School Board Audit and Budget Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon. Welcome to the July 28th School Board Audit and Budget Advisory Committee meeting. Could we start with introductions?

Thank you, everybody. Welcome. The second item on the agenda is the approval of this meeting's agenda. Mr. Goodman, are there anything to add to your knowledge?

Do I have a motion to approve the meeting agenda? Second. Second. ALL THOSE IN AGREEMENT RESPOND BY SAYING AYE. AYE. MOTION PASSES. THIRD ITEM ON THE AGENDA, ITEM NUMBER 3, APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF THE SCHOOL BOARD AUDIT AND BUDGET ADVISORY MEETING OF MAY 19, 2026. DO I HAVE A MOTION? ANY SECOND? SECOND. ALL THOSE IN FAVOR RESPOND WITH AYE. MOTION PASSES. Agenda item number four, the presentation of the fiscal year 2026-27 executive summary tentative budget. Mr. Goodman.

Thank you, Mr. Steiger. Well, before I turn it over to my colleagues, you saved your biggest presentation for last in terms of the size of this, I think. But thank you very much. Any questions?

I always thought you were one of our superstars. We're truly going to miss you.

Mr. Steiger, so sorry to see you leave. You know, I have to admit, your sense of humor is, it catches on after, you know, I don't know how long I've been here, maybe 10 years I caught on to it. But, no, you've always been a straight shooter. I think that's what you always want in these sort of environments. And you've always done it with a smile in the toughest situations. And I wish you well at Barrier University. And, you know, you've spent a lot of time here at Miami-Dade Public Schools. And you've been a champion for the children of our district, for the finances that supports their educat

Any other questions or comments? Mr. Saigra, on behalf of Mr. Johnson and myself and everybody here, we really do appreciate what you've done for this committee. We wish you the best of luck. There is a big void to fill now here, so we wish you the best of luck, and we will be missing you around here. So thank you for your service to Miami-Dade Public Schools. With that, is there any questions on the budget or a motion?

Do I hear a second? All those in favor respond with aye. Motion carries. Moving on to agenda item number five, the planning communication to the members of the school board of the Miami-Dade County, Florida Audit Committee and Management for the fiscal year ended June 30th, issued by the district's independent external auditor, Forvis Massar's LLP. Goodman.

Thank you, Mr. Castaneda. Thank you, Mr. Knopp. Any questions on the committee? Ms. Maladon.

Any other questions? I just have two quick questions. I know that you mentioned this, Mr. Castaneda, in your presentation, but first of all, congratulations and welcome. Maybe congratulations or condolences, I'm not sure yet. Definitely congratulations. Since you came in a little late to the party, more than this committee expected, do you foresee any issues with your timeline? Are there any... possibly unforeseen issues that could be, that could come up from taking over a project this size this late?

And have you reviewed what our previous external auditor has done kind of as a benchmark to what we have, what we expect, what we've done in the past?

Do I have a motion? Is it second? All those in favor respond aye. Aye. Motion passes, thank you. Thank you, good afternoon. Agenda item number 6A, the internal audit report selected schools and centers. Mr. Goodman.

Any questions? Um, I just had a question with regard to the Benjamin Franklin K eight center. Um, two questions with regard to the, I was concerned with item 1.6 on page 39 where there was a vendor that was paid twice. Um, has that money come back to the school of the district? Do you know?

All right. I'll just – yeah, that caught my attention. vendor that was paid twice. I'm hoping that we can get a follow-up with regard to getting reimbursed if we did pay somebody. Is that vendor still an active vendor for either the school or the district?

Do I have a motion to include that? So moved. All those in favor? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Okay, Mr. Goodman, let's put that for the next follow-up on the vendor reimbursement, and if we could get information on who the vendor is, et cetera, that'd be great. I don't have any other, any other questions?

All those in favor respond with aye. Aye. Passes. 6B, the internal audit report for property inventory at selected schools and centers. Mr. Goodman.

