don't really want our pe people uh buying pizza out right?" So they would report all the times that people bought pizza out for example So they would
report back the facts and then you get to make the decisions on what's reasonable or not Would does your company would you be able to provide those kinds of areas of concern that you found that perhaps might be a a
possibility of focus to ask the forensic auditors well we did somewhat I mean I think within the findings there but Yeah And you we can certainly answer questions Can can I jump in really quick yeah So we actually submitted the audit
done by Holting to the forensic audit firm They looked at everything for us and then they came back and said "Hey based off of the audit that you provided these are the specific areas that we have concerns about that we want to dive deeper into." Um I was going to speak about this once we got to the forensic
audit uh item on the agenda but just as a heads up um a lot of it was around PECARD usage Okay And uh so Cory and I when we met with them actually said "That's great Can we also look at uh travel?" I think there was one other that we had talked about I don't
remember what it was Um and so we we added a couple extra items that we wanted them to take a look into uh because we wanted to make sure that those areas were tightened up But to your point we submitted the audit provided by Holting They looked through everything and then they came back and said based off of the audit these are
the areas that we believe would be most susceptible to fraud and this is where we want to focus on Go ahead So can I jump in sure Sure Okay So speaking with Chris Bant um previously the PC card issue the policy the training procedures
and there was a grant in a fiscal year that possibly didn't get recorded So have we started and this might be a question for Courtney have we started these logs and doing that going forward is this going back the PC card um travel logs have those
been corrected i don't know Okay Well that's okay That's what we need to work on better logging Um just making sure those are correct because from my understanding from talking with you that was one of the issues as far as findings Is that correct what the the cards as far as like just
not having a log not you know as far as not having a clear paper trail for approval and that sort of thing I think you guys had last minute trainings and they were fairly um priceless pricey as far as like teacher trainings Is that do you remember that yeah Okay All right I
can uh We have started talking about what that process is We haven't implemented it yet because there were a lot of things to look at and start fixing Uh one of the things we've already addressed is the segmentation of duties that um was brought by Halting is making sure that there were good uh
segmentation across the financial duties um to the grants uh role specifically What we've done uh Courtney and I reviewed and we kind of reorganized the way that our front office was set up to ensure that segmentation of duties One of the positions we currently have is
not going to persist after June 30th and we'll be bringing in a grant position at that point So we have already accounted for that in our staffing for next year Right And so that person will be able to monitor all the Yeah it's it's a grants and compliance piece So it'll not only
just handle uh grants but it'll also handle a lot of the reporting that goes along with grants and with um those that was a grant Okay Sure You did answer quite a few of them I appreciate when people anticipate those Yes Um
so we we since we're talking about grants right now I guess uh you know in the report it mentions that there were findings that were required to be reported um in accordance with 2 CFR 200.516 specifically related to uh federal
grants and those sort of um so when you when you say it was required to be reported what is what does that mean uh so they outlined very specific very specific compliance issues that we're supposed to look at So the one that we
reported on that we reported on was reporting Uh that that's one element of compliance that they need to be uh if there's specific requirements over reporting they need to follow them Of course they they followed them by
submitting a report but the report wasn't correct Uh so just as a matter of course it didn't comply Sure And so you know what generally speaking and I'm sure you've seen other issues with with
people not maybe submitting grant information correctly or timely Um in your experience what what are the repercussions of that generally redoing the report redoing the report because because it's
it's a federal compliance audit but you're really you're really held to these standards by the Colorado Department of Education So you're really reporting to them They're coming back to you What they're going to do is if they haven't already they're going to say
"Give us the right numbers right you know get the get the get the reporting right so we can report back up to the federal government properly." And then in in your working in the district do we have the documentation to properly report that or
is is that what part of the I mean it may it may take some it may take some work Um but you know we got to the final numbers eventually where we've got the right number for revenue We've got the right total expenditures and the detail
of that So you should be able to pull that y or somebody I don't think they're giving you the job are they yeah that would be beyond my scope of expertise although maybe I don't know Um so and then you know you went through
some of the delays there Um it you know one of my questions was what was the biggest challenge it sounds like the biggest challenge was the not having their ducks in a row and not having information ready Yeah much the hardest thing was was just not being able to get
usable financial information Um we we could not get the you know we we get trial balances so all the numbers uh for each of your funds and we could I mean multiple attempts to get those in a
way that they balance to zero They should balance to zero at the end Credits debits everything balances zero and we get a report and within about 3 seconds be able to see oh that doesn't add up to zero So lots of those Um was
it just was it more that like specific receipts like okay went to lunch for this meeting here's the receipt for that that kind of thing or No it was just getting the numbers before we even got to the point of looking at invoices and receipts It was just getting the numbers
put together And again I think the numbers were there in many respects They just couldn't generate appropriate reports and and it was it was mostly I I I don't like to throw individuals under the bus but you know
it was mostly coming from from Jack who's been who's obviously not here anymore and and when you know after that you got more help in we got stuff pretty quickly We got balanced provinces and we're able to
dive in and get Well that is good to hear I just wanted to ask just for the the public as well to emphasize Are you saying that it was poor report the reports were bad the information was
there It was just reported incorrectly That is what I'm saying Okay One other question that I heard tonight several times and I've heard a number of times Oh and let me throw a caveat on that Please do Please do We did have to make quite a few adjustments to get there Okay All right So it's not like it was
perfect when they got to us you know i mean I would think It's not unusual with a district or or other larger organization Maybe we'll see a dozen adjustments reclassifications or hey you might looks like you missed this year And I think we
had 64 or 68 adjustments something like that for the year That that that's a big number That that's a big number So there was a lot of retire after Mr Yes Thank you I'm not I'm not going to take we're not going to talk about this again The next
time I'm going to ask you to leave and I'll have security escort you out Thank you Go ahead Uh so there was there was quite a lot of work to do to get the final number but the bulk of what was correct The bulk of what was you
know individual things recorded as as expenditures were generally right They just maybe had to be reclassified or an appropriate um account number you know associated with them or accounts receivable being considered and recorded
