School Board Audit and Budget Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

We're going to call this meeting of the Miami Dade School Board Audit and Budget Advisory Committee to order. We always, as usual, start with introductions, beginning with Me, my name is Stephen Hunter Johnson. I serve as the chair of the Audit and Budget Committee of Miami-Dade County Schools. And then we'll start with Mr. Auditor and move out to the gallery.

Good afternoon. John Goodman, Chief Auditor. Nice to see everyone.

Amen.

Thank you.

I'm Beverly Heller, and I represent School Board Member Geller.

Anna Hokemer, appointee.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez, CPA, Committee Member. Steve Geller, School Board Member. Julio Miranda, Committee Member.

Thank you all. Thank you all very much. With that said, we're going to move into the agenda, starting with the approval of the minutes.

Move it.

Is there a second? It's been properly moved to second. Any unreadiness? All those in favor, respond by a sound of aye. Aye. Mr. Goodman, agenda item number three, discussion on selecting appointments to the 21st Century Schools Bond Advisory Committee and the Secure Our Future Advisory Committee. It's an action item.

Through the chair, I've attached both policies for these other committees. And we need to select members of this committee to serve on those other committees, the 21st Century Schools Bond Advisory Committee and the Secure Our Future Advisory Committee. So go ahead.

And just as a point of background, if those present do not volunteer, it just puts more work on. I'm more than happy to share all of the work within this committee. So I am asking for any volunteers to serve on either.

Oh, we've got plenty of volunteers.

Great. You two get to choose which one. You even have the rest of the meeting to decide. John, you have two volunteers. I want to thank you both for your service.

Through the chair, do we have to actually, once they decide, we have to vote to approve them as the representatives or just volunteering?

Well, no, they're just volunteering. Perfect. Because by rule, I have to go. I am thankful to my fellow board members for this. We're on agenda item number four, audit reports. John? Yeah.

Through the Chair, the State Auditor General comes in every three years and does one, an operational audit, which was presented to you at the February ABAC meeting, and two, a combined financial and federal single audit, which is what you have before you today. Also, note that the external audit firm does the financial statement audit every year, and the annual comprehensive financial report was presented to you at the December 25 ABAC meeting. I regard the report before you as reflecting very well on MDCPS. There were no questioned costs and only one finding for the federal single audit. That finding involves documentation supporting adjustments to the high school cohort graduation rate. the state auditor selected 25 of 4,073 students removed from the 24-25 fiscal year cohort graduation rate and found that for six, although the district had documentation supporting the students' intention to withdraw, there was no documentation demonstrating that the students eventually enrolled in another school or program. Subsequent to the state auditor's request, the district obtained and provided confirmation that four of the six students enrolled in educational programs that would culminate in the award of a regular high school diploma. In the district's response to this finding, the administration pointed out that it had complied with Section 1003.23 Florida Statutes and recognized that the state auditor's emphasis on additional evidentiary requirements found in Title 20, Section 7801, United States Code of Federal Regulations. In order to address the variance, between state and federal requirements, the district will consult with the Florida Department of Education and work towards reconciling state withdrawal codes with federal graduation cohort documentation standards. The other issue brought up in the state auditor's financial audit is termed an additional matter. It was identically brought up in the state auditor's 23 and 20 audits, and I would characterize it as a professional disagreement between the state auditor general and our financial staff, by the way, including our national external audit firm, relating to financial reporting of charter schools as discretely presented component units of the district. The state auditors interpret GAAP, generally accepted accounting principles, as requiring the district-sponsored charter schools to be reported as discretely presented component units, contrary to our financial staff's and external auditor's interpretation. Through the chair, myself and applicable district staff are prepared to address any comments and questions you may have.

This is an action item, but before that, do we have any questions, comments, or clarifications? I'll start. Mr. Auditor, can you explain just a little bit more background on the professional disagreement that you just identified between the state and your office and our external auditors?

I will start very briefly, and then I would like to turn it over to Mr. Steiger, who's a real expert in that kind of thing. And, but basically the state auditor's position is that we should include our charter schools as what they call component units. So they would be included in our financial statements. All their financial statement elements revenues, expenses, net position, so on and so forth, assets, liabilities, would be included in our financial statements as part of our financial statements. Our position, the district's position, and I agree with it, is that charter schools don't aren't, should not be included as component units for various reasons. You know, there's various criteria that determines whether an entity is a component unit of another entity. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Steiger through the chair and to elaborate on that.

Yeah, sure, Mr. Chair. You know, we've been fighting this, not fighting is the wrong word, we've been having a professional disagreement now for over a decade, and every year it becomes clearer, at least to us, that our position is the correct one. Because the idea is that, you know, charter schools at least back then when this first started, they thought, hey, charter schools should be component units. They're basically a part of you because their revenue comes to you. And my response has always been, well, that's great. Can I include their reserves as part of my reserves? Because I would look like a much healthier organization. They're like, oh, no, that's not the way it works. So to me, it's been always clear. But now we're in a world where, fast forward all these years later, a charter school doesn't even have to get sponsored by us any longer. We have a different sponsor in our county. So the idea that we have some control over these organizations, this level of control that would force them to be component units, the whole argument kind of falls apart every year a little bit more because they become less component-y each year. They are truly standalone. We have one of them that is now nearly a billion-dollar organization. So you know for us it's been clear I think eventually the finding will fall off because they're going to come to our position statewide that they clearly can't be component units.

Makes sense. Anyone else? Yes.

Through the chair, is there any other precedents in other schools that have charter? I mean, like, it seems to me like I've never heard of arguing, you know, it's not a marriage, arguing for so many years, you know, like it doesn't make sense. Is there, like... Can you or can they show that other people do it differently or there's both situations out there?

Yeah, so through the chair, both situations are out there. Us in Palm Beach have been adamant from the beginning that if you look at the definition of component units, this makes no sense. Why would they be component units? It's gone. The way this works is once you've disagreed with the AG three times, it goes to the state and the state theoretically supposed to rule. They've been silent on it because there really is no, we really feel strongly, and Palm Beach as well, that there's no strong case here for them being component units. So other districts have complied with the AG's request, they stopped fighting it, but for us in Palm Beach, since especially, we're in a world where charters are a very large organization, it's actually a substantial task to make them part of us, at least from a financial perspective, it was always worth the fight for us in Palm Beach, and we've been united in that it really makes no sense to us.

