BOD Meeting Minutes- April 10, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday April 10, 2018

Attendees:

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

AGENDA

1. Meeting Called to Order – 5:45pm – Kevin calls the meeting to order at 5:50pm.
2. Approval of March Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED Motion to approve the minutes made by Brian Cole and seconded by Linda Pass. All are in favor with no one opposed. The minutes are passed.
3. Review of March Financial Results (Brittany) – ACTION REQUIRED We are 75% through the year and we will meet later this week to talk about the budget. We should have a budget draft to approve by June. We have YTD revenue of $3,715,000, and expenses of 3,000,000. There may still be a deficit at the end of the year. Motion to approve the financials made by Debbie Linville, Bill Scheidt seconds the motion. All are in favor, with no one opposed. The financials are passed.
4. Development Coordinator Position (Kevin) – Last month we voted on a board development position. There is a grant available through the WS Foundation for $25,000. The grant is available in September. This is not enough to fund the position but is a good start and maybe the person raises the rest. We have a need for this person to start sooner than later. Brian Cole asks if the grant is over a year. Robin Hollis says in the past, yes and it has diminished over time. Julia Toone is interested in the position and has been executive director of a non-profit in the past. There is no action item on this right now but Kevin is asking for board feedback. Between now and the end of this fiscal year, we would like to identify candidates and identify costs for this. Brian Cole says he thinks not having someone doing this is a liability based on where we are and what we are attempting to do. When Robin and Kevin presented at the W-S Foundation last week it was the first question we were asked. Brian Cole asks if there is a job description and Robin says we have looked at many charter schools and are creating one now. Joan Marie Belnap asks where we will post the job. We don’t know that right now. It’s a balance between someone who knows enough about the school and someone who may be great but has a steep learning curve Brian Cole could speak with Ed Lewis at UNCSA and we all have “connectors”. Joan Marie says she wants us to be thoughtful about choosing someone. Griff says people who “do this” could help us: Whitney Jones, Joan Marie Belnap, etc. Robin says we haven’t taken any forward steps because there is no approved finances, etc. Brittany asks if we have a feeling about whether we’d get the grant to fund part of this position. We haven’t talked with them about this at all. Brian Cole asks if the grant process is very in-depth. We have done several of these over the years.
5. Board Development/Nominating Committee Update (Margaret) – ACTION REQUIRED – Margaret Taylor says the committee has identified key needs and one is diversity. Another is capital campaign experience or connections in this area. There have been a lot of people apply who are parents. We will propose a slate of three members. Amber Dalholt from Sunnyside Mercantile. It would be nice to have a downtown neighbor. Tomisha Gladman president of Jack and Jill W-S chapter, April Ruffin-Adams a former social worker and a visiting professor at UNCG. Recommendation comes from committee and is seconded by Amy Lanning. All are in favor with no one opposed. The three new members are approved and start in August. Officers for next year – Kevin – A suggestions is made to leave the officer slate the same for next year. Kevin continues at chair, Griff at vice chair, Brittany as treasurer, and Margaret as secretary. Joan Marie mentions that it may be good practice to have two-year terms. Motion made from committee seconded by Ellen Heck. All are in favor with no one opposed. The officer slate remains the same next year.
6. Committee Updates – Various – Strategic Committee – Griff Morgan – There are two things to focus on including fundraising a small campaign before the larger public campaign. Another is real estate: Where should we be looking? What is available, etc.? Capital Campaign – Kevin – the latest information is that Kevin and Robin presentation to the Capital Campaign Calendar Committee on Friday and it went very well. They were engaged and asked questions. We should hear something back this week that gives us a definite timeline. There were members on the committee that were new to their positions so it was nice for them to hear about ABS. Robin Hollis said the feasibility study with Whitney Jones is wrapping up. The thought that keeps coming up is doing a smaller $500,000 campaign soon and then doing a $1-$1.5M campaign when we are on the calendar. The first phase stabilizes us and the second phase involves replication/TA. Leadership for the campaign is also a challenge in our community. Facilities – Delays in final engineering specs have caused delays in construction. We should have the final specs back this week and start construction. Don Vanderbeck has a plan for construction while school is in session. Communication and Marketing – Ellen Heck – We will have our booth ready soon and start videos.
7. Principal’s Report (Robin) – Report was sent via e-mail before the meeting. We are in the process of teachers working on Working Conditions Survey. This is done every two years. We had 100% completion and will get some information back. The School Leadership Team will go through the data once it’s available. We use this with student and parent survey results to look at where we can improve. We are looking for a 6th grade teacher and a Spanish teacher. We had 60 parent responses to the parent survey. Robin attached the overall agree/disagree answers as well as individual comments. It’s helpful because sometimes it is something to look into (videos at lunch) and sometimes not (we want homework). People vote with their feet and we haven’t seen a lot of people leaving. Ellen Heck says it was confusing when asked to rank in order from 1-5. Robin says yes but we have some data on priorities if we want to consider changing something. The student survey is great feedback. This is completed by 2nd through 8th grade students.
8. Parent Council Updates – Robin Hollis announces that the Annual Campaign results are at $59,000 in gifts and participation at 70%, which is the highest it has ever been. Kevin reports that Romeo and Juliet was great and we are gearing up for Community Creates.
9. Other Business – none
10. Adjournment – 6:45pm Motion to adjourn the meeting made by Amy Lanning and seconded Brian Cole. All are in favor with no one opposed. The meeting is adjourned.

Looking Ahead:

●      IMPORTANT DATES … MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

●      Board Meeting – May 8

○      Community Creates – May 5