appropriately That that sort of thing Good You and you answered my next question was what kind of errors were there and so you said maybe under the wrong account number or category Is is that what I think I hear correctly you can speak to this a little bit more too
if you'd like to add in a little bit if you like Time to tag in a bit Yeah we had uh we had adjustments over almost every area So revenue expense Yeah Can you talk to the mic and then I
can hear and everybody else can absolutely Yeah we had uh we had adjustments over almost every area So we we adjusted revenue expense balance sheet items receivables payables pools So I mean and it was the number was 83 journal So yeah this year as compared to
last year which was 23 So I mean the amount of work was substantial in comparison to your prior and from your opinion where where what was the breakdown why why did this happen one year or two years ago is fine I would like to hear your opinion if you're
willing to give it Where was the breakdown that is a great question Um back in at the end of FY23 uh the district experienced major turnover in the financial uh services department uh which ended up uh
essentially you had new staff that had no one to train them over how to do their job uh because there was no institutional knowledge uh because there was no longtime staff uh to help out And so due to that you know that's that's
where we saw the breakdown Uh really we were fiscal year 24 was going to be the year that there was going to be issues regardless because of that Uh at the end of FY23 was when the uh the final turnover happened Uh and they were able
to help get those books closed So FY23 ended up being you know relatively clean We still had 23 entries in FY23 still a good amount but not not the number we had this year So due to that and then in FY24 there was additional turnover So there was some staff replacing staff
that hadn't even been there a year So there was you know lack of you know institutional knowledge even from the period of time that they were being turned over from that That's really what caused it So you're saying that it's it was just people who were they and you're
it I don't know if it's even fair to ask the question So if it's not fair to ask the question then you know just say so it do are you saying that is a lack of insight or knowledge to the school district are you saying it's incompetence or what are you saying so
that's a great question Let me so in our first finding 2024- 0001 year end closing procedures under the cause we know that the district does not have the proper controls process or personnel in place to analyze adjust or independently
review account balances prior to audit audit fieldwork and that based on the nature of the errors that we identified it was determined that the business services office does not have the personnel who have the appropriate skill knowledge or resources to the financial statements are free for material error
And so I mean we laid it out pretty clear It's a hiring issue We're hiring people to fill seats but maybe they don't have the skills necessary to be successful in those seats Yeah we would we would throw specific
people under us as a collective Correct We we would like you know to see a CFO be hired as well as a grant accountant Those are really two areas that CFO and grant as your top ones Correct Well and I I'll note
to I'll note also that the CFO role or finance director role it it's critical for the oversight So and I I kind of touched on this before but you can have
staff slotted into their specific jobs and do their jobs well but you've got to have the CFO in place to bring it all together And and I think that was the the biggest problem Now whichever CEO
you got whichever one was going to be hired they were starting in September the year had been over for three months or two months right so it was going to be a tough slog not only to get on top
of things um but well to get on top of things to see what had been done before by the staff and and to to bring it all together into a you know into the right numbers And that's why of course we we
initially delayed until November to the do the field work and eventually to to uh January So I hear you saying a big part of the problem was the timing of bringing any CFO that would have come in Yeah Would have had a very difficult extremely difficult time Sure you have
But you still had to have somebody with that CFO have the right skills to be able to dive in and get it done Understood He didn't offer the assistance that you guys needed during the audit You should right or to his staff to make sure we were
accounting for everything correctly If I'm reading Yeah No you can say that That's fine Um so were there any and and you called out a couple of areas already that that we should look into specifically but were
there any particular areas where it was even more difficult or you found you know more obscurity in the accounting or the record keeping in particular or is it just kind of across the board yeah I
would say grants for sure I mean I mean I was here for what almost two and a half months and that's largely what I was working on the entire time was balancing reconciling getting grants correct
What what is the if I mean I'm just curious now since that was a big part of your an issue is the grants is there what's the effect or the consequences of that kind of deficiency in reporting is
is there anything or you've got it all worked out do you understand my question I think maybe he's asking if there's any chance we're going to have to pay those grants back we kind of a throwaway I didn't want to
be that explored about it You know that that's always a possibility H however um we also wouldn't give a clean opinion if we thought there were major areas of unanswered or uncorrect uncorrect
Goodness send me back this number Incorrect Yes Incorrect amounts Um so I mean that is somewhat the silver lining is took more time it took more expense it it it all that um but you did end up
with a clean audit um and and good numbers to go forward with And you know we've had we've had other audits We have one this year Uh we had one a couple years ago where we could it was so bad we couldn't even give an opinion But you're not talking about our school
district that I'm not talking about You just want to make that clear Yes Um sorry I just before I lose my train um you you mentioned that it took extra time right like we didn't have our stuff ready it took extra time I'm assuming
that when we have um quotes on how what it's going to cost for these kinds of services it's with a parameter of specific amount of time This took extra I'm assuming there was additional costs incurred by the district because we didn't have our
stuff ready There was Yes Yeah Can I ask what how much it was uh in the end it was more than double what the original was Oopsie Then my only other question maybe not
necessarily for the auditors but um obviously we we've spoken about how um personnel is an issue I will admit I am concerned about our next hire for CFO Um Erin I know you
weren't superintendent at that time but do you know who was part of the interviewing team when we brought Jack in uh Ken did interviews with him Um I set in a a
tiny one call with him and then Jack can finish out the negotiations Okay So I I guess you know part of and again I work in HR so this is kind of where I come from Um you know making sure you're bringing in the right new talent is also
making sure you have the right people interviewing people who know what good looks like so that we can make those you know concern ment and make sure we're bringing in the right people So um do we if our whole finance department maybe
is lacking and again I'm not going to call anybody out specifically Do we Well by the way I want to say we're not saying that right all right Because there's right people in right roles but not able to do all the accounting because that's not what their role is
right so maybe we're spreading people too thin Also could be I mean slotted in Well we're where where people were trying to do their job and and really just stay on top of things with no CFO So sir are you I just for a followup on
that same question Yes Are you saying that it was the oversight from the CFO that was lacking it was not necessarily the people who were doing the jobs in each of the reporting Yeah Not necessarily Like now that oversight may
mean training in certain areas but that's the bulk of it You've got people that can do the job or they can do the job with the right guidance and help from somebody that has that strength to do it So that's clear out your account So that's what you're saying It's that
