None

E Rangel: Athletics have been a big part of our school culture this fall. We have added the sport of Futsal, indoor soccer, this year. 

Our Scholar Ambassadors have been busy. They are going to form our first student counsel this year. They went to Evansville to learn about how that process will work. 

Last week, we hosted hundreds of folks for our K-5 Holiday Concert and Party. Families enjoyed treats and a musical performance. 

You just saw our gingerbread house competition. Winners were announced and celebrated yesterday. They are on display outside of this room. 

Rick Crosslin came to put on a show to celebrate science and how exciting science can be. 

The week before Thanksgiving, we had our Gobble Gathering, inviting families into the school to have a scratch-made family meal. 

E. Rangel: We were unanimously voted to renew our contract. Three IPS board members reached out to express how excited they are to see our contract renewed. Legislators visited our school this past week to see how successful charter schools can be. 

Our attorney, Heather Harris, reviewed and provided feedback on the contract, and led the negotiations with IPS. Chad Miller, from Miller Insurance Group, also was a part of our team for negotiations. 

We landed on a contract that is a combination of several paths to renewal. We have expressed interest in ownership of the building, but we are not there yet. 

New to the agreement: 

- IPS has agreed to a walk-though to reassess building capacity. We believe that the capacity is smaller than what IPS believes it to be. 

- Our Kitchen - We have put a lot of work put into our food service, and explicitly placed into the contract that they need to immediately address kitchen facility issues. 

- We have expressed interest in ownership of the building, and placed into the contract that we will discuss transfer of ownership. 

- Building hours are going to be reassessed based on HVAC needs to make the building a reasonable temperature by the time students arrive. 

- Another major change relates to Rebuilding Stronger. Capitol investments were promised to all buildings. Written into the contract is the dollar amount and a list of the improvements coming to us 

- IPS has also added that we will share best practices with IPS direct-managed schools. So far, we have been asked about early literacy and attendance. 

M Meer: Have any other operators received a transfer of ownership of their building? 

ER: Kipp Schools had a building transferred to them and then invest in upgrades to the building. But they are just not ready to transfer ownership to us yet. Kipp has been around for decades and is currently the only remaining school in their neighborhood. 

E Rangel is now a member of the Indiana Charter Innovation Center. They have put a few things on our radar to discuss in our board. 

- There will be a new governor and a new president. With those policy changes, there are potential changes coming to our immigrant families. One change could affect when and where immigration officers could talk to families. 

IPS is developing policies on how to manage folks who come to the building to ask for records. It may lead to Adelante policy changes that the board may need to review. 

- Our state is a very choice-focused state when it comes to schools. Funding is top of mind. Referendum dollars are not shared directly with us. This next legislative session will focus on policy that allows tax dollars to follow the student. It would be path-changing for some districts. We may come to board members for support of these policies. 

N Frech: Is there research that supports the efficacy of these policies? 

ER: Yes - And I can send the board direct links to this research. 

R Scott: I have heard that there are officers at IPS schools going into classrooms to ascertain the number of students who may be affected by deportations and making plans to help students whose parents disappear during the day. I am concerned about the students at Adelante. What is the thinking of school leaders here? What practical and logistical plans do we have.

ER: I am most worried about how families will disengage and what might happen to attendance. We have not had time to convene about these issues specifically. We need to be thinking about how they can maintain their health and mental wellness, both in and out of school. M. Rooney has experience doing work like this, having worked in NYC. 

J Habayeb: The state has already put work into policy and the creation of migrant research centers. And they are creating a policy around this already. 

M Whitley: I would be dubious of plans that we have in place already from the state. We need to be considerate of contingency plans to protect children. I am also worried about what happens if student population drops. There also needs to be policy about how to protect staff when records and documents are questioned. 

J Habayeb: We have won three competitive grants recently: 

-Charter School Program Grant: This is our second time receiving this grant. Two million over the next two years. We also received a perfect score. We will focus on scholar experience and shifting some budget items to grant-funded. We can update our music program, grow our library, and buckets to leaders to spend on curriculum. 

- Lilly Foundation Planning Grant - $50K planning stage, the first stage - Looking at what we need as an organization, to increase science and social studies education. Also looking at staff development and 'upscale' their work 

-IDOE Tech Grant - $10K for family support and outreach programs - How can our resourced be levered at home - Also supports internet and translation at home

JH: These grants, especially the CSP grant free up some general funds. We also have increased enrollment. 

In January, we will also put an updated budget in front of the Finance Committee. When you look at the budget vs. actuals look off based in significant changes in funding.

JH: OEI Core Question 2: In both buckets, we are projected to either meet or exceed expectations.  

R Scott: With regards to our cash position, it seems like we are in a good spot. Does the ICIC have guidance on how a potential government shutdown would affect schools? 

ER: In January, they have scheduled a specific meeting to discuss that very issue. 

