BOD Meeting Minutes- April 9, 2019

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday April 9, 2019

In Attendance:

Also in attendance: Robin Hollis, Paige Raper, Mary Siebert, Becky Dickson,

AGENDA

1. Meeting Called to Order – 5:45pm – Meeting called to order by Kevin Nunley at 5:49pm.
2. Approval of March Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED– Motion to approve made by April Ruffin-Adams, seconded by Brian Cole. All are in favor with no one opposed. The minutes are approved.
3. Review of March Financial Results (Brittany) – ACTION REQUIRED – We are about where we expected. $20,000 for Whitney Jones was included. This will be covered by capital campaign. YTD revenue $3,761,000, expenses $3,541,000 Surplus of $219,000. We’re expecting this to even out over the rest of the year. Motion to approve made by committee, seconded by Michelle Kennedy. All are in favor. No one opposed. The financials are passed.
4. Budget Presentation (Finance Committee) – We have a balanced budget to propose. It includes about the same ADM as this year. We expect it to increase but are being conservative. No reserve included but we adjust that when the numbers come in. We did not include any capital campaign money as this will go into the supporting foundation. We included a 2% increase that will be decided by Robin. We expect benefits to increase as well. It’s a baseline budget with the same assumptions as last year. There is no vote on this tonight. We sent it out by e-mail, so you can ask questions. Michelle asks if Whitney Jones cost will come out of the supporting organization. Right now, that fee is still in the school’s budget. Eventually the payment for the consultants will come from capital campaign donations.
5. Board Development Update (Kevin) – ACTION REQUIRED – New members – three candidates to vote on tonight. Rotating off is Linda Pass. We have three non-parents converting to parents this year. Dani Parker Moore is an Asst. Prof at WFU. She works on recruiting diverse candidates to schools. She also runs the Freedom School here. Cheryl knows her and says she is an excellent candidate. Jennifer Holman – Assistant Prof of Pediatrics. Neonatologist – Brittany knows Jennifer and spoke about her at the committee meeting. She is an advocate for the school and we haven’t had anyone from Baptist on the board. That would be a good tie. Dara Silver – Griff says she works at the Arts Council. We would like to have a stronger tie with them. Her husband is an ADA here in Forsyth County. She has a good energy. Kevin says she is strategic in thought. We’d like to vote for all three. No additional comments. The nominating committee makes the motion. Seconded by Julia Toone and all are in favor with no one opposed. Three new members are approved. Slate of officers for next year: Griff Morgan for president, Ellen Heck for vice president, Margaret Taylor as secretary for one more year and Brittany as treasurer for one more year. Motion made by committee. Brian Cole seconds with no one opposed. The officers are approved.
6. Committee Updates – Various – Facilities – Kevin Nunley reports that we are hoping to work on the Thomasville Plant site until it doesn’t work anymore. It’s between Patterson and Ivy. We are looking at a portion of the building and the land. We need close to an acre of outdoor space and we have over 70 parking spaces here, so we need at least that much. Kevin will try to bring an aerial view if this is still in contention at the next meeting. It needs a lot of work right now just like these two buildings did when we first started getting them ready. There is a building on the site that is already close to a multi-purpose space and space where we can envision cars pulling through for drop off and pick up. Margaret Taylor asks if there is enough room that with lots of time could there be a theater? The developers would likely have already developed the whole area by then. We are still talking with people about discussing other options. We don’t know right now where this will end up. Now, we need to start looking at cost. Chrissy Hardy asks if we are thinking of renting or buying. It depends on cost for both and what it looks like. Strategic Planning – Looking to help to diversify applicants for staff positions. Summer camp applications are out with descriptions of camps available. Before and After school program is doing very well and looking to make about $100,000 this year which is way more than the projection we made. Teachers Academy has taken a back seat for now as staff has focused on other things. Marketing and Communications – Ellen Heck – Meeting with Amy Archambault, Ellen Coble, and Leah Lavin. We are looking to make the website easier to use on phones as that is how most people are accessing the site. There are plans to try to have a parent portal where people can make payments, etc. There may be a need for a tech position in the future so there is someone overseeing replacement of technology, each classroom’s needs after Donors Choose, etc. A Square Space account is the most immediate need at the moment that runs about $216 a year. Robin Hollis will check to see what subscriptions we already have to check for redundancy. Michelle Kennedy wonders about having a post a week on artists for Community Creates and have it aired on WXII. We should also consider LinkedIn as a platform to advertise. Robin will connect Michelle with Leah Lavin. Development – Julia Toone – Focus is moving to the capital campaign. Ellen Coble has been calling on key supporters to try to get them to school for a visit before testing begins. Community Creates is shaping up well. Chris Gilmore’s practice is our presenting sponsor! We have met with Whitney Jones a few times. There is momentum being gained with the campaign planning committee.
7. Principal’s Report (Robin) – Information about this year’s calendar is included in the report sent by email. We’re proposing that we use our hours of instruction instead of making up the last two days we missed. Motion to approve made by Margaret and seconded by Michelle. Students’ last day is June 7, teachers are finished on June 12th. Teacher Rally on May 1st. State Superintendent asked for a date change. Last year the large districts including WS/FCS closed and we did as well. This year we only have one teacher requesting out but that could change. Parent survey – 91 responses and 97% are satisfied or highly satisfied. Parent survey info is important because having this data over years allows us to say things in our capital campaign. Parent requests for class placement: We have had a policy in place since we began letting parents know to let us know by May 1st if they have a request. The overall goal is to have a balanced classroom in every way (gender, demographics, abilities). When we get a lot of requests it can make it very difficult for teachers to create balanced classrooms. Teacher survey responses show that about 60% of our teachers are in favor of parent requests but most want to see the process changed. Parents don’t always have all of the information needed to make decisions about classes. Deadline might change to June 1st. We may have a form for parents to fill out with a request and some acceptable reasons for requests. Robin read the current policy aloud. There doesn’t seem to be many changes needed.
8. Parent Council Updates – Becky Dickson – Parents had a chance to answer survey questions about replication. This was added on to the end of the parent survey. Many parents did not understand how far along we are in the replication process. We talked about Positive Discipline at our last meeting. We talked about having a parent workshop on Positive Discipline this year or in the fall.
9. Other Business – Some board members are working on an updated policy for background checks for visitors. Ident-A-Kid was discussed. Challenges include performance dates and Friday Sing. The challenges we have had would not have been picked up by this system. It worked because staff members were paying attention and said something about their concerns. Kevin doesn’t think Ident-A-Kid is the best solution. Michelle asks if we could have an SRO for events? We might be looking for approval in May or June for a new policy.
10. Adjournment – 6:45pm Motion to adjourn made by April, seconded by Chris. The meeting is adjourned.