they can do the job with the right oversight and guidance They're doing a good job They just need the oversight and guidance That's right And that guidance is provided by the CFO Right Got it should be overseen by the
superintendent Yes But also do so back to what I was asking do we have people we think can assess candidates and and people who are going through the interview process to know if we're bringing in the right kind of CFO going
forward yes we we are confident Uh we I mean Courtney is doing an amazing job Uh I've talked to several people talked to several people uh who speak highly of her uh not just here but in other places that know her and so she
has very strong technical skills when it comes to this piece and so relying very heavily on her to understand what we need especially because she's in a unique position where she does not currently work for the district She does not own the problems that were inherited by her role at this point and she has an
inside perspective into what this district needs as far asing the that are here and what um how the auto was presented and kind of what we need to do moving forward And so she has a lot of perspective that she can provide and
looking for who that next person is Okay Um so so is Courtney doing most of the review of the resumes that come in and will she do most of the interviews i sent she will be involved in all of the interviews that we do Um we do panel
interviews but relying very heavily on her technical expertise Uh I have sent her the applicants to review I told her that you know there I mean there's at least one applicant that has had zero CFO experience That's how like there's some easy cuts but I said like the
qualifications the two people that we're looking at do have CFO experience One of the individuals actually worked for a fractal CFO firm and hired people out and so very strong with CFO experiences but none of them have done like
education uh work and so that's why there's some hesitation about whether we're finding the right person in this particular candidate group Um she and I have not had a chance to speak about those candidates specifically Well we spoke briefly about a couple of them uh week and a half two weeks ago Uh but as
far as since I sent her all of the applicants we haven't had a chance to connect But uh again very I rely heavily on the technical experience of the people on you know my teams uh to make sure we're making right decisions And so relying on her um moving forward very heavily You know I think that all of us
would agree here that we want to that I think that we would all agree I sure we would that because of what has happened in the past I would like to see reports to the board of education in public how we're doing Who are these
candidates why are they suggested and I would like to see it be a report to us so that we can participate in that in their background Yeah Let me let me jump in here Okay Um
the everything that's being discussed is true and accurate but you know you the pool of people that were available at that time was small In fact the guy that eventually was bypassed didn't have school background
and it's my understanding that's very important Uh so then then Jack came along and you know it was like oh we found the guy Well we never asked him to do some longhand math Um because you
know so my my point is you know we can have an emergency hire Again we see where it has already gotten us One thing I'd recommend particularly if you're looking at somebody that has worked in and ideally that's what you're hoping
for somebody that has worked in school finance in Colorado again hopefully talk to folks at CDE because they know everybody Um a call to Glenn Gustoson Um he could have given you the skinny on whether a hiring
uh decision was a good way to go or not Yes And we we did have disc I say we I I personally didn't but discussions were had with Glenn regarding the issue because he is he is handy from the CBE
Gota the other person who used to handle our finances confusing me and Glenn I think was here helping bring the payment or something He did some assistance not not hardcore but he was helping some and
just pulling information or I think more advice wasn't it guiding after After we came during interim work in June we connected Glenn with the district to help out get ready for I have one last
question Uh in your in your efforts which got lengthy was there anything in your work that would detect that would appear to be fraudulent or fraud we well if we found actual fraud uh we'd
report it back to you Okay So we would have told you about that for sure But we did have 16 findings Um I think two of them were compliance findings The rest were internal control findings Any
internal control finding is certainly increases that risk of either fraud or error So the risk is higher because of those findings But just to follow up on Mr Bates's
question did you suspect fraud or is that a fair question to ask you oh sure Oh yeah It's always a fair question to ask Um I don't know about specifically I mean PE cards are always difficult Just for the public
what is a PECARD a credit card Credit card I want everybody who's watching on YouTube tonight to know it's a credit card Yes Um so that that's usually a great area of risk is is pecards So it's
critical to have good controls where you have folks within the department the specific department that somebody has a PC card that are reviewing them and that you're getting both the backup documentation
uh as well as the approval by a supervisor as well as somebody assigning where that should be posted to what account that should be Since this is the biggest area of fraud can you give some examples of deficiencies that were
within that finding could you Mr Bates this man is disrupting everything in the meeting i didn't disrupt anything I just handed him a note I would like to ask that he's removed from the meeting if I may please I'll ask you to leave I already told you
once sir I'm happy to go I mean walking up to the podium my goodness Why are you offended sir sir Jim could you escort this gentleman out please absolutely Has to leave You have a comment please If I was
really being rude I'd tell you that you and the horse you rode in on but I'm not And I just wanted to ask about the $1 sale I wanted to ask about the $1 sale to merit when they have when
they're 3.5 million in debt Thank you for your time I apologize for that Is there are there any other questions thank you so much Thank you very much Sorry I'm a little shaky I've got new
knees here So standing for a while Nice work Give me a break I I was gonna start doing squats Well you guys were thorough and that's what we needed Thank you Thank you so much Okay Next item up governance policy E6
by Mr Salt Thank you So um Um just a little context for this for the folks not up here Uh Woodland Park has a policy governance
model where there is a stack of board policies and then administrative policies and it dictates how the board governs It dictates our accountability structures between the board and the superintendent etc Part of that structure thank you gentlemen sick
travels Um part of that structure is what's called executive expectations And so the board talks about what's expected of what's expected of the superintendent the administration and to help bring
guards kind of in on the superintendent Um so what we're doing is there's a calendar So we're going to start reviewing these policies at board meetings so that there's uh transparent uh accountability between the policies
and adherence to policies With that the first policy that we're discussing today um is EE6 which talks about community relations Can I interject sorry Um just to explain why we're covering this specific one
today there actually is a schedule um that the board is supposed to be following um looking at each of these particular issues There's one a month um that's part of our duties We're supposed to be looking
at them every month So and so so the community relations Scoot this back We can't see anything back this All right So with this one being the community relations um I'll say I I know that this district
is not in compliance with the way that E6 is written And so we're not going to pretend like we were in compliance with it I spoke with Miss Barkley and Mr Bates during the agenda setting I said "This is the next one up How do you want us to approach this we can revise it We can review it We can go through." So the
