BOD Meeting Minutes- Sept. 11, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday September 11th, 2018

Attendees:

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

AGENDA

1. Meeting Called to Order – 5:45pm – Meeting called to order at 5:45.
2. Approval of August Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED – Brian Cole makes a motion to approve. Bill Scheidt seconds the motion. All are in favor. The August minutes are approved.
3. ABS Development Team Introduction – Ellen Coble, Leah Lavin – Robin Hollis introduces the new development team. Ellen Coble reports that she is a W-S native who worked for Wachovia Bank and then went into non-profit fundraising with Hospice and Palliative Care. She built a strong fundraising operation. She left Hospice and thought she’d take some time off, Michelle Kennedy set it up for Ellen to come over for a tour. She has been visiting classrooms and meeting with administrators to get a feel for the school. She is looking forward to being here. Leah Lavin is a parent here. Leah started in fundraising after graduate school in DC. She moved to the big island of Hawaii and worked in a school’s advancement office there. Her family moved here about a year and a half ago and she is excited to be working here. We submitted a grant to the W-S Foundation for capacity building.
4. Review of August Financial Results (Brittany) – ACTION REQUIRED – Brittany Emery – We got our final June numbers from Acadia. Final revenue was $4,311,000 expenses $4,355,000. August YTD revenue is $545,000 and $800,000 of expenses. New heat pump in August for $8000 and contributions are up $61,000 from last year. Afterschool care received $12,000 in August. First payroll is this week. This will be pulled out and go through Outfitters 4. We still don’t know our ADM numbers and hope to know that for the next board meeting. Kevin explains that charter schools are allotted funds based on enrollment at the 20-day mark. There are often timing differences between when we get the money and when it needs to be spent. Local funding is also sometimes “off” with timing – it comes monthly but is often a month after the fact. In July, the state didn’t release any of the fiscal year funding so we had to draw down from savings. That money has been out back into savings. Motion to approve the August financials made by April Ruffin-Adams. Bill Scheidt seconds. All are in favor and no one opposed. The financials are approved.
5. Board Conflict of Interest Policy (Kevin) – ACTION REQUIRED – The Office of Charter Schools asked us to update our policy. This meets the standards of the Office of Charter Schools. Board members sign a document annually that they will alert the board of any potential conflicts. Motion to approve made by Margaret Taylor, Ellen Heck seconds the motion. All in favor with no one opposed. The motion passes.
6. Committee Updates (Various) – Griff – Strategic Planning committee reports that in the spring we decided to create an afterschool program and it is now running and staffed. Arts Based School Supporting Organization is a form of a non-profit created to support another non-profit organization. It could hold real estate and charter schools cannot. It has its own tax ID number and bank accounts. Any profits created by the afterschool program can then be sent back to ABS. We are applying to the federal government to make sure we can guarantee tax exempt status. We are in the process of writing the bylaws for this organization. Some of the legal work was done by Kilpatrick Townsend as donated work. There may be a need for a real estate committee to look into locations for a second location. We are thinking Brian Cole, Kevin Nunley, Charlie McCurry, and Neal Foster, our landlord who wants to help and be involved. Thank you to Griff for making this happen We’ve talked about it for four years. Kevin – Facilities – What you see as purple right now will have brick over it. The roof is on, insulation is in, electrical is in. Kevin does not think it will be completed by the next board meeting but it will look very close from the outside. We probably won’t have a CO but we can probably walk through and tour.
7. Principal’s Report (Robin) – 20th day will be Set 19th. We have 529 students. We built the budget on 511. Both buildings are operating well despite temporary spaces, subbing, etc. BOG testing happened today. We will let families know as soon as scores come back. mClass and MAP testing will start very soon. We do follow Read to Achieve which means 3rd graders need to show proficiency in reading and we have to notify parents if their child is not showing evidence that they are proficient. Our school does very well. Our afterschool raises about $15,000/month. Projected salary is $6000 monthly. Outfitters 4 will handle bookkeeping for this program. This is separate from Acadia who handles the ABS books. Staffing updates: we are fully staffed. Liz Green had a baby – Lucy Green. Liz will return to ABS after maternity leave. We have an additional counselor. An anonymous donation paid for the full salary of a second counselor. There are 15 new staff members at ABS this year. New staff members have been an exciting addition. The arts program that takes place after school is working beautifully. It’s our second week. There is no cost to students. There are two bands, strings, choir, and visual art clubs. The teachers are having a great time. This adds a third dismissal time so we have about 100 students who do not have to leave at that 2:45 dismissal time. Dancing Classrooms is underway, drumming will start for 2nd grade to begin getting ready for the second grade performance of a traditional African tale. Mary Siebert wants to thank Brian Cole for meeting to discuss ideas for how to create advanced ensembles. Kevin asks about our performances that take place at the former Arts Council Theater. Mary says the Harvest Church is interested in renting theater space to us.
8. Parent Council Update – First meeting is scheduled for this Friday. Parent reps are set up for teachers to help coordinate volunteers. Robin Hollis thanks the parent traffic committee for working on carpool apps, signage, etc.
9. Other Business – Robin Hollis announces that she and her husband, Tom Hollis, will be dancing in Take the Lead this year. Part of the money raised supports Dancing Classrooms which our 5th grade students participate in. Voting cards are available for anyone interested.
10. Adjournment – 6:45pm Motion to adjourn made by Brian Cole, Lara Hanes Pierce seconds the motion. All are in favor with no one opposed. The meeting is adjourned.