Thank you, Ms. Swain, any questions? Ms. Malagon.

Any other questions? Do I hear a motion? Second. All those in favor respond with aye. Motion passes, and I will turn it over to our chair, Mr. Johnson.

Hello, and good afternoon, and apologize for the accident on 95. Item seven, Office of Management and Compliance Audits, 2026-2027 Audit Plan. Mr. Goodman.

Any questions? This is an action item. I'll entertain a motion. Then properly move to second it. All those in favor respond by a sound aye.

Motion carries. Eight, evaluation of external auditors, fiscal year reporting period ended June 30th, 2025. And the internal audit team, fiscal year ended June 30th, 2026. This is an informational item.

Moving on to... Can I ask a quick question? Go ahead. Through the chair. John, first of all, you should frame this as a love note for you, I think, here. And thank you for you and your team. I think we could all attest to how hard you guys work. We're very appreciative of your team. The one thing is with regard to the last one, the superintendent select cabinets and senior staff, I realize that it's only two people. I'm not gonna ask for identity, but I think that this is one that maybe can we expand on this like for the next year that it's not two that we send it to more seniors so that we ha

Any other questions? Moving forward. Item number nine, Office of Management and Compliance Audits Activity Status Report. Mr. Goodman?

Hearing none. That's informational only. Item 10. Office of Inspector General Report, Report of Investigation, Review of Marketing Class Instructional Staff at William H. Turner Technical Arts High School. Do we have Mr. Jose Gonzalez?

Mr. Atala? Yes, through the chair. Mr. Gonzalez, I read it in detail. It read like a novel, to be honest, like a drama novel. But my question is, it's a two-part question. What is the outcome of all of this? If it's an ongoing investigation, I understand. And secondly, what made it rise to the level that the OIG had to get involved? Because I read potential perjury slash... being false information to a Leo, which I hold to a high regard, and that should not be permitted by any stretch of the imagination, but it almost sounds like there was a detriment obviously to the district by allowing this

Thank you. And follow up to the chair. So what is the ultimate outcome of this report? Because I read it and I know that it's a problem. It shouldn't happen. We have a lot of people who are no longer affiliated with the district involved in this. We have state attorney's office that didn't want to accept prosecution. I do see potentially riddled here, false information to a law enforcement officer, potential perjury. I don't know if it was under oath, a sworn statement or not, What's the ultimate outcome out of this, is I guess what my question is.

Ms. Norwood? Thanks, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is, so it's really just a check down. This is about one employee, right? Sir, this is about one employee.

But if I'm reading correctly, the complaint was about a teacher not being certified.

Got it. And I guess I'm not asking what the intent would be, but how does something like that happen? I see there's some administrative systems that's quoted in the report, but how does that happen that someone would be teaching in a field that would be in a classroom, teaching a class that they're not certified to teach for?

Thank you. Through the chair, if I could ask Mr. Bueno, how did something like this happen?

I understand. I guess my follow-up question would be, maybe not in this situation and not necessarily trying to even deal with this situation, but a teacher who's not certified in a particular subject might acknowledge that they're not certified in a particular subject. Would that not be correct?

Got it. And then I guess my last question, if you'll indulge me, Mr. Chair. You know, what would be the, I understand that our kids must be in classrooms with teachers that are certified to teach the subject matters in front of them because that's the way curriculum works. But what would a principal or a teacher, not necessarily in this situation, but what would there be to gain to have someone teach a class that they're not certified to teach?

Got it. Okay, thank you very much. Yes, sir. Mr. Taylor.