the proposal was to discuss how we're going to move into compliance for the next year And so that's what we've put together That's what's in the board packet this evening So a couple things that I wanted to to kind of point out here Um our stakeholder network meetings
We want to make sure that we're engaging the community And so we put um this is a list This is not comprehensive This is kind of where we're going Um to talk to business owners realtors uh sped families parents and students uh
religious leaders other leaders across the city and other key stakeholders And so what we'll likely be doing is setting up um each month having a different group that cycles through We'll talk about what it is that we're doing in the district and see how we can work with
them as the district to to make the community a better place Um and so these are the initial key stakeholders that we're we're going to be working on Um because it's the end of the year we will likely start this in August of next year and not immediately but we're going to
start cycling through those as well Um the next one promoting district culture goodwill respect excellence and community Those four traits are actually called out in the board policy itself If you look at EE6 those four are called out in policy That's why they're listed
here Um what we're we're doing is we're going to establish recognition programs highlighting staff students and community members who exemplify these cultural values We're going to create standardized messaging guidelines ensuring all district communications consistently reflect and reinforce cultural
priorities And then we're going to start utilizing some different communication channels as well Um we're going to continue to inform the community earlier and often uh through social media platforms newsletters the district website email
and local media outlets for this It's a lot of what we've already been doing but we're just going to do things on a better timing cycle before announcements Um and then we're going to distri uh reestablish
partnership with the Chamber of Commerce Uh I've already engaged with them and to have a membership there Uh they have a breakfast next week that I am unable to attend but we're going to continue to to look for ways to and events to attend Um we're looking at Kowanas and uh Rotary I
think are the that we've looked into at this point They meet at the same time So it's going to be an alternating schedule but working on getting those into the calendar as well Um and then we want to engage in meaningful engagement with um
the local community through that process Uh the nice thing about the chamber is you have a lot of people from a lot of different industries You have city council you have businesses you have a lot of individuals who are part of that So it's a easy to get to a disperate
audience and a very like in one meeting two meetings three meetings and so um it's a great opportunity I've been involved in chambers before and have great relationships and have established some really meaningful partnerships through those engagements So I'm looking forward to doing that here as well And
then um kind of future looking things that we're still looking into uh we're going to research and implement innovative approaches to two-way communication um are going to develop new methods to collect and incorporate valuable input from all stakeholders and regularly evaluate effectiveness of the
communication strategies we're employing and make adjustments as needed These are things that Lindsay already has several ideas for but we don't know exactly what that's going to look like So we don't want to put anything here yet but those are all um focused and kind of ongoing
research that we're doing to try to do some engagement through that process with any questions I like to hear that uh we're doing that I think that Lindsay has been doing an amazing job with the things on social media what she's been putting in the
paper you know I I think that's been great and increasing that I you know with you saying that you're going to be going to the meetings that is wonderful Well I'm so glad to hear that Great job Thank you Yeah And and you know again
right like with this effort if especially if we're not really getting it rolling until start of next year it's why um you know one of the things I called out in the superintendent job description is someone that lives up here Certainly much much easier to be at
this level of involvement and engagement when you're actually part of the community already A agreed So I was going to add part of that is more timing with just the end of the school year and how we're trying to close out right now And that's really focused more on the those community groups coming through
The other engagements already happening And one thing that wasn't on this list that I know I've spoken with Miss Valo about I've spoken with some of the other cabinet members is doing uh sort of parentmies that will help uh bring parents in equip them And one of the things we're actually talking about doing is doing one before the end of the
school year so that we can do something primarily focused on literacy and reading so that we can launch parents into the summer uh equipped to handle the the reading and you know what they can do to help their kids through literacy so that we can try to absorb a
little bit of that summer dip and so we're in a better place when we come back to school in August And so these are some of that forgotten um but that's another thing that we're doing So we are actively engaging in this currently It's just not going to be full all cylinders
until probably August Oh go ahead Ginger is involved with that as well Right Uh she was asking if Ginger was involved in that and I said yes And Mr Saltz one of the things that we had just started doing
um before Mr Wit came uh when Tina Cassins was the super acting superintendent and even before that uh she was involved with starting and really growing a way that we could
communicate with almost like surveys on getting community response and then being able to monitor it so that you know there was a way that it wasn't just overwhelmed by a certain
bias one way or the other So is there anything like that in the plans yeah and that's one of the platforms that Lindsay's already looked at Um it actually I'm going to way misrepresent this but I'll do the best that I can Um you we as a district can submit
questions that provide for open-ended responses So it's not just ABCD And then it allows community members not to reply to those Alo doesn't create interaction uh in the responses but it does provide a system of rating though So if like you
agreed with something that someone else said you can go in and rate it higher so that we can see those suggestions at a higher level And then there's analytics on the back that make it easy for reporting purposes And so that's one of the the surveying opportunities and tools that we're looking at Again we don't have anything specifically
identified which is why it's more in the so research and development uh portion of this report than it is in the actual implementation is um there's several like that We don't have anything identified directly but those are the types of platforms that that she's been investigating That's good I would
because that's one of the things that I know I'm certain the all of the board would like to hear is a and the school leadership is what are the community's thoughts on it and if since we you're working on a way to hear from parents
and from teachers if there was a way to uh other community members that we could hear from them I think that would be valuable The other thing is that I would like to hear as part of that is if a parent chooses to remove their or change
school districts or homeschool Uh I would like to hear those kind of surveys happening as well Uh even a you know personal phone call or something like that I believe we're already doing that at some level but we can't we we don't
get responses from everyone Not everyone wants to fill those out So um I don't think we're sending them out to everyone at this point though I know we've talked about it before and there was push back on not even wanting to try because we might not get responses from everyone
