Monthly Board of Governors Meeting Minutes

October 7, 2021, 6:00-8:00 PM

Minutes Approved

Washington Latin

Minutes

Monthly Board of Governors Meeting

October Meeting

Date and Time

Thursday October 7, 2021 at 6:00 PM

Directors Present

A. Graham (remote), B. Caldwell (remote), B. Williams-Kief (remote), C. McFadgion (remote), C. McGurn (remote), C. Wilkinson (remote), H. Rawlings (remote), K. Merritt (remote), L. Ballenger (remote), L. Rucker (remote), N. McCoy (remote), P. Mara (remote), T. Morgan (remote)

Directors Absent

K. Osagie

Guests Present

C. Davis (remote), C. Gifford (remote), G. Billings (remote), J. Kelly (remote), K. Cromwell (remote), P. Anderson (remote)

I. Opening Items

A. Record Attendance

B. Call the Meeting to Order

C. Wilkinson called a meeting of the board of directors of Washington Latin to order on Thursday Oct 7, 2021 at 6:07 PM.

C. Approve Minutes of September Meeting

B. Caldwell made a motion to Approve September Board of Governors meeting minutes Monthly Board of Governors Meeting on 09-02-21.

K. Merritt seconded the motion.

The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

Roll Call
L. Rucker	Aye
K. Merritt	Aye
P. Mara	Aye
C. Wilkinson	Aye
T. Morgan	Aye
C. McFadgion	Aye
K. Osagie	Absent
L. Ballenger	Aye
C. McGurn	Aye
N. McCoy	Aye
H. Rawlings	Aye
B. Williams-Kief	Aye
B. Caldwell	Aye
A. Graham	Aye

D. Beginning of Year Paperwork

Reminder to submit Board paperwork!

Must be submitted every year
5 Board members' Board paperwork is missing

II. Updates

A. HOS Report

We continue to have issues securing a full-time nurse from Children's.
City mandate that all school employees must be vaccinated by November 1st, and if you are a student that is eligible to be vaccinated and you want to participate in extracurriculars, you must be vaccinated
- Latin only has 4 student athletes who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not.
Enrollment issue has been resolved - all students are now recognized.
City has now enacted emergency legislation that we will continue to update how it impacts the school. Legislation could force schools to create option for distance learning.
A number of recent excellent parent events: Cocktail Concert, Parent/Faculty Social
Question about class sizes: we had a few larger classes than normal because of space issues - we are maxed out on space and we have had a few personnel issues
Question about personnel issue: difficulty in hiring substitutes across the sector, including in DCPS

B. Celebrations & Challenges

Celebrations

Although we still have a couple of vacancies, we are in a pretty good spot.
Almost all of the late hiring we did was successful.
Even substitute hiring has been mostly successful - the Latin B AP in Residence is working on the hiring process this year.
New leadership team is doing great work right away - particularly Bill Clausen, the Assistant Principal, and Janelle Bradley, the new Director of the Middle School
All extracurricular programs are back!

Challenges

Space - record enrollment means that all rooms are full throughout the day
Exhaustion - people are tired! It's October but now we have several things coming up to combat it - a Wellness Day on October 20th

Question about how remote learning has gone for students who have had to quarantine:

There is not a robust remote learning plan in place right now because we are fully back
Students do their work asynchronously and meet with students via Zoom individually

Question about what the Board can do to support teachers, such as bagels as in the past

Question about not using outdoors for lunch in the winter months - certainly a concern. We have pushed all of our lunches outside, so we will have to adjust when it gets colder.

III. Board Committees

A. Finance

Many expenditures at the beginning of the year as normal
Enrollment is higher than anticipated, in one grade in particular
Certification of enrollment numbers will happen later this month, 15 students more than we budgeted
Audit is due to be filed December 1st
- KM has been in touch with the auditor
- Everything is on track for the audit

B. Development

Optimistic about getting to $2-4M by the end of the year
Particularly hopeful about foundations
Creation of concilium so if you know young professionals who may be interested in philanthropy, could invite them to be a part of it
Sweet 16 Gala - more information to come
Latin A development - keeping it relatively flat - ballpark $785,000 to be raised this year
Latin B campaign task force meeting on October 21st
Question about how Latin A/Latin B development will work in the future
- Latin A PFA president has offered a collaborative effort at least for the first few years
- Need to differentiate school specific vs. LEA fundraising

C. Academics

Shared academic goals for the year
Set goals based on previous PARCC date from 2018
Equitable access preference summary - PTA and CG made recommendation to academic committee
- sought input from a variety of stakeholder groups (parents, students, faculty)
- actual decision of number of designated seats does not need to be submitted to MySchoolDC until March
Recruitment Plan - new recruitment plan in progress with a committee in place and various benchmarks by week and month to meet
Academic Committee has a Scope and Sequence for the year which can be shared with the whole Board if it is of interest

IV. Growth

A. Dashboard

Discussion of what information does it make sense for the Board to see regarding growth every month moving forward as we plan to open second campus

B. Talent-Milestones-Stakeholder Engagement

Reviewed critical questions regarding growth that the Board examined two years ago in RACI matrix
Reviewed questions across Stakeholder Engagement, Development, Communications, Facilities, Finance, Governance to make sure that they are correct questions for the Board to be asking and for the school to
Work with Transcend Education to codify what makes Latin what it is, so that it can be transmitted to Latin B as well
Request for work that each committee can contribute

C. Facility Name and Location

LEA name: Washington Latin Public Charter Schools
Latin A name stays the same: Washington Latin Public Charter School
Latin B name will include Washington Latin but the name of the second campus is yet to be determined.
Separate vote will be required via email for the name.

T. Morgan made a motion to approve the application to be submitted to PCSB for the location of a second campus at 711 Edgewood Street NE.

K. Merritt seconded the motion.

The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

Roll Call
P. Mara	Aye
K. Osagie	Absent
C. McGurn	Aye
H. Rawlings	Aye
C. McFadgion	Aye
T. Morgan	Aye
L. Rucker	Aye
C. Wilkinson	Aye
A. Graham	Aye
B. Williams-Kief	Aye
B. Caldwell	Aye
L. Ballenger	Aye
K. Merritt	Aye
N. McCoy	Aye

V. Executive Session

A. Discussion of real estate negotiations

Discussion of ongoing real estate negotiations for a long-term facility.

B. Caldwell made a motion to end the Executive Session.

T. Morgan seconded the motion.

The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

Roll Call
L. Rucker	Aye
K. Osagie	Absent
A. Graham	Aye
N. McCoy	Aye
B. Caldwell	Aye
T. Morgan	Aye
P. Mara	Aye
C. Wilkinson	Aye
K. Merritt	Aye
L. Ballenger	Aye
H. Rawlings	Aye
B. Williams-Kief	Aye
C. McFadgion	Aye
C. McGurn	Aye

VI. Closing Items

A. Adjourn Meeting

Meeting was adjourned outside of the Executive Session

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:06 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,

C. Wilkinson

B. Prepping for the Retreat

Board Retreat is the second weekend of November and will be virtual.
We will split into small groups to look at school goals with Board members and school leadership teams
Committee chairs can share regular business items
Tentative time commitment is 9 am to 2 pm