Overview

• J. Bull put together a presentation for the board on the Audit for FY ending June 30, 2022, which was also sent to the board ahead of the meeting for review, along with draft finance statements, which are amended since the finance committee meeting, with minor changes, including compliance reports for state and federal government.
• J. Bull gave a high level overview of her upcoming presentation, to include audit status, responsibility as auditors and board of directors, a summary of audit scope and approach, a review of financial statement highlights, a review of auditing standards that need to be communicated to the board, overview of internal control matters, a discussion of management representation matters and any accounting matters on the horizon that need to be considered.

Audit Status 

• Significant audit work has been completed and in accordance with the audit plan 
• We are going to issue an unmodified opinion on the financial statements, the best opinion you can get
• Audit file and financial statements are currently in the quality control process - once we finish an audit we have to submit it to a group w/in the firm that has nothing to do with the audit to ensure we have followed standards, if anything is inconsistent, they ask questions, so it's a good process to ensure audit is done correctly and everything addressed
• Remaining open items, is the final approval by the board, we are still waiting for legal representation from the attorneys, the signed management representation letter (which we get when the financial statements are finalized), and the last item is the preparation and review of the great oaks tax return, form 990, once the audit is done we will start preparing that, it's actually due today, so she sent extensions, so we are on time with everything; when it's done she will send to management and board for approval

Responsibility as Auditors:

• Form an expressed opinion on the financial statements
• Plan and perform the audit in accordance with our professional standards to obtain reasonable but not absolute assurance that the financial statements are free of material misstatement whether caused by fraud or error
• We do consider the school's internal control, to understand how things are done so we can plan our audit accordingly
• We accumulate any misstatements we identify and we communicate that to the board
• Conduct our audit with professional skepticism
• Communicating significant matters to the board including risks, deficiencies, or material weaknesses within internal control, any fraud or illegal acts we note, and any processes used by management to formulate particularly sensitive accounting estimates and our conclusions about the reasonability of such estimates, and other matters we feel are important to communicate to the board
• If there were serious issues, I would have had conversations with the board way sooner than this, so it's a good sign there are no issues that we are having this meeting now

Responsibilities of Management

• Selecting and using appropriate accounting policies
• Making sure the financial statements are in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principals
• Establishing and maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting
• Complying with laws, regulations and provisions of contracts and grant agreements
• Providing us with all financial records and related information we need to do our audit
• Setting proper tone at the top to ensure there's a culture of honesty and high ethical standards
• Making sure that there are policies and internal controls to prevent and detect fraud
• The board is responsible for communicating with us and overseeing the financial reporting process

Significant Audit Areas

• Cash, Receivables, Net Assets, Contributions, Grants and Payroll and Related Expenses
• Subsequent events (after June 30th that effect numbers)
• Related parties organization may have, we inquire about fraud and illegal acts
• Going concern considerations, we ensure nothing is going to happen to the school that would prevent them from continuing
• Audit procedures under government auditing standards, Uniform Guidance, and state single audit standards: because the school receives grants from state and federal government, we are required to do additional audit procedures above and beyond our usual auditing procedures to ensure that you're in compliance with whatever the requirements of those grants may be

Draft financial statement Highlights

• Assets are down, because you used the reserve fund that was in your assets to pay off your loan/paid it off and used those reserve funds
• Therefore liabilities are also down because the school paid off that debt
• Net assets (income, revenue, support) are up about $375K
• In your statement of activities, your public support revenue increased about 1,148K due to covid related funding and an increase in per pupil amount
• Expenses increased mainly in salaries and related expenses, as well as curriculum/classroom expenses related to in person learning in the fiscal year under audit 