which I mean you know so you're never going to get responses from everybody of course but more responses is better than no responses I remember talking to uh Miss Cassens about that and she said it was they they tried to reach out number
of ways to parents who were removing their students and she said it was very difficult to get responses on that and she she was diligent at doing that and and um just to offer my services again
to the board or whoever's running that um part of what I do in my job is um engagement with the company So I actually create and send out and analyze all of our surveys for the whole company um and then work on putting plans
together to help um improve areas of weakness So um if that is something I can help with I would be more than happy to lend my knowledge there That's wonderful I appreciate that All right Uh if if there's nothing else pressing I'd
like to move on Anything else all right Uh next item up on the agenda Thank you Erin Next item on the agenda is the financial report for Miss Krauss Is this going to be projected
may actually have been my mic So it might not be at all Every time I lean in Yeah I don't know We're testing it out Is it going to be projected yes One second I have my own double duty
I actually don't like standing behind the podium So water Yeah water I was just thinking the same thing I mean I'm kind of over snow at this point That's better
Yeah that's it All right Um so what you're looking at is the start of what is going to become monthly reporting to the board Um can I jump in really quick yeah sure Uh so I see some
of you taking pictures The board packet is available online where you can actually pull it down and look at it So it might be Yeah So it's next to the link for the meeting If you go to like where the meetings are listed it has the link There should be a
little another link next to it that says board packet packet something along those lines Thank you Thank you Y interactive All right Um so and I'll be honest I
feel like a lot of what I do is educating and that's probably one of the best parts of my job is getting to explain how these very complicated financials are put together Um starting with the very basic things like what you
buy and what you make Um what we're looking at right here is kind of how we start Profit and loss What did you make what have we spent what do we have left over at the end of the month or at the end of the reporting period what you're seeing right here is year to date So
July through the end of March Um what you're also seeing here is the revised budget Now you might look at this and go "Wait a second you know we have tons and tons and tons of accounts." What this is
is a roll up This is your zero 100 accounts all of your salaries your 0200 accounts all of your benefits and so on through all of the 0900 accounts all rolled up so that you can look at this
and go yes we have good net income and yes we are tracking with the budget One of the nice things about a P&L compared to the budget is we can say okay it's we're 75% of the way through the year what accounting lines on the revenue
side and the expenditure side are not tracking and generally I look within 5% So what this will then generate is a budget variance report I will then go in as the C or your CFO will then go in and
say "Why are supplies at 90% when we're only 75 or let's say 50% of the way through the year?" Then that individual can go in and look line by line by line That is what they should be doing These are the kinds of questions
we'll be asking Um and determine oh you know what we had expected expenditure at the beginning of the year We'll revise that in the revision the revised budget so that we can account for that and we
then have a better idea going forward what we're what we need to spend and then we track in line with our budget a little bit better Um maybe there was a capital outlay that you weren't anticipating that will drive property up
that 0700 account line Um that's something that can be spoken to like hey we weren't expecting this It capital outlay is always immediate Um it's not something you can generally uh normalize
over time Um you've got to recognize that expense right away Um and so then your property line just track hot throughout the rest of the year or high Um and you have to recognize that there are those accounts where that might
happen And then you've got to you've got to make a decision as an administration as a board Okay that's fine We're still okay We're still under appropriation We can project that out with our cash flow which is the next
thing that we move into once we get this PNL set really well Um the cash flow is gen it's a I would offer that um to use my cash flow model It's something that I
actually put together every month I don't generate it out of the financial accounting program and because there are metrics that I tie into the cash flow that I track that aren't necessarily tracked in the financial accounting software unless you have a way to design
it Uh but if you're wanting to track uh projected year-end days cash on hand which the auditor referred to as unassigned fund balance as a function of expenditures your days cash on hand is how many days can we survive without any
additional revenue Um and so your cash flow will help you calculate that like that immediately And so then that is something that you would look at as a board and go okay yeah we may have had this capital outlay We weren't expecting
it It looks like our property line is a little bit higher but this is when the analytics come in from your CFO We are still going to come in under appropriations which is what CDE wants to see you do And then if there are other metrics that you're tracking days
cash on hand debt service coverage ratio those are still okay So even though we had an unexpected expense we can still make sure that we're at the end of the year going to be okay We're going to be able to demonstrate why we had to do
that during the audit and then um uh and then go from there So this is a start Um we are fully in the process of transitioning to Skyward Um so it's a
little it's a little wonky Um what I call inelegant right now Um just simply because I don't yet have the ability to go in and create these reports Once all of the information has been transferred
then I can go in create the reports that we'll begin generating on a monthly basis And this is your CFO You've got one person who books or reports all of the expenses That's their job Then you've got someone else who goes in and
reconciles the bank accounts That's their job And then at the end of the day the CFO pulls these reports first of all make sure all the bank reconciliations are done pulls the reports and then says "Are we good am I missing anything?" Um
and that's that's what gets reported uh to the board on a monthly basis So um I will continue to generate new reports that I will present to you If you like them let me know If there are things that you want to be different let me
know Um if you've seen other types of financial statements that you would like to see let me know So and we'll collaborate We'll work on it Um because ultimately these are your products and these are the things that will help you
make the most informed financial decisions Um one thing that I would like to say to all of you here um there was a lot of talk about personnel issues having been part of the reason for all
of the findings in the audit Um when I came in what I found back of house so what you guys don't necessarily see in your accountant and your ARP and your HR folks was incredible diligence and hard
work to get the audit done That's good to hear Thank you I think it's really important that that is that that is said Thank you for sharing that Uh any questions before I run away if we take your car away will you stay
here have you yet we appreciate currently We appreciate it Courtney You've been a big difference So really so I do have some questions and I I love
this report So I'm just gonna say that to start makes it much easier to to see things Um I I know um reached out to you about um having maybe um a report on like a more of the monthto monthth right like
this gives us year to date um but more of like a monthto month So knowing okay this month we had to spend this much Is that different from what we would normally spend every month and I know you're working on getting those reports I just wanted to to call it out Um you know like what are our average spends so
