PUEBLO PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT 70
Sam DeNardo, Certified Public Accountant with Garren, Ross, and DeNardo presented the completed audit for the District 70 School Board’s approval at the February 21 meeting.
DeNardo shared that the nearly 100-page document was quite extensive and detailed. He advised the board that he and his company had spent many months working on the audit with the D70 finance team.
DeNardo said the summarized report was broken down into three parts, the company’s opinion of D70’s finance statements, D70’s compliance, and D70’s control reports. He advised their recommendation was to leave the finance statements unmodified, and that they had found no compliance issues. The company did recommend some minor internal control adjustments which he said the finance team was already working on.
The audit is complete and DeNardo advised it was ready to file pending the board's approval, which was given. The audit is for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, and the due date for the filing is March 1, 2023.
D70’s Superintendent, Ed Smith, thanked the people in the finance and payroll departments for assisting DeNardo and his team in focusing on the hard job of completing the audit.
Soon-to-be D70 Superintendent Ronda Rein spoke to the board concerning snow days the district has used. She advised that if more snow days are necessary and affect the district’s instructional time, they will use the recess after lunch for instructional time to be made up.
D70 Board President, Anne Ochs invited everyone to attend a public community meeting with the Colorado Department of Transportation regarding the need for a traffic light or other options for the 36th Lane and Hwy 50 intersection. The meeting will be held on March 7 at 5:00 p.m. at Vineland Middle School. The March 7 Board of Education meeting will be delayed until 7:30 p.m. to give the school board members a chance to attend the CDOT meeting.
Stephanie Russell, Director of Personnel Services, requested several changes to hiring practices, evaluation procedures, and letters of employment. The recommended changes were approved by the board.
Bond Manager Ted Ortiviz gave a presentation of Amendment 9, requesting $4,354,721 to complete three projects. These funds will cover bus loop paving and additional parking, and a concrete pad for dumpsters at South Mesa Elementary School. Beulah K-8 School would get a new secure vestibule and HVAC upgrades and improvements. Pueblo County High School would receive several interior renovations over the summer break. The amendment was approved.
The next D70 Board of Education meeting will be held on March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Educational Services building at 24951 E. Hwy 50, Pueblo.