Anyone else? This is an action item. I'll entertain a motion to accept. BEEN PROPERLY MOVED AND SECONDED. ANY UNREADINESS? ALL THOSE IN FAVOR, RESPOND BY THE SOUND OF AYE. NUMBER FIVE. PRESENTATION OF THE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IMPACT FEES PROGRAM OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA. FINANCIAL REPORT SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2025.

THIS IS ACTUALLY A COUNTY AUDIT. And RSM and Mr. Brett Friedman happen to be the auditors on this, so he's agreed to do the presentation on this. Mr. Friedman?

Right through the chair. Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon, chair and members. Again, as Mr. Goodman said, we are the audits for Miami-Dade County, and so we completed the audit of the Miami-Dade County, Florida Education Facilities Impact Fees Program as of and for the year ended September 30, 2025. We did it in accordance with the engagement letter with the county dated August 27, 2025, and we communicated to the county the individual's charge of governance on December 23rd. Just wanna give you some highlights from that. There were no audit adjustments, no uncorrected misstatements. There is an emphasis paragraph expressly stating that this program is only the fiduciary activities of the educational facilities impact fee program as per the agreement between the school board and the county. In the audit, there were no disagreements with management, no consultations with our accountants, no significant issues. And again, this is with regard to the funds being collected by the county on your behalf and remitted to you. I know you have a separate audit here of the spending of the program and obviously a separate project related to the agreement. This is only explicitly the money collected on your behalf held by them before it's remitted here. Again, we are independent with regard to the county and the school board. And otherwise, if there are any questions on the report.

Thank you. Anyone have any questions? This is an action item. And properly move to second it. All those in favor respond by a sound of aye. Thank you. Number six. Presentation of the special purpose financial statements and reports of independent certified public accountants, operation of WLRN television and radio stations, and the 2025 audit results and required communications for fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025. Mr. Goodman.

Mr. Anthony Brunson's firm did the audit, and Mr. Anthony Brunson is here. I don't see Ms. Leslie Hardin, his right hand, but I guess Mr. Brunson's going to take a shot at presenting it. Good afternoon, Mr. Brunson.

Good day to the chair and all members of the committee. In connection with the special purpose report, WLRN, I'D LIKE TO START WITH THE REPORT ON GOVERNANCE. AND IT'S JUST IN ESSENCE THAT WE'VE CONDUCTED THE WORK PURSUANT TO GENERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS. THERE WERE NO ISSUES THERE. IN TERMS OF THE ACCOUNTING, THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT OR SIGNIFICANT TRANSACTIONS. AND AS YOU MAY KNOW, THE WLRN SPECIAL PURPOSE REPORT CAPTURES INFORMATION for WLRN, whose assets are around 10, 11 million. And if you were to look at the friends of WLRN, they have an asset base of around $48 million. Of that $48 million, cash and investments represent about $38 million of those dollars with the balance kind of being the deferred asset base and a hodgepodge of other miscellaneous assets. IN CONNECTION WITH THAT WORK, THERE WERE NO SIGNIFICANT ISSUES THAT WE BELIEVE DISCUSSED. OBVIOUSLY THERE'S SOME ONGOING LITIGATION, WHICH WAS DISCLOSED IN THE WORK. BUT BEYOND THAT, THERE WERE NO REAL DIFFICULTIES IN THE AUDIT. NO MATTERS IN RESPECT TO OUR INDEPENDENCE. WE DIDN'T FIND ANY INTERNAL CONTROL ISSUES IN CONNECTION WITH OUR WORK. FOR WLRN, THEIR SYSTEMS WERE WELL DONE. AND SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT, I MEAN, THERE WAS A LOT OF ATTENTION GIVEN TO THE LITIGATION, kind of outside our scope, but some of the other issues discussed during the work. We went through the risk environment, the impact of the community public broadcasting closeout. They traditionally got about a million and a half bucks each year from the broadcasting network, and that, as you are well aware, is kind of gone. So with that, available to answer any questions that you may have.

This will be presented by Ms. Tamara Wayne, CPA, Assistant Chief Auditor.

Good afternoon through the chair. Our office is presenting the April school audit report, which includes the audit results of 60 schools and centers. In this report for one of the schools, centers reported the audit scope was two fiscal years ending June 30, 2025. And for the remaining 59, the audit scope was one fiscal year ending in June 30, 2025. There were no changes of principals or administrators since the prior audit for any of these locations reported. The financial statements were fairly stated for all of the 60 schools. However, at one school we cited non-compliance and inadequate internal controls in the areas of the after school care community school program and payroll. We have also included recommendation 2.7 regarding improvements to automation of the payroll system which may assist in preventing some of the issues that we found in the payroll audit. Our office and district administration are available to answer any questions related to this report.

Thank you. Any questions? Hearing none, this is an action item. It's been properly moved and seconded. All those in favor respond by a sound of aye.

Aye.

Thank you very much. We are now on to agenda item number eight, presentation for 60 of 160 charter schools audited financial statements fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025.

Through the chair, if I may, I would like to recuse myself since I'm a board member of one of the charter schools on the list.

Thank you very much. Through the chair? Yes. On this particular item, I will also be abstaining, although there exists no conflict of interest based on my previous relationships with a number of schools here, and to avoid the appearance of impropriety, I will be abstaining and filing the necessary paperwork. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The records shall reflect. With that said, yeah, staff will get, I'm sure, the forms necessary. Mr. Goodman?

I'm going to, through the chair, I'm going to have Mr. Mike Hernandez, CPA, Executive Audit Director, start off the presentation. Through the chair, I would like to combine number eight with old business A, if we could. which has to do with the ABAC directed me to seek an opinion or guidance from the state auditors. And then I would like to

combine these two if we could and mr goodman i think that's a good idea but can i have a motion to make the requested change to the agenda i'm a robert rules of order person just anyone just through the chair point of order uh the other item the old business follow-up represents more informational than action so i just want to make that distinction between one being an action item and one being an informational item actually both a and b are listed as informational and all business

No, he's talking about the actual charter school audits that we're gonna have to approve.