Exhibits

Exhibit A: Required communications

• Auditor's professional standards, scope and timing of the audit through engagement letter sent to the school July 28, 2022
• Management is responsible for the selection and use of appropriate accounting policies- those are described in note 2 of the financial statements; nothing came to our attention that would require us to inform you about the effects of significant accounting prolixities in controversial or emerging areas for which there is a lack of authoritative guidance or consensus, or methods used to account for significant unusual transactions
• J. Bull noted that when doing financial statements, there are some areas that have to be estimated- some of the significant estimates that are included in the financial statements are depreciation expense, functional allocation of expenses
  • These were reviewed these to make sure they were reasonable
• Some of the significant financial statement notes are note 7, detailing operating lease commitment, Note 11 detailing contributed services and goods, Note 12, detailing major contributors to the school, Note13, summarizing the academic and business service agreement, and note 15 white summarizes the school's liquidity and available resources; the financial statement disclosures are neutral, consistent and clear
• They encountered no significant difficulties in dealing with management related to performance of the audit
• This is new for this year, where she has to communicate what they consider significant risks for the school, including improper revenue recognition, management override of internal controls and Financial statement risk due to Covid-19 pandemic

B. Carlson asked J. Bull to explain the slide about significant risks. She said she determined where the risks are going to be and develop their testing around those risks. For example, improper revenue recognition is a risk for every audit they conduct. Management override of internal controls is because we are a smaller company/organization; where you wouldn't see this is a company like GE, where they have so many controls, if the CEO was to say "I need a check right now," he wouldn't be able to do so, he'd have to go through the controls." Management of override of internal controls is usually a risk when you have a smaller organization and you don't have a ton of people doing different things. Then the covid-19 pandemic is just an overall risk that has to be considered for all of their audits, and how that pandemic is going to effect the organization.

C. Sneed explained to B. Carlson that these are not findings, these are just areas of focus for the audit that could be applicable to the school based on the current structure, or the way is currently organized; it's being framed for high areas to look at, not findings.

J. Bull affirmed this understanding.

• J. Bull said there were no disagreements with management when performing the audit, as mentioned before, they will be requesting representation from management in a separate letter.
• There were no significant issues discussed with management prior to our retention, and we do affirm that we are independent with respect to Great Oaks Charter School- Bridgeport in accordance with relevant professional standards.
• In some cases, management may decide to consult with other accountants about auditors and accounting matters. Management informed us that, to our knowledge, there were no such consultations with other accountants.
• Corrected & Uncorrected misstatements: We are required to communicate those to you, happy to say Ben and his group if we had adjustments were found and made by his group and none of them were material, so there is nothing to report in that instance.

Exhibit B: Internal Control Matters

• If there were any significant issues with internal control matters, there would have been a conversation much sooner than this moment; 
  • We look for any deficiencies and if we found any we would report It to the board (deficiency in internal control, significant deficiency, or material weaknesses)
• We can report we did not identify any deficiencies in internal control we consider to be a material weakness

Exhibit C: Management representation letter J. Bull referred to earlier, included in attachments sent

Exhibit D: New accounting standards coming down the lane - next year, any leases have to be added to the balance sheet; we have software to help add this to the balance sheets, including noting commitment and liability, where previously it existed in the notes.

M. Duffy thanked B. Chan for his work on supporting the audit 

J. Bull thanked B. Chan and the team, noting it's been a pleasure working together and that once they get the audit back from the quality control team they'll finalize the EFS filing and be done.

Cannot vote on Minutes - C. Sneed noted that the draft is missing the finance/governance portion of the minutes. J. Garrett agreed and noted that she updated the wrong draft of the minutes. We postponed vote on minutes until December meeting.

J. Scalice shared that the typical data we cover was uploaded to BoardOnTrack for review: attendance data, suspension data, the data we typically present - J. Scalice paused to allow time for review and questions on the document.

B. Carlson asked J. Scalice to highlight any significant trends in the data. J. Scalice said the most significant trend right now is related to attendance data - we are trending upwards, right around 90% but over the last 3-4 weeks we've seen an increase in general attendance. We are experiencing a bout of FluA right now, staff primarily impacted more than students, and I will highlight that our high school suspension rate is under 3% which is pretty amazing for this time of year. It's at 2.5, we are at 5% for the entire school.

