Leah Kuruzar introduced Emma Donnan's newly formed Student Council. They have been learning about how a board and governing body functions. They are here to learn and present on their work. 

Student council members introduced themselves and their grades. They shared about their work, including their college field trips, new flag football team, and spring clubs at school. They shared why they enjoy joining clubs, helping through the student council, and what they learned from their college field trips. 

E Rangel: We are in phase 1 of implementation. We launched last Monday with the steering committee, and meeting scholars and external stakeholders. Eddie is meeting weekly with Bellweather. They are in the fact-based phase of the project. They are also meeting with the steering committee members. We would love to keep you in the loop.  

M Staten: What does the fact-based phase mean? 

ER: They are getting just basic demographic and basic information for their database. 

There is a budget appropriation process where the following will be now required:

• review of the estimated funding from levy funding
• review an outline of the budget
• no action needs to be taken today

Breakdown of funding:

State Foundation & Complexity- 49%

- based on average enrollment as of 10/1 and 2/1, complexity grant, & special education

- no major shifts are expected

- however, an estimated 2% increase is expected (but not yet finalized by the legislature)

- forecasted special education & non english speaking student grants of 5%

- decrease in student materials funding, which is quite significant, and essentially cancels out the additional increases

- final numbers to be expected after April 29th

Grants & special programs 19%

- CSP grant, City Connects, Lit Cadre, Technology cadre - all are not expected to decrease in this funding for FY26 or FY27

Other state funding 14.29%

- current draft legislation has a decrease of the Charter & Innovation Network Schools Grant. The proposed decrease is not made up fully by any other funding increases

- historically we've received $14,000 per students from the Charter grants, but that is currently not being included. This is due to Senate Bill 1 and the possibility that if property tax revenues are shared. However, there is a long runway until 2032, so in the meantime, there could be discrepancies. Current discussions are ongoing to maintain the 14,000 per pupil grant until the property tax sharing is fully shared

School meals 8%

- every year, the department of Agriculture posts yearly the reimbursement rates, but these are TBD.

- proposed changes of thresholds for CEP should not impact us

- impacted by shifts from the USDA as federal programs have been cut, including one that incentivized using local products

Federal - 8%

- no updates on Title grants and while changes aren't anticipated, there is expected to be more flexibility. Currently, there are rigid guidelines, but we are expecting greater flexibility

Levy Sharing - 1.76%

- this would be new revenue for next school year

- new funding requirements will come with this - Department of Local Government Finance because we would be receiving tax revenue directly

- will not be reporting a line by line budget, but will required detailed estimates that will be reviewed & approved by the board, with the full plan being voted on by the board in June

- estimated levy: $129,976.31 which will be used primarily to fund the facilities (janitorial & custodial) agreement with IPS (will cover around 50%)

Budget Appropriations

- Base Operations Property Levy (coming to us directly)

- In addition, there is the operating referendums, safety referendums, and captial referendums

- moving forward any district referendum will be shared 1:1 with the charters in that district

These funding shifts will inform a shift in policies moving forward.

Current action step: There is a request of an extension from OEI for draft budget submission.

M Meer: The only other additions are from the Lilly Grant. Three phases are in the project. The applications have been submitted, but only phase one has been awarded. No schools have heard the results of round two. We are looking at ways to beef up our academic curricula. The money is not secured yet. 

The policies and finance manual are also under review, especially in light of the Levy Funding. 

N Frech: We have a potential new member, under review. We also have a short list from an OEI event. If any other committee members have candidates. 

Timeline for CEO review and Board's Self Evaluation 

May 9: Info to board members from Gov. Comm

May 20th: Members send back their work to Gov. Comm.

June meeting - Executive session for board review 

Please send written goals to Nelson so that we can submit those to OEI very soon. 

We met on March 21st to review the performance around Checkpoint 3

M Rooney: We have ambitious goals for the Checkpoints and ILEARN this year. 

C Franz: We have seen an increase during checkpoint 3. The majority of grades have seen an increase. No grades had a decrease. Our 3rd graders are holding very strong. They are exceeding the data in other pilot schools. 

MR: We are seeing a significant decrease in the number of below-proficient students. In fact we have the lowest number of students who are below proficient in Adelante's history. Even in the grades who are below the state average, they are showing growth from last year. 

MR: Within our special populations, we are meeting our goals for racial differentials in ELA. We are still working on closing that gap in math. 

CF: In ELA, our focus for the end of the year, Slam the Exam, is going to be closing the gap with Special Ed and MLL populations. During ILEARN Slam the Exam prep, we are doing daily re-teach instruction and mock assessments to collect data. There are daily staff data meetings. We have increased the amount of small-group instruction as well. 

MR: About 40% of our students are getting small-group support. This is more than double the amount required by law. 

K Kainrath: How do you feel about the Checkpoint Pilot? 

MR: Good and bad, both. The data is helpful because it lets us know if we are on track. In Math, it's hard to go back and do anything with it because we have already moved on. We don't have time to spend weeks remidiating the data. But overall, it has been net positive. 

CF: It has helped us chunk the year. The data, though, doesn't give us data, standard by standard. And it makes it hard to remediate. 

MR: The final piece that will tell us about checkpoint helpfulness will be how students do on ILEARN. 

No updates beyond those shared by Nelson during the governance report

We shared some board procedures with the student council members.