Right, but he would like to discuss, just so everybody's clear on what I'm asking for a motion on. Yeah, I'm okay with it. He wants to discuss the information that was gonna be presented in old business A, in this presentation now. I actually like that. That's not a problem. I just would like, again, this motion.

No, through the Chair, I agree with the discussion. I just want to clarify that one is going to be voted on and one is not. That's correct. I just want to make that distinction.

We're going to be providing the information that is in the Old Business A in this action discussion item. That's correct. Now with that said, can I get a motion? Move it. We got a motion and we've got a second? All those in favor to make those changes to the agenda?

Okay, Mr. Hernandez. Wait, wait, all those in favor?

There we go. And just for a note, and we don't do this, and maybe we should, for our next meeting, can we just have a motion to approve the agenda? We could have done all of these changes right out the bat, and since everyone up here has experience with other organizations, it's something we usually do in all of our other organizations, and it does make the meeting, because we're flowing really well today, it makes the meeting flow even better. So just add a, that's fine. But we won't have this issue again. Now the floor is yours, sir.

Good afternoon. We are presenting 60 of the 160 charter schools audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 2025. There were no significant fiscal issues at 59 of these 60 charter schools. The one school with a deficit net position experienced a decrease in enrollment during the audit year. The October 2025 FTE survey indicates a modest increase in enrollment of 21 students. Additionally, we are awaiting a response from the Florida Department of Education on the inquiry made by the committee at our last ABAC meeting. That being said, we performed the same alternative procedures on over $20 million in aggregate transfers made to the parent companies at most of the 31 Matter Academy and Doral Academy schools. These balances remain on the individual schools' balance sheets as receivable assets. An independent third party examined via attestation standards that these monies were in segregated parent company accounts and remained unencumbered or unused as of June 30th, 2025 and December 31st, 2025. I along with district and charter school management would be happy to answer any questions that the committee may have on these schools audited financial statements.

I noticed, do we have any representative from C.G.

Bethel High School here today?

We do not, just wanted to ask for the record. Does anyone have any questions? Dr. Gatlin?

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to commend Mr. Goodman for following up on the inquiry with respect to the issue that was raised at the previous ABAC committee meeting, and I know that Mr. Hernandez indicated that we are awaiting on a response, but can you clarify the response that we do have that made a declaration of the fact that there is no violation of law procedure provisions that are currently that you receive from the auditor general. I understand that the auditor general made a recommendation to follow up with the Department of Education, but I think the initial request that came from this committee was to make that inquiry with the auditor general. So through the chair, can we just speak on that response that we have to date? to kind of put that issue to rest as reflected in the initial request by the committee members. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Through the chair, so for these 60 charter schools being presented here, we are comfortable that, you know, Mr. Hernandez mentioned the one school that had a deficit net position, okay, but nothing rises to, for all these schools are essentially, there's no issues from a standpoint of financial management or this kind of thing. So all of these should be, in my judgment, should be forwarded to the school board. So we can close the chapter for these schools. Now, the second, as you alluded to, the ABAC directed me to seek an opinion or guidance from the state auditors. Basically, they came back and said that we don't audit charter schools, and we suggest that you get such an opinion or guidance from the Florida Department of Education. And we did forward it to them, and we're awaiting a response.

Okay, thank you. Okay, thank you. Do the chair. That's fine for now. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Mr. Norwood?

Yes, Mr. Chair. I want the auditor to explain the response to the letter, because what I'm seeing in the response is the auditor general is actually asserting something indirectly. Can you explain that to me?

Through the chair, if I may start the conversation. The response from Mr. Bover, the state auditor general, he's the audit supervisor for the auditor general in the state of Florida. His response on March 13th was, and I'm just going to read it verbatim, in response to the district's request for technical guidance regarding charter school fund transfers and financial transparency, The auditor general does not perform the financial audits of the charter schools. Therefore, we suggest that the district contact FDOE for further guidance as the parent organization not providing the public or the district's access to its audited financial statements could hindered the district's monitoring responsibilities. So without response, we sent the inquiry to Mr. Emerson at the FDOE, and we're awaiting his response.

My question is regarding that last phrase, and maybe I'm not a CPA, obviously, but that seems to indicate something to me. When it says that the district's access to its audited financial statements could hinder the district's monetary responsibilities. That seems to indirectly say something. If I'm reading too much into it, then I apologize. But I would like to hear from either the auditor or maybe the financial experts on this board, what would that indicate if you received a letter like that from the auditor general?

I was going to also read, I was going to read verbatim what their response was. I'll defer to the committee to make any comments. It says what it says, and you can read it. I would wait for, I'm waiting for the Department of Education to respond. And then at that time, like I said, For this group of schools in front of us now, we're good, but going forward for next year, we are interested in seeing what the Florida Department of Education says as to whether we're privy to certain information or not, or how that works, and I'll wait for them to give us a response, and then going forward, we'll follow their response.

Okay. All right.

Just as a comment, sounds like something an attorney would have written, not a CPA, so I have no idea what it means, but it seems, it basically says that, you know, we don't want to get involved, is what I read, but it's not, I mean, that's a, this person's a CPA, but he wrote like an attorney there. I guarantee you somebody wrote that for him, but so I, we can't help you with what it means. Thank you very much. All right.

Oh, I was just going to say, through the chair, I know Mr. Noah would ask for the CPA and the financial experts, of which I am not. But I am a wordsmith. I always look for the words suggest in may. And I think they, to the point of my colleague to my right, they made no real declarative statement. So I'm comfortable with Mr. Goodman as our chief auditor awaiting any contrary information that will put us in a better position to either affirm our ability to further inquire or clarify that we don't have a right to. So until that information comes with the particular guidance from the Florida Department of Education, I think as he indicated, you know, we'll move these forward and we'll await.

