School Board, Regular Meeting

1. 1:25Hello. Good evening. Thank you all for being here. I'd like to call the meeting to order and ask everybody please stand for the pledge of
2. 1:31allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley andice for all. Um, Leslie, roll call, please.
3. 1:56Mark Deace
4. 1:57here.
5. 1:58Amanda Grubler
6. 1:59here.
7. 2:00Diana Howard
8. 2:01here.
9. 2:01Matthew Macker
10. 2:02here.
11. 2:03Moren Sheridan
12. 2:04here.
13. 2:05Lou Zap
14. 2:06here.
15. 2:07Michael Zabella
16. 2:08here.
17. 2:11And I'd like to make a motion to accept the agenda as presented.
18. 2:15Second.
19. 2:16All in favor? Uh we have our audit committee report.
20. 2:22Uh the audit committee met on July 16th uh with our internal auditor Michael Wolf uh who is here to present to the board uh what he talked about at that meeting and I will let that speak for itself. The topics are the detailed audit of the district's credit cards last year and a risk assessment that um uh he'll go through in detail.
21. 2:50Uh policy committee
22. 2:52uh policy committee has not met um but I met with Todd and Cheryl just to kind of get him up to speed on everything that happened with code of conduct so that we can make sure that the summer implementation work continues. Um, and then we're going to set a time in August that will be maybe a little bit off the regular schedule just depending on what people's availability is. And then we'll be back to our monthly meetings in September.
23. 3:16Great. Uh, finance committee
24. 3:19uh finance committee is uh preparing to schedule its first meeting and again coordinating similar to what Amanda just said
25. 3:29and facilities.
26. 3:31Okay. Um, so couple updates on that. The pool is closed right now. Um doing some renovations, but the major part of the project is on hold due to some of the expense and working with our capital project. Um under the EPC, the boiler room is almost completely redone. Uh they are planning on beginning demo and on the remaining electrical on the mechanical side. We will resume demo on the piping, install temporary the DWA, DHW. As far as lighting goes, materials have been delivered to the high school to the storage trailer.
27. 4:15The gym retrofit is, let's see, let's see, trying to read my notes here. Um, we'll be following after that on the capital project. uh some pre-construction meetings with all the primaries was held on July 6. The contracts were distributed to contractors and waiting for signatures and approval of the next board meeting. See, fin uh finalizing the master schedule with the irrigation of all contractors for eventual eventually for district review. Uh let's see. Roofing, storage buildings, and salt shed work are scheduled to start on around the 8th of
28. 5:12next month. The tennis court work will not be started until next year due to uh the tennis programs that'll be starting. So, we're figuring around June of next year. The auditorium work is scheduled to start on 9:28 and should be done bound the beginning of November. Uh going to be completely redoing the whole auditorium. We also are looking at doing a master plan to work and coside with the fiber plan. Uh the cooler and freezer demo has been completed. The new cooler and freezer are installed.
29. 6:02Um and see startup is scheduled for today of 7:20. Talk about pool project and What else we got here? That's about it. Did you Oh, hand. Uh, also on smart school update, uh, the vendors are updating their prices. Uh, we had because of the delay, they had to revamp some of the pricing and we still have about $50,000 left to go with that other balance that we use on that. The total project for that is about 1.7 million for the whole project and the majority of the work will be
30. 6:47done after school hours. So it will be taking place.
31. 6:52Great.
32. 6:56Thank you. Um and for the board president's report, uh wanted to welcome Mr. Hilgenorf to his first board meeting and thank all the folks in our district and community who welcomed him warmly in his first week here. Um, and the board is working on scheduling a few retreats this summer. Um, so we can uh finalize our board communications and uh working relationship with uh Todd and uh get some board goals for the 26 27 year ready to go. Um now we have some presentations. We first we have Michael Sullivan from uh
33. 7:38Salis O'Brien Engineering to talk about the clock at MC Smith.
34. 7:45Thank you very much. I appreciate it and I appreciate the time I've been for tonight. I know there's a lot
35. 7:50Excuse me, Mike. Could you closer to the microphone?
36. 7:53Sure.
37. 7:54How's How's this? A little bit better.
