School Board Audit and Budget Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the December 9th School Board Audit and Budget Advisory Committee to our December 9th meeting. We're going to do introductions around the room and we're going to start with Mr. Goodman.

Good afternoon. John Goodman, Chief Auditor.

Your name, please.

Oh.

Blanca Malagon, ABAC member.

Juan D'Arcy, ABAC member.

Anthony Atala, ABAC member.

I'm Beverly Heller, and I represent Joe Gala, District 3. Hannah Hokemer, ABAC member.

Juan Carlos Gonzalez, CPA, ABAC member.

Steve Gallen, school board member representative. Julio Miranda, committee member.

Sharon Watson, committee member.

Stephen Hunter Johnson, ABAC rights chair. And my name is Christopher Norwood, and this is my last day as the chair of this committee today.

What do you think? Yay, you're the best.

Mr. Goodman, the second item on the agenda is 2A, recognition of Mr. Christopher M. Norwood, four years as ABAC chair.

Okay, let's.

In recognition of Christopher M. Norwood, JD, for dedicated service as a member of the Audit and Budget Advisory Committee since 2013, and for exemplary leadership as chair from 2021 through 2025. Your commitment, insight, and guidance have made a lasting impact.

Thank you. our school board chairwoman, and if you don't mind, and I would like to take a picture with our representative Steve Gowlin as well from the school board. Yeah, I'd like to do that, John.

And I would like to be in the picture. Yeah, yeah, you can be in the picture too. Okay.

You didn't ask for us to be here. I don't want to be like, you know, skirt people in the front.

If you all want to come down very quickly.

I'm short. I need to be in the bottom.

Come on down.

Come on down.

After 13 years. The photographer left, so it's safe.

Everybody gets five. Well, good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of my esteemed colleagues on the board, our vice chair, Ms. Monica Colucci, and especially our board member who has served us so well in this committee, that's Dr. Steve Gallen III. You have done a phenomenal job. Thank you so very much. And on behalf of the entire Miami-Dade County public school family, I have to take this moment to thank Mr. Norwood. Once upon a time, I sat there as well for many, many years, and this gentleman has always been such a professional, such a gentleman, so knowledgeable, extremely competent, and I am telling you, it has been a true pleasure, sir, working with you throughout the years. So on behalf of everyone that we represent, we thank you for your service because you're not getting paid for this. So your dedication, your commitment, your passion. and the compassion that you have shown so many throughout the years is truly commendable and admirable. And I just want to say thank you, God bless you for the service that you have provided throughout the years, and we hope to continue to have you in whatever other, is he still allowed to stay in this committee? Yes, he is. Okay, not just as chair. Okay, sounds good to me. Congratulations, and I think he deserves a standing ovation for all of the years of dedication and hard work. I think you want to say a few words.

Well, I don't really, but I do want to thank the committee members that are here, those who, you know, when you serve on these volunteer boards and several people up here, not all of us, but several people up here lose money by being here. And so volunteering and some of these people build by the hour. And so it's good to be acknowledged. I acknowledge everyone that's here for the service that they do. When I was nominated as chair and then first vice chair, You know, I kind of like when you were in the this is our school board chairwoman for the audience who may not know this. And she used to be the school board representative under Ms. Hampton's leadership. And, you know, I used to just throw bombs from the back, like kind of like what Mr. Atala does, you know, and I enjoyed it. But when you become chair, you want to moderate the discussion. You don't want to be too vocal unless necessary. So I'm happy that I get to go back to throwing bombs in the middle of the room. But I would like to say this. This committee means a lot to the school district. A lot of people don't know about it. The people in this room know how essential it is. But I'm so happy that we have it and that we have this independent body of people who do not have a vested interest in outcomes other than just being community members with specific skills necessary to fulfill this job. And we provide the independence that our auditor needs to do his job, as well as the school board, the independence. And I take pride that when the school board decides to hand off issues to us, they know it's coming to a group of people who really only want to do what's best within the profession that they exist in and do what's best for children. I do want to acknowledge one person who is here, just happened to be in town, and I asked her to come here. This is my aunt is here, the woman who raised me when my parents passed away when I was 13. And she said, I want her to stand. The power of school is this. Before I was born, my father passed away. My mother passed away when I was 13. But I met a young man in school who became my best friend. And it was in school that I met him. And I met his mother. And it was through that friendship that they took me in. And it was through school, those relationships that are built in school, in the parents that are part of schools that have allowed me to grow and be the person that I am today. So I would not have spoke today but for her being here, because I just want to sit back and throw more bombs from this committee. But anyway, I don't mean that literally, by the way. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Let's give him another round of applause. And lastly, to every single board member that is sitting here, thank you so very much. As Mr. Norwood just stated, you have no idea how important this group is to the school board of Miami-Dade County, Florida. By the way, the third largest A-rated district with a graduation rate of 95.2%, never seen before. Thank you for your service. We certainly appreciate it. God bless you all, thank you.

Item 2B I'm handing off to Mr. Goodman would be to conduct the election for chair and vice chair. Thank you.

We're gonna elect the chair first. So I'm calling for nominations for chair. Mr. Atala.

I nominate Mr. Hunter Johnson to continue for us. Mr. Hunter Johnson, okay.

I second that motion.

Okay.

Motion to close nominations? Call for the vote.

Second. Okay, so we... Okay, so it's closed. Was there anyone else that... It was that bomb throwing speech that the chair made. That's what it was.

I got it, I got it, I got it.

Okay, so we have one nominee. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. And I'll leave it at that. And so congratulations, Mr. Stephen Hunter Johnson.

I'm going to say thank you, but clearly I know there's a lot of work ahead. You know, my wife's not gonna say thank you, I can assure you of that, but I will say thank you to all of you. I guess now we move on to the chair. Are you gonna continue to preside? We move on, we're gonna select a vice chair, yes.

I will, if it's through the chair, through the new chair.

I'm gonna defer to Mr. School Board Attorney who says I should let you finish your job.

Yes, through the chair. The chief auditor presides over the elections until all the officers are elected.

Okay, thank you. So I'm calling for nominations for vice chair. Mr. DeArce.

I nominate Mr. Atala for vice chair.

I'll second that. Okay.

Motion to close nomination. Okay, do you accept?

I accept. Okay, and Dr. Gallin had a motion to close nominations. I second. Okay, all those in favor of Mr. Atala for vice chair say aye. Aye. Okay, congratulations to Mr. Anthony Atala, vice chair.

Mr. Goodman, one thing, just remind Mr. Tala that the Cuban coffee must be here on time. What'd he say? I know it's something that the chair started and I want him to continue it.

