November 12, 2024 Audit Finance Committee Meeting Minutes

The Audit Finance Committee of the Board of Trustees of Illinois Valley Community College District No. 513 met at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 12, 2024 in the Board Room (C307) at Illinois Valley Community College.

Members Physically Present

Jay K. McCracken, Committee Chair

Members Virtually Present

Maureen O. Rebholz

Members Telephonically Present

Amy L. Boyles

Members Absent

Others Physically Present

Tracy Morris, President

Kathy Ross, Vice President for Business Services and Finance

Mary Beth Herron, Director of Human Resources

Others Virtually Present

The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m. by Mr. McCracken.

IT STRATEGIC PLAN

Justin Denton, Director of Information Technology Services, gave an IT Master Plan presentation that addressed the Moran Audit Status and future IT needs. An IVCC cybersecurity update identified progress and accomplishments including the completed migration of all student accounts to Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication on 10/20/2024. Now all students, faculty and staff accounts require identity verification. Partnered with Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to perform annual network penetration testing; rolled out Microsoft SafeLinks to flag malicious links immediately and track who clicks; KnowBe4 PhishER used and continues to be highly effective, Ai has cleared 26,986 suspicious emails with only 5% of those emails opened; DarkTrace Ai Security Monitoring has reported no significant incidents; and multiple layers of defense are used including Spam Titan, Microsoft Email Defender, KnowBe4, Malwarebytes and Darktrace, as well as regularly testing network via multiple methods. An overview of the eight categories of the Moran Cybersecurity Assessment sections were provided. Overall, 90% of the findings have been completed with Sections 4, 5, 7 and 8 fully completed. An update on items still in progress was provided. An overview of the 15 sections of the Moran IT Assessment sections was provided. Overall, 96% of the findings have been completed. Sections 1-13 and 15 are fully completed. Overall completion for Section 14 is 70% and a review of those still in progress was provided. Justin highlighted future IT needs. Nine objectives were identified in teaching and learning with one objective completed. 17 objectives in the IT environment and a breakdown of those completed, in progress, being quoted, on hold, or not started was provided.

FY24 AUDIT UPDATE

Ms. Ross updated the committee on the audit. An exit interview with Sikich was held on October 18. We will be receiving unmodified opinions on everything, which is the highest that can be received. The single audit, which includes Financial Aid and all the grants, identified significant deficiency and an instance of non-compliance. There was no impact to students. This does not change our unmodified opinion. The Director of Financial Aid has already put plans in place to mitigate these findings. The draft of the audit was received from Sikich today. Sikich plans to have the exit conference with the full Board of Trustees on December 12. The audit will be submitted to ICCB by the deadline of December 31.

2024 TAX LEVY

Ms. Ross discussed the tax levy and how it was determined. The overall change to the individual taxpayer is $7.96 on a $100,000 home. The proposed total tax levy will require a truth-in-taxation hearing. The projected tax levy rate will be .3701. The proposed tax levy is 14.89%, with multiple factors that are impacting this levy amount. The estimated 2024 EAV increase was 13.86%. However, an 8% increase was utilized for calculation purposes, based on historical data. IVCC will levy the Additional Education fund at .1159 instead of the maximum of .1179 allowed by ICCB. The PHS fund levy will be at a rate of .0472 for the microbiology lab project. In June 2024, the Board of Trustees approved this project due to the necessity of incorporating safety protocols and deemed it a priority. The majority of the project qualifies for PHS. In addition, the CPPRT revenue has steadily decreased over the last two years. It is anticipated that a 4.3% tuition and fee increase will be proposed.

PMA INVESTMENTS PRESENTATION

Brian Hextell and Tom Lanzara from PMA Investments gave a portfolio update on IVCC’s investments. The presentation began with a PMA overview and their investment strategy. A market and economic update included fed pivots from inflation employment, treasury curve–steeper expectations, and a PMA market outlook were given. Finally, an IVCC portfolio update was given and included an investment overview, reserve portfolio summary with goals/objectives, maturities aligned with benchmark, yield trends, net and gross returns, and financial strategies.

OTHER

None

ADJOURNMENT

Mr. McCracken declared the meeting adjourned at 6:20 p.m.