BOD Meeting Minutes- December 18, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday December 18, 2018 (rescheduled due to snow)

Attendees:

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

AGENDA

1. Meeting Called to Order – 5:45pm – Meeting called to order by Kevin Nunley at 5:50.
2. Approval of November Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED – Motion to approve the minutes made by Julia Toone, Bill Scheidt seconds the motion. All are in favor with no one opposed. The minutes are approved.
3. Review of November Financial Results (Brittany) – ACTION REQUIRED – November is where we thought we would be. YTD net deficit of $129,000. We didn’t receive any state funding in November due to timing. Repairs and maintenance was higher than expected due to hurricane damage. We received notification today that we were approved for an insurance claim related to the storm. Motion to approve made by Brian Cole and seconded by Kyle Barnes. All are in favor with no one opposed. The financials are approved.
4. Review of 2017-18 Audited Financial Report (Brittany) – ACTION REQUIRED – Brittany – Audit is finalized. We had an unmodified audit opinion. Everything went smoothly. The finance committee reviewed it. The audit will be sent to board members for a vote in January.
5. Committee Updates – Various – Julia Toone – Development committee, Julia, Lara Hanes Pierce, and Kelly Emling make up the committee. We met with the development folks at ABS and got some direction. Annual giving is $38,332 as of today. Family participation rate is 21%. Board is at 38% and last year we had 100% participation. Board members are reminded that supporting the school financially is part of our responsibility. It also helps with grants to have 100% participation. No amount is too small to participate. Thank you to those who have already given. Ellen and Leah are working on donations from community and families. They are also working on building a base of supporters to prepare for the 2020 capital campaign. Bill Scheidt asks where we are compared to last year. We raised $60,000 last year. We have shifted this to the end of the year when it is usually in the spring. The plan is to keep the campaign at this time of year ending around Giving Tuesday. It has been difficult to bring new donors in to tour with no theater and fifth grade in the theater. Facilities – We will be ready to move 5th graders in the next few days. Real Estate – The Nissen Wagonworks building roof collapsed under the weight of the recent snow. There are 10 acres there and it’s about a mile from the School of the Arts. There aren’t many columns. Summer camp – Robin and Paige are working on this. Teachers Academy has been on hold while the classrooms are being built. Paige and Robin will work on this. Charlie McCurry has been helpful with looking at sites. Salem College just put some things up for sale. We had a meeting with them. Griff still likes the Dize building. The YWCA is still a conversation to be had. School of the Arts is an attractive partner. Amber Dalholt asks how much space we’re looking for? We have estimated needing about 55,000 and 60,000 square feet but we would start with K-2 probably and then grow each year.
6. Principal’s Report (Robin) – School calendar – we usually review a draft of this with staff and parent council. We haven’t done that because we were out of school last week. Drafts are distributed. Spring Break falls a bit later. Almost everything lines up with a typical school year. We only built in three makeup days this year. We forgive three days each year. Those are hurricane days. We have already missed five more with only three makeup days. The state has said that all school can use the 1025 hours threshold this year. We have always had that option as a charter school. We don’t have a proposal this year yet. We should wait to see how many more days we use (if any). As the last day of school goes later, we can move testing dates. We would like to build in a total of five snow days next year. This means we will likely add makeup days near spring break. We will get feedback from teachers and parents so we can vote to approve a calendar in January. Liz Green is back from maternity leave. She is the curriculum coordinator. Her office moved to the 7th Street building and it will be great for teachers in this building to have her presence. The holiday party went well and it was nice to have it at Wise Man.
7. Parent Council Updates – There was no PC meeting last week due to snow. The January meeting will be on January 25th.
8. Board Retreat Planning – Kevin Nunley is working on an agenda for the retreat. Let him know if you’d like to work on this. There are some options for a location and that may drive what activity we do afterwards. We typically look at the strategic plan at this retreat. There will be at least some aspect of that at this year’s retreat.
9. Other Business – During the February meeting we will vote to amend the parent makeup requirements for the board. We voted on this last year but we needed a second vote a year later. We need more than a quorum for that. ¾ of the board is needed. The board retreat will be on January 19th at 8am
10. Adjournment – 6:45pm – Motion to adjourn made by Brian Cole and seconded by Julia Toone. All are in favor. The meeting is adjourned.