Through the chair, would you guys want to switch seats or no? You don't have to. Okay, don't worry.

He does have the gavel now though.

He is chair of my heart always, that's what matters. With that, let's move on to agenda item three. I promise you all we're going to conduct a quick and efficient meeting. Approval of the minutes of the school board audit and budget advisory committee meeting of September 16, 2025. So moved. They're probably moved to second it. Any unreadiness? All those in favor, respond by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Item number four. Mr. Goodman.

Mr. Brett Friedman, partner RSM, will begin the presentation. Good afternoon, Mr. Friedman.

Can you repeat the agenda item?

This is the annual comprehensive financial report and related reports. This is our external audit, the district's external audit for the fiscal year.

And it is an action item?

And it is an action item, yes.

All right, through the chair, good afternoon. Brett Friedman, partner with RSM. My pleasure to be here. I have with me Anil Harris, also a partner with the firm. You should have received two documents in your package. The first one is this large document, which is the annual comprehensive financial report. That was put together by Mr. Steiger, Ms. Nyer, and their team. We're here to opine on that. The second document is our communication of the audit results to you as the individuals charged with governance for the school board. So if I could ask you to turn to that document to page four, it just provides an executive summary. So again, we perform the audit for the year ended June 30th, 2025 in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and government auditing standards. And also in accordance with section 218.415 Florida statutes, we assess compliance with the investment of public funds for the period from July 1 to June 30th, 2025. We issued unmodified opinions on the governmental activities, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information, and on the examination of compliance, which is the highest opinion we can provide. Again, that tells you that these financial statements were fairly presented by management. Again, we don't make assessments on operational performance, but that this was properly presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and all applicable GASB standards. Going down to the next thing, there were no significant changes to the planned audit strategy that was communicated to the Audit and Budget Advisory Committee in our report dated September 16th. We did add some more specific risks, getting more detailed on management override and revenue recognition for grants. But again, that was just to make the audit testing more detailed based on the new audit risk assessment standards. In the current year, there was a significant new accounting standard, GASB Statement 101, which changed how compensated absences are accounted for. And as part of that, that did result in a beginning balance restatement. Just want you to be aware that does not represent a mistake made by management. It's just the adoption of a new standard, which was designed to try and make things more consistent as far as how compensated absences, which are sick leave, vacation leave, all comp time, how that's accounted for by all government agencies. The new process was designed to a concept of, is it more likely than not to be used? So there was a difference there to try and make it more uniform. Again, we audited what the school board did, had no concerns with that. You know, during our audit, we always like to point out whether or not there are any audit adjustments because that'll give you comfort throughout the year that when you get the financial statements presented by Mr. Steiger, you can rely upon them. Again, we did a lot of detailed testing, had no material audit adjustments to report. We did have an uncorrected misstatement, which Anil will highlight. What that is is that's something that is not quantitatively or qualitatively considered to be material. It's significant enough that we want to report it to you, the individual's charge of governance, so you're aware because everything and anything of significance, we do want to bring to this board. Again, not significant enough to where it would impact the financials, and management chose not to record it. Also, another important thing is we do not do an internal control audit, but we do look at internal controls as part of the audit. And in that process, we did not have any significant deficiencies or material weaknesses to bring to your attention. Going to the next page on page five, the accounting policies and practices, you know, auditing standards require us to communicate these items. So first one starting with our arrangement letter with the school district dated October 9th. Also the plan scope, which was dated September 16th. Just want to emphasize the audit was completed on time in accordance with the plan scope and timing. Next, as far as accounting policies, there was nothing that we deemed to be in areas that do not have proper authoritative guidance. The school board, in all cases, is following the best and most appropriate practices. In the current year, again, there was new GASB 101 on compensated absences, which did require going back and restating the prior year and reanalyzing all the different leave time for all the different bargaining units. Other than that, again, no other significant accounting policies, and also there were no significant unusual transactions. Next, I want you to go to page six and have Anil walk through the significant accounting estimates. We like to highlight these because a lot of the activity is either cash received or cash spent by the school board. The accounting estimates are where management has most impact, and therefore there's the greatest risk of management override. So he's going to briefly walk you through those. Thank you, Brett.

So being on pages slide six through nine, the balances that we consider significant relates to significant estimates of depreciation expenses, depreciation of capital assets, the fair value of investments. For the investments, we don't just rely on the statements received during the audit process. We get independent valuations and value the school board's investments independently. The other three items are self-insurance liability, OPEB liability and pension liability. Again, with those, we also have our own actuaries look at the reports provided by management to ensure that the assumptions and methods and the ultimate liability itself is properly stated at year-end. The other two items are allowance for receivables and compensated absences. And with all these estimates, we did independent testing and concluded the balances as reported. And on each page, you can see the amounts of each balances, which are significant in nature, were properly stated at year-end. The next slide to move on to is slide 10. As Brett mentioned, the audit opinion highlights that there was implementation of the GASB 101 and also a restatement of the financial statements. However, the restatements are required by the standards and is not unusual in nature in the course of the audit. Slides 11 and 12 discusses, one, there were no audit adjustments, which is always a positive item. And then two, the uncorrected misstatements. Important to point out here, these uncorrected misstatements originated in the prior year and they're just reversing in the current year, so they're not new. If you look at last year's reports, you'll see those were reported previously. But because they're reversed in the current year, we have to show them again. At the end of the year, they really have no impact on that position of the district because they're reversed out and the ending balance is where it should be at the end of this year. The next slide is slide 13. Again, just to highlight some key items. There were no significant issues discussed with management that we need to bring to your attention. We had no disagreements with management throughout the audit process. We had access to all books and records, access to all employees of the district. during the audit we're not aware the management consult with any other accountants during the process um for any other audit opinions and there were no significant issues that we had consulted outside the engagement team that we consider significant nature that required additional um assessment also included in the packet um is And Appendix A is the representation letters. So those are representations that management makes to us during the course of the audit, and they sign those letters. Again, there's nothing really to highlight here. All the representations are what we consider normal in nature for any audit that we would Perform and finally there's also the report and internal controls over financial reporting also an appendix a Again, no findings and that reports a clean opinion and also including your package is the state management letter that we issue and the management letters required by the state of Florida against an unmodified opinion a clean opinion no findings to report it as it relates to that report and With that we'll take any questions you may have

Just for those of us that aren't CPAs, can you just tell us what an uncorrected misstatement means or is?

Yes. As it talks about here, that's an item that is not fully recorded in accordance with general accounting principles, but then you assess whether or not there's a quantitative or qualitative impact of it. So uncorrected misstatements are items that are not 100% recorded accurately, but they're then deemed to not be significant and therefore don't require adjustment.