Mr. Bueno, I want to follow up to one of Mr. Norwood's points. Was there anything that affected now our students with regard to this by having this class? And if I read it correctly, the report correctly, I think this is a course, a class, this marketing class was taught to a group of students in the fall semester and then a different group of students in the spring semester. But either way, we know that based on this report, that neither one of the two teachers were certified to teach that subject, the interventionalist or the assigned teacher, but was there anything that jeopardized our stud

I just want to ditto Ms. Malagon's, Malagon, right? Commentary to the Inspector General and just ditto what she said about how the summary, you know, what it speaks to, because, you know, we get a report from the OIT, and so, you know, we get it because that it's required that it comes here, but in the description, knowing... listening to what Ms. Balagan said, the way she describes it as a CPA, I think would be very helpful in the future. Duly noted, thank you.

Anyone else? This being an informational item, we'll move forward to old business. First old business, payroll update, management's response regarding Dade School's sign-in application project, timeline and phased rollout timeline.

And just reviewing it, I see that the digital time sheet, I assume, is going to be rolled out at the beginning of school?

Mr. Goodman, when is the next audit for this in application? Do we know?

Okay. So presumably, through the chair, presumably by your next audit, the first four phases should be completed, because I think that ends June 2027. Is that fair?

And lastly, through the chair, phase five and six, I know it's a TBD. Is there any indication of when this entire program is going to be fully implemented?

Thank you. I actually have a follow-up question. I noticed that the digital timesheets and department tests, seeing as we're at the end of July, is there any update on those tests?

Yeah, through the chair, Mr. Bueno, and I appreciate that. I think that we also, when this audit came to the committee a couple of years ago, the concern also was that everything, including for overtime for some of the non-educational staff, was kind of still an honor system by calling or cards, if memory serves me correct. Is that not one of the things that came up during our audit? And I mean, I'm going two years ago, so...

And forgive me, through the chair, forgive me for the choice of words. I think it was more so to make sure that when... employees were doing things when they're hourly employees or what have you that they would be able to check in and check out or time in and time out from their phones and that wasn't happening across all of our district employees and that's what my recollection is of what happened two years ago Is that not right?

I mean, to that point, I do notice on the timeline that There's a note here, regions have chosen to bring school sites in at phase three. So just so we're clear, the digital timesheets, certain of our regions won't be switching to them until phase three being somewhere between October, January, or February of 27.

So that the two work hand in hand, the leave and the timesheet. Correct. Mr. Tell.

Through the chair, I was going to say that. That way we could up our budget again. Maybe that will entice Mr. Steiger to leave Barry and come back if we get a couple of hundreds of millions of dollars for an app that we sell.

Anyone else? Thank you very much. Appreciate that update. Moving on to follow-up requests to the FDOE for technical guidance regarding charter school fund transfers and financial transparency. Mr. Goodman.

So if you have any any further questions or comments on this I'm happy to weigh in Before you do that I know your update was that we sent a follow-up request in May and have heard nothing Did we see see anyone on that are we just dealing with the one office we're dealing with well we sent

I'm going to suggest making a decision on the course of action and informing everyone on what that decision is. And then see if anyone decides that they would like to weigh in.

Yeah, that's my point, is that at this point, the FDOE has told you to choose your own adventure. We've gone to the school board, and the school board, at least up to now, has not decided to weigh in one way or the other If it's choose your own adventure, then choose it, standardize it across because this issue of the charter schools is a growing issue within the district. And then see if anyone makes noise or responds from there. But I think everyone's silence has put the ball back in your office's court.

Correct. Mr. Norwood? Yes, sir. Mr. Chair, I think what our auditor has done thus far and what this committee has done thus far has been, to me, extraordinary by, A, contacting Tallahassee and asking for direction. receiving the initial letter from the Auditor General saying that we should go to Department of Education but in that letter mentioning that this may have some negative impact or some sort of impact on our reporting to them and then reaching out to the Department of Education hearing nothing from them informing the school board that we have heard nothing from them And now having don

And I don't disagree with what Mr. Norwood said. I would add though that if we are auditing multiple charter school companies, which we will be doing, we need a policy to deal with this particular question. And in the absence of guidance, having sought guidance from everyone you've been directed to seek guidance from, you have to, I don't think it's wise or fair to ad hoc it, to do it based upon how it is the communications go with each individual management company. Well, this one's willing to do this, and this one's willing to do that. You've accepted something in the past, you can use that

The only point that I'd raise is you asked for the information. It was the management companies that said, no, we don't want to give you the information. We will give you this information. There was a negotiation that was had. Those negotiations should guide you moving forward. because I don't think anyone here is telling you not to continue to ask for the information. In the absence of being told that you can have the information, then ask for the information.

