The Liberty Elementary School District Governing Board reviewed the first read of Chapter 3 in a package of 'trust policies during a Dec. 16 work-study session, with members pressing staff for clearer language on petty cash, inventory thresholds, overtime pay and contractor fingerprint clearances.

The review was led by policy presenter Castellanos, who framed the meeting as an alignment exercise rather than a final decision: "This work study session is very much just alignment with the current policies," she said as the board began the chapter-by-chapter review.

Why it matters: Chapter 3 covers core fiscal and operational policies that affect school budgets, hiring and contractors. Board members repeatedly raised questions intended to reduce legal and operational risk before a second reading and formal adoption.

Key items discussed

- Petty cash: Board member Paul Bixler pushed to remove language that would merely "recommend" two-person verification when cash is handled. Bixler said, "I think two people is ... should always be double checking them. I think that should be policy." Castellanos agreed to change the wording to require dual verification rather than recommend it.

- Warrants (uncashed checks): Board members asked whether the policy's provision that warrants become void after one year matched the district's practice. Castellanos confirmed it does: "They could always request for us to reissue that check, but, yeah, they would be void at that point."

- Overtime and comp time: Trustees probed how the district handles hourly overtime. Castellanos explained staff are discouraged from accruing overtime; accrued time is converted to comp time and, "if they go over 15 hours ... we would pay them out straight overtime for that," she said.

- Inventory threshold: The draft says items $50 and above must be inventoried; staff said the district's stewardship listing currently tracks items $1,000 and above. Castellanos noted, "our stewardship listing actually is a thousand dollars or more. It's not $50 or more. But so we might actually wanna update that to the thousand bucks."

- Procurement thresholds and delegations: Trustees confirmed the board-level approval threshold remains at $100,000. Castellanos explained the district requires three written quotes for purchases between $10,000 and $100,000 and goes to formal bid at $100,000 and above. She said the $5,000 maintenance threshold was previously lowered to give operational staff flexibility.

- Contractor fingerprint clearance cards: Board members asked about an exemption that would allow the superintendent to decide a vendor or subcontractor need not have a fingerprint clearance card when "not likely to have independent access or unsupervised contact with the students." Trustees pressed for tighter language and more examples. One board member said the paragraph gave "a little bit of latitude to the superintendent discretion," while another said that discretion should be clarified so the district does not create risk around student contact.

- Facility use and electioneering: Trustees and legal counsel discussed whether the district may ban political signs on school property and how the 75-foot electioneering limit applies when schools serve as polling places. Legal counsel said state law bars use of district resources to influence elections, but noted that when a school site is used as a polling place it creates a limited public forum and the 75-foot rule normally applies that day.

- Freedom of Information Act procedures: Board members criticized a proposed five-working-day acknowledgment window for public-record requests as too long, urging faster response times and clearer procedures for redaction and for requests that involve personal devices. Counsel said courts have ordered production of personal-device communications in some cases but that production would typically require a court process.

What's next: Board members repeatedly noted that the meeting was a first read and that any changes would return to the board for a second read and formal vote. Castellanos said staff would "keep the notes" from tonight's discussion and incorporate changes for the next meeting.

Ending note: Trustees signaled support for tightening language around cash handling, contractor screening and procurement thresholds before bringing the chapter back for formal adoption.