BOD Meeting Minutes- February 13, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS MLK Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday February 13, 2018

Attendees:

Also In Attendance: Robin Hollis, Paige Raper, Joy Blaser, Mary Siebert, Yvonne Leab

AGENDA

1. Meeting Called to Order – 6:45pm – Meeting called to order at 6:51 by Kevin Nunley.
2. Approval of January Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED – Motion to approve January minutes made by Brian Cole, Margaret Taylor seconds. All in favor no one opposed. The minutes are approved.
3. Review of January Financial Results (Kevin) – ACTION REQUIRED – Kevin Nunley is reporting for Brittany Emery. We are up in revenue. We received bonuses from the state based on test results. Four teachers and Robin got a bonus. We are watching the contracted student services line, which is running higher than expected. Other than those two items we are right on budget. It is possible we run at a deficit for the year but it should not be as significant as it is running right now due to services for EC students. We wanted to vote on the 990 tonight but it is not completely finalized. Mrs. Hollis has given the information so we will see what the delay is on that. Motion to pass the financials made by Julia Toone and seconded by Griff Morgan. All in favor no one opposed. The motion passes and financials are approved.
4. Committee Updates – Various – Ellen Heck has video days scheduled and everything is in place to make that happen. Kevin facilities – We are working with Neal and selected Don Vanderbeck and Premier to do the construction for the courtyard expansion. We are targeting to start the classroom side in March. Right now they are finalizing things in engineering. We are going to do this in two permits. We’re trying to decide when to pull the permits.
   1. Building Donation Acceptance (Kevin) – ACTION REQUIRED

We’ve been offered a building as a donation by a developer out of SC. It is located at 2900 Reynolds Park Rd. and about 50,000 sq ft. Kevin Nunley, Robin Hollis, Paige Raper, Griff Morgan, Neal Foster, and Charlie McCurry went to see it. The owner purchased the building for the licenses for beds to use in another facility elsewhere. They would like to donate the building for a year for $1. At the end of the year we would own the lease. We couldn’t sell the building for three years. We would need to carry insurance on it, do regular maintenance, etc. Kevin is saying $25,000-$30,000/year for upkeep. They may have a buyer but they may prefer to donate the building. Joan Marie asks what is the appraised value? Sale price was 2.8 million dollars. Do you have a recommendation? Kevin says he would say to take it. It could be good for a second location. It has 4ish acres. You could add on eventually. Griff says it is a potential school but a developer could also be interested in it. Margaret asks if the vote tonight is to explore more or if the vote is final. Julia asks if we could vote unless the insurance is above a certain amount. Charlie McCurry asks what Paige and Robin think. Robin says it could be a great location for a school. The potential is great for it. She likes the idea of being a second school as opposed to selling it. Margaret asks if there have been trespassers. Yes, before it was boarded up. Charlie McCurry says the ability to liquidate it after a few years is a benefit but he isn’t sure it’s worth $3 million. He would need to do more research. He has clients in the area and the economic interest has been good in that area. He likes the idea of serving that part of town. It is underserved. On balance, it’s a positive but he has concerns about trespassing short term, the neighborhood long term, cost of insurance, maintenance, etc. If we will keep it maybe we make some improvements in increments. Ellen Heck asks for more info about Charlie’s long-term concerns about the neighborhood. He is talking about the economic future. If things don’t continue to progress in this area, what will it look like long-term? He loves the idea of adding to a neighborhood much like we did in this area. Joan Marie asks if public housing is across the street. No, that is on a different part of the street. It seems to be single-family houses close by. WSSU, Quarry Park, and Reynolds Park Golf Course have put in some infrastructure. Margaret Taylor says we’re not going to put more in insurance than we would get back if we sold the property. Could we structure an acceptance depending on some things once we know more? Kevin says we could look into specific numbers. He doesn’t think this can wait until the next board meeting. The owner wants to get rid of this. Could we use parent volunteers to help with maintenance? Yes, some but mowing alone on four acres is not a volunteer job. Matthew Donnell asks if there are any other concerns that aren’t financial? Kevin asks if we want to proceed tonight with a vote and email out final costs. There is somewhere around $850,000 in our reserves. It’s not how we want to spend our reserves but it might be worthwhile. Chris Gilmore asks why it’s being offered to us. Kevin says the owner was looking at a different organization that Kevin works with. Debbie Linville says it’s basically a financial gift with option to grow a lot. Charlie says we are talking about the same risk with all real estate. Charlie’s vote is to accept it with some homework done. We have a year as a lease also. If something happened during that year we could get out of it. Motion to accept the gift made by Margaret Taylor and seconded by Charlie McCurry. All are in favor with no one opposed. The motion passes. Kevin will let them know tomorrow.