And any other questions, comments? I'd just like to follow up that question. That uncorrected misstatement had to do with properly crediting what would be due to charter schools. Am I not correct? Contained on page 12?

Yes, correct. So at the end of last year, when the settlement occurred, it occurred right towards the end of the year, and it wasn't recorded at the end of last year. In the current year, it is recorded. So at the end of the year, the liability and expenses were properly shown in the financial statements. So going forward, you won't see that adjustment again because it's been fully recorded at this time. Perfect.

Any other questions? This is an action item, so I'll entertain a motion. Second. Then properly move to second it. All those in favor respond by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I say thank you because Mr. Norwood used to say thank you. Item number five, presentation of the audit of educational facilities impact fee funds, special purpose financial statements, and required communication of audit results for fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. This is an action item. Mr. Goodman.

Yes, Mr. Anthony Brunson and team will start the presentation of this audit. This is the annual routine financial statement audit for impact fees that we collect through the county. Mr. Brunson and Ms. Hardin, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, and through the chair, we'd certainly like to thank you for the opportunity to continue to work with the school system. Since Ms. Hardin does all the heavy lifting in this process, we're gonna provide her the opportunity to do the presentation.

Good afternoon. Today we're presenting our required communication, which should be provided to you in one of the packets. We'll start off with the auditor responsibility under professional standards. We are also responsible for conducting the audit in accordance with the accounting standards generally accepted in the United States. The standards applicable to the financial audits contained in governmental auditing standards. In regards to the accounting practices, we did not identify any significant or unusual transactions. We also did not identify any alternative accounting treatments. As it pertains to the management's judgments and accounting estimates, we deem everything to be reasonable. As a matter for the financial statement disclosures, we did not identify any items related to any inconsistencies or unclarity. We did not note any audit adjustments in this particular audit. We're happy to announce that we did not have any disagreement with the managements, nor are we aware of any consultations with the management had with any other accounting firms or related to any significant accounting auditing matters. Some of the identified significant items that were discussed were the impact fee study, as well as the construction and progress. The written communications that's also attached to this document is the management representation letter Here, we also identified that we have no impairment of independence, we're not aware of any going concern issues, and there were no noted material weaknesses or significant deficiencies. We'll take any questions at this time.

Open it up to the ABAC members. Any questions? Mr. Talley.

Through the Chair, The line on page four, the due from Miami-Dade County, I see it's almost doubled from 2024 to 2025. Is this money that we're continuously being owed? Because I know we've talked about impact fees a number of times on this committee. Is this money that's just accruing or is this money that they've actually, that the county has already transferred to the district?

I'm sorry, you said page four?

Page four under assets. Three lines down, due from Miami-Dade County. Last year was 4.794 million. 2025 is 9.155 million.

Okay, yes, that is just timing of when we're going to receive those monies owed to us, sorry.

The timing difference, I believe, it's been fully collected as of today. Okay.

All right, thank you.

Any other questions? This is an action item, entertain a motion. Second. It's been properly moved to second it. All those in favor respond by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Item 6, internal audit report for selected school centers. And that's 6A. And then 6B, internal audit report property inventory for selected schools and centers. Both of these are action items. Mr. Goodman?

Ms. Tamara Wayne, CPA and Assistant Chief Auditor, will present. Let me mention that we are presenting, this is a new format, where we are breaking out the school audits and the property audits. And we're also, I'm excited about this, we've, along with the administration, uh we've adapted the new to the new threshold statutory statutory thresholds but i just wanted to mention that and miss wayne uh if you can please proceed with the presentation

Good afternoon, through the chair. Our office is presenting the December school audit report, which includes the audit results of 45 schools and centers. For the first time, as Mr. Goodman said, this report does not include property inventory audit results. Those results will be presented in a separate report as agenda item 6B. In this report, for nine of those schools and centers reported, the audit scope was two fiscal years ending June 30, 2025. For the remaining 36 schools, the audit scope was one fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. And at 17 of these schools, there was a change of principal and administrator since the prior audit. Audit results were satisfactory and the financial statements were fairly stated. for all the schools in this report, and there are no audit findings to report for this group of schools. Our office and district administration are available to answer any questions related to this report.

Any questions?

So this report has no findings of any schools. That's the beautiful thing, that's it.

Mr. Chair. Mr. Norwood, you now have to say through the chair.

Because he doesn't do that anymore. You see how that goes? Any other questions? Dr. Gallant?

Yes, through the chair. Mine is not a question, it's a comment. I just want to commend the Audit Department under the leadership of Mr. Goodman and Ms. Wayne for their tremendous work. But I also want to point out some sense of euphoria and affirmation for a school that's in my district that last year came before this audit committee with a number of issues, and I see that school is not only reflected as being in full compliance, but the leader of that school is a finalist for my district for Principal of the Year. I think education is an opportunity for us to do justice, but also embrace grace. And we knew that there were a number of issues that came up at this particular school. But as I said at the time, this school is an A school. The principal has done a tremendous job. And there were some other issues relative to staff, which our chair for years has talked about the dearth of staff that we have to navigate through the minutia of operating a school. This does not absolve the principal of his or her responsibility. But I think this report is a great degree of affirmation for me and something that really speaks to the redemption that we must continue to contemplate when we have issues that happen in organizations. So I won't cite the school, the school is here, and they obviously are reflected in three of the areas, purchasing, payroll, and data. And to see this school come back the following year with the success, the school again is an A, even in spite of all of that, the school is an A-rated school again. and now they're in full compliance with the expectations and policies and procedures that we have. I want to commend the audit staff, but also would be remiss if I didn't commend Dr. Lewis, Mr. Bueno, the superintendent, Dr. Aponte, her team, and definitely the principal and her team for moving this forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Dr. Gallin.

Any other comments? Before we close comments, I would like to say I echo the comments of both Mr. Norwood and Dr. Gallin that it is refreshing to get a report with so many schools and no findings. With that, this is an action item. I will entertain a motion.

So moved.

Yes. Oh, you're moving it, okay. All those in favor, respond by saying aye. Aye. Wait, unreadiness?

I just had a question. Are we bifurcating six? Because I think there's 6A and 6B, okay.

6A is designated as action, so we would take action on 6A, and then 6B is designated as action, and then we'll take action on 6B. So we got that unreadiness out the way. We're gonna do this again real fast. All those in favor, respond by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Six B, Mr. Goodman. Ms. Wayne.