No further questions.

J. Scalice gave a quick snapshot of the board presentation, to include Changes to Distance Learning (CSDE Mandates) and the impact on Great Oaks BPT, Learning Loss Program Updates, and plans for the State Visits and meetings 11/16 and 12/14; 

We were scheduled to have a meeting with the academic committee tomorrow 11/16 at 3:30, that was canceled and has been rescheduled for the 14th of December in Hartford at 3:30.

Legislation impacting distance learning and programming

J. Scalice outlined changes to State Laws on Instructional Programming. Public Act 21-2 called for a state commission of distance learning in all formats for grades K-12 to review 1) the impact of distance learning on populations in Connecticut 2) Curriculum, Attendance and Teacher Performance during Distance Learning as a result of Covid-19 closures, and the viability of the creation of a State Run Remote School.

The idea of a state run remote school was very popular at the height of COVID and then with parent reluctance to return to the classroom. CT state made a big shift in publicizing exemplar curriculum for all schools to access on an integrated learning hub that they released last year and are slowly releasing additional curriculum for; which is where the idea of a state run remote school came from.

Finding reflected (report release a week ago):

• Significant increase in Chronic Absenteeism in the state of CT (do not necessarily mirror the results we saw at Great Oaks), notably higher in areas with higher economic concerns (access to technology and wifi). 
• Significant variability amongst districts implementing full-day schedules (8:15-3pm), partial schedules (e.g. 30min-1hr on, 30 min off - recommended from the findings), and asynchronous opportunities (some districts went full asynchronous with pretty poor results)
• Inconsistent instruction within programs
• Lower performance on assessments using the "cohort" comparative model (SBAC data we got two years ago) for students engaging in Distract Learning when compared to students in person
• A state run remote School is not viable as it "does not have the ability to meet expectations for teaching and learning, instruction, assessment, and accommodations..."

These findings are so important because it resulted in CSDE guidance regarding all distance learning;

State Data

• ELA scores for students "mostly in person" vs. "mostly remote" dropped 18% state wide
• Math Scores for students "Mostly in Person" vs. "Mostly Remote" dropped 37% state wide
• Chronic Absenteeism for students "Mostly in Person" vs. "Mostly Remote" showed an 18% increase with Remote Students
• Students identified as Black, Latino, Free & Reduced Meal Eligible, ELL, and Students with Special Needs all saw increases in absenteeism across the State when compared to "in person" students of the same demographics.

B. Carlson asked a question about the remote schools not being viable and was curious about where it originated. J. Scalice noted it came from the report from the state commission.

The CSDE regulations that came from this data include:

• Districts may not count Distance Learning as an attendance day for students due to illness, school emergency closure, or weather related closure; the idea of going remote due to snow days is no longer on the table; when we had to close for building issues, we did not have the option to go remote, and for attendance days as a result we had to alter our calendar; this is even inclusive of students experiencing illness, covid related now simply count as absenteeism, they are not eligible to be made up through distance.
• The one provision: Distance learning may be provided to a student as a part of an IEP or Educational Plan through a team decision inclusive of parent approval; centers more on students with very specific needs and experiencing challenges but covered under IEPs/504s. Currently we have 1 student with an IEP engaged with distance learning in a fairly full schedule through request of the parent and determined by Bridgeport Public Schools and Great Oaks.

General Impact on GOBPT

• Great oaks does not currently offer remote learning as a possibility for students outside of team planned provision inclusive of parent approval, we were engaged in conversation with 6 students, it is 1 at this point.
• Distance learning regulations are directed towards attendance related school-day programs and will not impact our additional support programs for SAT prep, Saturday Academy, After-After School, or AP and College Courses not counted as part of the instructional day.
• Regulations do not address "remote teaching" for in-person students with para-professional or other adults in the room. So there are still guidelines available for teachers either from other districts or other states to teach remotely provided that there are adults in the classroom.

