Recruitment is strong and we just has a tour of 8th graders for the 9th grade.  There continues to be a strong interest in the middle school.  There has also been an increase in students who are experiencing family issues, so there is an increase in connect with child protective services.  

We had a discussion about attendance issues and the negative of impact of the cold weather on student attendance.  We have the necessary transportation, so there is no concerns there.  We are still trying to recover since the Christmas break when students get out of their routine.  

There continues to be vibrant discussions amongst the accountability committee about how to increase attendance and participation.  Primary issues are around behaviors that continue to be an issue (e.g. vaping, etc.). We are exploring multiple approaches to addressing this issues with students from an addiction standpoint.  

A good month for contributions, including an additional $25K as a result of the gala.  We are projecting be above budget, so things are looking strong.  There are also a few donor prospects that are being considered. 

We are also in a strong position with cash, so all good at this time.  

Allie discussed the banking memo (distributed to the Board via BoardOnTrack).  We explored a variety of banking options for Vertus (e.g., M&T Bank, Key Bank, Summit Federal Credit Union and Charles Schwab).  

Julie & Evan provided an update on the updated lease for 21 Humboldt.  We are still awaiting the update from 

We received an updated cost for the build out for the middle school.  The estimated cost is $6.8 Million.  We are exploring how we can bring that cost down. We will continue to explore all of our options and continue the discussion. 

Julie provided an update on graduation projects (see BoardOnTrack).  We discussed the possible graduates from the 5-year and 4-year cohorts.  Projection right now is about 75% (4-Year cohort)., maybe as high as 81%.

The governance team discussed the off-sight meeting that is scheduled for June and how to use that effectively.  We are encouraging board members to become more knowledgeable about the information available for training the board on BoardOnTrack.  

We have areas of need on the board that we need to seek out (e.g., legal) as well as to update the standard operating procedure (SOP) around onboarding new board members.  We have committed to work with Julie to support that.  We are also working on finalizing an updated job description for Julie so that the evaluation process through BoardOnTrack is more aligned with the job description.

The academic accountability committee provided the board with a deeper understanding of the breakdown of students that we truly serve at Vertus.  Thus, the model and the investment in character building at Vertus is paying dividends in ways that we need to celebrate more.  

We discussed strategies for how we are attempting to incentive student success and stamina.  We also discussed how we are planning to incorporate responsible AI into the curriculum for the students.