part one of the reports that I pull in order to generate my cash flow is a P&L by is a P&L by month Um and that will that will show you that monthly breakdown I prefer to show it rolled up just like this Um and then if there are
concerns about a certain thing that you notice um you can call it out directly and I can investigate it a little bit further Um but yeah PN by month it's a report I generate anyway Um so that can yeah maybe it's something that's in the
packet that assuming there are no issues we don't have to dive into every month But you know just and generally if there are big discrepancies like that percentage is way high or way low I'm going to call it out anyway in a variance report Um and then if you've
got additional concerns or questions you can ask about it Awesome Um and then the only other question we had um and I maybe apologize not knowing this but um in you know the 0100 to 0900 where what
bucket does um like our our um lawyers fees come out of they're they're in your 0300 um purchase uh technical services purchase professional and technical services consultants contractors those types So anybody who
provides a skill that isn't inhouse to the district Okay If you had legal counsel they would actually be salary but because you have to consult with them they go in that 0300 bucket You know I I do have a question to follow up
on that We've had so many people from the public asking and uh about our itemization for legal fees You know we've had just a lot of things come into play in regard to that Is that that is
possible to line item out Would that be a good thing to do i'm just you know we want to come we want to be more open about all of our recording I just want to know is that something that could be done
well yes Um I don't know if you would necessarily want to line item it Um but you could certainly call it out You could say "Okay well we've spent uh to date
7006,000 in that 0300 accounting line of that 50,000 60,000 whatever is legal." And the other thing part of that is I've been asked how much do we spend on corer requests
what how does that I mean I I've been asked that a lot in the past couple years What do we what's our cost on that and it would be nice to be I to answer that question I've asked a number of times and I mean not you so let me just
stipulate that but I have been asked what many times what do what is our cost on cororo request is that something that can be line item out or well yeah it can because there's an invoice associated with it If there's an invoice generated
there's a corresponding revenue associated with it or cost associated with it Um and uh generally with poor requests you're talking about time Um and
so those who are responsible for responding to port requests could track the time that they spend They have an hourly rate and you can you can figure that out from there not necessarily something that would be in the accounting system unless it's related to
revenue that's being collected with respect to core requests because you can do that You can um ask for proof printing costs um and some amount of time That's really the only thing that's probably going to end up booked in the financial accounting system but there are ways to track it I had a system that
literally came down to every cent that you guys didn't want Okay any other questions um when when we're looking at invoices coming in um obviously they get recorded and wind up on our expense report but
who where in our system like what what is our process for approving those invoices that come in and then paying them all right so I'm going to back up a step The invoice is the result of a purchase that has been made that
should already have been approved So the first step is I need a book So I request the purchase of a book from my supervisor whoever has the authority to approve that request Step number one
Step number two then there's somebody in the system whether it's at the school or at the district who's authorized to make the purchase Is it in the form of a PO or is it in the form of someone picking up the phone and making a phone call and with a credit card That depends on what
the purchase is and what the requirements are Generally an invoice is going to be generated as the result of a PO So there's one person who generates the PO Then that person gets the inventory make sure that it's all
correct reviews the invoice to the PO and then tells the accounts receivable accounts payable clerk or specialist this invoice is good to pay She then or he then goes in issues generates the expenditure by creating a check in the
financial accounting system And right now there's a process in place to hold that She then prints off a report of all of the things that are going to be paid Um the CFO or the C uh interim superintendent have the authority to
review that sign off on it and then the check is issued and dispersed That is kind of how that process So there should be a really good paper trail There should be a really good paper trail starting with the I need a book and we have that in place that you
describe it in place Okay Good Well that's good to hear So here here's a followup question I'm sad to hear that it has not been in place but I'm glad you're doing it Well there there may have been a system in place
There was I don't I don't see evidence that it had been implemented during the fiscal year of the audit at least through that point Um and part of that is the current
staff and there were a lot of questions asked about they didn't have the right skill set or they weren't you know doing kind of the right thing They had very specific skill sets that bled into other things that had to be done out of necessity because no one else was there
to do it And so you had uh folks who I'm an accountant and that is what I do but they ended up doing other things too in order to get the job done So that's good to hear I'm glad I'm glad that you said
that And so when Tom talks about lack of separation of duties It sort of happened out of necessity That's what I was Does that answer but does that answer
your invoice question sorry sir Um yes I mean you know it's also is it if we didn't have the system in place is it possible to find in your from what you found like are some of those things in there but maybe not from A and Z but
maybe we have A and B It is more it's more like A and Z we're here Um it's not so much that the paper trail isn't there It is there We just are going to design a more effective better internal control mechanism to make sure that we can track
the system so that we can when the auditor says hey I need to see receipt this for a book that was purchased we can go here's the approval here's the receipt here's where it was booked here's the invoice here's the proof of payment right in your opinion does
skyward help with that more yeah and that's what I was going to say is the entire system that we're moving to actually will automate but it'll provide notifications to the appropriate authorized signers And so the entire paper trail will be in that system And
so it makes the auditing process a lot cleaner and easier because like I can't have a PO and then go take it to Keegan to sign because she's not the authorized signer for it I'd have to go to Courtney because she's my supervisor And so all
of that's being built out into er into the skyward system to make sure that we have better controls And I was going to say that you you hit it with you know the seg segregation of duties was really not there and that's where one of the biggest issues is is you had the same
people doing two jobs and so we didn't have the proper financial controls from that Um all of that is part of what we've resolved with the the new position descriptions and how st is being kind of um laid out and then having the new ERP
in place And so we're working diligently to make sure all of this is there Now this is um this is software that helps with process This is not policy And so the policy piece is still being developed that will um make sure that
the process like outline what the processes are There's there's different pieces of this that the whole thing has to be built and we're just building it kind of as we go because the ERP we have to get up and running and we'll make sure that the the process is in place and then we'll make sure that the
policies are there to to support the processes that we have in order to to make sure the whole bundle matches what we need from a controls perspective Yeah And then the jobs that have been identified in the corresponding job