Learning Loss Program Update

• As we discussed over the summer we were implementing our Exact Path, which is an Americorp primarily run program. It is a software that interfaces with our EdMentum data that was shared with the board in October - it creates individual pathways for students based on strengths and weaknesses and focuses on recovery and advancement based on where the student is aligned to standards. Currently with the data provided by the program, J. Scalice shared that over 92% of students are currently engaging actively in the ExactPath Courseware. This should start to play out on an increased score January Edmentum assessment which will be shared with the board in February and our IABs our SBAC based small assessments that are given every 6-8 weeks. The first round actually started today and we will have results on that for our December board meeting.
• Our Flex periods are focused on data based groupings, focused on common needs of students across multiple classroom cohorts, with teacher input because the teachers create the groups. It is based primarily on area of need for students. Students are organized through their assessment data and assigned to levels groups with trained teachers and Fellows to engage with Research Based Programs.
• When we reflect back on July, this is where we talk about Orton Gillingham training for teachers and fellows, we talked about LLI, we talked about moving math very specific targeted programs for advancement and recovery. It started this week because there are a lot of moving parts. 6th grade, which is about 100 students, you have about 70 students moving between those classes. This is done through a program called EdFiciency, which sends emails to students and teachers letting them know where they are reporting on a daily basis. That also helps with attendance capture which is then uploaded to powerschool. The first day was today and it went great. 
• Paper Tutoring- we are currently seeing 5-14% of our students accessing our online based Tutoring sessions (daily) with the heaviest usage in 7th, 8th and 12th grade in math. This program was launched 3 weeks ago, we have a goal of 40% daily usage by End of the Year. We are working with our paper people to create promotions and to create in class usage as well, as it does offset some of our tutoring in the classroom as well as paper review when its uploaded for paragraph, essays when it's uploaded by students for initial drafts.

Upcoming State Meetings

• November 16th, Ellen Stoltz from Improve Your School Consulting, Ajit Gopalakrishnan (Chief Program Officer), and John Scianimanico (Director of Special Projects) from the CSDE office will be coming to view our High Dosage Tutoring Program.
• J. Scalice thanked M. Duffy for coming as well to discuss the foundation role in recruitment as well as provision of support, as well as Josh who works a lot with our data and program development
• We will also have primarily our entire team here to answer any of their questions (ELA, Math, Flex Periods/Exact Path, Teacher/Fellow Group, Student Group)
• This is a visit to focus on our high dosage tutoring and teacher certification pathway
• We are one of if not the only high dosage tutoring model in CT using embedded tutors in the classroom making them part of our everyday as opposed to standalone. This was very appealing to CSDE and Ellen, especially given the growth that we've shown over the last couple of years. It's part of the reason Ajit is joining also. Ajit is the Chief Program Officer he's responsible for reporting all the SBAC results and providing those reports for the state report as well. They will be visiting 6th-12th grades, they're seeing a large swath of our school so these are ELA/Math periods, our flex/exact path periods, they are meeting with a teacher/fellow group comprised of 2 former fellows, Dan Luciano and Kate Sabo. Dan teaches ELA 7th grade, Kate teachers ESL, which is a very hard to staff area. All 4 of our ESL teachers were fellows so this is a very unique model. They will also be meeting with one of our currently enrolled Relay fellows, Kofi, and they will be meeting with two 2nd year fellow leads. They will also be meeting with 4 of our students, 2 high school students and 2 middle school students to discuss the important of the fellows being imbedded in the classroom, as well as their relationship with fellows outside of the classroom - as tutors around career and college pathways.

