District staff recommended a three-year review of the district’s audit services and flagged bank processing fees that could affect student activity funds.

"By auditors, original contract ran out, with this most recent audit I completed. I'm looking to review them, as auditors, for the next 3 years," a district staff member told the board. The remark was presented as a staff plan; the transcript did not record a formal board motion or vote to extend or re-award the audit contract.

Staff also described a move by vendors toward automated clearing house (ACH) payments and said some banks are now charging a one-time vendor set-up fee and per-transaction ACH fees. The staff member said the bank fees discussed included a $50 setup fee per vendor and $2.50 per ACH transaction, and that, based on current student activity account volumes, those fees would amount to about $237 per year for student activities. "More and more are going to ACH...Our fraud checks, people try to take them from the mail and everything else. So we prefer ACH vendors," the staff member said, noting that ACH can reduce some fraud risks but can add processing costs for low-volume student-managed funds.

Staff described the district’s current practice for student activity accounts: students manage funds and the district assists and cuts checks on their behalf. Staff noted the district uses an existing CD and a separate account for other transactions, and said closing one account and opening another can incur administrative steps and potential fees.

The bank named in the transcript was not consistently clear; staff discussed "the national bank" and the presentation referenced a bank-specific fee schedule, but a formal bank name was not recorded in the transcript. Staff cautioned that the fees could disproportionately affect low-revenue student activity accounts and recommended the board consider that trade-off as the district assesses banking relationships.

No formal motion to select a specific bank product or to finalize a three-year auditor contract was recorded in the meeting. Staff presented options and estimates and solicited board questions.