January 2009 Board Meeting Minutes
Southside Family
Charter School
Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Saturday,
January 10, 2009
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Southside Family Charter School Basement Meeting
Room
Members
present: Erich Wunderlich, Jeannemarie Johnson, Sheila Piippo,
Brynne Macosko Paguyo, Natalie Freund, Lisa Thigpen, Beth Hart, Deb
Schermann
Staff present: Erin Wisness, Tania Montgomery, Eliza
Goodwin
I. Call to order: Erich Wunderlich
II. Introductions
III. Review &
Approve Agenda
a. Policies & Procedures deleted from the
agenda. Motion to approve agenda by Natalie,
seconded by Brynne. Motion
approved by all present.
IV. Review &
Approve Last Meeting Minutes
Motion to approve minutes by Sheila, seconded by Brynne.
Motion approved by all present.
V. Directors Report
- Building situation update – Eliza.
Eliza consulted with an attorney and sent a letter to St. Stephen’s stating our position and trying to explain the impact of the church’s decisions on us (Handout: Letter to Genevieve Fiedler). Eliza received a proposal from the church’s real estate consultant suggesting a higher lease amount over the next 5 or 10 years. In the proposal, rent eventually increased to $500,000 a year, so it’s not realistic. Eliza’s response was that they can’t make a new proposal because we have an agreement to continue our current lease through 2012 and that’s our position. A volunteer is currently doing some research on our ‘further opportunities.’ Would like to go over some thoughts about how to proceed with planning and engaging the community in facilities planning discussion. St. Stephen’s understands that we have legal counsel, they have legal counsel as well, but so far Eliza is communicating with the administrator there. Information included (Handout: Space Possibilities) about the other spaces being considered and/or places Eliza has visited.
b.
Hamline Site Visit – Eliza.
Two reps from Hamline School of Education came 1/9 for site
visit. Hamline is intending to renew their contract with us,
no problems anticipated. No concerns expressed, responses
overall were very positive. Any comments from people in focus
groups? Erich says board group went well, overall very
positive. Strategic plan is something they were very happy to
see and interested in our progress with that. Erich –
feedback on the self study report? Eliza, no, they are
appointing people to look at that. Erich is concerned about
student test scores on that report; if we don’t agree with the
testing system, maybe we could come up with an alternative set of
benchmarks so we could measure student achievement. Eliza –
we will probably come back to this next year to choose benchmarks
with Hamline vs. AYP. Hamline is concerned mainly about
consequences for failing to meet AYP rather than actual student
achievement. Erich would like the board to be more aware of
student progress. Sheila – how are benchmarks set now?
NWA map of assessment based on grade level ability based on their
test scores, or they can have made a year’s growth. Will talk
more about contract goals at next meeting so that they can be
developed and proposed to Hamline in March. Erich – is there
a group of committee who would be interested in pursuing
this? Sheila would like the information. Erich – we
should talk about this in next Executive Committee.
VI. Open forum for community input
a. Erich calls for comments from the community. Erich and Beth want to know if people are freaked out about the building situation? Tania – no, parents are positive, offering suggestions, etc.
VII. Committee Reports
a.
Finance Committee, December 2008 financial reports – Sheila.
(Handouts: Financial Report to the Board of Directors; Southside
Family Charter School Income Statement Through December 2008
) Sheila calls for a motion to accept a gift from
Southside Family School Nonprofit. Motion to accept the gift
from Lisa, seconded by Deb. Motion approved by all
present. Did draw on line of credit in December, but already
paid the balance in January. Everything should be at 50% or
so because we’re halfway through the year, overall bottom line in
good shape. Low in fundraising, but Eliza says a deposit of
$60,000 will be coming end of January for end of year giving.
Eliza mentions that we did get a surprise gift of $12,000 from a
donor. Sheila – Eliza and Tracy have done a projection
and it looks like we won’t need to use our line of credit this year
if all goes as planned. Re-budget planned in March.
Eliza – we were approved by the Department of Education School
Finance award for 2nd year in a row. Erich – cash
flow projections ready for our next meeting? Deb – was lease
aid that had been delayed due to fire marshal orders been
released? Yes to all.
b.
Nominations & Governance.
Brynne moves to elect Beth Hart to the Board, Lisa seconds
the motion. Motion approved by all present.
c. Planning Committee. No report.
d. Public Relations Committee. No report.
e. Policies & Procedures Committee. No report
f.