Academic Accountability Committee Meeting (moved from November 16th to December 14th at 3:30pm)

We've been asked to present three (3) highlights of improvement aligned to our Corrective Action Plan (CA Plan)

In submitting our data to the state bi-monthly, as required by our CA plan, we have gotten a vote of confidence from Rob Kelley that these 3 highlights should be 

• Changes to High Dosage Tutoring
• MTSS/SRBI Academic Model (support structures)
• Curriculum implementation highlighting CSDE visit in September with initial ELA/Math Data
• Implementation of MTSS/SRBI Behavior Model focusing on under 3% suspension rate in High School as of current date

J. Scalice shared that all of these are tailored throughout our CA plan, they are big leverage points of our CA plan and the data, especially EdMentum data is showing significant increases over SBAC and the feedback we are getting from the state, is showing things are moving in the right direction. 

B. Carlson asked about the number of students in the middle versus high school. J. Scalice noted it's almost an even split (310 M.S.  and 340 in the H.S.), ultimately to understand how the suspension rate is calculated.

L. Hubbard gave a quick overview of her presentation, including updates on compliance and certification, facilities and highlights on Community partnerships & Student opportunities.

Certification Update - 

L. Hubbard shared that there has not been much movement since last meeting. Last board meeting (October) she reported 61% certification and we are now at  65% certified. We are trying to move it to 70% but we have hired some new staff members, so the number dropped slightly. Of our total staff we have 14% pending certification, these are staff that, based on initial review, will be certified, it's just a matter of getting that certificate. And we have 20% that are pending review, or these are staff members that are missing credentials (e.g. college transcripts) before they can do a full review and issue certification.

There has been about a 60-90 day delay with the CSDE. What we've been seeing over the last couple of weeks, some of these applications are starting to trickle in, so hopefully we will see that 65% jump up over the next couple of months.

J. Scalice and L. Hubbard discussed last year's certification, they were not at 100% mostly due to the national teacher shortage, but the state reported that they were at 84%. We just recently met with a consultant at the state and one of their other certification reps. was able to push through some applications that we had pending since March last year, so we saw that 84% jump to 94%. Of course, our goal is 100% new were able to get some contacts at the state we will be working with that'll help us push these applications through a little faster so we don't experience the same delays as last year. 

Facilities Update

2nd Floor Remediation - still on track to having the work completed in December. All work and materials will be covered by the Building Owner and Partners. Additionally we have put our insurance company on. notice, and no claims have been filed at this time.

Boiler & Compressor Install

Scheduled to be installed Tuesday, December 27th through Friday, December 30th. Maintenance Team will be onsite along with a rotation of Operations Staff. 

Updated Cleaning Schedule

With the recent increase of the Flu Virus in our community, the Operations team is currently implementing measures to keep our school community as safe as possible and to limit the spread. Weekly Deep Cleaning, Delivery of additional PPE to classroom, more frequent rotation and cleaning of high touch surfaces, and wellness materials to be shared with families.

Additional updates

L. Hubbard highlighted the beautification projects implemented by J. Garrett around the building, including art work in suite spaces, digital display in the h.s. entry way and honors society photos. 

Community Partnerships & Student Opportunities

L. Hubbard shared that they like to extend opportunities for the Operations Team to support our students and get involved with opportunities outside of the classroom. The opportunities our team is a part of/have a change to support.

GO Basketball team - Basketball team opportunity for HS boys & girls. 14 Boys recently selected after a week of tryouts. Girls will be selected next week. Also want to highlight Albertha Brown in this endeavor - she was able to partner with a local gym in the community to get space for us on very short notice.

CIC Club (Connecticut Invention Convention) - GOBPT will be partnering with the CT Invention Convention Program for the 4th year!

Dance & Cooking club Facilitated by Brianna Baker and Ayanna Charles.

End of operations updates

E. Vega asked a question about certification, including who is responsible for checking for updates and how often we reach out to the state to check-in. L. Hubbard noted that we are in contact with the state very frequently. L. Hubbard at least once a week, but they have a formal meeting with them once a month - with one of the state consultants responsible for certification, one of their certification directors, and also our corrective action - a member of their turnaround office is assigned to us and that's every 2 months. L. Hubbard noted that there have been a lot of changes at the state level, including being short staffed, they got behind when someone who manages certifications was out. Then part of the certification process, they need to do background checks and they were 60-90 days behind on that process.

