Washington Latin
Minutes
Annual WLPCS Board of Governors Retreat
Directors Present
A. Graham (remote), B. Caldwell (remote), C. McGurn (remote), C. Wilkinson (remote), H. Rawlings (remote), K. Merritt (remote), L. Ballenger (remote), L. Rucker (remote), P. Mara (remote), R. Dalal (remote), T. Morgan (remote)
Directors Absent
K. Osagie
Guests Present
C. Gifford (remote), D. Smith (remote), Gudrun Hofmeister (remote), J. Kelly (remote), K. Cromwell (remote), M. Fleming (remote), Matthew Taylor (remote), P. Anderson (remote), T. Porter (remote), Y. Tse (remote)
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C. Wilkinson called a meeting to order on Saturday Nov 14, 2020 at 9:10 AM.
C.
Welcome/Introductions
- Introductions of each Board member and school administration present
- Welcome and introduction of Gudrun Hofmeister, newly hired as Capital Campaign Manager
D.
Discuss process for managing minutes moving forward
- This is our first open meeting.
- Minutes must now be posted within 30 days of the meeting on our website.
- Minutes must be approved before they are posted for the public.
- The Board will approve the minutes via email a week before they must be posted.
II. Quick Leadership Updates
A.
Board member candidates
- Carl McFadgion joined the September Board meeting and is interested in joining the Board.
- Ken Merritt updated the Board on three potential new candidates for Board members in the near future.
K. Merritt made a motion to Add Carl McFadgion to the Board of Governors.
L. Ballenger seconded the motion.
The team VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
| Roll Call | |
|---|---|
| R. Dalal |
Aye
|
| L. Ballenger |
Aye
|
| T. Morgan |
Aye
|
| P. Mara |
Aye
|
| B. Caldwell |
Aye
|
| C. Wilkinson |
Aye
|
| A. Dean-Lovett |
Absent
|
| L. Rucker |
Aye
|
| K. Osagie |
Absent
|
| C. McGurn |
Aye
|
| A. Graham |
Aye
|
| K. Merritt |
Aye
|
| H. Rawlings |
Aye
|
III. Authorizer Engagement
A.
Q&A with Rick Cruz, Chair of the DC Public Charter School Board
- Chris Wilkinson introduced Rick Cruz, Chair of the DC Public Charter School Board.
- Cruz thanked the Board for their leadership in these difficult times.
- Cruz discussed the challenges of the next 12-24 months due to the pandemic.
- Wilkinson asked about changing political climate.
- Cruz commented that charter schools have become less popular among progressive politicians in particular. Need to do a better job in the charter sector of telling our story and building relationships.
- Question about agreement reached between DC school board and teachers union to start in-person classes.
- Cruz encourages Latin to listen to our parents and families as we serve them through the pandemic.
- Peter Anderson asks about new or pending legislation that has impact on charter schools.
- Cruz discusses the Open Meetings Act (already passed), possible future measures around FOIA
- Alyse Graham asked what is the most important thing that charter board members can do to strengthen the advocacy piece.
- Cruz suggests a point person on the Board who focuses on advocacy who can focus on building relationships with community that can be so powerful.
- Ragini Dalal noted that the advocacy piece has been missing and leadership in the city around what the most important initiatives are and how to get behind them.
- Cruz notes that Shannon Hodge and her team at the Alliance have really become that leadership.
- Suggestion to invite Shannon Hodge to one of our Board meetings.
- Peter Anderson asked about Latin's charter renewal process.
- Cruz responded that we should expect to report on our progress for serving at-risk students, as we did last time.
- Alyse Graham asked how pandemic will affect our charter renewal conversations.
- Cruz responds that it is a moving target as there is still uncertainty around accountability measures and the amount of time the pandemic will continue to impact this.
- Brief discussion of potential benefits and what we can learn from our distance learning during COVID and taking lessons learned back into the school building.
- Chris Wilkinson thanks Rick Cruz for coming to our meeting and for his leadership.
IV. COVID Update/Planning
A.
