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| Tuesday, November 10 |
The next regular monthly meeting of the Collier County School Board takes place tonight beginning at 5 PM (business meeting at 5:30 PM). See agenda here. It’s a relatively short agenda, with only two items of business.
School Board Policy 3211 Whistleblower Protection (Agenda Item C1)
This is the second or third time this policy revision has come back as a First Reading. A sticking point in past attempts has been how the policy addresses whistleblower complaints about the Superintendent or a School Board member. See marked changes to the existing policy here. If there are no substantive changes, the policy will go forward for a Second Reading at the December Board Meeting.
Risk Assessment (or, should the District have an Internal Audit function?) (Agenda Item C140)
This is a continuation of a discussion begun at the August 18 School Board meeting. From my post at that time:
Donalds, whose accounting credentials were cited by many who supported her candidacy, believes that without an Internal Audit function, the District may be at risk of financial loss or “inadvertent inefficiencies.” She also thinks compliance with Board policies and state laws should be reviewed, saying she wants to add “verify” to the “trust” the District has that staff appropriately do their jobs. She said an internal audit function is a best practice in business, and wants to bring that function to the District. As a first step, she wants to hire an outside firm to do a “risk assessment” so that the Board can then make an informed decision about if and how to proceed.
After a long discussion during which some Board members said they didn’t understand what Donalds was asking for of why it was needed, Donalds offered to get more information and the Board agreed to add discussion of a “risk assessment” to the agenda for its November business meeting.
At tonight’s meeting, the Board will discuss and decide if there is a need for assessment. An attachment to this agenda item includes, for discussion purposes, a Risk Assessment Definition, Scope, Cost and Time.
I appreciate this suggestion from the for-profit business world and look forward to hearing the Board discuss it further tonight.
Consent Agenda
There are some interesting items on the Consent Agenda as well:
School Improvement Plans (Agenda Item B16)
School Improvement Plans are required by State Statute and School Board Policy 2120. All plans must be approved by the Board prior to submission to the Florida Department of Education, Department of School Improvement. To view the School Improvement Plans, click here.
Letter to the Florida Department of Transportation regarding safety and capacity improvements to State Road 82 in Collier County (Agenda Item C100)
In the letter, Board Chair Curatolo says, “While it may be unusual for you to hear from a District School Board regarding a road project, we have a considerable number of students, teachers and administrative staff that travel this route daily and we are very concerned for their safety. As you may already be aware there have been an alarming number of fatal vehicle crashes on this road over the summer and unfortunately many more over the road’s history.”
CCPS 2014–15 Annual Financial Report (Agenda Item C170)
This Annual Report must be approved by the board before December 1, and filed with the State.
Next meeting
The Board will hold its annual Organizational Meeting next Tuesday, November 17, at 4 PM. At that time, it will choose the next Board Chair and Vice Chair, and assign other Board member responsibilities.
At 5:30 PM on November 17, the Board will hold a Work Session to discuss AdvancED and the accreditation process. In addition, it will review the Board’s updated self-evaluation and further discuss the Governance Model.
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