38. 7:55A little better. You can take it out of there, too. It's easier just to hold it.
39. 8:00So, as I was saying, thank you very much for the time that you afforded me tonight. I'll be very brief. Um, first of all, I'd like to congratulate the new superintendent, uh, elected and reelected board members and the board at large. Uh, as you know, running a school district is not easy job, but it is a very important job and I commend all of you for your your volunteer participation. Um, as I said, I'm Mike Sullivan. I graduated from Hudson High School way back in 1987. I live in the area and I
40. 8:32work for an engineering firm up in Skenctity, New York. Uh more recently we were Emmy Engineering just merged last fall with Solace O'Brien, a national company. And one of the things that I'm very proud of is the fact that uh while I've been at uh ME and Solace, we worked on a number of capital projects for the last 10 12 years or so. And u I appreciate the opportunity and the trust that has placed in us. We've had some terrific partners along the way working with Train uh working with um Reinbeck
41. 9:01Architects and Weston and Samson. And uh when I first started, the very first project I worked on, I I met George Keeler um who preceded Tyler. And over the course of our meetings, we would talk from time to time about the age of the buildings, some of the features of buildings. And one of the things that we talked about was the clock in the clock tower at Montgomery C. Smith and um the fact that it didn't work and um Georgia had at the time a couple of ideas of what we could do to to try and address that. We tried to pull some people in line, but logistically we could just never make it happen. You know, there's a lot of things to take care of. It was low on the totem pole. I completely get that.
42. 9:39Um but we were not able to address it at the time. More recently speaking with Tyler again, topic of the clock came up and uh this time around I was able to find a company in uh Medfield, Massachusetts that's in the business of rehabbing clocks and clock towers. Really, really impressive company. Uh had a representative come up, met with Tyler and two very sharp guys in Tyler's department, uh Tim and Mario. We went up. We looked at the uh the existing mechanism which if you take a peek at the picture behind you. Um that clock
43. 10:12mechanism on the right is original to the building to the chancellor Livingston High School. Um and it's almost 100 years old. So no surprise that it's no longer operating.
44. 10:22Um at the conclusion of our meeting with this rep from Electric Time, uh he said, "Look," he said, "Don't waste any time trying to have this thing fixed. You can get an upgraded clock mechanism. They're much simpler to operate. Um, they're easier to maintain. There's very little maintenance with it. And after talking with Tim and Mario, he said, "I'm more than confident that if you should get one of these, these two gentlemen should be able to put it in no problem. It's very simple. It's very basic." So, to make a long story short, in appreciation
45. 10:50for the work that we've been able to do here, uh, Solace O'Brien, M Engineering and Solace O'Brien is donating a upgraded clock mechanism and a controller. We have a ship date that's supposed to be uh the last week in July. We anticipate it'll be here in a couple of days. And if Tyler can fit it into the schedule, uh you should be uh that clock should be up and running in no time. Again, we're very very happy to be able to do this and we appreciate the opportunity. So,
46. 11:21if there aren't any questions,
47. 11:22I just have a little comment. Um, I think it's amazing that you guys put all this time into fixing that clock because, as you know, this has been a topic of conversation for decades. It's never worked. I don't ever remember that it worked.
48. 11:35I was going to speculate, but then you know how time goes by. [laughter]
49. 11:39Yeah. No. So, I am totally excited about this. Thanks so much.
50. 11:42You're very welcome. And in in preparation, Tim and Mario have run a a new circuit to the base of the clock so it has a good connection for power. And they've also upgraded the lights behind the face of the clock. So, you may have noticed it's already backlit.
51. 11:57Um, it's going to be terrific when that clock is is is up and running. So,
52. 12:02thank you very much.
53. 12:03Thank you.
54. 12:03Thank you.
55. 12:04Thank you.
56. 12:05Good luck this year.
57. 12:07Thank you very much.
58. 12:08You're very welcome.
59. 12:11Amanda's going to set up the Delorean and try to go back to
60. 12:13I know. I'm [laughter] feel like going back to the future here.
61. 12:18All right. Next, we have uh Mr. Michael Wolf with uh 2425 risk assessment.