descriptions came as the result of a thorough review of the audit findings and corresponding remedial actions in order to address each finding And so as I went through each finding
identified the evidence and that was generally provided by the auditors and then looking at how do we fix it one two three four And a lot of that had to do with we need a such and such to do this
and we need a such and such to do that And so the job descriptions coming from that internal controls corrective actions sort of workflow if you will Um moving into what
is your board financial policy that should be about 15 to 18 pages And then that next step is what are the financial procedures to support that That's your very lengthy very detailed process document where you will about how you
handle travel and how you handle key cards and who gets to authorize what So so and again this won't necessarily be a question for you but the school obviously had policies and procedures in
place many many years So my question is what happened to those policies because even if you have personnel changes if you have the documentation like you shouldn't have to have someone standing over you telling you you have to do this Now I guess I understand that when you're spread super
thin and you're trying to put out all the fires things fall through the cracks right like that's that's what happens when you have huge staff turnover which is why it's so important not to have staff turnover Um but what happened to of the policies that were in place
i would say they still exist whether they're whether they Yeah whether they at this point they probably need to go through a a revision process through governance Yeah actually definitely through governance slash finance Um uh
but yeah um those are your two primary parties that need to be involved in that conversation Um and then you know full readings right um in public uh and then you know the procedural document I I
don't know right so if I can jump in so we have policy that dictates financial processes um I won't get too far into the weeds with with the policy but the way that um there's a CASBY model that most districts follow that
outline what policies cover what things and part of that are the dash rs which are the regulations I think is what the R stands for but it's really the the the process and the protocol portion of it and what I found is we don't have a
robust dash R like book and so it's it's sort of like half the puzzle is there with the process or with the the policy but not the regulation and the the protocol that you're supposed to follow I don't know I can't speak before I got
here Um but that's what I have found since many of the policies have not been reviewed in a while And I I'll say like I've seen policies that the last time they were updated was back in like the '9s And I'm really glad to hear you know I know everyone out here knows nothing
in the world has changed since like 93 though I don't have any implication on policy So those are one of the things that that we've already talked about is having um somewhat some of a regular review of these policies Um and the financial one being one of
the most pertinent and and imminent to be reviewed And so that's kind of where we're at To to answer your question of where did they go that that's where we're at And the policies those are that is what provides
you with how you do financial oversight Um the procedures that's an operational or administrative document Um that that is owned by the administration if you will Um I like to separate them out Everybody talks about financial policies
and procedures Well I like financial policies and then an appended procedural document kind of thing And because the procedural document can be a lot more nimble and flexible because it's owned by the administration and the support staff and when they see that there might
be something wrong or something that could be done better they can make those adjustments without having to go through a board review process So thank you Courtney
Well explained Thank you You sure you want to apply for the CFO job My children would disown me Thank you
Did what uh the next item item D is the forensic audit proposal Mr Salt thank you I've already kind of talked briefly about this and kind of alluded to it Um we actually reached out to Halting and
asked if they did um forensic audits They told us no but they've had several clients who have used this firm Daily And so we reached out to them We sent them our full audit They reviewed it kind of over spring break and then they got back to us last week and said "We
need a scoping call We found some areas that that we'd like to investigate further." And so this is the result So we met with them We talked through it As I said specifically their their biggest concerns were around the PE cards and we've asked them to look it was I think it was the esser funds that we talked
about So it was esser and travel that we asked them to also include in the scope of the the forensic audit to make sure that they could cover everything Um we did ask them to do um remote as much as possible They offered that for us because they're the person who would be
coming here is uh in California and so trying to save a few dollars on travel expenses and whatnot which you'll see accounting for here Um we're going to do as much as we can on mobile scanning stuff and sending to them Uh I don't know how much they'll be actually on site but we're working through that Um
they've done they've been around for a long time They handle forensic audits and um they're actually a national company that not many people have heard of because all of it's by word of mouth It's kind of like how we came across them They've got a very strong
reputation in the forensic community Um and so this is kind of the their proposal They they asked us when it was going to be when they needed it They said they could get it to us like yesterday And I said "Hey cool The board packet goes out on Friday if you can get it to us by then." And they got it to us
by close of business So uh they're um easy to work with as far as the the sales process but most companies are at that point Um but uh the proposal that you see here is kind of up for discussion We have made no agreements with them Haven't seen an
agreement I told them the board was going to discuss it this evening and then I would get back to him tomorrow So based off of the conversation tonight I just wanted to make sure this board had the information I know this is something that's come up from the community I know there's also been a desire from this
board uh to see this If you look at page Oh eight is the call I was going to say seven You can actually see what the um scope covers There's the three bullet points there that they wanted to look into Um and they're expecting this to
take between four and five months to actually complete the audit So we won't have information soon but they can start working on it pretty it'll be pretty quick I think they said they could start in May maybe early June um from a timing perspective So we'll end up with results
or findings kind of late fall or early fall late spring or late summer Okay my month's right Uh on page eight you can actually see the breakout of fees Um this is a not to exceed $35,000 The way this works it's very
much uh like attorney fees where you pay into a trust they draw on it as they incur expenses and then if they notice that hey I know we said we're not going to exceed 35,000 but it's looking like we're having to spend some more time in some areas or whatever they'll come back
to us otherwise they'll um if there's any savings they will return that to us so the not to exceed would be potentially less I just assume they'll eat the whole thing but we would owe that on the front to a trust they would draw on the trust as they progress if
you look at the out of out out of pocket expenses towards the bottom It says inclusive and that's from where the um the travel expenses because we're going to be doing as much of this remotely This is where a lot of those other expenses would be incurred that you know what the travel rates and stuff
would be but it's it's included in that $35,000 draw Those are the big things that I wanted to call out Um I'll let you guys discuss I'm happy to answer questions that I can but really looking for guidance from you guys on if this is like how how we want
to proceed from here Uh this is the only firm that we've reached out to just because this is who we got from from Halting Um and just wanted to get kind of a ballpark We can do additional looking I don't know what other firms we look into that I wanted to to throw that out there