But just to be clear, the reason why we sent this letter was not about the school's ability to have a reserve or anything such as that. And it wasn't even about, from my understanding, was about any question of whether it was there and securing and knowing that it's there because the auditor knows that it's there because he's been allowed to see it. I think the other issue had to do with our reporting. So since we, as the CFO mentioned earlier, this was the component unit, we need to verify, the public needs to verify, not just the auditor. And I think with this, obviously it was written very, very peculiarly, but I do think when it says that, because it could have just said give this to the DOE, could have just said that, period. But it doesn't just say that. What it says is that as the parent organization not providing the public or the district access to its audited financial statements could hinder the district's monitoring responsibilities, meaning that we have monitoring responsibilities, and not having that information made public could hinder that. That's what I'm reading there. And I'm just reading it as it states. And, of course, it is sliding it over to DOE. But I think that when we provided this, asked for this technical guidance, we did it not because we didn't believe that the money was held in trust and we know it. It had to do with our monetary responsibilities, and it appears to me that that's where this letter is going. And I'm very curious to see what DOE says about this, because if it's okay, then let's make it okay and we have validation that when you look at our audited financials later and we can't verify it, then they're okay with it. But that's really what I was asking, was concerned with. But I think we are going to get finality on this.

Yeah. Through the chair, I think that's fair. And I think once they provide a response, I think your curiosity as well as ours may be satiated at that time. But until this time, as the young people say, the author of the communication would say, I said what I said.

So I have a motion to move it if this actually can't cuz you're abstaining from everything. Oh, I got you. I got you Before we get there though I do want to note that this is now the second time during this meeting that we've noticed attention between our obligations as a school board, as well as our responsibility for our many charters. And I think this is going to be a continued dance that we'll be doing for a while. So I'm going to encourage you, Mr. Auditor, to stay on this. to get an answer and just chase it all the way down because I do not envision this is gonna be the last of these issues that come up. So with that said, if no one else has any other comments, I will entertain a motion to approve agenda item number eight. It's been properly moved. Do we have a second? And we have a second. All those in favor respond by the sound of aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, motion carries. Agenda item number eight, update request for proposals, external auditing services. Ms. Momford. Is that nine? Did I miss number? It's nine. Sorry, I can't read or I can't count, but it is next. Ms. Monfort, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Through the chair, I just wanted to give a quick update on the External Independent Auditing Services RFP. We received four proposals back last week, Tuesday, from Carr Riggs and Ingram LLC, Cherry Beckert LLP, Forvis Mazars LLP, and RSMUS LLP. So I did send out a preliminary poll. Thank you for responding. And so the majority has agreed to April 21st. 2026 as the date of this election committee. So I just want to confirm that you guys are okay calendar-wise and that you plug it in. I'll send out an invitation as well for April 21st. So we'll have another marathon day. I also sent out a tentative agenda where we will ask for the, we'll spend like an hour and a half in the morning just going over just overall submissions, our audit and budget, audit and budget. Our audit management compliance team, they're going to review it to let us know just in terms of their submissions, whether or not the proposers meet the minimums or don't meet the minimums based on the revisions that have been made to the specifications. And then we will also have an opportunity to go over any reference checks that have come back in that morning portion. And then in the afternoon, there's 45 minutes per proposer that's set aside for them to present for 30 minutes, and to do a Q&A for 15 minutes, followed by a debrief of the entire committee. So that's very high level, what the plan is for this particular selection committee process, and hopefully, if no issues, then we will be taking this to the May board meeting. Does anyone have any questions?

Mr. Norwood?

Yeah, through the chair, I know that we, you know, there's been some destruction in our time schedule. I just wanna make sure that we are not going, are we gonna make the deadline towards the end of, I guess, the current contract? Is all that in line now, or no?

So through the chair, Mr. Norwood, we are on skates with no breaks. We are trying, but there are always factors that come up. So there is another opportunity for proposers, just being transparent, if the committee convenes, there is an opportunity for proposers to also protest and award. So you making a recommendation similar to what happened before, We have worked very closely with our Office of General Counsel to ensure that the language that has been embedded in the specifications allows for us to be able to defend or respond to any potential protests that may come up. But there's always a little bit of ambiguity there when it comes to whether or not the hope is to take it to May at the very latest June board meeting.

Thank you very much. Through the Chair, Mr. Auditor, our current contract ends when?

Through the chair, I think it's May, isn't it?

It ends mid-May.

Mid-May.

I mean, should we be preparing for the worst, or is that something we should just, you know, I don't, you know what I mean? Like, should we prepare for the worst in case something doesn't happen and put things in place now? Because I wouldn't want the school board to have to deal with this, you know, like we should provide a recommendation at least on, you know what I mean?

Through the chair, yes. Yes, your concern is well-founded, I'll say. In the sense that, yes, we do need to have an accounting firm in place by no later than June. You know, and other districts like, let me, Broward for example, they went last year and they didn't have an auditor in place until like six months into the actual, after the fiscal year was over. So we started this process early. We had some bumps in the road, if you will, and uh but i think we're we're in a position if we you know we we get everything approved selected and approved uh we'll we'll be able to you know we'll be on time and we'll be able to do it you know without without any issues

So through the chair, I'm sorry, to piggyback Mr. Norwood, there is a 90-day extension provision in the current contract that does allow for some continuity of services. We've been working with Mr. Harvey's team because there are some, because of the Florida statute that defines how to select the auditor, there really isn't, there's a little bit of, it's very black and white when it comes to how to select the auditor. It's great when you have a scenario where we're like, in the ninth hour in our instance, because of the protests that have come up. So first the award, then a specification, it pulled the timeline out a little bit further, but we are working with the Office of the General Counsel, and there is a provision that allows for, in the event that we do have to utilize it, but the idea is to not, to be able to keep pushing as fast as we can.

Thank you very much.

And accurately.

To the chair, if you don't mind, and those, I, you know, selection of the auditors, like, one of the fundamental things that this committee does for the school board. And to be pushed up against a deadline like this without at least an idea of a recommended plan to give to the school board just in case, you know what I mean? That seems to me to be a little negligent. When is our next audit committee meeting?

May 19th.

Can you prepare perhaps a recommendation in the event that this doesn't happen that we can review on May 19th with a plan of action in case something goes wrong that we can then forward to the school board and then they can do with it what they like?

Yes.

Is that something that I need to have a motion or Mr. Chair, do you just approve on asking the auditor to prepare that for you as the chair?