Correct. And then, because one, someone's going to complain to their lobbyist friends, and then you will get the answer you're looking for one way or the other. But I think, too, because we owe it to everyone we interact with to at least be standardized in our approach to how, hi, we've asked everyone for this information. You're not special. You're not unique. We're asking you for this information, too. And each time that you negotiate a resolution to that, as you just did, that's a benchmark. Here's what we have negotiated in the past so that you're creating your own standardization is what

Through the chair, and I just wanted to see if we could have Mr. Harvey chime in on this. I think you did when we first brought this up, Mr. Harvey. And I agree with what this committee has done historically since at least March, from what I recall, with regard to this. But if we require something... And Mr. Johnson and I sit on separate sides of a litigation table, but if we require something that the law, as we know it, is silent on, we agree to that. are we exposing the district to, I don't know, potential litigation, or do we have any recourse that we could take legally at this point as th

Mr. Harvey, through the chair, I think that answers specifically what my concern is. We know that the law as written is either absent or unclear or ambiguous, so we won't have any issues by requesting this information that we are doing something that's contrary to the statutes that presently exist. There's nothing specifically on point that says don't do it.

Anyone else? Go ahead, Mr. Norwood. I do have, because there is actually, well... I think there's actually a real solution that could happen, but we don't have the authority to do that, which through the chair, Mr. Attorney, I mean, the school district, not this, not the audit committee, but the school board could petition for a declaratory statement, could it not?

No, no, no, ask an administrative judge to provide a declaratory, ask an agency through an administrative judge to provide a declaratory statement as to what the rules are as it relates to this particular set of circumstances.

It's not for us to seek that. Right. Yeah. So what I'm saying is that, I mean, I don't want us to think that in this committee to think that ultimately when one government may have a different opinion about something as it relates to administrative rules and as it relates to whether any of this is administrative rules, you know what I'm saying? But you can always, or a person can always ask an agency to do an administrative action to tell us what this means. Meaning that if there's something in an administrative rule or an administrative procedure and you think it means one thing and someone e

sort of muddling over this and as if there's nothing ultimately that can be done there is something ultimately that could could be done philosophically in in the absence of a law a direction or a rule i'm all for it asking for the most you're going to get the litigator thing so i i so i get it i appreciate the issue but i also appreciate the accounting quandary it puts you in And we're going to see more of it because of the size of some of these management companies and the scope of some of these management companies that we are giving significant amounts of money to. Anyone else?

Because it is an open question to Mr. Norwood's point. C, update concerning the transmittal of the educational facilities impact fee study, pursuant to state legislation and prior board action.

To the Chair, Mr. Harvey, I was going to ask this during the presentation of the budget, but it kind of all goes hand-in-hand with B and C of old business today, because obviously this would assist with our financial situations if we're able to increase this. And I know that at least I've been on this committee for years, four years and it's still kind of in limbo. But I also wanted to tie this in with B when it came to charter schools. It was one of the things I read in the in the budget presentation that Mr. Steiger gave was with regard to how much time your office has to deal with charter s

Thank you, anyone else? Hearing none, this too was informational, new business. Yes, sir.

Listen, I love good news. So that actually brightened my day. Anyone else? Absolutely happy birthday, Ms. Watson.

And lastly, Mr. Steiger, we bid you farewell and best of luck to you, sir.

Is this our last meeting? Oh, wow. All right. Well, then I will entertain a motion to adjourn.