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Board Meeting Minutes Archive » BOD Meeting Minutes – January 16, 2016

BOD Meeting Minutes – January 16, 2016

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING and RETREAT

Sawtooth School, Graphics Room #2

Winston-Salem, NC

Saturday, January 16, 2016

9:00AM

 

In Attendance: Renee Semones, Robin Hollis, Heather Smith, Brittany Emery, Becky Koza, Doug Punger, Charles Cleveland, Laura Luykx, Chad Cleveland, Eric Prior, Margaret Taylor, Kevin Nunley, Betsy Messick, Michelle Kennedy, Sherell McArthur, Joan Marie Belnap, Amy Lanning, Laura Lynne Frazier, Kimberly Dickson, Mary Siebert, Paige Raper, Kelly Carswell

 

 

  1. Meeting Called to Order  10:30 Meeting called to order by Heather Smith.
  2. Approval of November 2015 Minutes – ACTION REQUIRED   10:30-10:32 Motion to approve the November 2015 minutes made by Chad Cleveland. In these minutes we are confirming three changes to board. Adding Griff Morgan, adding Michelle Kennedy, and removing Andrew Rodgers who is moving out of state. Doug Punger seconds the motion. All are in favor, Leigh Cameron-Atkins abstains. The motion passes and minutes are approved.
  3. Review of Draft 2014-2015 Audit (Renee) ACTION REQUIRED    10:32-10:40 There are some changes to names listed on the front of the audit. Heather Smith will make sure the list is correct. It will match the 990 for the tax return. Renee Semones reports that we had a clean audit. If you have specific questions we can reach out to the auditing firm. Brittany Emery asks if we can see the management discussion? Heather Smith says yes and she can get a copy to send as an e-mail attachment. Joan Marie Belnap asks if it talks about internal control. Heather says it does. Heather says most of our auditing is very standard. Robin Hollis adds that we are audited as a non-profit with some extra auditing as a school. It’s a bit of a hybrid. Vote to approve the audit: motion made by Kevin Nunley, Leigh Cameron-Atkins seconds the motion. Eric Prior asks if the only difference between draft and final is the vote. That is correct. All in favor, no opposed, no abstentions, the motion passes.
  4. Review of December Financials (Renee) 10:40-10:45 6th month of the year. Total revenue is 56% of the budget. We’re right where we should be. The bottom line is that we are at $153,000 surplus at the month of December.
  5. Principal’s Report (Robin)   10:45-11:15 – The School Report Card was sent via e-mail. Robin Hollis notes that the state puts this data together to help the public compare schools. There are many things about our school that don’t translate to a number on the paper. We want our school report card to reflect our achievement. The numbers used are based on EOG testing 3-8th We want to be able to show that arts-integrated learning is successful for students. ESSA may open the possibility to not measure teachers on student achievement and cut back on some testing. There are some blanks on our report card because the state didn’t have that information yet. HQ (highly qualified) teachers had not been compiled yet – we are 100%. Average size for kinder is 20 students per class. The state altered the grading scale from a 10-pt scale to a 15-pt scale for two years. Next year they will need to decide if they are going to alter again or the grades may be different with the same scores. We have student off the charts on these tests and students who struggle but when we ask who is a great reader, almost all students say “yes”. They have the confidence and tenacity to keep working and that is important and what we do. This is just one snapshot but some people only look at this. The other testing we do is MAP – a nationally normed test that is computer generated and adaptive. We get data during the year when it’s helpful to students and teachers. Michelle Kennedy asks if the scores are weighted based on how many students may have a disability. It is not. Mrs. Hollis talks about test accommodations but we have to test and count all students. mClass testing starts in kindergarten. Before this our teachers were doing formative assessment. Now it is monitored by the state. This may be something the state pulls back on with ESSA. Eric Prior asks about the school report card and what part of it is valuable. Robin says the data we get sooner is helpful. EOG data can show us if there is a trend with a certain cohort, grade level, teacher, etc. Math is a conversation amongst the staff. Math scores at ABS tend to be lower then reading scores. We’ve looked at this as a school and continue to discuss this. Margaret Taylor remembers a standardized test conversation about socioeconomic status being related to results. This is true for much of the US in public education. Michelle Kennedy – do we have case studies about students that look long-term at their success? Hanes gave us feedback; we know stories about many kids based on anecdotes and conversation with families. Heather Smith says over time our test scores have improved. They used to be more of a concern for the school and the board. Leigh Cameron-Atkins says the strategic plan did include ideas about graduates being involved as alums. Calendar conversation – Calendar drafts were reviewed and discussed. This is a brief overview and some options. This will come back to the board for approval after it goes through parent council and SLT as well. WSFCS start date is late for 2016-2017. We could start close to our normal, which is a week and a half before WSFCS, or start the Wednesday before them, which is late for us. The Thanksgiving week break is kept standard for us and is in all three options.
  6. Annual Fund (Joan Marie) 11:15-11:25 –Three years ago we started a more thoughtful approach to the annual campaign. Parent council and classroom reps have taken the lead on this. We always include a commitment from the board members. Joan Marie Belnap will contact board members to talk about community outreach. The best thing the board can give to parent council is a 100% commitment from the board.
  7. Other Business  11:25-11:30 – None
  8. Adjournment  11:30 – Adjourned at 11:36