Again, good afternoon through the chair. Our office is presenting this new report which includes property inventory audit results for 110 schools and centers. The property audits previously included in the school audit report have now been separated and compiled into a dedicated report. This format ensures more transparent reporting, improved focus on property related findings, and an easier reference for stakeholders. This report details property inventory audit results for 110 schools and centers with 46 using the original full inventory reconciliation methodology and 64 implementing the new risk-based sampling approach. So a little bit on the background, effective fiscal year 24-25, the district increased the capitalization threshold for assets tracked in the SAP asset management module from $1,000 to 5,000 in accordance with Florida administrative rules. FF&E additions tagged before that date, July 1st, 2024, under the previous $1,000 threshold will continue to be tracked until their disposition. The rule also introduced attractive items defined as property below the capitalization threshold that requires special attention for compliance, safety, or theft risk. The district identified musical instruments as attractive items and will maintain $1,000 threshold for tagging and tracking purposes. Effective October 1st, 2025, our office adopted a risk-based property inventory audit methodology in response to these district changes. So the property inventory audits now include all tangible personal property with a $5,000 or higher capitalization threshold, all district designated attractive items, which currently are musical instruments, and a 5% judgmental sample of items tagged before July 1st, 2024 under the previous $1,000 threshold. So schools audited before October 1st were reconciled using the $1,000 threshold, and those audited after this date were reconciled using the new methodology. In this report, there are no property audit findings to report for this group of schools, and our office and district administration are available to answer any questions related to this report.

Any questions? Comments? Entertain a motion? So moved. All those in favor respond by saying aye.

Aye.

We are now on agenda item seven, capital maintenance improvements at school sites. It's informational. Mr. Goodman?

through the chair, while we were doing our internal funds audits, we audited one school, Sunset Elementary, and we were able We found something that's not typically included in the audit program or the scope of the audit, but it came to our attention that the installation of a sound system and lighting system, we had looked at it and it didn't appear to be in compliance or up to standard with Miami-Dade's standards. So although it was outside of the scope of a normal school audit, we're nonetheless bringing it to your attention. We brought this to the senior management of the district, the maintenance in particular, and they had the vendor remove the item under question and replace it, fully up to code, okay? I'm also mentioning here in this memorandum that going forward, we may adjust our school audit program to include some testing of capital and maintenance, which we have the right to do under school board policy and government auditing standards. Just bringing that to your attention, if you have any questions about this, we had a very rigorous back and forth with the administration, the district administration, and I think our message is that we have to make sure that district-wide, any installation, even minor ones, seemingly minor ones, but if they require an inspection and this kind of stuff, we have to adhere to that. So, If you should have any questions about that, I'm prepared and the administration's prepared to talk more about it.

I know there's at least one question. Any questions, Mr. Taylor?

Mr. Goodman, I just wanted to check. Is this... Was there a safety-to-life issue as a concern, or is it a financial concern? I mean, if you could elaborate on that.

Not a financial, through the Chair, not a financial concern. I wouldn't qualify it, I don't think it rises to the level of necessarily a safety-to-life issue, so I wouldn't want to say that necessarily, but it was not exactly done as, prescribed by Miami-Dade County Public Schools standards. So, you know, to be cautious and thorough, rather than just overlook this, while I'm bringing it to your attention and the board's attention, but I wouldn't say that I would classify it, I would categorize it as not in full compliance with the standards.

Follow, Mr. Chair? Absolutely. I guess I would just, through the Chair, I guess I would just caution as well that we work together with our procurement department who is here, at least a representative, and Ms. Mumford, so that if this vendor happens to bid on a project similar to what's happening at Sunset Elementary, that they are aware that they are under the microscope and or that we look at what other alternatives we have for whatever the sound lighting and electrical installation that they were handling so that we're not put in a position or more specifically you, Mr. Goodman, are not put in the position of potentially uh having a some sort of endangerment uh with and not at your and at the at the fault of a of a vendor so i would just add that as a as a comment thank you mr norwood and then dr gallon

Yeah, Mr. Chair, I just need more clarity as to what exactly are we talking about, because I don't know what we're talking about here. So can we have some clarity? What exactly was, what are we talking about? What is the item? What was the situation? What is the standard, and what wasn't reached by nature of whatever the item was?

The cafetorium had a, new lighting system and sound system so uh you can if if you're if you're buying if a school is buying like a new tv or something like that or uh or something and you just basically plug it in that's one thing so on the other end of the spectrum would be you know if it's like a if it's a major capital outlay. So this probably fell in between that. But we saw some issues that, like for example, where they used an extension cord instead of having it fixed the wiring fixed and such. I'm not quite the expert in capital and maintenance, okay? But we did go back and forth a lot with the administration. If the administration would like to weigh in on this a little bit and describe, you know, I know Mr. Perez is at another event, or at another meeting, but if you want to add a little bit more on what the condition was that we saw. Through the chair?

Absolutely. I know Dr. Cowan's next, but you've now handed your mic over to Mr. Perez, so I certainly want to find out if he has an answer.

Mr. Boynton.

Through the chair. I think that Mr. Goodman stated it very well. This was a condition that we had at a school where The equipment in itself and the installation perhaps back then may have warranted that type of work. There were some items that were exchanged throughout the course of the work. Let me state that it was low voltage. So for those that are familiar with low voltage, that is basically the type of electricity that's done throughout your house on the outside patios. It is not high voltage at all. There were some electrical cords that were catty-cornered and plugged in that were not obviously something that we'd like to see. So those actions were corrected, they were brought up to the principal, and those actions have been taken care of.

Dr. Gale?

Through the Chair, I want to kind of go back to Mr. Norwood's inquiry relative to, he said it as candidly as he always does, like what are we really talking about here? So just for my own edification and maybe for the edification of the committee and the listening public, Let me walk through my understanding of how we got here, because one would ask if it doesn't have any budget or financial implications pursuant to an audit, how does the auditor actually end up in this particular place? Is it because this particular item was purchased through funds that were being audited and the auditor on the ground wanted to validate the presence of that purchase? I'm just going back to my days as a principal. Through the chair.

Through the chair, yes.

Okay, so that's, So they looked at the paperwork relative to the purchase being procured, and in some cases, which is smart, they want to make sure that the item that's reflected as being procured and paid for is not sitting in someone's cousin's house in another area. It's actually physically in the school, through the chair, am I correct?

Yes.

So in making that confirmation, they made their own untrained assessment as it relates to the mediocre installation of that particular product through the chair.

Through the chair. We do have one auditor on staff who was involved in this, and he does have quite a bit of experience in in construction and warranty and has extra licenses. But you're right, it wasn't necessarily, so we have some level of expertise.