Development Report -- Eliza.
f.1. Grants, etc. lower than normal, staff will be looking at
what requests we have outstanding and possibly readjust our
expectations of money coming in. Sheila – have we applied for
the same number of grants? Eliza – yes. Some grants are
decreasing or not available this year, so doing more new grants
which are less successful than continuous grants.
f.2. Individual contributions – one donor came in higher than
anticipated, Eliza expects we will exceed our individual donor
goals. Higher in our annual appeal than we were last year, a
testament to our community’s investment in the school. We
have much closer relationships with donor pool, though it is
smaller than most places. Notes from last Development
Committee Meeting enclosed and agenda for next development
committee meeting (Handouts: FY 2009 Development Update, July 1,
2008-Present; Development Committee Notes December 9, 2008;
Development Committee Agenda, January 12, 2009).
VIII. New Topics
a.
Executive Director Review Proposal.
(Handout: Memo from Ellen Benavides, January 9, 2009)
Proposal from Ellen Benavides. Executive Committee met with
Ellen and they decided that Eliza needs an Executive Director
Review, hasn’t had one for a couple years. Ellen helped come
up with a proposal to help with job description and then develop
review built on job description so that they can rate job
performance based on expectations. Then Eliza can use same
kind of template to come up job descriptions and reviews of all
staff. Eliza – glad other stakeholders would be involved,
possibly staff, parents, federation people, donor, etc. Eliza
reviews Ellen’s qualifications. Bio passed around.
Erich asks for any objections to approving this process?
Motion to approve the process by Sheila, seconded by Deb.
Motion approved by all present.
IX. Continuing Topics
a.
Strategic Plan Implementation -- Eliza.
Strategic planning group needs to get together again, concerned the
folks who were involved before may not be available to work on
it. Hasn’t heard from Rocki yet, Romona isn’t available at
the times suggested. Can we get one or two more volunteers to
work on this? Need to fill in details on how to report back,
priorities, etc. Commitment would be a monthly meeting,
probably for a year. Meeting proposed for Tuesday and
Thursday mornings. No volunteers come forth, maybe we need to
switch to another time (Eliza). Brynne may be interested, but
concerned about time commitment too on Tuesday and Thursday
mornings. Brynne will do it but may need to miss a few
meetings. Jeannemarie would be interested but worried about
lack of experience and being overcommitted in other areas.
Eliza – we will send out suggestions to everyone and maybe people
come and try it out and see if it works.
b.
Board Waiver Request – Eliza.
Request for not teacher majority board approved by the Department
of Education. Several legislative proposals to eliminate that
requirement, so we will probably have to reapply because current
approval goes through this summer, Eliza anticipates next approval
will be easy. Will need to do an additional round for next
proposal – goals we would achieve by not having a teacher majority
board are similar to our goals for Hamline.
c.
Facilities planning – Eliza.
In an attempt to get all the business out on the table, Eliza wrote
up some challenges she was seeing in the process (Handout:
Southside Family Charter School Building Site Search Process,
Communications and Engagement of Key Audiences, Draft
1/9/2009). Beth moves that we follow parallel paths with
St. Stephens and another location. Eliza suggests we develop
a Site Search committee that can visit locations that are more
likely possibilities, including staff and board and other folks
with experience in development, community involvement, etc.
Erich – the idea is to get this off the board agenda and becomes a
report to the board. Discussion of Site Committee.
Everyone agrees with the idea of a site search committee.
Criteria for acceptable buildings listed, but may change throughout
the process. E would like endorsement from the board on this
criteria. E anticipates that final decision will go to staff
for input and to the board for final approval. Community
advisory meeting proposed for Tuesday morning 1/27. Eliza –
open to suggestions about how to communicate with parents.
Beth volunteers to be the Board Member on Site Committee.
Erich also volunteers. No objections. Motion to approve
the plan by Beth, second by Brynne. Motion approved by all
present.
d.
Transporation planning – Eliza.
We did get in touch with transportation office re: building
uncertainty, we are in the 6th tier, and will remain
there regardless of where we move. The only thing to change
would be who we share with and if we share. If we stay next
year probably wouldn’t share busses with Trinity anymore.
Sheila says given our resources and time, let’s not look into
contracting for bussing independent of MPS but continue to request
earlier time.
X. Discussion of Board Meeting
a. Beth suggest that the most important part of the meeting was discussing site committee. Brynne – great to hear from finance committee. Erich – approving process for ED review is good, a core part of what we need to do. It’s important we don’t lose track of everything else we do because of the move, need to stay focused. Deb – review process is in the top five things leading to job satisfaction and retention and it’s an important time to retain our ED!
XI.
Adjourn
Beth moves to adjourn the board meeting, seconded by
Brynne. Meeting adjourned at 10:50.