Update on what is happening on campus right now
- School is still largely remote for all grades and all students
- Chemistry labs happening every day for 10th graders
- Music classes (outside) a few days a week
- Wednesday is designated for struggling students; small groups of students from each grade are on campus working with deans and tutors
- Biggest issue is time and the amount of time on task
- Confident that students are still being educated during these times
- Equity issues: we have worked to make sure all students have computers and hot spots for Internet so that as far as we know right now all students have access
- Concerns about social issues: Challenging time for adolescents, kids are lonely and need to be with other kids! We are doing our best to run social events, like field days for each middle school grade.
- Parent Feedback: parents have expressed a lot of gratitude. Parents have expressed concern about screen time - so much time in front of screens and we are trying to work through that.
- Successful Latin Pride campaign shows parent support.
B.
Status of reopening/re-entry plans
- On January 21st, depending on the status of the country, we will try to start to do a hybrid model of half days for the middle school (that is our current thinking, subject to change as the situation is dynamic)
- After that, we will consider how to start do a hybrid model for the high school which is quite difficult
- Significant start up costs in terms of teaching students that they must wear masks, follow the methodology, etc. which will result in some lost instructional time even when we
- We got some good news in terms of testing - we need a significant number of tests and the ability to test kids and teachers on a regular basis to bring people back
- Jimmy Kelly shared that we will encounter obstacles of significant learning loss when we eventually are able to bring students back
- Role of socialization: the number one concern we hear from parents.
- Programming we are attempting: new club program in the middle school, small classes across grades in grades 5-8
- Student support team focused on supporting our most struggling students
- Question about testing: Martita Fleming heard from 3 different organizations that are offering testing for schools; 1 org said it was free and covered by insurance, 1 school said it was $89 per test, which is obviously not feasible for us
- The good news is that there are several organizations coming into this which will get results back for 24-72 hours
- Alyse Graham asks if we are considering pool testing
- Ragini Dalal asks how much of the faculty will be willing to return; we are not entirely sure but we think we have a sense
- Patrick Mara asks if he heard correctly that Diana said there were some benefits to distance learning and asks what they are.
- Diana responds that 8th and 9th grade boys are doing better than they often do in person because they are more focused.
- Laurie Ballenger and Lisa Rucker gave positive feedback as parents on the distance learning program.
- Hunter Rawlings asks how classes that are distance learning are coping and what is lost.
- Diana notes that math is hard because it is more difficult for students to show work and that lower level language classes struggle with retention
- Barry Caldwell asks if we have what we need in terms of PPE and sanitation stations. Martita Fleming responds that Latin has updated our HVAC system, acquired a lot of masks, wipes, PPE, and hand sanitizer
- Martita explains that we have worked on what classrooms will look like; Children's Hospital, Department of Health, and OSSE have looked at our procedures and protocols and given a green light for everything
- Latin has decided to go above and beyond from the minimum requirements
- With students coming on campus, all students are coming in with proper masks and we have not had issues with students refusing to wear masks.
V. Additional Updates
A.
At-risk preference
- DC Council passed the Expanding Equitable Access to Great Schools Act last week, which will allow Latin to create an at-risk preference for the 2022-2023 lottery.
- PCSB will create an approval process in the spring after the bill is signed and goes through the Congressional review period.
- Latin will apply to PCSB to have the preference, then work with My School DC to structure our preference.
VI. Fundraising for Growth
A.
Audit Update
Audit Update
- Ken Merritt updated the Board on the audit
- The audit looks good to the audit committee, as it has for the last few years
- The audit committee is asking Peter and Yinnie to think about attestation for internal controls and their effectiveness
- Tim Morgan suggests setting up a routine or rotational review of internal controls by a third party, but to pay for attestation is often very expensive
B.
Board Member Expectations for Development
Board Member Expectations for Development
- Congratulations to Peter for hiring Gudrun
- Congratulations to Kate for Latin Pride fundraising
- Fundraising goal for Latin B is $12 million. To date we have raised $1.7 million, we have some tentatives and commitments that if are reached, we will be at 40% of goal
- Almost at 100% participation from Board members
- Encouragement to the Board to continue giving and raising money.
Chris Wilkinson moved the meeting into a closed session.
VII. Closed Session
A.
Training (Part I)
B.
Break for lunch
C.
Training (Part II)
D.
Status of personnel transition/announcements
- The Board discussed upcoming personnel transitions for the 2021-2022 school year.
E.
Update on contract negotiations
The Board discussed terms of negotiation for potential properties for a second campus.
VIII. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 2:00 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
C. Wilkinson