But one of the requisite qualifications of the auditor is not to necessarily have that expertise. Correct. This was an auditor, God bless him or her, that had that expertise and wanted to leverage and lend their trained eye to kind of go beyond their initial assessment to simply validate that it's physically there, but also make an assessment of the quality of the installation and placement through the chair.

Correct. Okay. And through the chair, you could make the argument that this is outside the scope of our financial statement audit. Yeah, through the, yeah. you know and and that's a valid audit and that's i mean that's a valid point uh but we saw it and uh i made the decision to present it to the board and you know the world basically uh and uh you know and then going forward we reserve the right to include these steps in school in school audits through the chair um

I say this often in committees, so I know Mr. Steiger and Mr. Boino and Dr. Lewis and our chair know that I'm about to say this. You know, Mr. Goodman, you know I love you, right? I think so. I'm not 100%, I think so. But for me, but for me, having been a teacher, having been an assistant principal, a principal, a district administrator, a superintendent of schools, maybe the manner in which this was already handled with the administration who conceded to the fact that this is an issue, for me, not only as a member of the board, representing the board on this committee, I don't know, to your point, not my words, your words, this has opened up this particular issue which is isolated, and was predicated on a trained eye being physically there has opened it up to the world. So I'm just giving you my own caution, not my admonition. You can take it how you want to. But this auditor may be, people may be on the lookout for this auditor. So if you get this auditor, make sure you have capital to come in and make sure you don't have any plugs out of place because this person has the proclivity to kind of go outside of the scope. And we have a tremendously committed capital and facility department, Raul Perez, Mr. Carl Niccolo. And full disclosure, this morning, you can talk to Dr. Aponte, I got an inquiry from a school about an issue that was addressed immediately. in a facility of mine. So, you know, it's not nothing that I had to send an email, nothing that I want to communicate. Those of us who run schools and have been in schools know that's par for the course. I just want to manage what may come before, to the extent that I can voice my opinion, that may come before this committee. And if we have the ability and the success the success because staff conceded that it did not you know sometimes the best form of resolution is internal communication and it's not to hide anything from the public but there are just a myriad of issues that happen in our schools on a day-to-day basis this is going to be the new standard by which we report i don't know if it's necessarily fair to this particular school in my opinion because if you go to another school this particular situation can happen so i'm just putting my uh 10 cent in i don't want to say two cents but i hope it's worth more than two cents but this is just a new one for me uh nine years and i'm going to be as candid as i can our chair has some familiarity with this school You know, this is a very highly successful school, has always been. And, you know, informational is, this is information, if it's resolved, this may be one of 50 things that I did not necessarily need to deal with if it's resolved. Just my point. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And through the Chair, this was not an audit finding. This is a district-wide, we wrote, we went back and forth with the administration and you know we wrote a separate memo and it's designed not to blow it out of proportion and it's not directed at the principal or the school separately because I just want to make sure that uh going forward everyone's on the same page the administration's on the same page about uh you know uh what the what the standards are for any installations electrical and all that stuff so i think we tempered our our our findings here we did it's not part of the actual audit it's not an audit finding but it's a memo that i felt like i needed to put in writing so i felt like i needed to put it in writing and i i it's not directed at the school or uh the principal so much it's more like an overall thing that we noticed I get your points on what the protocol is and what's on the scope, but I made the decision to do what I did here with the memo. I thought it was a reasonable approach. I felt the need to put it in writing here and present it to you, but I get all your points. We've got three others.

We've got three others. Resist urge. Resist urge, John. I got it.

I got it. Resist urge.

Yes. Through the Chair, I don't want to continue to beat this thing to death. I think we got lucky finding this here. It doesn't seem like this is something that we would find on a regular basis. However, if I was a parent and I saw that there was an extension cord, I'd be concerned. So the only thing I want to say is it's not part of our committee, but if the administration has something in place where they can do inspections, random inspection of these schools, maybe the same principal has somebody go around and find this stuff. Yeah, the low voltage is not a safety issue, but the extension cord might be. And again, I don't think we need to spend any more time on this, but I just thought I wanted to say that. Thank you. Ms. Watson.

Through the chair, was this a PTA-funded initiative?

I'm sorry, I threw the... Was this a PTA-funded initiative? Actually... My understanding, I know we talked about, I heard that it was a PTA, but then I also heard from my team that it was another organization that presented to that, that donated the money. So I heard it was the PTA, but the, Tamara, maybe come up and explain that. Oh, through the chair.

Honestly, the answer to the question is, it seems, I don't know, but it might have been.

You were asked one question.

Through the chair, I don't know, but it might have been.

There we go. Do you have a follow-up?

Is there any way to know?

And if so, did the PTA donate the money to the school?

Through the chair, the funds that were used were not from the PTA. It was another organization that donated the funds to the school.

It was a donation.

Yes, but not from the PTA.

Okay. Mr. Norwood?

Yeah, I guess my question is, for Mr. Goodman is, you know, the agenda, the Audit and Budget Committee agenda is a public document that the world sees, and this item is listed as an agenda item. of which it's not just a notice that there's an issue, it's something that you're bringing to the attention of the committee, and I'm not understanding the context of it. So there's an audit taking place of the capital and maintenance program ongoing right now that's not a part of our agenda today. No. And so there's an ongoing audit happening at the school. And in the process of doing that audit, this was seen. Right. I'm just not understanding how this raises to the level of presenting a separate item on our agenda. I could see this being a part of the final result, perhaps, of what's happening there as a notation that this occurred. But I'm not understanding why, and maybe I'm just the only one lost, that why this is something that's on our agenda today.

Because it could have been a school audit finding because we had expenditures at the school and things I guess were not perfect with those expenditures in the process, the associated process. But I was, I came to the conclusion that this is, since this is not the normal audit for a school, that I wanted to address it, I didn't want to direct it solely at the principal and the school and i just wanted to uh if i wanted just to put a notice and alert uh the administration uh that these things uh when you when you have an installation or a capital expenditure uh you have to have everything in place. You have to have the inspections in place, the permit, the proper licensure of the vendor, all this kind of stuff. So that's why I presented it here, because I didn't want to attack the school for something that, you know, the schools are not, in their internal fund audits, this is not something that they've had before, right? But I felt that although it didn't rise i don't think i don't think it rose to what you would call necessarily a a safety to life but it was it was something that i wanted to put in writing and i think it's it's school it's district wide it affects it's more of a district-wide issue so that's that was my rationale for putting it in here and dr gallon

Through the chair and I'll make this my last comment. Mr. Bueno and staff are used to me, the superintendent used to me saying, you know, that's your discretion, your determination, but I often say, if it were me, what I would do, would have done, is potentially place the topic, the issue, under new business and maybe cite the examples and the need for coordination between purchases that are made in the school, that are a part of installation, electrical upgrades, and the capital maintenance department to validate the certain quality standards. I know that some of our, through the chair, some of our lease agreements actually require our Tenants or Lee see to actually go through capital before they can install a TV before they can add a an electrical outlet So I think the protocols are in place, but you know potentially these issues may come up But if it were me, maybe I would have put that on under new business to the point of Mr. Norwood's statement because the bond door is up and and the horse is already out. And I respectfully understand what your intent may be, but I often tell people it's not your intent, it's the impact. The impact is this school has actually been, you know, a parent may call today. Mr. Bueno's nodding his head now, you know, but we're here now, but just in the future, I don't necessarily have a need for this information at this level, especially if our staff has conceded to it, it's not in dispute, and they've already committed to remedying the issue. And in this case, it seems like it's already been remedied through the chair.