Well, the auditor certainly has indicated that he can prepare it. So to the extent that the board wants to make it a motion, I would accept that motion that Mr. Norwood made and then look for a second. It's been properly moved to second. Any unreadiness? All those in favor respond by a sound aye. Aye. Mr.

Auditor, you now have a direction.

I know it's not the first time. It's fine.

Through the chair, what's the date that you mentioned for the meeting? April 21st. Thank you.

It's on Tuesday. I tried to keep the same date that works for the group. And I'll sit on a calendar invitation this afternoon so you can have it.

Ms. Monfort, I'm just going to note that all skates and no breaks is something I'm going to incorporate in my personal philosophy, and thank you for that particular phrase. Are there any other questions? Otherwise, we'll see you on the 21st.

Okay, thank you. You will receive a communication with the documentation.

Perfect. Agenda item number 10, update on the 2025-2026 district's budget. Mr. Steiger.

Yes, hello. Mr. Goodman asked that I give you an update on our current budget situation. Obviously, this is 2025-26 has been a, as well publicized, has been a different type of year that's been discussed thoroughly at the board level, out in the community, and that's because I'm not going to editorialize. The district's enrollment is over 14,000 students lower than the enrollment was last year. The projected enrollment had a decrease, but not anywhere near 14,000. Because of that, obviously, that's a substantial loss in revenue. So the district has had to respond in kind. And some of those have meant pretty substantial austerity measures that we've put in place. For example, pretty much every P-card in the system has been discontinued for the remainder of this year. There's been an extreme hiring freeze put in place, especially on the non-school side. There has been a zeroing out of all non-school budgets and any spending. The departments have to come to the budget office and ask for it and prove that it is absolutely essential. We have, for lack of a better term, we have shut off all the spigots as much as humanly possible to prepare for a world where we are doing, we are... our reserves fall potentially below the 3% level. That's kind of the threshold that we don't want to go into, but it's very possible. We're doing everything we can to avoid that. I know the board chair and the superintendent have been to Tallahassee multiple times, having conversations about potential mitigation for some of the extreme positions we've been put in this year. And it is certainly not just Miami-Dade. I don't know if you saw, but at this past State Board of Education meeting, the State Board of Ed declared a state of financial emergency for both Glades County and Union County, which involves the establishment of a financial oversight group over those two districts. Where that happens is if you fall below 2% threshold and you don't have a plan in place to fix it, the district's not in that position, but that's why we're taking these measures, right? To ensure that we show that we have a plan As we go into next year, the board is going to be grappling with, you know, how to balance the budget, the decisions we have to make. And all of this is our, you know, by definition, you know, short-term, right? So there's only so much you can do in the short-term, and the long-term case is as you lose students and as you lose enrollment, it's rightsizing the facilities footprint of the district, which the district has, you know, certainly undertaken the last two years in a manner in which we have never done before, but it's going to have to be even more aggressive moving forward. Thank you. Any questions? And just to be clear, Mr. Chair, when I say lack of enrollment, oftentimes, and I didn't say it, but oftentimes people hear that as we lost kids, right? And in this case, we didn't lose kids. What happened is that students that usually enter have not entered, right? So in the past four years in particular, we have averaged between 13,000 and 22,000 new enrollments from out of the country. And this year that number is 3,000. Now obviously that's a lot to do with the change in the federal immigration policy. A district of our size is always going to lose kids in the sense that Just natural attrition. People move out. We are by definition in an immigrant community where we are an entry point into this country. People come into Miami-Dade and they go elsewhere. That is natural. That is what should be happening. What's not happening is those new entries aren't coming in. And we're somewhat of a ground zero for what that means from a school district perspective, right? We're not the only district in the state, we're not the only district in the country in this position, but we are certainly among the ones affected. And our responsibility is not only to educate the students that do show up, but to make sure that we do that solely in the dollars that we're given. In our case, since those new students haven't shown up, we have to not only make long-term decisions on our facilities, but right now we have to approach this as a reality, which is that you know, 13,000 kids is about $100 million, right? So as you lose $100 million, we have to reduce expenses by that same $100 million. There's only so much you can do in the middle of the year. We have done everything we could, plus a little more, and heading into next year, we're gonna have difficult conversations.

Dr. Gallo? Yes, through the chair, I want to, I thank Mr. Steiger for that update and the superintendent for perhaps nudging him to clarify the messaging. This has been a source of consternation for me. At the onset, we had a real discussion about clarifying the messaging with accurate information. Typically, the narrative has been that there was a decline in enrollment. but through the superintendent and through Mr. Steiger's amended response, we've clarified that. So it's not that students are leaving, as he said, it's that they're not coming in. And I've been very candid about identifying four significant and salient criteria that has resulted in that. Obviously, affordability, in South Florida is clearly an indicator. The birth rates, that has been something that has been pronounced at the national level, even to the extent that the president wanted to offer $1,000 to have more children, so our birth rates are down across the country. Number four, number three, legislation let's just face it the legislation has quickly accelerated school choice options which we've been one of the most friendliest choice districts in the state if not the country winning a lot of awards and accolades but choice options from charter schools to vouchers that initially came from McKay scholarships years ago for special needs children to vouchers that were allocated for students that were uncomfortable due to bullying, post-Parkland, to vouchers that utilized a rubric based on a parent's financial ability to pay, to vouchers that went universal. So a billionaire can access a voucher in the state of Florida for their children's private school. And last but not least, something that we have now come to accept is the impact of federal legislation relative to immigration. Immigration has been one of the most significant factors in our lack of growth, not declining enrollment, our lack of growth. So if you look at some of the numbers and through the chair, I could ask Mr. Steiger to give them to you, but I'll just throw some out. But just to say hypothetically, each year we average around 10 to 15,000 foreign born students. We may be lucky if we're at a third of that at this point of the year. So those policies have had an impact. on districts around the country, but obviously as a international hub for relocation and immigration to some extent, we have been dramatically impacted by that as well. So we just have to continue to move this process and I'm glad he brought this as an update. Thank you, Mr. Goodman, because in the past, the chair can recall that when we got on the board, the ABAC was not made, was not involved in the discussion around the budget. It was pretty restricted to the audits. And I actually raised the issue. I say it's called the Audit and Budget Advisory Committee, but there was really not a space for the ABAC to really, number one, be informed, but also to weigh in to the extent that there's a need or an opportunity to do that. So I'm glad, Mr. Goodman, you put that on the agenda. Glad Mr. Steiger for that update. And thank you, Mr. Superintendent, for nudging him by using that bad language of declining enrollment, which is a total falsehood in Dade County Public Schools, because our parents and our families who are here, they're with us. They're not leaving us, but we're not getting enough students to come in into our district. So have more children.

