BOD Meeting Minutes- March 13, 2018

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday March 13, 2018

Attendees:

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

AGENDA

1. Meeting Called to Order – 5:45pm – Meeting called to order by Kevin Nunley at 5:49.
2. Approval of February Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED – Motion to approve the February minutes made by Brian Cole, seconded by Debbie Linville. All are in favor, with no one opposed. The motion passes and minutes are approved.
3. Review of February Financial Results (Brittany) – ACTION REQUIRED – We have our 990. This hasn’t been filed yet because there were small pieces of information we were asked to fill out this year. The finance committee makes a motion to approve the 990 for the 2017 fiscal year end. Julia Toone seconds the motion. All are in favor with no one opposed. The motion passes. February financials – For this month total revenue is $693,000 and expenses of $332,00. $591,000 came in from the state. Overall, our revenue budget has 23% remaining and our expenses budget has 31%. We still expect to have a deficit at the end of the year. A 10-percentage point differential might be a $20,000 deficit. Motion to approve the financials made by Julia Toone, seconded by Brian Cole. All are in favor and no one opposed. Motion passes.
4. Audit Contract – ACTION REQUIRED – We changed auditors to Les Merritt last year. He would like for us to enter into a two-year contract with him. It would hold our cost to what it was last year. Kevin Nunley makes the motion and Chrissy Hardy seconds it. All are in favor with no one opposed. The motion passes.
5. We discussed the possibility of having a staff member on staff for development. There is the chance for a grant to fund the position. We would need to have a position approved in order to recruit for that position. Mrs. Hollis says the timing might be right in terms of launching into a capital campaign. We don’t have anyone on staff who has the space/time to do that. Motion to approve a staff position for development made by Ellen Heck, seconded by Brian Cole. All are in favor with no one opposed. The motion passes.
6. School Safety Discussion (Robin) – We’d like to spend some time on this in light of what happened a month ago in Florida. It’s important for board members to know what we do with regard to safety. All doors are locked, teachers have keys to enter, and cameras are at all exterior doors. We remind staff and students not to open the doors for others. It’s harder doing this with parents. One of our greatest assets is our observant staff. Children are always escorted between buildings, at recess, etc. No one is left unattended. The police department recommended “no trespassing” signs so that if someone was on campus that shouldn’t be, they can be escorted off campus. We have a plan designed by the Center for Safer Schools. We have been trained in Raleigh and Winston-Salem and our staff is trained each year in August. Critical response includes lockdown drills. These plans aren’t made public at the request of the authorities. We try to do these in the spring but haven’t done this yet this year because of what happened in Florida last month. We don’t want it to create any more anxiety surrounding this drill. We are always trying to keep a balance between children knowing this is a safe place and being prepared for an emergency. The most important factor we keep hearing from authorities is school climate. Knowing each other and feeling like we can intervene when someone is struggling is important. Student surveys give us some data on school climate. Anecdotal info also gives lots of information. We frequently have students who report concerns to us about friends. Staff and faculty know students very well and also parents very well. It makes it easier to notice when something doesn’t seem right with someone. A part-time counselor is needed to help with the number of students needing to be seen. The more likely scenario for danger is people crossing MLK or cars in the parking lot. The idea of a fence on the median would be very helpful (similar to how it is at WSSU). A crash bar gate would be helpful in the art garden fence. It would be helpful to tack this project on to the courtyard construction. A barricade near the dismissal line to physically keep cars away from children would be helpful. There could be an accident if someone stepped on the gas pedal accidentally. Something happened several years ago during the summer when a person was driving through and had a cardiac episode and drove into our playground. We do not have an SRO. Most middle and high schools in WSFCS have this. Downtown School is the exception – they don’t have one. Michelle Kennedy sees a benefit with an SRO being able to catalog what is happening with people. Robin and Paige are handling more of these incidents right now. We don’t have a district office to go to – we are kind of isolated as a charter school. Margaret Taylor asks how often we are seeing people trespassing. People cut through weekly. Robin and/or Paige go out when necessary to remind people to leave campus. Margaret Taylor asks if WSSU still has a community safety resource center. We don’t know. Those are the types of resources we’d like to know about. We might want to get together with other schools nearby to see how they are handing foot traffic, etc. Ellen Heck asks if we can have some sort of gate to keep people who are passing through farther from children. Michelle Kennedy asks about the possibility of signage alerting people that the area is under surveillance, etc. Margaret asks if someone could come speak with the staff during times like this. Ellen Heck asks about the possibility if fire extinguishers in classrooms. Michelle Kennedy asks if we have talked with staff about sharing problems they may be having at home or with family and friends. Mrs. Hollis says something that has come up to us is a child talking about weapons. We will talk with police who will talk with families. Ellen Heck asks if we are on board with traffic barriers because she is willing to look into it. We may want to consider the LiveSafe app used by some organizations.
7. Committee Updates – Various –April 26th is a filming day and the marketing committee is now using a universal Dropbox for file sharing. Facilities – Kevin talked with Don Vanderbeck and Jeff Brinker and we are tentatively scheduled to start construction over spring break. It is in the final part of permitting stages. The owner of the building being offered to us has a cash buyer who has put down a down payment. They are still in the 30-day due diligence period but we should know something soon. Capital Campaign – We are meeting with WS Foundation on April 6th to see about getting on the capital campaign calendar. We are meeting with Whitney Jones on Friday for an update on survey results.
8. Principal’s Report (Robin) – MAP data was shared via e-mail. 3rd graders often perform lower in math relative to the national mean than other grades and subjects. North Carolina has a lot of emphasis on reading in 3rd grade due to Read to Achieve so there may be not as much of an emphasis on math. Hiring for a new 6th grade position will begin shortly. We have several applicants already. Romeo and Juliet on the Border is coming up at The Arts Council Theater. No tickets are needed. It’s a great show to see and bring friends who are interested in the school. The Annual Giving Campaign has a $40,000 line item. As of this morning we are at $34,000. Mrs. Hollis sent out a Constant Contact message to the outside community.
9. Parent Council Updates – Joy Blaser – Parent Council – Annual Giving Campaign is going on right now. We are way ahead of where we usually are on dollar amount and slightly ahead on participation percentages. Traffic committee is working hard with PART on a carpooling app. Nominations are coming up for PC board. They hosted a lovely lunch for teacher appreciation.
10. Other Business –
11. Adjournment – 6:45pm – Motion to adjourn made by Margaret Taylor and Linda Pass seconds the motion. All are in favor with no one opposed. The meeting is adjourned.

Looking Ahead:

●      IMPORTANT DATES … MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

●      Board Meeting – April 10

○      Community Creates – May 5