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The Dallas County School Board met on Wednesday to discuss the financial updates of the current fiscal year budget and to vote on the budget provided by Dallas County Chief School Finance Officer Quinette Bruno.

During the meeting, Bruno disclosed to the board, that the budget is not quite done being reviewed by the State, just yet.

“We are close to finalizing the FY 24 fiscal year and I will be working during the holidays to get it submitted, including all state required documents,” Bruno said. “For the FY 25 budget, we have submitted all EGAP and some documents have been approved and we are waiting on the remaining to be approved by the state.”

Bruno told the board, during the holidays, she would also be working on the financial side of the budget and said she certainly wants to get that budget submitted soon as possible with her ultimate deadline being by the next board meeting on Jan. 23.

“Knowing this delay, I’m still monitoring the current budget and assuring we have funds to spend,” Bruno said.

She then posed the questions to the board, which led Board member Mr. William Minor to question the budget deadline date, allowing Bruno to reassure the board that the budget will be complete by the date given.

Soon after, Former Board President Mr. Leroy Miles questioned Bruno if the board will make the deadline that was verbally given last board meeting or if they have missed it and according to Bruno, all items were given to the state in the appropriate time and that they have met the deadline.

Everything is in their hands,” Bruno said. “They wanted to make sure everything was in their hands on the deadline and I did that part.”

Miles requested Bruno to share with him and all the other members of the board about a meeting that was had between Bruno, the federal programs department and Mr. Sampson alongside Dr. Eric Mackey, who is the Alabama State Superintendent for all school districts in the state.

“What happened in that meeting, what was said in that meeting and give us some information on the $12 million that Dr. Mackey sent to us that we needed to pay back and share with us where we are in terms of that meeting,” Miles said. “Mackey said that he wanted to meet with the board but we haven’t heard anything on Mackey meeting with the board.”

Miles said members stressed that he go meet with Mackey himself and see what’s the hesitation behind everything is but he said he didn’t want to overstep his lane and that he’s deciding to leave the decision-making up to the newest board president, Mrs. Mel Flanagan- Brown.

Miles asked Bruno was she familiar with the letter sent out regarding the matter and she said she didn’t received the memo regarding the meeting until after it took place.

“Now, I wasn’t here during that time and I have been already working on my timeline with the state,” said Bruno. “I would like Mr. Sampson to elaborate more about that but I wasn’t here.”

Bruno told Miles, even though she wasn’t here at that time, the meeting was just about them discussing issues that they needed to address as a district to make corrective actions and said that Mackey wants to sit down again with the entire board including her and Superintendent Sampson to say the final say regarding the matter.

Miles told Bruno he would like her to contact Dr. Mackey’s office and see what’s the plan with him meeting with the board so they can have light of what’s going on with their finances.

“We are kept in the dark and we don’t know what’s going on and the board don’t know,” Miles said. “They have asked me several questions about it and I couldn’t answer. We need to know when Mackey is planning to meet with us, what’s this situation and where are we financially.”

On the behalf of Bruno, Superintendent Sampson spoke about the matter, bringing context to the board about where the letter came from and the reason behind it.

“The reason the memo came from Dr. Molly Killingsworth is because in our corrective action plan that was done by the district, there were repeat audit findings that the board approved and in the original corrective action plan, it was a request made by the superintendent, that would be me, Anthony Sampson, that requested of the state to come and conduct an internal audit of the Dallas County School System,” said Sampson.

Therefore, Sampson continued by saying, “Ms. Bruno has been in the position of csfo for 30 days.

“She had an opportunity along with Dr. Alex Jackson to accompany me and Dr. Mackey’s staff to get insight of the contents of the letter and within this 30-day timeframe, Ms. Bruno has the monumental task to go back and unpack six years from the previous csfo’s tenure to make sense of where we are from the contents of that memo.”

Sampson said the memo has a lot to do with ESSA funding and being that, Molly is a superintendent, she can articulate and give the board more understanding.

However, Sampson told the board that, there’s been 10 at minimum actions where funds were not drawn down properly alongside a stack of general entries that were miscoded, and that Bruno and her team along with her mentor, has been spending time trying to go back and make sense of it all.

He said they can’t lean forward as a board and even look at 2025 to propose a budget. Sampson said the state is also working with them to mitigate historical issues within the audit findings that have been taken place for years.