November 17, 2021, Sales Surtax Oversight Committee Meeting

 

Committee Members Present: Hank Rogers, Nate Day, Diana Galavis, Dr. John White, Rachel Duff, Monique Tookes, Terrie Brady, Lawrence Dennis, David Hathaway, Joe Carlucci, Alberta Hipps, and Allison Busuttil

Duval Superintendent of Schools Dr. Diana Greene (non-voting) was also present.

Call Meeting to Order

Chair Hank Rogers called the meeting to order at 1:04 p.m.

Introduction of New Committee Members

• John White representing City of Atlantic Beach
• Rachel Duff representing Jacksonville Public Education Fund

Public Comment

Deborah Thompson

Ms. Thompson discussed small minority owned businesses and women owned business involvement.

 

Marion Tischler

Ms. Tischler discussed providing transparency to the public and providing the charter schools report information.

 

Chair Rogers made a recommendation to add a communication update from Dr. Tracy Pierce, Chief of Marketing and Public Relations, to the agenda.

 

Vote Results:

Motion: Nate Day

Second: Joe Carlucci

 

PASSED

 

APPROVAL OF THE NOVEMBER 17, 2021, AGENDA

Motion:

That the Sales Surtax Oversight Committee approve the agenda for the November 17, 2021, meeting with the amendment to add the communication update.

 

Vote Results:

Motion: Nate Day

Second: Diana Galavis

 

PASSED

 

APPROVAL OF MINUTES – SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

Motion:

That the Sales Surtax Oversight Committee approve the meeting minutes of September 15, 2021.

 

Vote Results:

Motion: Nate Day

Second: Monique Tookes

 

PASSED

 

Items to be Discussed

OPERATIONAL AND FINANCE UPDATE

Assistant Superintendent of Operations Paul Soares and Executive Director of Design and Construction Services Byron Page gave a PowerPoint presentation (see attached) on the Operations Update. Discussion included:

• Communication to the public regarding projects
  • Direct and recommend the public utilize the sales surtax dashboard as it is updated monthly.
  • Operations staff will work with Dr. Tracy Pierce for best communication methods to get the word out to the public on upcoming and ongoing projects.
  • Additionally, principals typically invite out parent organizations to discuss projects happening at the schools.
• Ajax contract
  • Request from the Committee for specific union business partners that were utilized at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Riverside High, and Westview K-8.
  • Additional request for the names of the small minority business organizations that were utilized at the mentioned schools.
• Safety and security upgrades at schools
  • The importance/hierarchy of projects was completed when the Master Facility Plan (MFP) was developed
  • The hierarchy is based on five scoring criteria. Safety and security projects were broken out separately from the other projects in the MFP and committed to be completed in the first 3 years.
  • There are active safety and security projects that address school’s immediate needs that will be completed which are not captured in the MFP.

 

 

• Minority-owned business participation
  • Director of Purchasing Services, Terrence Wright, provided the committee with a handout (see attached), “OEO Participation via Master Facility Plan.”
  • There is currently not a centralized website or link to the Master Facility Plan that anyone can access to see the list of minority-owned businesses or contractors and their criteria.
    • Greene added that the dashboard would not be the appropriate place to link the requested information because it is a third party, project management dashboard. However, Communications will work to determine the best area to link committee requested information in one centralized location.

 

Chief Financial Officer Michelle Begley followed up with a Finance Update. There was no discussion following her presentation.

CHARTER SCHOOL SECOND QUARTER REPORTS

Ms. Begley gave a PowerPoint presentation (see attached) on the Charter School Second Quarter Reports. Discussion included:

• “Review Observations” spreadsheet displayed in the PowerPoint presentation was created by Ms. Begley last quarter and she will continue providing this spreadsheet each quarter.
  • Spreadsheet only reflects expenditures, not total funds collected
    • Some schools have provided their bank statements which reflect that the difference in amounts between funds expended and funds collected, are sitting in their bank accounts.
    • Some charter school reports included future projects which may be the reason why they are saving money in their accounts and not spending right away.
    • Committee requested that the spreadsheet also include the total balance or total funds collected for each charter school.
  • Spreadsheet is public information
• The District is unable to regulate vendors or companies that the charter schools use with their sales surtax funds.
• The training session provided by the District charter school staff in October was the second training that was offered to charter schools. Initial training was given before the first quarter reports were due. Every charter school received an invite. Meeting invites were sent to principals and accounting staff.
• With the schools who had expenditures that were not in compliance, the District will be drafting a letter to be sent out.
  • Greene stated that the District cannot give the charter schools a financial penalty. The first step is to notify them of being out of compliance and request their plan of action to get back into compliance. If there isn’t a response, the next step would be for the District to meet with the governing board for that school and advise them of the non-compliance. Charter schools are audited by a different financial group, and the District is not the entity to give a financial punishment; that would have to come through their state audit. The District has a positive relationship with the charter schools and do not anticipate that there will be any pushback.
  • Charter schools have the same allowable expenditures chart that has been provided to the Committee.
• Committee Member Joe Carlucci made a motion that in addition to the letter being sent by the District, a supplemental “kind” letter is sent on behalf of the Committee to those schools that are not in compliance. This motion was seconded by Committee Member Allison Busuttil and opened for discussion.
  • The letter is to draw awareness to the charter schools that the committee does know about the non-compliance in their quarterly financial report.
  • In response to listing the non-compliant schools on the website, Dr. Greene recommended allowing the schools the opportunity to get back in compliance first. She also recommended giving the schools an x amount of time to respond.
  • The Committee questioned if the non-compliance was an oversight by the school’s accounting staff.
  • Based on Dr. Greene’s recommendation, an amendment was introduced to give charter schools 2 weeks to respond and get in compliance.

 

Vote Results:

Motion: David Hathaway

Second: Allison Busuttil

 

PASSED

 

• The Committee has requested that during the charter schools’ annual audit, if there are any audit findings as it relates to sales surtax, that those findings are reported to the Committee.
  • Charter schools are required to submit their annual audit report to the District by end of September so at that time, District staff will go through the audits and summarize any findings as it relates to sales surtax and provide that to the Committee.
• In response to if a visual audit could be done for items charter schools say they’ve spent money on, Assistant Superintendent of School Choice, Sharwonda Peek, advised the Committee that would take a lot of manpower and resources of the charter school staff. The on-site reviews that currently take place are to ensure that charter schools are meeting the guidelines of statute and their contract. What is being requested would require additional layers of conversation of what that would look like.
• Chair Rogers re-visited the motion made regarding the letter as only the amendment was voted on. Recommendation for a supplemental “kind” letter to be sent on behalf of the Committee to those schools that are not in compliance with the amendment that gives charter schools 2 weeks to respond and get in compliance.

 

Vote Results:

Motion: Joe Carlucci

Second: Allison Busuttil

 

PASSED

 

• Chair Rogers also added that Committee members have the privilege and right to visit charter schools. There is nothing to prevent members from visiting and asking questions.
• The Chair and Committee thanked Ms. Begley for going through the reports so thoroughly and answering the Committee’s questions.

COMMUNICATION UPDATE

Dr. Tracy Pierce, Chief of Marketing and Public Relations, provided a communication update to Committee members.

• The District is under an agreement with the Office of Civil Rights to bring the website up to a certain level of compliance and requirements for accessibility for everyone.
  • Pierce wanted to start off with that because the most difficult information to work with in accessibility are documents such as reports, PDFs, and background information.
• Aggregate Charter School Quarterly Report uploaded on the website was created in Excel and remediated to ensure compliance and accessibility.
  • It is housed on the Half-Penny website under ‘Reports.’
  • The readability of the chart is from left to right.
  • There is a brief disclaimer that the information presented is not the property of the District but provided by the charter schools.
  • Pierce went through the contents of the report and advised the Committee that with this being the first one, there will be improvements for future reports uploaded.

CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW PROCESS

Chair Rogers shared with the Committee that the charter schools would like an opportunity to present in front of the Committee. Charter schools would like to talk about what they’re doing and where their sales surtax funds are being spent. The deadline for Committee members to submit questions they’d like schools to answer has been extended to Friday, November 19, 2021. The first charter school to present is scheduled for the January meeting.

 

NEXT MEETING

Next meeting is Wednesday, January 19, 2022, at 10:00 a.m.

 

There will be a new member orientation today at 3:00 p.m. and is open to the public.

 

 

 

 

Adjournment

ADJOURNMENT

Motion:

That the Sales Surtax Oversight Committee moved to adjourn the meeting at 2:41 p.m.

 

Vote Results:

Motion: Nate Day

Second: Joe Carlucci

 

PASSED

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes were taken by Katrin Perez Gonzalez, Coordinator, Strategic Planning

 

These minutes were approved at the February 23, 2022 Sales Surtax Oversight Committee Meeting.

 

 

******For attachments or presentations from the meetings, please email Ms. Kat Perez, Coordinator, Strategic Planning.