Mr. Chair, I just have a question. How many kids do we graduate every year?

Mr. Chair, I am being told it's between 20 to 25,000. Any other?

Through the chair, just my own edification. Can you just kind of give the numbers as it relates to the change in foreign-born student enrollment over the past two or three years? I know you know them, so just for the record, can you cite those so that I don't misstate them and our colleagues can really understand the gravity of that particular policy position on our district?

Yeah, sure. So, Mr. Chair, the... During the height of the last presidential administration, it was a little over 22,000 students a year were new enrollees from out of the country historically. And this past year, it was closer to 13,000. And 12,000, 13,000 has been a number. I mean, it's gone up and down, but 12,000, 13,000 has been a relatively consistent number for quite a while. And this year, the number is in the 3,000s.

That's significant. And that number is as opposed to those children who get educated in charter school or some other alternative learning process. This is just pure those who would otherwise be enrolled who are not showing up to be enrolled anymore, right?

yet that's correct that is just our kids newcomers from out of the country that would roll in our schools now charter schools uh... obviously individual charter schools have different numbers, but charter schools in total have shown a very small gain, about 400 kids. They were projecting about a little over 2,000 kid gain this year. So charter schools are below projections, and the district was below projections. the number of vouchers has increased, but that's not necessarily a reflection of an increase in private school enrollment. It's just that an increase in the use of the vouchers by potential current private school students anyways. But overall, between us and charters, we were both substantially below what we projected, and that's because the projection, and this was state, and to be clear, just to make sure, yes, Miami-Dade was the most impacted by quite a bit, but this is not a statewide issue i mean sorry this is very much a statewide issue in total the state is down over 45 000 students from what they projected in total k-12 kids anyone else mr goodman

I just wanted to point out that this is also going to have some implications for our staffing in the audit function, but I'd rather defer that until the May meeting when we talk about the proposed audit plan. But the audit function, we're going to be part of this process too. And we have to make decisions about how to continue to be effective and efficient in the audit process. But we're going to have some reduction in staff as well going forward. But I'd rather talk about that at the May meeting, but I'm just giving you a little heads up that we're going to do that. But I'm comfortable with it, and we've contemplated everything, and we're going to continue to do a job for the ABAC and the board. So I just wanted to point that out. Mr. Superintendent?

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and Mr. Goodman, thank you very much for opening the door for what I was about to say, that we have to downsize. administration at the district level and we will. And I want to thank Mr. Goodman because he's part of this collective effort on behalf of the school district. So we're looking at retooling, cutting positions, moving folks around in order to downsize what eventually has to happen as a result of the great number of newcomers that have not materialized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Anyone else?

Oh, yes, go ahead, Ms. Watson.

Will we lose our designation as the third largest school system in the nation?

Through the Chair, that's an important question. I have to check up on that. It used to be Chicago, but Chicago has also lost a lot of students, so I would tend to think that they are probably in a similar situation. I have not spoken to the superintendent there. But usually we get our designation of the ranking that we're in pretty much around April. It's like a one year delay. And so we'll look at that. I'm hoping that we will remain. However, every impact to every state and every district is different. So I know the board chair will not be very happy. She was elated when we became the third largest, but that's the reality of, I just can't predict right now. Honestly, I could not. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes. Superintendent, Mr. Chair, what about the schools that we are, re-closing or moving things around. Have you any insight into what we're going to do about those and how that's going to help us?

Sure, through the Chair. Absolutely, so we are in the process of consolidating some schools, and the word closure is not one that is, I say, appropriate, because if you think that you close schools to save money, that's wrong. That's not what we do. Some folks out there, some other districts have claimed the recovery of their school districts on closing schools. We start with a very clear premise here. If we have to consolidate a school, that means bring children from one facility to the other. It is because the school that they're in, we are not resourcing it appropriately because of the small number of children. That's where we start. If we have a small school, and sometimes we do, at the middle and highs, we may have small schools, if they are resourced properly, we would not take that action. However, because of the lack of resources, because of the resizing that we have to do, we will have to take a look at more number of schools consolidating than in the past. But however, what Mr. Steiger said is true. Within the last two years, we've taken a larger approach and we've consolidated more schools than ever before, but we're doing it methodically, we're doing it carefully, and we're doing it with a lot of input from the community. That's the way we do it in Dade County Public Schools. We cannot generate a number out there and then not have to face the fact that we have to educate individuals why we're doing this. And again, it is not as simple as to save money. It's about what we're rendering in terms of educational opportunities and supports for our students.

Anyone else? This was an informational item. I want to thank both Mr. Steiger and Mr. Superintendent for adding to what I think is a very important topic. We don't often get to hear from both of you this late in our meetings. So please understand that I take note of that and appreciate it. Old business. A is done. Old business B. We're almost out of here, guys.

through the chair if Mr. Raul Perez and maybe Mr. Harvey would like to weigh in on where we are with the impact fees and where we are as far as any potential rates, right-sizing the rates or updating the rates, the fees.

And keeping in mind for the record, this is the fourth update concerning the transmittal of the educational facilities impact fee study pursuant to state legislation. and prior board action. We're going to keep this as old business unless and until we get a breakthrough and we improve the situation. Mr. Perez?

Through the chair, committee members, yes, as Mr. Goodman had mentioned, you have been provided updates. This is the fourth update regarding the impact fee study. Additionally to this, I can share some additional information that the district and the county legislative teams worked closely and collaboratively and united together to support the modification of Senate Bill 180. Senate Bill 180 was enacted back in 2025 and basically restricts local governments from increasing impact fees. That had to do with the three hurricanes that impacted Florida back in 2024. And so because of that legislation, basically we are not allowed to increase our impact fees until 2027. Just to give you a little bit of additional information, there were a couple of corrective bills that were filed. However, they did not make it out of committee this legislative year. And so at this time, we are going to be reconvening with the county and with our general counsel. to see what next steps are there, if any, or we would have to basically wait until 2027 to go ahead and then move forward as we were moving forward with the study that we provided last year.