Mr. Bueno?

Through the chair, Dr. Gallin, on point 100%, the administration conceded the first time we heard about this, and we agreed upon that we would take immediate action even that same day with issuing documents an emergency briefing contacting the regions to make sure that everything was up to par um going back to mr gonzalez mr mr gonzalez sir uh we do do inspections of our schools precisely for these topics you know i can't explain why it was not caught at that point in time but our schools are um uh inspected Mrs. Watson, you asked if it was a parent, if it was a PTSA. Our records indicate that it was a parent association, not necessarily the PTSA. It was a PTS seed, I believe it was. So it's an arm of the PTSA. It was commingled dollars. So the parent association came up, let's say, with $5,000. Then the school met the $5,000 to get these upgrades that were needed. It was an old system. Some of it was just plug in, plug out. Others were not. Low voltage. And I'd like to end it with this. I think that... both Dr. Gallin and Ms. Rojas and the rest of the board know how phenomenal this school is. By putting it here today, we are asking ourselves why is it that our parents choose other schools and sometimes it's this type of messaging that we've gotten to that go out and people may believe that it's something really drastic and really major happening at the school site, when it really honestly isn't. Thank you. Mr. Tala.

Through the Chair, one final comment. And I echo Mr. Gonzalez and also Mr. Norwood. And that's why I opened with my first comment of was, is this a safety to life issue? Because once it wasn't, it was less of a concern when I just read the memo. So I think that another important thing, in addition, Dr. Gallant to putting it as a new business item was as a safety to life issue, because that would raise two eyebrows for me as opposed to one. Thank you.

Any other comments? Mr. Goodman, the only thing I'm going to say is, having read the memo, it appears to me that the information you wanted to convey is contained in what appears to be the third paragraph where it says, we reserve the right to include audit steps associated with capital maintenance improvements or noted conditions in future school audits consistent with school board policy 6835, office of management and compliance audits and applicable accounting standards.

Is that correct? That is one thing I wanted to say, and I also wanted to say what's in paragraph one, two, and four, which is incumbent on the district to all of that.

I think the body is perhaps telling you that while the information contained in paragraph three is important, paragraphs one, two, and four because the problem was caught and because the administration accepted it and corrected it right away, might have been better left out of the memo, just reminding everybody, including the administration of the individual schools, that if we come in and we're auditing and we see something else, we do have these other rights, which I think is important. I think the rest of it though, to Mr. Bueno's point, might be putting, might be casting the wrong shadow on this particular school without addressing, which I think is a valid point, which is audit, as the auditor office, if we see it, we have these other rights. And I think that's okay. You just didn't have to put the rest of the dressing on.

Through the chair, I'm gonna, I know everyone has, I think the committee and the administration have a pretty solidified opinion on this. However, I'm gonna have to respectfully disagree with it. Okay. Okay. This took, this audit, when we, we had a lot of back and forth with the administration on this. I feel that know as the as the auditor i have standards to follow if something goes wrong in the future that's going to be on me right if we audited something or looked at it so i i appreciate know your comments on what should be left in what should be left out at the same time I stand by this memo and you know by the way I've been doing this for 32 years auditing and I understand the nuances and how to how to uh the tone of your audit report all that stuff by the way i also have a master's degree in internal auditing from fiu and uh so i've been spending my whole life on how to present audit findings in accordance with standards and all that, and I get what you're saying, and there's some judgment to be done, and I respect everyone's opinion on what the audit or the memo should say and what should not say. At the end of the day, I'm comfortable with what we wrote here.

And I appreciate that. Mr. Governor, no one's trying to re-edit your memo, but the subject line of the memo isn't this school did bad. The subject line is capital maintenance improvement at school sites, which is I need to remind everyone of what the policies and procedures are, which is informational and I think useful. And I think that's the point that I was making. I'll accept that.

Mr. Chair, I was done with it. But I want to say through the chair, the major issue that I will find is embedded in the word that you utilize, standards. Standards really speak to consistency, they speak to equity, and they speak to some degree of equality. Not for this person having that expertise, then one could say, this assessment, this declaration, this citation, became arbitrary because if you don't have a person with that level of training, then this would not be here. So hey, the more the merrier. So maybe we need to contemplate expanding that as a scope. Maybe we need to look at putting that in a job description for auditors. And I'm being sarcastic. But a parent can come in and see an electrical issue and they can report it to the principal and get it remedied. All I'm saying is we need to have equity, we need to have parity in these particular processes. And a person who has some level of expertise may be the person that maybe need to look at auditing all schools. So I'm just throwing that out there because not for that level of expertise, we wouldn't be having this conversation. And that's where you have a lack of parity so it's like whatever auditor they get if they get this auditor they better know carl better go there before this auditor comes because they're going to be doing facility and capital assessments and if this is what we're going to do let's have at it thank you mr chair that's a fair point through the chair that's all i'm saying i like to be fair i like to be fair right

This was it if any other any other comments. No, this was the informational item. Let's put it well behind us Moving on to eight internal audit report audit of inventories as of June 30th 2025 was good We're gonna have mr. Teresita Rodriguez CPA district audit director make the presentation

Good afternoon, through the chair. As part of our audit plan, we perform an inventory audit every year consisting of food and nutrition, stores and mail distribution, textbook support services, maintenance materials management, and the Department of Transportation. The audit includes observing the physical inventory counts, testing the counts, and verification of prices. If you refer to page 10 of the report, you will see the audit results for the departments mentioned. We believe the audit inventories are fairly stated and there were no findings. With that, I'll take any questions you may have.

Any questions, comments? I just have an observation, or actually I do have a question. What was the scope? How large audit did you guys conduct?