62. 12:27Good evening. Uh the uh risk assessment and the internal auditor audit reports are the 2425. Uh we did have difficulties completing them when we first came in here. Um some of the things that I'm going to be talking about today, um I mean it's it's a difficult report in some aspects. However, I can also tell you that the majority of the items that I'm speaking about have already been corrected uh with the current business official um that's come in and hit the ground running and we had have had discussions on this report uh
63. 13:04already and I know she's already jumped into a lot of it. Uh, and the risk assessment. The risk assessment is a report that's required to be done yearly uh for for school districts that have an internal audit requirement. It basically is about it's one of those audits I would describe as an inch deep but a mile wide. We have to hit everything in the business office. Anything that has assets, anything uh suspect to misappropriation and uh [clears throat] so we do everything in the business office. We also do extra classroom food service. Um
64. 13:41you don't have the risk of a of a transportation facility that many schools have. So that's a limited less risk. And then again we we just look at anything where there's there could be cash. That's one one of the reasons we look at extra classroom. [snorts] Um I'm not going to go into details about the risk assessment report other than to say that the primary there were two significant deficiencies and the first one is as I'm sure you guys are all aware from 2425 the changing in personnel the differences of a business official differences of a superintendent the payroll clerk uh the claims auditor the
65. 14:21treasurer they all had different times uh had left uh And what we we found with that is that snowballed into some of the controls uh not always being consistent. Some people had to um you know some of some of the people I can tell you that you have on your staff were very great at pulling up their bootstraps and taking on other responsibilities which was a little outside their their norm just to keep things going. Um so you definitely have some dedicated employees there. Um the other issue that was a significant deficiency and this is also kind of a reflection of having people um
66. 14:59in and out of those positions was that you guys really as a board were not receiving timely reports. Your financial reports, your bank reconciliations um so those reports which you guys are relying on to make decisions weren't in a timely timely manner. We also noticed that you weren't receiving claims auditor reports. And the claims auditor, a lot of people don't realize the claims auditor is actually doing the work of the board. When you appoint a claims auditor, you guys are actually giving up your ability to approve an expense or prove uh any kind of claim. So, it's
67. 15:33very very important that the claims auditor comes back to you to let you know what they see when they're doing their audits. Uh, and then one of one of the things we found with that is one, you weren't getting the reports. So, you guys didn't know what was going on with that aspect either. Um, basically we look we look at all uh payroll, we look at the cash receipts, cash dispersements. Both of them were affected by the people not being in the in the um positions. Uh, you did have
68. 16:01investment income, which is one of the things we also look for. That's one of the positives. You also didn't have any changes in IT, food service, and extra classroom. So, those pretty much stayed with the same risk profile. Any questions on the risk assessment? Like I said, many of these things have already been addressed.
69. 16:23I guess it'd be helpful to know like what are the big things that haven't been addressed then to to know where we still need to focus.
70. 16:29I think it's in the report,
71. 16:30right? Because that's not separated out in the written.
72. 16:33Yeah. Um actually, uh I I talked with Christie and I know she's leaving shortly, but one of the things we talked about at the audit committee meeting also is um before she leaves, I uh kind of played around with my schedule so I can get in here. I'm going to be coming in in two to three weeks to re-evaluate everything. So before Christy leaves and for the new business official that will soon be coming in, they'll have a report on where everything stands. So you guys
73. 17:04will have that as well. So that's the risk assessment. The other report that we did during the year uh under the guidelines for doing internal audits of school districts, the require one of the requirements is the risk assessment which I just reviewed. The other requirement is to do a focus area. We decided to do the focus area on credit card policy and credit card procedures. Um it is an area of risk to a certain extent. Also one of the reasons we discussed doing this to this type of audit was because some of the
74. 17:38people that had left did have access and could be using the credit card. So we wanted to look at transactions just to make sure nothing was was going wrong with what we saw. Uh happy to report we did not see any fraud or any issues with the the credit cards. Um overall we did note that your policy is actually more restrictive and we found a lot of things that we were saying is out of compliance with your policy and when I compared it to some of the other policies your policy is a little more
75. 18:10restrictive in some aspects. So I was writing it up that you're not in compliance with your own policy. power of your own policies kind of strict. [snorts] Um so um some of the other things that we did note is uh that there were some uh you know and and to give an example on the policy and is one of the things that is that you have to have documentation um and that you had to go out for RFP. Most of the times with a credit card, you don't go out for RFP, but because you said you were going to, uh, that was one
76. 18:44of the things that we had to write up.
