BOD Meeting Minutes- August 8, 2017

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

In Attendance: Robin Hollis, Kevin Nunley, Brittany Emery, Ellen Heck, Kyle Barnes, Chrissy Hardy, Paige Raper, Chris Gilmore, Cheryl Harry, Charlie McCurry, Suzanne Shuford, Griff Morgan, Julee Nunley, Kelly Carswell, Matthew Donnell, Amy Lanning, Joy Blaser, Brian Cole

Meeting Called to Order – 5:45pm  - Kevin Nunley calls the meeting to order.
Introduction of New Board Members – Everyone in attendance introduces themselves.
Approval of June Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED  - Motion to approve the June minutes is made by Margaret Taylor and seconded by Griff Morgan. All are in favor with no one opposed. The minutes are approved.
Board Development – resignation of Board Member  – Griff Morgan welcomes the four new members and reminds the board that there was a fifth candidate we couldn’t invite (Cheryl Hicks) because we had too many parents represented. Over the summer, Emily Ball resigned from the board and opened a spot. She has one year left on her term and the committee nominates Cheryl Hicks to finish the term. She works at Wake Forest and has been involved in education for quite a while. She has two children who attend ABS. She attended our January retreat as a member of the Parent Council board. The motion is made by committee and seconded by Cheryl Harry. All are in favor with no one opposed. Cheryl Hicks is approved as a member of the board.
Review of July Financial Results (Brittney Emery)  - Auditors are working on June financials and audit report so we don’t have June financials. There is not much July activity. Our revenue will probably be an accrual. Our biggest expenses are salaries for those paid over 12 months. Margaret Taylor asks when we may know our ADM number. Robin Hollis expects that the number will be higher than last year. Motion to approve made by committee and seconded by Amy Lanning. All are in favor. The financials are approved.
Facilities Update (Kevin Nunley)  - Facilities committee has met a couple of times since the last board meeting. To update new members we are looking into expanding the 7th Street building into the courtyard. There are two phases to this. Classroom space and music space to move band and chorus. Right now we’re looking at bathroom space. The city uses square footage and travel distance to calculate the number of bathrooms needed and we don’t have close to as many students as we technically can in the building. We are thinking about timing and when would be best to work on this. On a different note, there is a sinkhole under the railroad tracks and 7th Street is closed. Parents may leave ABS and turn left on 7th
Overview of Committees – List of committees was sent out to board members and this is a great time to consider the committees on which you serve. We are still looking for a personnel chair, Brittany will chair finance, Margaret Taylor will chair board development. Members should contact Kevin Nunley with their choices for committee work. Brittany Emery reports that finance committee’s big work is the annual budget. Robin Hollis says there may be nice opportunities for finance and facilities to overlap this year. Griff Morgan says the strategic committee looks at the 5-year plan on growth and improvement. After the board approves the 5-year plan, the committee looks at making progress towards the goals. Right now a big idea is whether or not the school should expand. Doug Punger chaired the personnel committee. Margaret Taylor says there is an opportunity for this committee to revise the employee handbook and work on an annual evaluation of the principal. The board development committee worked on a plan for bringing on new board members in a systematic way. The committee will also work on an advisory council that would help with development. Amy Lanning talks about the Development Committee’s work on fundraising, Community Creates, and including local businesses in fundraising. This committee will be very involved in an upcoming capital campaign. Julee Nunley asks if non-board members ever work on committee work. We have sometimes used outside help and can consider that again. Marketing and Communication – Julia Toone isn’t here today. Cheryl Harry says we worked with Capture to work on some branding for the school. We’ve met with them and they are still working on that. Kelly Carswell said the committee is also working on a video about the school. Facilities Committee – Kevin Nunley says the committee works on what is needed at the time and long-term goals. We do use non-board members on this committee including our landlord who is very supportive.
Principal’s Report (Robin) – Robin Hollis says our budget is built on the number of students educated each year. Right now we have 520 enrolled and the budget is built on 518. We start three days before the school system in case there are last minute enrollment changes. There is a waiting list at every grade level. In the middle school we have operated LA/SS as a combined class. It worked with our space and with arts integration (ex. Brundibar). Some parents have had concerns about our students getting as much time as those at other schools. The new classrooms include a space to separate these classrooms. This year there is a SS teacher added, but the two teachers will teach together until another room is ready. The schedule will not change this year but will change the next year when the classes separate. Paula Stone and Lewis Richardson are not returning this year. Alex DeJarnette, Jaclyn Purdy, and Kelly Robertson are coming on as new staff members. Staff development – Last year we worked with a company, ERG, to work with our staff on Guided Math. There have been changes in how math is taught since most of us learned math. Our goal is for children to love math. Our students love reading even when they struggle. They keep working on it. We want to know how to capture that for math. ERG came to visit and teach demo lessons last spring. They are spending a day with us next week and will be with us for the entire school year working with students and teachers. Brian Cole asks if all teachers will participate. Yes, K-8. The new 6th grade performance last year was a math/science/dance combination in the style of a TED Talk.
Approval of Faculty and Staff Roster – ACTION REQUIRED  – Motion to approve the staff roster made by Chrissy Hardy seconded by Chris Gilmore. All are in favor with no one opposed. The roster is approved.
Other Business  - Board Members conflict of interest is given out and signed by members. Kevin Nunley asks if there are any questions about Emily Ball’s resignation letter. Robin Hollis says one of the challenges about this is that the principal doesn’t speak about individual students. Our school has always had policies and practices in place to identify students with learning disabilities. We have a School Assistance Team and when a teacher or parent is concerned about a student, the team looks at data to determine what, if anything, needs to be done. If more testing or info is needed, we bring a school psychologist in to do that. The state gives eligible criteria to determine a disability. Parents meet with teacher, administrator, EC teacher, etc. Sometimes the student qualifies and sometimes they don’t. If they are not identified as EC, we can still provide help with interventions. There are educators on the board and we already had a parent vetted so we don’t feel the need to use the parent mentioned in Emily’s e-mail although she is a qualified educator. Kevin Nunley speaks that as a parent, he has had a child go through a similar process and it was very thorough and clear.
Adjournment – 6:45pm  The meeting is adjourned.