With the checkpoints we have, we are able to provide them with a list. So when we speak with them, sometimes they're able to check right then. We are hoping this process we've established will help expedite the certifications.

C. Sneed reviewed vendor approvals

1) Vendor to be ratified; Ratification on SWAG facilities; there were other facilities sought after, but SWAG was the only option available for basketball tryouts, it was a timely matter that needed to be addressed, so we move forward with going into an agreement with them for the rental based on us needing to move forward at that time and couldn't wait for the board meeting, they needed an answer so tryouts could take place;

B. Carlson moved the vote, C. McMillan seconded. No discussion or Abstentions. Unanimous approval by the board.

2) (new vendor) Cinemark Theaters - school trip; selected based on close proximity to the school and availability (the time); 

E. Vega moved the vote, C. McMillan seconded. No discussion or Abstentions. Unanimous approval by the board.

3) YNS Technologies: $16,000 for gaming equipment; white glove service as well

There were two other quotes for gaming computers; we are in the process of formulating an e-sports team (recognized by colleges and universities for competitive gaming as well as scholarship opportunities) and there is a large e-sports league in Connecticut for h.s. competitions; another avenue for our students to be competitive. The specs for the computers were developed through the e-sports league; YNS came in considerably cheaper because they make the computers there ; the other estimates were for over $20,000 for the 6 computers, including delivery, setup, etc. which was not included in the other quotes. C. Sneed noted we should include other quotes on the vendor approvals, just for process purposes. 

E. Vega asked a question about pros/cons/benefits, etc. and C. Sneed reviewed the process for vendor approvals, including discussion in finance committee meeting to be voted on by the board, but the materials reviewed in the finance committee made available to the board. When it's presented, just to streamline the process, we won't review the pros/cons in the board meeting, the finance committee comes in to give a recommendation during the board meeting.

C. McMillan moved the vote. E. Vega seconded the vote. No discussion or Abstentions. Unanimous approval by the board.

B. Chan thanked the school for their tight budgeting this year so far, we are in a healthy cash position. Enrollment is full enrollment, so school will be funded at 661 students; the loan to the foundation has been paid off, so the school is debt free both BlueHub and the foundation. The facilities costs/expenses have been a little higher than budgeted but as a school they have been adaptive to changes; upfront cleaning for preparation for the school year, security guards, etc. a little higher but the team is watching expenses closely.

B. Chan then reviewed the dashboard: Operating account (971,449), Food account (~50,000), and Reserve account (~224,000). Jumping into loans, at the end of October the loan amount was $19,000 to the foundation, and has since been paid off. Note: 661 enrollment

Finance committee wanted some of the revenue numbers, there is no concerns here, ESSER funding hasn't been drawn down yet, but expenses are there. Lunch program needs to be update; just receive September/October meal claims, and will put us much closer to the budget amount. Same with the Barr foundation and fellow housing, mostly just paperwork we are waiting on. 

In terms of expenses, everything is in-line; only thing that's an outlier is the facilities numbers, which we've discussed: The Grotsky HVAC, elevators, security, some janitorial cleaning of the school, etc.

B. Chan thanked the school team again to tighten our procedures. 

C. Sneed thanked everyone for putting a tremendous effort into making the finance component of the school almost turnkey. Methodical process day-in and out so it becomes fluid. Clean audit, once quality control is completed. Budget wise, facilities was always brought up, so there was an expectation that facilities would have that potential for going over budget; so far, nothing is happening that is catching us off guard/there are no surprises. We are in a position to pour back into the school/programming.

B. Carlson asked about Urban Air Orange from the credit card transactions. C. Sneed explained it's an indoor amusement park. B. Carlson also asked about the Docusign transactions since there were two.

No updates from the foundation

B. Carlson urged everyone to setup their BoardOnTrack because he's been able to follow the agenda and meeting seamlessly, can save us time and address questions.