DURANGO SCHOOL DISTRICT 9-R
REGULAR SCHOOL
BOARD MEETING
MINUTES
OCTOBER 25, 2005
President Brevik called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. President Brevik, Dr. Jones, Mr. Patterson, Mr. Seiter, Mr. Short, and Ms. Paulson were all present. Mr. Horvath was absent.
Dr. Jones made a motion to approve the agenda as presented, which was seconded by Mr. Patterson and unanimously approved.
There were no public participation forms. Ms. Paulson had received a letter from Mr. Peter Tregellus thanking the district for holding the Reality Check linkage, which will be shared with the rest of the board in the Friday packets. Mr. Horvath arrived at 6:06 p.m.
President Brevik stated that she had a request for the board to discuss openly the issues with regard to allowing private tutors into our schools. The meeting with district personnel on this issue had been closed to the public on advice from our attorney. We do realize that this is a choice that we could offer our students, and we are looking at the benefit to all of our kids, not just one. That is why we are allowing it on a pilot basis, even though our attorney advised us against it.
ITEM #5 DISCUSSION/ACTION
ITEM #5 A AUDIT PRESENTATION
Members from the Finance Advisory Committee, Christi Zeller, Todd Rodas, Kimbrough Hall, and Judy Abercrombie, joined Julia Stone from Bondi and Company, and Diane Doney, Director of Business Services as they presented the audit findings to the board.
Ms. Stone indicated that special auditing was conducted on the grants to ensure that internal controls are handled correctly, and there were no findings this year. Ms. Stone went through the financial statements page by page, explaining about the activities accounts, net assets, and food service accounts. She said that last year there was an issue of non-compliance, which was the reporting for free and reduced students in the food service program, but this year that was not the case.
As Ms. Stone went through the Management Report, she pointed out that our larger grants are diminishing and the district is picking up smaller grants, which increases the administration costs. She requested that the board continue to look at the food service fund, as it continues to lose money. She suggested looking at other districts that are making money, and to continue to monitor the progress. Other districts, including Delta County, Montrose, and Eagle County, are subsidizing their food service funds. With the bond refunding in 2005, we were able to get a lower interest rate and save the taxpayers money. Some of the petty cash accounts have been closed to make the bookkeeping easier.
The auditors recommended that a policy and process be put into place to account for the booster club season ticket sale at the high school indicating who prints the tickets, how many are sold, and by what date the 50% of proceeds would be remitted to the district. They suggested that this take place with all events and activities and cash registers have already been purchased. They recommended that a process be put into place to get into the safe, with the combination being changed on a regular basis. With regard to the bank reconciliations, they recommended that two people should be reviewing them. They recommended that the district issue vouchers instead of checks to the athletic game officials, so there wont be so many voided checks in the finance office. Auditors noted that 13% of the employee files did not have correct I-9 forms in them, and penalties could be imposed for non-compliance. They recommended surprise visits to each building site to ensure that cash receipts are being handled correctly and disbursed in the proper manner. Ms. Stone stated that overall the district had a clean audit, with no findings.
The members of the Finance Advisory Committee indicated that they would address some of their questions in the next FAC meeting, but that would have no bearing on whether or not the audit is approved.
Dr. Jones made a motion to accept the audit as presented by Julia Stone of Bondi and Company. Mr. Patterson seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
ITEM #6 CONSENT AGENDA
ITEM #6A HUMAN RESOURCES
ITEM #6B REGULAR SCHOOL BOARD MEETING MINUTES,
OCTOBER 11, 2005
Mr. Seiter made a motion to approve the Consent Agenda as presented, which was seconded by Mr. Patterson and unanimously approved.
Board members were in agreement that there should be open discussion about the issues involved with private tutoring in our schools.
Ms. Paulson asked if the board would like to submit a proposal for the Heartland Hispanic Conference in order to share the good things we have been doing with the Tell Us Your Stories panel, the Native American classes at DHS, the deNai club at Needham, and the Padres Tutoring at Park. The board agreed and asked Ms. Paulson to meet with the oversight committee to see if there was enough interest to submit and application by November 4.
Ms. Paulson requested that Mr. Horvath attend the November BOCS meeting in her place.
The board talked about the coming election, the math monitoring report, and the seating of new board members on November 15.
Mr. Horvath made a motion to adjourn at 7:14 p.m., which was seconded by Dr. Jones and unanimously approved.
Respectfully submitted,
Kristy Rodri
District Clerk to the Board of Education
Approval:
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