77. 18:46You also uh state the policy states in there that the uh credit card balance shouldn't exceed or credit card limit shouldn't exceed 15,000 and it was at 20,000. you know, some of the things like that with the policy when the policy committee meets, you know, that's one of the things to look at is 15 or 20 which one's better. [snorts] Some of the other items we found is we tested a bunch of the transactions and uh went to look and see that they had proper documentation.
78. 19:19Uh this one also was a little bit subject to not having the personnel in there and people leaving. Uh sometimes the transactions didn't have a s a uh sufficient amount of documentation behind them. Um all of the transactions with the exception of one minor one was all educational purposes. So you know where they were spending the money. I know it wasn't like wasn't like a bar restaurant that they're buying something they shouldn't be buying. Um it was just a lack of documentation. And then the other the other thing that kind of um the two other things that came up was [snorts] one you have a policy that says
79. 20:00that you have to have the documentation to pay the bill and the claims auditor also has a policy basically saying that until you have that documentation I can't approve to pay the bill as unfortunately out of that you ended up getting hit with late fees and interest. Um so that's something that has to be looked at. biggest thing with that is to um for people I know you guys have somewhat of a relaxed or at least that you started having a relaxed policy on getting receipts in at some point. I know last year it was talked about um 30
80. 20:34days. If it's a credit card, it really needs to be turned in in 30 days. Otherwise, you get hit with these late fees. The other thing, too, is if people aren't bringing in their receipts, one of the things I have at my other school is they lose their privilege to use the credit card. So that's some of the some of your options. The other thing too is and similar to the risk assessment report [snorts] um because you weren't receiving claims audit reports, some of the findings and
81. 21:03errors that I were finding never got reported to you. So that was again something that you guys were left out of the loop on. Anything any questions on anything? What's a what's a good dollar amount for credit card limit?
82. 21:24It depends on your schools. On your school, you really have to look at what are you using your credit card for. Many times credit cards are used to uh pre-register for conferences. So, you can look at how many of those you usually have in a year. Some of the conferences take POS, but there's some that you have to pay upfront. Um, and then you also want to look at some of your, like we looked at the district's card. You also have like a Home Depot card, I believe, or a Lowe's card. You want to look at those, too, and see what your spend is. Um, and then you can base
83. 21:58your limit off of that. But it it really depends on your volume.
84. 22:04Are there districts that don't have credit cards and they just use the POS? No, I it pretty much all my districts have gone to um some sort of a credit card. Um you know, and and all of them pretty much have like a credit card at a Lowe's or Home Depot, even though they also take POS. It's more of a a rec a a a recordeping process having the card there. Um, but most of my districts have a credit card because there are just a few very few uh vendors out there, but
85. 22:38there's some that don't take credit or don't take POS.
86. 22:42So,
87. 22:43how many credit cards should the district have? Should the superintendent have one and then the business office have one?
88. 22:48Usually, I in mo in most my district and I have 17 of those. There's um the superintendent has one and the business office has one. And even though the superintendent has one, the majority of my school districts, it isn't carried on their person. So both the credit card is in the um the safe. Both credit cards are in the safe. And the other one of the key uh controls about having it in the safe is the custodian of the safe is basically told you're not allowed to give out a credit card unless they have a PO in hand.
89. 23:23So that kind of takes care of two two controls right there. And the person using the card should be the one signing it out, correct?
90. 23:31Yeah.
91. 23:39Any other questions? All right.
92. 23:42Well, my contact information is at the bottom of the report. As you know, I mean, I only come in here for probably about 10 to 15 days out of the year, but if you guys ever have any questions, I'm I am your internal auditor 365 days a year. So, feel free to reach out at any time. Well, thank you. Thank the reports and look forward to uh the 2526 report.
93. 24:07Um at this time, we have a need for an early executive session for the purposes of discussing the employment history of a particular person or persons. Uh make a motion to enter executive session at 6:23 p.m. Second.