Thank you, Ms. Harvey.

Yes, and through the chair, just to add to what Mr. Perez had indicated, I should also add there was another bill that came in at the last minute, last week of the legislative session, SB 840, which basically limited the scope of SB 180 from last year from the 100-mile radius to the 50-mile radius and also referenced amendments that were related to hurricanes. So it would have to be repairs and repairs plans, et cetera, related to the actual hurricane repairs. Because I think one of the issues with regard to SB 180 is it was so broad that I think it was a bill that was focused on, you know, development, you know, following hurricane damage. And I think the bill maybe went too far. And so there was some land development regulations and so forth that... that I think the county was proposing that they put on hold. And we did not necessarily feel that it applied to school impact fees, but we went along with it. But I think in light of this new legislation, we're thinking about updating our study because now we're beyond a year and we're gonna go back to the county again and ask them to bring this forward. If there are any questions, I'd be happy to answer them. Thank you. Thank you, any questions?

Hearing none, thank you both for that presentation. New business. Excuse me. Yes, I'm sorry.

Go ahead, Mr. Norwit. I mean, maybe this document here from our general counsel, With the list of cases was that relationship what you just discussed was that something different?

Yes through the chair Those were cases that were all filed before this legislation was introduced and passed by the legislature so I'm just providing additional update because this this bill was passed during the last week of the legislative session it was just signed by the governor like last week and Got it, okay. So the legislation was simply to inform the board and the audit committee that there was pending legislation related to SB 180 because of its broad scope. And if you look at some of the legislation that's been filed, you'll see that it's not related to school impact fees, it's related to other land development regulations, not school impact fees, but that was the interpretation that the county was working with. So we, of course, they're the ones that have to bring this forward to the county commission for approval, so we continued to work with them. But I think now, after this legislative session, I think we're gonna, GO BACK TO THEM AGAIN TO SEE IF WE CAN GET THIS MOVING. BUT WE DO HAVE TO UPDATE THE STUDY BECAUSE WE'RE BASICALLY AT A YEAR RIGHT NOW SINCE THE LAST STUDY WAS FINALIZED BACK IN MAY OF 2025. SO WE'RE GOING TO PROBABLY HAVE TO UPDATE THAT STUDY. BUT IT'S NOT A FULL-BLOWN STUDY. IT'S JUST AN UPDATE. I HOPE THAT HELPS. I DON'T KNOW IF RAUL WANTS TO ADD ANYTHING TO THAT.

No, no, no, no, thank you.

Anyone else? Thank you. Thank you both very much. Moving on to new business. Proposed black history audit. This is informational. This is presented by me and Mr. Goodman. For my end, beginning in August of 2023, the Department of Education created new criteria and standards for the educational instruction of black history in the state of Florida. They made other changes to other curriculum as well. Ask Mr. Auditor whether or not our compliance with those instructional requirements can be audited. Comes to find out. He thinks they can't. So I'm going to ask Mr. Goodman to give us a presentation on what and how that would look like. I know we haven't done our audit plan yet for next year, but I'm putting this out there because I do think it is something worth exploring, and I know you have done the work to be able to present on this. So you've got it. Although, I'm going to note for the record that we've done very well time-wise. This meeting right now is lasting under two hours. So I'm going to ask you to give us the direct version and not the extended cut.

Well, luckily, I don't have much of a presentation for you. But we are capable of doing such an audit. We are capable of doing such an audit. It is within our purview, but it would be some sort of compliance audit. I would ask the ABAC and then eventually or ultimately the school board to direct me and give me some guidance on this, whether this is going to be your priority, whether you want this on the audit plan. know in light of there's other you know there are other audits that we want to do as well um but that's that's basically what i have to say i would like direction from the abac members uh and uh you know and as to whether this is going to be a priority for you uh and uh but basically if we did do the audit, it would basically be compliance related, compliance with applicable laws, statutes, policies, this kind of thing.

Thank you. Dr. Gallant? Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll start by saying I may not have met an auditor that said what they could not audit. So the answer, I would not expect Mr. Goodman to reasonably say, oh, no, I can't audit that. To the extent that something may be in their purview, my question or my concern or my consternation as what I've been self-described as an educational purist, is it within the realm of their expertise? And I think he raised a salient question as relates to the board's priority. I do know that, and I want to thank you, Mr. Chair, for raising that issue because I've gotten some feedback regarding that. But to the extent that it is something that would fall to the audit committee versus something that would fall to the administration, under curriculum compliance, because we have black history compliance requirements, we have Holocaust education requirements, and we have some other related issues. Now, if there is an inquiry as it relates to how some expenditures for such areas have been invested, maybe that could be something for consideration. But my pause would be, uh is not the purview but the level of expertise and secondly as a representative for the board uh would that be something in light of some of the discussions that we just had with respect to the financial picture would that be something elevated as a priority but as the representative i can assure you this is something that you know would be shared um but i do think that it does open up the door for discourse relative to how are we complying with those requirements, such as black history, Holocaust education, and some other areas that we have to do. But is this the space for that? And is this something that Mr. Goodman, with his well intentions, does he have the bandwidth? And he just mentioned actually talking about having to reduce staff. Does he have the bandwidth and the expertise to really tackle this? But this is something, thank you, because this is on my radar and this is something that I can raise, but I don't know if this is, I'm not necessarily confident that this may be the space for that for those reasons. Through the chair, those are just my thoughts. Thank you. Anyone else?

Alright, having heard that, Mr. Goodman, have you yet created your your list of proposed audit priorities for and I guess we are entering what would be 2627?

Next May. I mean, in a couple months. Not in a couple months.

That would be about 30, 35 days.

May 19th is your next ABAC meeting. Correct. And we'll present the proposed audit plan. Okay. Okay. So there you'll have it. We'll propose which audits we're going to need to carry over. I think one audit. And I've got... a couple ideas on some other audits that I want to do. And as far as this one, I'll wait for your direction, Mr. Chair.

