BOD Meeting Minutes- October 9, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday October 9th, 2018

Attendees:

Also in attendance: Robin Hollis, Paige Raper, Joy Blaser,

AGENDA

1. Meeting Called to Order – 5:45pm – Meeting called to order by Griff Morgan.
2. Approval of September Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED – Motion by April Ruffin-Adams and seconded by Julia Toone. All are in favor, with no one opposed. The minutes are approved.
3. Review of September Financial Results & Budget update (Brittany) – ACTION REQUIRED – September financials – YTD, we have revenue of $1,263,000 and expenses of $1,178,000. Griff asks if that covers construction costs. The only thing in the operating budget for construction were the plans at $56,000. Neil will reimburse us when he gets the final draw on the construction loan. All costs are covered by Neil and rolled into rent. Motion to approve the financials made by Bill Scheidt and seconded by Griff Morgan. All are in favor with no one opposed. The financials pass. Budget – ADM came in not as high as we budgeted but we received more than we included for EC. We budgeted for 219 but we have 228 students. We went from net deficit of $51,000 and now we have a reserve of $6200. We also have a $10,000 heat pump cost. There is a second counselor on staff now. We are paying for benefits for that position but a donation is covering the salary. Rent will be increasing next year so we will need to think of that for future years. Our initial budget was a balanced budget taking some funds from reserves. Now we have a budget with some extra going into reserves. We increased instructional supplies, instructional services, and arts services. Rent has decreased a bit since we haven’t moved into the space yet. Motion to approve the amended budget made by Griff Morgan and seconded by Julia Toone. All are in favor with no one opposed. The budget passes.
4. Committee Updates – Various – Marketing – Ellen Heck – Ellen met with Leah Lavin and Ellen Coble to discuss 3 main projects: Annual Fund and Capital Campaign/making a more robust social media presence/outreach into the community. If you think you’d like to be a part of any of those, we will divide the committee into those three tasks. Robin Hollis mentions that we now have staff members working on development and we’re working on moving annual giving from the spring near tax refund time to the fall to take advantage of year-end giving and have a greater reach in the community. We kick that campaign off with the board ask so that will likely happen in November and December. Margaret Taylor asks if that will be hard for some because it is asking twice in a calendar year. Possibly but maybe offset because there are more community asks happening. Griff – Do we want to have a summer camp this summer? People start advertising in February so we need to start making some decisions. That will be high on the agenda. We are looking at some grants that could provide scholarships for camps. Real Estate committee has been formed and is gathering data on what we would need to think about a second school. There is some interesting potential for possible locations in Winston-Salem. Margaret asks if we have connected with the Crossnore School. We have exchanged e-mails. We thought that space was being used already. Facilities Update – Kevin Nunley – New space is coming along and we will go take a look at it. It is behind schedule again. There is no updated date right now but we should have that soon. There is work being done on the railroad at 7th Griff says the volunteers helping with traffic in the morning are great.
5. Principal’s Report (Robin) – We received a letter from Thom Tillis congratulating us on exceeding the state’s growth on last year’s EOG tests. Lara Hanes Pierce has a friend who brought a child to ABS from another school and she is thrilled with everything. Right now the only data we have in hand is from fall 2018 MAP data. Our students do very well when compared with the national norm group. Only two cohorts are not above the national norm. Third grade math and fourth grade reading. We took a year to give support to teachers on guided math. It’s the same way we’ve taught reading for years. This year we have launched a new 6th-8th grade math curriculum called Illustrative Math. We sent teachers to Atlanta for training.
6. Parent Council Updates – Joy Blaser reports that someone has volunteered to coordinate Fall Festival. Book Fair is coming up at that same time. Fall Fest is November 3rd from noon to 3pm.
7. Other Business
8. Adjournment – 6:45pm April Ruffin-Adams makes a motion to adjourn and Margaret Taylor seconds the motion. All are in favor and the meeting is adjourned.

Looking Ahead:

●      IMPORTANT DATES … MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

○      NEXT Board Meeting – Tuesday November 13