But again looking for guidance Mr Well I do have a question just kind of overall for for the public that's listening Is this information that you've given us available printed posted on our website where is where can people go and look at
this it's in the board packet Okay So everybody can go to the website and see in the board packet this information Yes sir You have a budget amount of what I'm looking to spend for this that's a I want to spend as little as possible but this is an important expense to make
Uh we don't have anything budgeted for forensic audit so we would have to pull this from somewhere 35,000 more than what we want but we we can find the money to to do this It I mean since we haven't had any other quotes before should we be looking
into other quotes we have sort of like a We have to don't we i think we have to have two or three if we're spending over 25 I think Yeah So since this quote came in over 25 I think we have to have two or three The as a professional service
you can get one but I we often get multiples And that's why I saying like we can do this It's not outrageous Um I was actually this is kind of where I thought we would be Um so yeah knowing our audit crisis is
I would other where do we get another recommendation but I'm sure there's good and I could go back the whole thing to see if they have other ones and I mean this is the only name that he provided me but they might have other recommendations Wonder if um
CASBY or CDE would have any recommendations So the state will tell you yes that CD should have recommendations audits I already asked Yeah I talked to them But I also work with other financially accounting professionals and they may have some other recommendations too So at least
you got two more Yeah I think two two additional would be good Um the other thing um I do my questions too many papers Um so the talking about where the funds could come from I've seen this tossed around a lot on social media and some
people have emailed me asking about it Is there the potential for our um liability insurance or insurance at all to cover the cost that was my next question I have received um an email about that as well So uh I can ask
I I don't believe it does but I can ask and see And most of our um deductibles uh would be in the the 25 range So even if it covered we'd still be out 25ish
It's not 35 but um I don't know I don't know that it would be but I can doubt Yeah Yeah Yeah It's worth a shot so save some money Um the other thing I think might be worth adding to the scope Um and
again this is more to put minds at ease than than my own fears of of issues but um adding into um the money flow between the charter and the district to make sure we
can definitively say this is all being done correctly I didn't quite follow your what you said So so um as part of the scope right now excuse me um we have looking at the the um the
cards right the credit cards PQs um as well as um the ESER grants and then what was the other one is it 24 thank you Um so adding to that to have someone do a deep dive into the
pass through um finances between the district and merits and make sure that we that we can say that all of that is clean and No I understand Thank you Yeah I don't know what that would do to the cost It would go up I don't know Cool
from my notes on that it was that it wasn't coded correctly and now I wish they were here so we could have asked them more detail on that I can't hear you We can't hear you She was saying that the auditor said it was a coding issue with with merit So they did call out the charter school as one of the
issues in the audit Um which is why I think it's worth adding it to the scope Um also just kind of with the issues in the town Um they did say it was coding issues but why did those coding issues come up does that mean that things are
still incorrect like you know just to make sure free and clear Well it sounds like there's enough interest here that we should go ahead and attempt to get a couple more estimates so we have a good idea as to how competitive they are and do a real
comparison between them and go from there Is that what I'm hearing yeah Yes All right Very good Do we need to vote on that to make sure it happens there's no action No action I know but last time we had the consensus and we said we were going to do something it didn't happen
So I just want to make sure this happens These additional uh quotes the action that so we've we've decided as a board consensus that these are the steps we'd like to do moving forward I just want to make sure we actually move forward with these steps Are you comfortable to take it from from where we just spoke to work
on getting us a couple more estimates yes And a couple more proposals We'll get a couple more proposals I'll try to have them by May I don't know timing wise how quickly they'll be able to turn it around but I'll do my best to have those by May Okay Thank you
Thank you very much Um next item on the agenda is board information reports Does anyone have any no we did this [Music] If I could jump in we have the ops report that's on this I know there's a
question about the um electric at merit What I can say is that was an issue that was experienced previously We actually followed up with them after the meeting on the 31st They said "Yeah it had already been resolved." So I'm not sure why it was brought up here but the it's my
understanding It was on it was on their sheet It's on their list of expenses So people getting shocked and is not an ongoing issue Um because Jason asked them about that afterwards So I I would just want to my understanding is the
electricity issues have been resolved there So it was shocking to see it on there That's when you know we've been up here too long Next item is to go into executive session And at this time I need a motion for us to adjourn to
executive session So move or pursue it to [Music] CRS24-6-42 4BNF for legal advice regarding the contract and separation of employment of superintendent and for advice to
negotiator regarding terms of departure and to discuss personnel compensation and contract matters regarding acting interim superintendent I have to read all that David you did good So moved Second Second Roll call I'm sorry Before
we go roll call Do we have a lawyer present yes He's waiting in the wings Well he had a he'll be online and we have a computer set up in the room so he'll be joining remotely Um and then the other question before we
go in um since uh we will be discussing uh possible um contract things for Mr Salva I just want to make sure I don't say I don't think it would be appropriate for you to
be in there I don't know if that was part of it but you know I'm going to my office to work Yeah Cool Good question All right Roll call I I Kimrell I motion carries
You know what can we take a fiveinut personal break going to cancel office no breaks Justification Yes we do Someone was looking for I am
not completely up Congrats That's awesome Congratulations You just send me a text and tell me when early mornings are the best Okay And I'm leaving for the wedding We'll make it work right i will be
Thank you for asking Thank you for your question Kelly number I have never disrespect to your position Even I didn't say that jokingly Please I know I know I hope it doesn't take too
long for you Thank you out the cost It wasn't because that would have been part of you know getting scope of work and all that ahead of time
Should have got rid of those cookies right away I ate one I think Darren might be in his room Or maybe they're coming They're coming He can see us better instead of staring
at the back of our head Anyway I was pushing a I was fixing some gutters on my house yesterday I was pushing plastic tubing Okay let's go
Okay we are going back into open session Uh do we have a motion i have two motions Okay let's get the first one All right first motion is for David and Keegan to take the actions discussed in meeting regarding former superintendent
Wit Do I have a sec do I have a second second Roll call Barkley I Bates I I Professor Holtz I second motion is for Keegan and Mick to form a subcommittee
to discuss terms of engagement with Aaron Is there a second second Roll call Barkley I or sorry I All right
Twitter Do you have a second second Roll call I Bates I Kimbro I hol I knew better than the same name tight