If you look on page 10, it'll tell you actually for each of those warehouses how much we looked at. It was considerable. Exactly. For the food and nutrition, it depends. They have different categories, but we went up to 100% of confirmations for our processors, for stores and distribution, I believe it was 51%. Textbook support services was 28%. And materials management was 26%. And the Department of Transportation was 27%, which is considerably high.

I just observed that that's good work then by all those involved.

Thank you.

Anything else? This is an action item? Probably move to second it. All those in favor respond by a sound of aye. Opposed?

Agenda item nine. Through the chair, this is 18 of 160 charter school audited financial statements being presented. Michael Hernandez, CPA, Executive Audit Director, will make the presentation.

Good afternoon, and through the chair, we are presenting the first 18 charter schools audited financial statements for the fiscal year, ended June 30th, 2025. 12 of these charter schools had no significant fiscal issues. The remaining six charter schools contained either a voluntary termination of charter and or a deficit net position or a deficit fund balance and or a internal control letter finding and a management letter finding. I, along with the district and charter school management, would be happy to answer any questions that the committee might have on these audited financial statements.

Any questions?

Mr. Talbot? Mr. Williams, when you talk about that the school voluntarily terminated its charter, meaning they're no longer going to operate as a charter school, from Miami-Dade County, is that what that means?

Yeah, they voluntarily terminated their charter at the end of this fiscal year, so closeout procedures were performed, and they were performed by charter school operations, and there were no significant issues that came about as a result of those procedures. And just, well, okay, thank you.

Any other questions, comments?

Just to follow up, so it says June 30th, 2025, so they're closed already?

Yes, they closed at the end of this past fiscal year. They did provide us a final audited financial statements by their external auditors, and there were no material issues there.

Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that it was 25, not 26, because it sounded, but thank you so much.

This is an action item. I'll entertain a motion.

Moved.

It's been properly moved to second. All those in favor respond by saying aye. Aye. Item number 10, 2025 Annual Report, Office of the Inspector General, Miami-Dade County Public Schools. This is informational.

Good afternoon. Through the Chair, Chairwoman Rojas, Dr. Gallin, Chairman Johnson, now going Chairman Norwood, and advisory committee members. My name is Felix Jimenez and I am your Inspector General. It is my pleasure to present to you the Miami-Dade Public Schools OIG Annual Report for the period of July 1st, 2024 through June 30th, 2025. The mission of the OIG is to detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, waste, mismanagement, and abuse through independent oversight of district affairs and to seek appropriate remedies to recover public monies. This annual report provides an overview of the work accomplished by my office during this last fiscal year. Featured in this report are both administrative and criminal cases involving allegations of payroll fraud, voter registration irregularities, misappropriation of donated items, and improper procurement. Some of the investigations highlighted in the report arose from complaints that were made in good faith, but the investigation determined that those allegations were either unfounded or unsubstantiated. The annual report also lists our operating budget, which supports my staff, as well as the support that we receive from the OIG main office, which includes legal, analytical, and administrative support. This report is being shared with the ABAC as an information item to inform and assist in its policy recommendations to the school board. There are two specific entries in the annual report that I would like to point out. First is the addition of Special Agent Mabel Lascano to our team. Mabel, would you please stand? Mabel served for 12 years as a senior manager in global security and investigations for the world's largest retailer. She previously served as a special agent with a distinguished career with the State of Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and she brings a wealth of experience to our office and will enhance our ability to continue providing impartial and effective results. Second, our office completed a review of purchasing procedures and P-card expenditures, resulting in modernization and improvement of processes. This review was presented to this committee at its May 2025 meeting. We are currently working on the phase two review of direct reports, which include the superintendent, the chief auditor, the general counsel, and the chief financial officer. I thank you all for your dedication and the time and talent you so generously give in the service to the district. And I look forward to continuing to present the work of the OIG before this committee. I will be happy to field any questions concerning the annual report. And if there are no questions, thank you for your time and I wish you the happiest of holidays.

Any questions?

Yes. Thank you through the chair. So on page seven, you talk about the complaints that were received. during the year, 50 complaints were received, and 74 complaints were received through the website's report fraud page. That means that 26% came through other means?

That is correct. And they're listed there, referrals from another agency we received one, telephone complaints, email or by mail, and then one would be the other. Not sure what that other was, but the method of a complaint received. An in-person complaint, that was a walk-in.

as a follow-up question through the chair. Is this the only mechanism for reporting fraud, waste, and abuse? Is this the only hotline? I'm calling it hotline, but it's the report of fraud page. Is this the only platform to do so for the district?

So the majority of the complaints that we received are through our website. We have a complaint form in the website that one can fill out. So not only this office, but the main OIG office, the majority of the complaints received are through that website. But we also provide all other means. We allow walk-ins to come in. We can get phone calls. We have a 24-hour hotline where people can leave a voice complaint if they'd like.

uh we even have a fax machine i think we get one one a year maybe um the follow-up um question through the chair is this um hotline um managed in-house or is it through an outside third party it's managed through the main office but it does pertain to the school district as well um So something for consideration through the chair. I find that 50, it's low for a organization of this size in terms of financial resources and number of employees and so forth. So perhaps in the next report you can provide some benchmarking. in terms of complaints received versus other organizations of this size. I know the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners provides an annual report that provides benchmarking. I know from my own organization, we provide that benchmarking, but I just find the 50, it's low overall. Doesn't mean good or bad. It's just low when you benchmark to other institutions And perhaps just finding institutions that that you can benchmark our peer institutions that you can benchmark So I think that will be helpful just to have an idea in terms of the effectiveness of the hotline whether there's additional need for awareness and training and education and so forth to market, quote unquote, the hotline.

Thank you. Through the chair, thank you. We do advertise our office. We attend many of the procurement fairs and let them know that we're there. We are also the primary recipient of whistleblower complaints for the district, and the administration does put that information out. We meet with the bargaining unit as well and letting them know that we exist and we are welcome to take their complaints. And we also do informal risk assessments and proactively GENERATE CASES OUTSIDE OF THE COMPLAINT REVIEW PROCESS.

THROUGH THE CHAIR AS A FOLLOW-UP COMMENT. SO AS YOU LOOK INTO BENCHMARKING FOR NEXT YEAR'S REPORT, PERHAPS SOMETHING TO CONSIDER AN ADDITIONAL METRIC WOULD BE AND MAYBE IT'S IN HERE AND I JUST DIDN'T SEE IT, THE PERCENTAGE OF COMPLAINTS THAT WERE SUBSTANTIATED VERSUS THE ONES THAT WERE NOT SUBSTANTIATED. Because sometimes with these hotlines you get a lot of false positives, but you still have to do the due diligence because you don't know when you receive a complaint what it means. So providing that information if it's not already here. I think that would be helpful also.