94. 24:21All in favor? Make a motion to exit executive session at 6:30.
95. 32:06Second.
96. 32:06All in favor? We have our personnel agenda. Uh make a motion to approve personnel agenda items A uh 2 through 8 and B 1 through two.
97. 32:18Second.
98. 32:19All in favor? and make a motion to approve uh personnel agenda item A1.
99. 32:27Second.
100. 32:27All in favor?
101. 32:31Amanda, you're accusing yourself.
102. 32:34Sorry, I did that with eye contact with Leslie, not with words.
103. 32:37Oh, good.
104. 32:38I do.
105. 32:39All right. Uh public participation. Did anybody sign up?
106. 32:43Nobody signed up.
107. 32:45And brings us to uh Mr. Hilgenorf sewer and tenant report.
108. 32:49Thank you. Good evening. So, I just a quick couple of items. I have four items to touch base on briefly. So, first and foremost, I just want to thank the board and everybody that I've interacted with. This is day seven. I came back for day seven. Um, it's truly been a great week of listening and learning about Hudson and getting to know some of the many people that make up this school community. I have had an incredibly warm reception. Um, everybody's been very kind. Leslie organized a breakfast on my first day, so how can you beat that? So, thank thank you to Leslie and central office. So, just as a sincere thank you to everybody that I've interacted with so far, and I look forward to continuing that over the coming weeks and months, again, meeting with people, um, learning and listening to to learn more about the
109. 33:30district. So, that's one. Two, um, as the board is aware, the executive director for business and finance, that position is going to be vacated as Christy Ferry has accepted a position in another district. So, her final day with us is towards the end of August. So, just an update on the hiring for that process. The position is currently posted and will end tomorrow. Actually, the posting ends tomorrow. Uh Cheryl and I have started the first round of interviews, which is a screening interview. Just about 20 minutes to get to know the candidates that have applied. Um we'll then select candidates that will go on to a committee interview. We are looking to try to do those by the end of this week, potentially on Friday. Um and then a
110. 34:09final interview with myself. Um hopefully again in the next week or so. really looking to do this process with with fidelity, but do it as quickly as possible so that we can have an appointment for the board to to review and approve um so that that person that's coming is able to give notice to their current district. The ultimate goal being getting somebody qualified and great in that position um and having as little of a gap as possible between when Christy leaves and the new person begins. So, right now we are in good
111. 34:38shape as we are going through that process.
112. 34:40Excuse me, Todd. Uh, is that at the end of business day tomorrow or it ends tonight?
113. 34:44It ends at end of business day to
114. 34:48Yeah. 22nd tomorrow.
115. 34:49Tomorrow. Okay.
116. 34:49End of day tomorrow. Correct. Uh, number three, just want to acknowledge on the personnel agenda there were some tenure appointments. So, I know there's going to be a reception for those folks at another meeting and we'll recognize them. But because it was on the agenda tonight, I think it's just important to call out those five individuals. That's a big milestone in an educator's career and a lot of work and effort and dedication goes into that. So, just want to acknowledge those folks that were on the personnel agenda tonight. And the fourth item, I know Mr.
117. 35:17Wolf left, but just cycling back to what he was sharing with the audit from 2425 and he spoke to that, but I'm just going to emphasize a couple of key points. um in the audit committee meeting when that was shared the 2425 so you know 2425 not this past year the year before um really predates Christy Ferry being in the the position that she's in so during that meeting when Mike shared with the audit committee the majority of that conversation was around yep that's been addressed yep that's been fixed yep we're aware of that already taken care of so that's credit to Christy and the
118. 35:52work that she has done over the past year and a half in her time here um so I I think that's important to acknowledge that because while the report's just coming to the board, it's really outdated information that 2526 audit that he will be doing in the near future, that's really the more relevant information for myself, the business office, the board to understand currently. Are there any areas of concern? Um, and even if there's not areas of concern, what are the things we can continue to focus on and work on in
119. 36:21the business office? So, just wanted to mention that. And that is all for me tonight. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you very much. Uh brings us to consent agenda. Um make a motion to accept consent agenda items A through R.
120. 36:41Second.
