BOD Meeting Minutes- December 12, 2017

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday December 12, 2017

Board Attendance Roster 2017-18

Attendees:

In Attendance: Robin Hollis, Paige Raper, Joy Blaser

AGENDA

1. Meeting Called to Order – 5:45pm Griff Morgan calls the meeting to order.
2. Approval of November Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED Motion to approve November minutes made by Brian Cole, Brittany Emery seconds the motion. All are in favor with no one opposed. The motion passes and minutes are approved.
3. Review of November Financial Results (Brittany) – ACTION REQUIRED We are pretty much on budget. There is a net surplus of $284,000 this month due to timing. The year to date surplus is $56,000. Motion made by Kevin Nunley to approve the financials and second by Bill Scheidt. All are in favor with no one opposed. The motion passes.
4. Capital Campaign Update (Kevin & Joan Marie) – Campaign Committee has met including Griff Morgan, Kevin Nunley, Robin Hollis, Paige Raper, Joan Marie Belnap, Bill Stevens, Redge Hanes, David Neill, Nick Bragg. Gayle Anderson will also be helping out. We discussed what we want to accomplish, Whitney Jones laid out that a first phase would be up to $500,000 with a second phase for more. Is this feasible to do? There was a lot of discussion on the school and then discussion about whether this idea was feasible. The committee came up with a list of people and organizations in the community who can be asked to see if this is a good goal. Whitney Jones will be meeting with people to talk through this and then we will meet again in January to see if this is doable. We are also working on a draft for the WS Foundation to see about getting on the calendar for 2020 or 2021. Griff says everyone was helpful and generous with his/her time. Redge Hanes followed up with a visit to the school.
5. Committee Updates – Various – Brian Cole discussed the videos that Ellen Heck discussed. We are trying to tell a story about the school. Who are we and what do we do? We want this knowledge out there as we think about going into a capital campaign. The retreat will have a focus on possible replication. Griff Morgan mentions the teacher’s academy being an important possibility because of the impact it could have. This is a compelling possibility for the capital campaign. Linda Pass says this school creates patrons of the arts. They are at the arts festivals, at the Nutcracker, at the opera. Ellen Heck – We’re not moving as quickly as we hoped due to the holidays. Mary Siebert is willing to work on converting How We Do It…. But everyone is busy right now. It will likely be January before the video work begins. Robin wonders about a possible virtual tour video.
6. Principal’s Report (Robin) – The principal’s report was sent via e-mail prior to the meeting. We received the official School Report Card form the state of NC and we earned a ‘B’. This is based on standardized test scores and growth on standardized tests. The school report card is shared with parents, board, and teachers. We are required by law to share this publically. The link allows you to compare several schools side-by-side. The newspaper published the county’s results. High School Info Night was last week. Paige Raper puts that together. This year we had a new school attend – Millennium Charter. The new Guided Math initiative was started last year. The idea that math is something to be memorized and work quickly is not how most mathematicians work. We’re trying to shift how we think about math and how we talk about math. Guided Math allows small groups to meet with the teacher and talk about math, answer questions, etc. We have a coach and leader from ERG working with us. She is also an ABS parent so she “speaks our language”. If you look at our data, our math scores lag behind our reading and this is one way we’re working on that. Linda Pass wonders if it could be both memorization and thinking about it. Robin Hollis says yes, it is both but we need an understanding to reduce stress and also to help kids think about it and check for reasonableness when working on something new. Ellen Heck asks how long the EOG takes for most students. Mrs. Hollis says the standard administration is three hours but some take more. Math I students are working two years ahead and often take extra time. Charlie McCurry asks about staff and parent reactions to the report card grade. Joy Blaser says she hears from some who are believers in everything we do and don’t put much weight on the grade. Others want to know how to put things in place to increase that “score”. Bill Scheidt points out that this isn’t an accurate measure of what we do here. Mrs. Hollis says that is true for every school. We also use parent surveys, student surveys, and alumni surveys to add to the data. Ellen Heck doesn’t clearly see how the grade is calculated. Kevin Nunley reminds us that in the past we have talked about how we could meet growth and now we have met expected growth.
7. Parent Council Updates – There was no November meeting due to holidays. Bookmarks Day was well attended and 10% of the sales will come back to ABS. Kyle Webster and 3rd grade student Gabe Deibler were there for readings. The traffic committee is doing a lot of work. They had police officers on campus last week to observe and make suggestions. Joy says it’s challenging in Innovation Quarter right now with construction and traffic. January Jam is coming up next month.
8. Board Retreat Planning – Kevin Nunley says the board retreat will include the January meeting. Robin Hollis, Paige Raper, and Kevin Nunley met to discuss the retreat and there are a lot of ideas on what to discuss. Replication, expansion, etc. all leads us to talk about what makes ABS special? What makes us great? Questions were sent out this week for people to ponder before the retreat. Robin and Paige discussed the fact that it’s harder for us to see this sometimes because we’re in it all the time. If you’re not a parent here, please come through and see it with fresh eyes. Bill Scheidt adds that maybe some board members should look at other schools as comparison. He has a perspective because he is in other schools all the time. Kevin Nunley says people could also think back to their own education and how this is different.
9. Other Business – Robin Hollis would like people to RSVP for the retreat and include whether or not they will stay for lunch and an art class at Sawtooth. Alex Ewing is ill and in the hospital. We’re all thinking about him and some of our students are sending cards.
10. Adjournment – 6:45pm Motion made to adjourn Amy Lanning and Ellen Heck seconds. All in favor. No one opposed. The meeting is adjourned.

Looking Ahead:

●      IMPORTANT DATES … MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

●      Board Retreat – January 13, 2018 at Sawtooth