1. % of Parents allowed on Board (Margaret) – ACTION REQUIRED – Margaret Taylor sent an email ahead of the meeting about the maximum number of parents allowed on the board. We are always bumping up against the reality that it’s mostly parents volunteering on the board. We are always looking for diversity on the board and increasing the number of parents could help the board reflect the student population. We also brought on board members with young children and those children are now aging into the school. The board development committee thinks a 50/50 split might be better. According to bylaws, we need two votes with a 66% majority spread apart by 12 months. We’d like to vote today for the first vote. Kevin says many charter schools have no limitations on parents on the board. Is 50% high enough? Margaret says we think 12 and 12 works well. Griff says the committee talked about different numbers. The committee thinks there is a benefit to having a board not dominated by parents. Charlie McCurry – Could we vote to change the bylaws? Griff says this was written to avoid making this an easy vote. Margaret says we could we need five days written notice before you vote to amend the bylaws. Charlie suggests changing the provision that says we need to wait a year in between votes so you don’t have to wait a year to change the parent percentage. Margaret and Griff say we need to have the one year. Motion is to raise the cap from 33% to 50% or 12 whichever is greater and eliminate the provision that requires two votes one year apart. Motion made by Griff Morgan and second by Brian Cole. All are in favor and no one opposed. The motion passes.

5. Community Creates Sponsorships Working Group (Kevin) – Community Creates is May 5th this year. It will be in MLK because the courtyard will be under construction. The committee needs help from the board this year. We would like to do more with community sponsorship for the event. Kevin would like a committee from the board to work on possible sponsorships. The group could get drinks/a meal, brainstorm companies and divide the list. Julia, Brian, and Kevin agree to help. Robin has a great sponsorship packet already created.
6. Principal’s Report (Robin)
   1. School Calendar Approval – ACTION REQUIRED – We align big breaks with the school system, add in some snow days, its not far off from other calendars. Debbie Linville makes the motion to approve next year’s calendar, Chris Gilmore seconds. All are in favor, with no one opposed. The calendar is approved.
7. Hollis gave out notes generated at the board retreat from results of the “What Makes ABS Special?” activity. The word clouds were created from the notes. One cloud is based on the board responses and the other came from faculty members. We will do something similar at the Parent Council meeting on Friday.
8. Parent Council Updates – January Jam was last month. We should have a dollar amount raised at the PC meeting on Friday. Brundibar and Romeo and Juliet are coming up.
9. Other Business – Mrs. Siebert spoke about Brundibar. The whole 7th grade participates at the Arts Council Theater. It is free and takes place next Thursday at 7pm. Joan Marie says it is important for board members to participate in the annual campaign because we’ll be asking parents to participate at 100% at the level that is comfortable for them. Joan Marie says we’re going to the capital campaign coordinating committee on April 6th. Whitney Jones is working on interviews now. We’re working on a case for support, project budget, etc.
10. Adjournment – 7:45pm – Motion to adjourn made by Brian Cole, Kyle seconds. The meeting is adjourned.

Looking Ahead:

●      IMPORTANT DATES … MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

●      Board Meeting – March 13

○      Community Creates – May 5