121. 36:42All in favor. And make a motion to accept consent agenda item S.
122. 36:50Second.
123. 36:51All in favor?
124. 36:52I'll recuse myself due to a conflict of interest. Um, no policies tonight. Correct, Amanda?
125. 37:00Correct.
126. 37:02Um, old business, a reminder, uh, that we need to register for the NISSBA convention end of next week, right?
127. 37:12It's this week.
128. 37:13This week,
129. 37:15it's Friday.
130. 37:16Okay. So, let Leslie know
131. 37:19uh after this meeting if you would like to attend so she can book hotel rooms. Um and new business. Uh just a information item that on October 20th we will be moving the board meeting to the high school library uh due to ongoing renovation here in the auditorium. Uh board discussion. Anybody have anything additional to add?
132. 37:46I would like to say that I'm glad the table is rearranged. [laughter] Now I can actually see who's here.
133. 37:52All right. This is a good good table arrangement check.
134. 37:59Um I would like to call out that Waterfront Wednesday started last week. It's a great community event and if uh folks have not checked it out. Um I encourage you to do so. Uh I believe there's six or seven more. So get on down there if you can.
135. 38:18Nice.
136. 38:18Um two other things quickly. Just um shout out to all the staff that run Camp Invention. Uh it's a really like awesome oneweek program for the elementary school kids in the summer.
137. 38:28Um and then the other thing just as community impact to to keep an eye on right is there's public comment on the Bliss Towers renovation uh happening currently. Um a lot of our kids live in those um in the housing there and just um worth keeping an eye on and thinking about if you want to contribute to the public comment period as they're thinking about that redesign. I just happen to think of something else. Um [clears throat] I saw there was something posted about um the company that's looking at purchasing
138. 39:03John L.
139. 39:04Oh yeah.
140. 39:05That they just passed. Was that one of the phases? Is that
141. 39:09um I believe it was um
142. 39:11they were approved for something.
143. 39:12Yeah. The planning board or the zoning board approved it. Does that do anything for the sale or we're still
144. 39:18No, I think the biggest hurdle so far as I understand is their the funding that they're anticipating from the state.
145. 39:24So that was just one small step.
146. 39:26Yeah. Yeah. Um and uh I don't know off the top of my head when that gets announced each year. I want to say it's in early spring. So we wouldn't hear anything probably again until March or April of of uh next year.
147. 39:44[cough] [clears throat]
148. 39:45So,
149. 39:46there's also a free car wash coming up.
150. 39:48Oh, yeah.
151. 39:49I don't remember what the date is.
152. 39:5125th, I believe.
153. 39:52Saturday.
154. 39:53Yeah.
155. 39:54Mhm.
156. 39:55It says free, but I think they're looking for donations.
157. 39:58It's a fundraiser, but they're So, they're asking for donations. Just politely.
158. 40:02And if you don't want a car wash, you always just give a donation.
159. 40:08Awesome. All right. All good stuff. Um, let's assume nobody else signed up. Uh, important dates. Uh, upcoming meetings are scheduled. Um, August 13th, uh, 2024, board of education meeting in the high school library. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Sorry. [laughter]
160. 40:36Back to the future for real, Martin.
161. 40:38Yeah. Okay. Don't read that part. Um, uh, Tuesday, August 11th, 2026, board of education meeting, 6 PM in the auditorium. Monday, August 24th, 2026, facilities committee meeting, district conference room. Tuesday, August 25th, 2026, special board of education meeting, 6 p.m. in the auditorium. Monday, September 14th, 2026, facilities committee meeting in the district conference room. Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, regular board of education meeting at 6 PM in the auditorium.
162. 41:14Are they going to be in the auditorium or the library?
163. 41:18Uh, I believe in September, we will still have access to the auditorium.
164. 41:22Okay.
165. 41:23October 20th.
166. 41:24Yeah, the in October we'll be switching. Uh at this time we have a need for a second executive session for the purposes of reviewing the employment history of a particular persons or persons. Make a motion to enter executive session at 6:40 p.m.
167. 41:42Second.
168. 41:42All in favor? There'll be no further business after this executive session. Uh thank you all for being here.
169. 41:49Thank you. This has got to be

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