The following people were present for the optional lunch (and conversation) session.

Anaka Osborne

Jeffrey McCreight

Josie Adolf

Diana Smith

Ewing Moussa

Peter Anderson

Brendan Willaims-Kief

Elizabeth Paisner

Fabiana Perera
Ken Merritt
Lisa Rucker

Margie Yeager
Priya Jayachandran

Rakim Brooks

The board members had a tour of the Anna Julia Cooper Campus.

The board members were divided into 2 groups and they visited/observed various classrooms with student ambassadors Claire Polli and Breon Wortham.

Ken Merritt welcomed everybody to the first in person board session for SY25/26 at the newly opened Anna Julia Cooper Campus at 4301 Harewood Rd NE WDC 20017. There were 2 board candidates present - Rakim Brooks and Abigail Huston - who introduced themselves, followed by a Q&A session with the board.

Rakim Brooks left.

Caroline Gifford gave a presentation on the academic performance of both campuses, focusing on the SY24/25 DC CAPE results.

Starting SY26/27, DC will transition to using (SBAC) Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium instead of PARCC as the basis for DC CAPE. The new assessment will be DC CAPE 2.0. When Common Core Standards were initially implemented, two major assessments (PARCC and SBAC) were launched as a means to assess learning on those standards. When PARCC was discontinued by many jurisdictions, DC continued to offer it under the new designation of DC CAPE. This change took place in 2023.

Geovanna Izurieta shared the June 2025 Financials and provided the current financial update.

Lisa Rucker asked the board to vote on the following.

1. To accept the revised bylaws

2. To confirm Aswathi Zachariah as Governance Committee chair and (ex officio) secretary of the board - and Lisa Rucker as SPP Committee chair

All board members signed and submitted their BOY paperwork.

Abigail Huston left.

There was discussion about the (2) board candidates who were present and future potential candidates.

It was suggested that the search for future board candidates could include the following -

. alumni board members

. candidates with development experience

. candidates with for profit connections

Jimmy Kelly arrived.

Everybody was divided into 3 groups. The 3 groups were presented with 3 different hypothetical strategic challenges and asked to develop their responses to their given "threat".

. immediate actions (first 30 days)

. medium-term strategy (3-6 months)

. resource allocation decisions

. stakeholder communication plan

. one "bold" move that turns the "threat" into opportunity

Each group presented their "battle plan" strategy.

Engagement With Strategic Priorities

GROUP A

incubate

PG (post graduate) year

veteran-novice peer mentoring

GROUP B
teacher task force

GROUP C
visioning session

budget engagement

help to nurture ethos of stewardship