You're going to get feedback from me after you stop talking. I just want to understand what it is that's on your plate before we add to your plate, if that makes sense.

Well, we have enough to accommodate. I think I would like to accommodate two new operational audits going forward. We are going to have a somewhat reduced staff. Our school audits, we're going to continue to do school audits, charter school oversight, IT-related audits. We started an AI audit recently. We started planning for that already. It's on this year's audit plan. So I can accommodate the will of the ABAC and ultimately the school board. And there's a way to do it. And I don't really want to weigh in. I want the ABAC and the school board to tell me what their priorities are here. But we can make it work either way you turn out. By the way, I am not an expert on curriculum. It's true. although i have worked here at the school board over 21 years and i was at palm beach schools for seven years so i think i learned something about it uh but we can do it you know uh It may not be my area of great expertise, but yet, like I said, when you brought it up at the beginning, yes, we can do it. As Dr. Gallin said, I think most auditors, they're never going to say they can't do any audit. We can do any audit. But again, I'll just wait for more direction from you, particularly, and from the...

Having heard, go ahead.

Mr. Chair, there is a committee that is specific to that and that's, it used to be called DEAC, but now it's OEAC, which looks at Holocaust, black history, women and anything that has to do with diversity or equity. And I would think that that would be the best committee to look at it, to investigate it, and then to come back with some kind of response. I sit on that committee, and that's exactly what we do. We haven't taken that up, and it's a good thing to take up. I'd be happy to present it to them at our next, which is next week, or this week, actually. So I just offer that as a kind of a stopgap solution or whatever.

All right. Yes, go ahead.

Just so I can better understand, when you propose an audit of the Black History Month program, are you looking for a compliance audit or for a performance audit?

So because the curriculum changed in 2023 for implementation in August of that year, and has now been actually supposedly being implemented across the board, we're now in 2026 and we would be entering 2627. Regardless of all of my personal feelings about every aspect of that curriculum, which I probably said to the newspapers more than I need to say to anybody here, I think we are entitled, since it's been imposed upon us, to know whether or not it's actually being done. It's been three years. And I do note that Holocaust education was included in that package of changes. It's been three years. And contrary to popular opinion, and that's why I also appreciate your second point, that no, no one has raised this. Things that happened in the past don't go away because we don't talk about them anymore. That thing did happen. What does it look like within Miami-Dade County Schools is I think something fair, and I'm a lawyer, so you'll use this particular analogy, but knowing that we are now in a more intense competition for students I'd like us to also know if we're doing what needs to be done within the rules, but also in offering our product in a way that helps us build up this enrollment a little bit. So to me, it's an important issue. I'm sure it's an important issue to others too. Asking here and it going somewhere else, so long as it goes somewhere else, it's fine. We are blessed. I got the superintendent right here. I've got an ear that I really want. But the point, I think, at the end of the day is that it was done, the changes were made, they were implemented. Are we doing them? And shouldn't we be asking? Dr. Gallo?

Yes, I think it's a salient issue, especially when you're talking about certain things relative to not necessarily interest, not necessarily druthers, but compliance. And I think the superintendent is aware it is good to use here. But in addition to the committee that was mentioned by my colleague, our colleague, we also have the Educational Materials Compliance Advisory Committee. So there are certain platforms to explore compliance with that. I don't disagree that we need to be in compliance and we have an obligation actually as constitutional officers to comply. The question is, with respect to priorities, expertise, bandwidth, budget reductions, and the availability of other spaces for that work to get done, even as a board member, directing the superintendent to explore that with his staff to give us an update. I'm not sure if the ABAC and Mr. Goodman, even though he's always a willing participant to take direction and do what he's directed to do. maybe that exploration may be in another format, which is now on the radar. I can assure you that I will take some affirmative action to communicate with the superintendent and look at that as well as other areas in the proper setting. But those are just my thoughts having looked at that and knowing some of the financial and other related challenges we have. And then the board has, in the entire sphere, they have a strategic plan that identifies priorities. However, those priorities never abdicate the board's need to comply. I want to juxtapose that. Just because we have a priority, that does not negate our obligation to comply with the law. Outside of that, compliance with the law and the requirements of the law is something that we need to be intentional about. So I want to thank you for raising it. And again, maybe see what other platforms, the committee she mentioned, the Advisory Committee for Educational Materials, and even the superintendent here in an academics committee meeting that could be raised under new business. And maybe we can kind of have a conversation about that. Those are my initial thoughts. Thank you.

Anyone else? All right, now, you gonna try this? Okay, all right. Having heard all that, do you really wanna try it? Do you really wanna try it? Trust me, trust me. Believe in your friend.

I'm sorry. Now, I just wanted, I feel the need, I wanted to credit this ABAC. So I've been in auditing now, government auditing, like 35 years. And I've been, I was the deputy auditor general for the city of Miami before I came here. It was Palm Beach Schools. state auditor general and other places uh so i wanted to recognize that this audit committee is really outstanding and i wanted to we you don't always agree with each other or me uh but i did want to you know mr norwood uh malagon heller hoekamer Gonzales gallon Miranda Watson Hunter Johnson I just I feel like you know you're putting a lot of effort in here and I just really wanted to tell you that I appreciate it and I appreciate working with you and you're a top-notch committee and I'm not trying to get anything from you I just felt the need to say that

I appreciate everything you just said, and we love you too, John. That being said, it's not going to save you from my comments. At our next meeting, you're going to bring us your wish list of things you want to get done next year. Good. I still want you to leave this here at New Business. I just need to look at what you got going on, what you intend to do, what we direct you to do, and if there's any room for a little bit more, which also gives, Dr. Gallant, Dr. Dolchris, everybody else, an opportunity to figure out if there's somewhere else we can be, okay, me, can be accommodated to know that someone's looking somewhere. I think that's fair enough. I think it keeps the train moving, but at the same time, it allows you guys to deal with all that we've heard you've got to deal with this year. Fair enough? All right. With that said, that's the end of new business. Motion to adjourn. Move it. All right. It was an hour and a half plus four minutes. The four minutes I'm blaming on Mr. Goodman because he had to tell us he loved us.