At its November 21 Board Meeting, Trustees directed staff to begin a third party examination of its financial controls around contracts, credit cards, and travel. In the three weeks since that meeting, staff has been exploring ways to meet these expectations.
The district is eager to work with FCMAT in January when their staff will be here to perform their extraordinary audit under the direction of the Santa Clara County Office of Education. This work, as previously defined, would look at the district's practices as they relate to contracts. Since SCCOE engaged FCMAT for this scope, concerns have arisen about credit card usage, reimbursements to employees, and superintendent travel. In response, the district has learned that the FCMAT extraordinary audit will be expanded to include these areas. FCMAT is the state entity typically called upon to perform this work. FCMAT’s review is being conducted under EC 1241.5(b) which authority rests solely with the county superintendent. It should be noted that FCMAT's costs are reimbursed by the state. This agenda item allows the Board to discuss this audit and for staff to answer questions to the extent possible.
The other purpose of this agenda item is to update the Board and community on the steps that have been taken, are presently underway, and are planned for the future to rebuild confidence in financial oversight of taxpayer money on the part of the district.
Draft materials are included. These materials may be updated prior to the Board meeting.