Absolutely, and through the Chair, the disposition of the complaints is in the following chart, but sometimes these go beyond, the investigation goes beyond the fiscal year. But we can provide those numbers.

Thank you.

Thank you. Dr. Gallin?

Yes, thank you, through the chair. One, I want to continue to thank our Office of Inspector General for the work that they do. I think it's critically important that we have that independent layer of inquiry, assessment, and investigation. But through the chair, I have a quick question relative to some of the timelines. If you look at page nine and 10, IT APPEARS THAT SOME OF THESE ISSUES OCCURRED NORTH OF SEVEN YEARS AGO. CAN YOU THROUGH THE CHAIR SPEAK TO HOW THOSE EITHER ARE RECEIVED LATE OR DISPOSED OF IN THE TIME THAT IT APPEARS AS REFLECTED IN THE 2025 REPORT? SO ON PAGE 9, 2018 IS THE YEAR CITED. MAYBE THE COMPLAINT CAME IN OR IT SAYS THE 2017-2018 YEAR. But if you just take that as it is, you'll be talking almost seven years through the chair. So if you can kind of walk through that, because from a, I'm not an investigator, but I think that creates some level of difficulty too in resolving it. But if you can walk through those timelines and that timeliness of it through the chair.

Yeah, so through the chair, thank you, Dr. Gallin. This case was a criminal case that was investigated and charged within an appropriate timeline. These are just some things that came up past that that we're reporting on, some new developments. But the case itself, the individuals were charged, they were prosecuted, the case was resolved. and adjudicated, these are just new information that came up as a result of that initial case that resulted in discipline by the district of some of the remaining individuals in that investigation.

Follow up, Mr. Chair?

Absolutely.

Yeah, through the Chair, so if the investigation or the charging took place, let's just say circa 2018, And I know the wheels of justice move slow. Trust me, I know that. They do move slow. Yes. But a seven-year gap in terms of potentially a resolution on our side, I'm just curious as it relates to from the initial charging, when was it transitioned over for the pending individuals? I'm just trying to cover that seven-year gap. Did you get it within the last two years or how did that come about?

This information would have been relatively recent information that we decided to provide in this annual report that was recently received.

Recently received through the chair or recently resolved?

Recently, the information recently received as to the action by the administration.

Okay, so through the chair. So you may have, I guess I don't like to. You have the prosecutorial arm to the right and you have the administrative arm that's reflected in this particular report to my left. When did that information actually come to you all and start to address it, resolve it, investigate it? Was it running parallel or was it subsequent thereto and when?

It would have been subsequent to the criminal investigation and I can't tell you exactly when.

Okay, I'm just curious about that. That's, okay. We can follow up you Absolutely. Okay, just curious, you know, but that's a question someone asked seven years because the way it reads it looks like it was seven years and if that's not Reflected in the time that you took to do it you you clearly didn't take seven years to deal with this because that would That would not be very efficient. So however, we write the report to close the gap it may be important to have a footnote to say although this is initiated in 2018, just as you described, our office did not get involved for this particular scope of this investigation until three, four, even five years later, because it looks like it was a seven-year run by your office, which you just indicated was not.

Correct.

Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Mr. Chair? Thank you very much. I know how small your department is and how great they all are. Every time I speak to one of your agents, I'm just excited. I feel like I'm watching a TV show. They're so smart. With that said, I do follow with my colleague on awareness. I think awareness is a big factor. I had this conversation today with my wife that every mind is a different world. the understanding of right and wrong and the gray areas like a very blurred in 2025. And I think awareness is something that it's not really there. And I mean, I don't know. And I would just say maybe in services are also offered to understand what you covered and what are good, bad, and gray. And if you see something, tell somebody, right? And I remember when we discussed the money matters, that was a big discussion we had, which I still believe is very gray, having attended meetings in where there was discussion on how to bypass the minimum standard of donation. With that said, having spoken about ESAC, I think that when some of these cases are closed, there should be a conversation with the person if they wanted to be contacted. So I still want to be contacted because I think there was no clarity. And as you know, being on my professional life as a private investigator, dealing with cases in which I do come in contact with people who work in the system, not just here, but throughout the state and the nation, I will tell you that most people do not understand the gray area. And it behooves us to create awareness and understanding for our teachers and our students janitors and the security people, because if we're only at the top, we're definitely missing the action at the bottom. And I think awareness and in service would be so awesome for everyone to understand, because I had to actually go on your page and really read to understand what you really do and how you differentiate from everyone else in your enforcement and your work. With that said, I think you guys are great. And like my colleague said, you know, benchmarks, awareness is something that you could do on a Zoom or something like that. I know you have great people back there. Congratulations, ma'am. You joined the A team. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? This is informational. Thank you very much. I echo the comments of my colleagues.

Thank you, sir.

Agenda item 11, Office of Management and Compliance, Audits, Activities, Status Reports.

Mr. Goodman. Through the Chair, I'm prepared to answer any questions that you may have on this. Any questions?

All right. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Goodman. All business, we have an update regarding the transmittal of the educational facilities impact fee study and school board action.

Okay, through the chair, Mr. Perez is at another event. Okay. This is relating to the impact fee with the county and the potential increase in fees and all that. It's gone to the county. Maybe staff, in Mr. Perez's absence, maybe staff can just give a very brief update as to where we are with this.

Through the chair, Mr. Goodman, we thought that Mr. Perez would be here, so he did not brief any of us. So I would have to respectfully request that we provide something in writing to you, then you can send it to the ABAC at a later time. My apologies.

That's acceptable. As an update, this item remains on old business unless and until it's resolved, hopefully in the school board's favor. So that would be the extent of the update there. Moving the agenda forward, new business.

Yes, sir. I don't have new business. I just wanted to congratulate the district on principal today. I thought it was awesome, inspirational. And my experience at the school site, which was my elementary school, was just superb because the data collection that exists today is to be admired. I mean, it was dive in to understand what's going on. And I just wanted to say, and I said this when I went to school, I said, we all should go ahead and aim to participate in principle today, as well as the other advisory boards, because we sit here and we talk about dangerous items and this and that, but when you step in and see 2025, and it will be 2026, You'll see that what they're dealing with and what we see on paper, once they meet, it's a totally different story. The kids were awesome, totally loved them. Congratulations, Ms. Chairwoman. Riverside Community School, I keep on calling it Riverside Elementary. Riverside Community School, it's awesome. You have a great principal. And she is really, I told her she should get a Murphy bed. because she's always there. So congratulations. I just wanted to share that, Mr. Chairman. Very good activity.

Thank you. Any other new business? I will entertain a motion to adjourn. All right. Thank you all very much.