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Board Meeting Minutes Archive » BOD Meeting Minutes- December 13, 2016

BOD Meeting Minutes- December 13, 2016

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING

ABS 7th Street Building

Winston-Salem, NC

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

In Attendance:  Robin Hollis, Margaret Taylor, Paige Raper, Joan Marie Belnap, Doug Punger, Julia Toone, Amelia Bowman, Ashley Holladay, Charles Cleveland, Eric Prior, Debbie Linville, Griff Morgan, Bill Scheidt, Amy Lanning, Kelly Carswell, Kevin Nunley, Chris Gilmore, Lindsey Deibler, Charlie McCurry, Suzanne Shuford, Heather Smith, Emily Ball, Brittany Emery, Josh Bowman

AGENDA

  1. Meeting Called to Order – 5:45PM – Joan Marie Belnap calls the meeting to order. Announces that a parent is with us to share a concern. Ashley Holladay has a two-part concern. There is a lot of benefit to the theater program at ABS but there are some potential imbalances in how students are assigned roles. Ms. Holladay shared a document with the board via e-mail detailing her thoughts and concerns. She is proposing that students who are at ABS for multiple years have more of a balance between ensemble and speaking roles. There are certain students who have been assigned roles more than once while others haven’t spoken at all. Ms. Holladay believes this can cause psychological damage to students. She thinks there may be long-term, negative implications for these students in the future. This is an educational experience and it should be a somewhat balanced educational experience. The second grievance is that there was a presentation that mimicked Star Wars and roles were given in front of the whole group. Joan Marie Belnap thanks Ashley Holladay for sharing her concerns and says there will be no discussion of the concerns at tonight’s meeting.
  2. Approval of October 2016 Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED 5:55-6:00PM – Motion to approve the October minutes made by Emily Ball, seconded by Margaret Taylor. All are in favor, no one opposed and the minutes are approved.
  3. Review of October/November Financials (Brittany) 6:00-6:10PM – Brittany Emery sent the Oct and November financials along with a draft of the audit. She will present the final version at the board retreat in January. There are timing differences again for the state revenue. Salaries are up from the increases we had this year. Bottom line as of Nov 30th, is that we are ahead $63,000. Joan Marie asks if we are still putting money in reserves? Yes, and we have not spent any of the reserves money on the backspace. We have not yet spent the entire Alex Ewing donation on the backspace. Motion made to approve the financials made by Debbie Linville and seconded by Julia Toone. All are in favor with no one opposed. The October and November financials are approved.
  4. Principal’s Report (Robin) – 6:10-6:20PM- Hollis provided paper copies of the NC School Report Card and everyone received a link to see an electronic copy prior to the meeting. We are a ‘B’ school on a 15-point scale. We met our growth requirement this year, which is great. We have students who are really high flyers and some who struggle but it is important that everyone make growth. High School Info Night is this Thursday. Many local high schools come and Salem Academy has already come to meet with interested girls. Staffing change: We had a teaching assistant who needed to leave her position due to family concerns. Luckily we had a great student teacher finish in fourth grade so we were able to hire her for that position. The fourth grade team just returned from the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta. We have sent 15 teachers to RCA so far. The holiday party is this Saturday. It’s held in the 7th Street Building and is an adults-only evening.
  5. Committee Reports 6:20-6:45PM

Board Development – Charles Cleveland – We are working on two projects. One is the establishment of an advisory group made up of community members. The other is assessing our current board in terms of skill sets, expertise, etc. The committee may be asking members to provide some information to help with this.

Planning Griff Morgan – We have put together a proposal for a five-year strategic plan. It has been shared with committees and we will discuss it at the January retreat. Margaret Taylor asks if everyone will see it before the retreat. Griff Morgan says he will share it out at the end of the week. Emily Ball asks if there is a way for parents to share ideas because a few people have come to her through Parent Council. Robin Hollis will discuss this on Friday morning at the Parent Council meeting.

Personnel (Employee Handbook) – Doug Punger – The committee divided up the draft from staff and made suggestions. Mrs. Hollis will take the suggestions and rework the document. Joan Marie Belnap reports a suggestion that perhaps not every policy needs to be in the handbook in its entirety. There could be a policy notebook in the principal’s office and the handbook could mention that there is a policy so people could review it. We approved the handbook for one month in October to add something for our insurance company. Doug Punger suggests we wait to approve until more review can take place. Margaret Taylor moves to approve the current handbook until the board adopts a new one. Doug Punger seconds the motion. All are in favor with no one opposed. The motion passes.

Facilities – Kevin Nunley says all steel supports are in and we are making good strides on construction in the backspace. On the 22nd or 23rd the risers will be delivered and we would love some help unloading them if anyone is in town. Robin Hollis reports that the builders are painting right now so it is actually helpful that the delivery was delayed. The flooding that has occurred at the 7th Street Building is still a concern. Neil Foster and Linda Pass came with Kevin to look at this again. They think it is a much more expensive project than originally thought and there may not be anyone to work until late spring. Kevin spoke with our neighbor about doing the work and was well received. Perhaps the February meeting can be held in the new theater space.

Development – Amy Lanning – Emily Ball is heading the Annual Fund with Shannon Wright. When that begins the committee will be asking for board contributions. Emily Ball reports that the annual fund will likely be in February/March.

Marketing/Communications – Julia Toone reports that there was discussion about the 15th year celebration and theater opening. Julia would like some more guidance from administration on this. She also asks if anyone has a connection in marketing. Heather Smith may be able to ask someone.

Parent Council – Lindsey Deibler reports that there is a meeting this Friday. Traffic has come up as a parent concern with regard to the new apartment construction. We met with the foreman of the construction crew and there are no parking signs on the road already. Even with the construction, students are still all picked up by 3:00.

  1. Other Business – Joan Marie Belnap – The board chair asked for feedback from the board about the parent concern in advance of the executive committee meeting.
  2. Adjournment – The meeting is adjourned.

 

UPCOMING BOARD MEETINGS/EVENTS:

 

 

○      ABS Holiday Party, Saturday, December 17, 7 PM

○      7th and 8th Grade Band Concert, Mon, 12/19, 7-8 PM

○      Board Retreat, Saturday, January 14, 2017, location TBD