JH: State grants are already in accounts to be transferred to us. Federal nutrition funds are another story and could be delayed after 3 months.

JH: We piloted a new way of doing audits that made the audit completed faster. We received a number of shout-outs for accuracy, being debit-free, and a high amount of academic spending. They did have some recommendations around cash policies which we are updating. We have asked for some more feedback. 

JH: We are highlighting with our families that just missing two days per month leads to lower test scores and more issues. 

The new state law leads to legal consequences for missing school. Officer Darin Mercer, our Safety and Attendance Officer, has been our leader on this issue. We spend a lot of time telling families that something is going to happen after absence 10. We are asking for support for legislatures to follow through on their promises. 

We have the highest attendance we have ever had. Chronic Absenteeism is down 62%. Students with no absence issues is up 55%. 

Officer Mercer knows the legal system very well because of his background in law enforcement. He has been invaluable. 

In Zone 4 of IPS, we have the lowest percentage of Chronically Absent students and close to the lowest of habitually truant students. We are reaching out to other districts nearby who have even better percentanges. 

None at this moment

B. Burcope: 

Recruitment: No candidates are in the queue at this moment. We will talk about strategy as part of board goals. 

Board Goals: Sent an early round in October. We have proposed a new round this month. 

N Frech: 

The essence of the goals is staying similar to before, to focus on committee work. 

Want to maintain a board of 9-11 people. Since some members are rolling off, we need a recruitment strategy. 

The critical piece is board education, to maintain continuity. Each member should attend a board education piece per year. Many are offered through Board on Track.  

R Scott: If there is a habitually disengaged or absent board member, a measure should also cover what the next step is. A sub-indicator could show who is engaged. 

NF: For committees, they can track attendance at their own level, depending on who is there, numbers, etc. 

K Kainrath: We roll off soon, and so early recruitment is important. Before the end of the school year, we need at least three new board members by that time, even if we go over the number.  

N Frech: Indiana Schools Board Association events, Board on Track, etc. could be opportunities for board evaluation. 

BB: Those could replace the quarterly board education events that we were having. 

M Staten: What is the thinking around assessing the goal of having an actionable step? 

NF: That is the tricky balance between working at the board level and the committee level. 

M Meer: Are their specific skill sets we are looking for on board recruitment? 

BB: In Feb., we will have our board retreat. That is something we will be looking at then. The Jan. Governance Committee meeting will start on that as well. That information is coming.  

KK: The skills matrix should exist on Board on Track as well. 

BB: If there is more discussion on on the board goals, please let us know. There has not been much success at the board recruitment events. We need to get more creative in our approach to board recruitment. 

Reminder that the retreat is on February 21st, a long meeting and retreat. 

Matt Rooney: 

We have entered into a pilot program with the DOE in assessment, called ILEARN Checkpoints. Instead of just one big exam at the end of the year, there will also be three smaller exams that come throughout the year. We are using these instead of our previous on-going, intermittent exams. 

We finished a Checkpoint in October, and that is the data that we have for you. The state has dictated which standards are going to be covered on each exam. 

Proficiency rates are on the presentation included in the board packet. 

7th graders are worth celebrating, and our 3rd graders who have experienced our strong early literacy instruction since kindergarten. 

In 5th grade, the response has been to bring in to heavy instructional coaching. Those students were also in KG and 1st during the pandemic shutdown. Other schools have similar results with the same age of students. 

In math, we have seen a number of increase in upper grade levels, which has been rare in Adelante history. We are close to matching state averages in a number of grades. 

N Frech: We see consistency across grade levels, between math and ELA. 

MR: We have COVID data and some of our strongest historical teachers in those grades. 

We also completed a Checkpoint yesterday, and we will have that data for the meeting in February. 

Across ethnicity and special population data (included in meeting packet), we have seen one call-to-action regarding our racial achievement gap. We have to recitfiy a greater than 10% gap between our white and Hispanic and black students. 

A point to celebrate is how our Sped and MLL populations have outpaced state averages. 

KK: Is this the same data as last year? 

C Franz: It was not, in our K-3 DIBLES data. But the K-8 Checkpoints are showing a different story. 

MR: It's hard being a small school because our populations are so small.

CF: Our reflections on the data are informing who we are calling on, who is getting more "at-bats" and who might be brought into tired supports and reteaches. Using evidence in texts is the next big focus. 

MR: Similar to ELA. Weekly assessments and date meetings lead to interventions for the very next day. We are also moving to using Schoology to take assessments and track the data and standards. This can highlight who is struggling with exactly which topic. 

End of story: We have to make the teaching better. We are focusing on how teachers are introducing information at the top of a lesson. 

Nothing for The Board to submit except for the Board Goals. The rest of reports for the next few months will be pulled and submitted by Brendan and Jordan with support from the rest of the Adelante team. 

K Kainrath is going to schedule time with each member in the new year to find out about what each member needs, thinks could be going better, and what their questions are.