Documents are available at the ANCS website. Any visitor can make a public comment under two minutes. Secretary is Melissa McKay-Hagan. Board info is on ANCS website. 

 

Kari Lovell spoke about Grants to Green money. We are ranked 2 on the EPA challenge. We have potential to be ranked 1. We have the potential to be better at energy savings. We have saved $11,316 in energy. 

Elizabeth Hearn spoke about the Fall Critical Friends Institute - a mixture of many different schools within the Jackson cluster. Elizabeth shared the positiveness of the day. 
 

PTCA President, Joy Prince, was not present but sent her report. Grandparents and Special Friends Day was a success as was the Fall Festival and the Yard Sale. There are upcoming items such as the Barnes and Nobles Shopping Day in December. See report for more information. 
 

Dr. Cathey Goodgame spoke about Grandparents and Special Friends Day at the Middle School. Students spoke about their Academic Growth Period classes in front of grandparents and special friends. There were many unique AGPs that students spoke about. Guests also found out about the different field trips that students have already taken including the Ettowa Indian Mounds, Carter Center, and the Bremen Jewish Holocaust Museum. There are upcoming trips to a temple, mosque, movie, and musuem. 

Lara Zelski spoke about GPSF at the Elementary campusl. It went very well.

Fifth graders recently came back from their trip to Blue Ridge and had a meaningful trip. 

Matt Underwood spoke about the strategic plan, continuing from last meeting. See documents for details.

Cindy Ethridge from Warren Averett spoke about the ANCS financial audit and why it is important to do. 

Jessica Story from Warren Averett spoke about the audit. 
On Page 2: at the top is their opinion. See document. 
On Page 3: Statement of Financial Positions. Information about cash balance for this year. We received several new grants in 2015 - that is why there is long term wealth this year. There were three sizable grants. Last year there was only one sizable grant. 
There was an increase in property and equipment which involved HVAC equipment, windows, etc. Accounts payable and accrued expenses increased because there was increase in payroll and liability. The last item on page three is temporarily restricted net assets which are time restricted because of the three year long grants. 
On Page 4: The government grants were a major change, which included the CREATE grant. There were several other grants including school of the year, and grants to greens. The last significant change in the support and revenue is the income line item is due to APS funds. 

Mitch White identified the increase in meal income which was incurred without raising any food prices. 

The final change in expenses was administrative expenses which was due to the CREATE program. 

Now looking at ANCS Revenue and Expenses graph of 2011-2015. 
Key thing is revenue is greater than expenses. Another thing this graph shows is there is a large jump in revenue between 2013 to 2014. 
Now looking at the slide with ANCS 2015 Expenses. The expenses have been consistent with the breakout of the cost. Most of the cost is going towards instruction which is positive. 

Matt Underwood gave a background on the MAP Assessments - Measures of Academic Progress. He stated that ANCS moved to administrating the MAP because it is a well respected, nationally known assessment. It also takes the place of three previous assessments. MAP fulfills the responsibility of many different tests. 

Matt said there are many strengths - reading is very strong across grade levels. Most students were in the 70th percentile range nationally. In mathematics, students had strong geometry skills. Demographically, students with IEPs of 504s performed at same or better as other studetns nationally. Distribution of student performance on the MAP were mostly above average, a small protion in the average range, and a very tiny number in the lower performance areas. The MAP scores gives a lot of useful information about how to proceed in the classroom, how to give support ot all students. It also helps us track the growth of the student - their RIT score. 

Matt shared the mean RIT score of all students by grade level on the projector from mathematics and reading. Matt will share next year how students improved. 

Narin Hassan asked how much different this test looks to students when taking it from other tests. Matt says it is a computer adaptive test which can be shorter or longer depending on how a student is doing. Logistically it is very smooth. 

Tara asked if parents got the MAP results. Matt says that they received the scores during student-led conferences at the MC and they will be sent home at the EC. Discussion on MAP scores by board members and principals - elements that affect scores such as new students, etc. 

Matt Underwood spoke about the strategic plan goal of diversity - creating a more racially and economically diverse student body because there are many benefits. Over the past years we have taken many steps but can still do better. We have appointed a staff diversity coordinator, Larry Carter. 

This year we are focused on working on enrollment outreach and looking deeper into the attendance zones. The faculty will also be assessing the needs and experiences in relation to working with diverse students and colleagues. 

Lia Santos asks about the RFP process. Matt explains that they wanted them to come and speak about diversity - some proposals were made. 

Mitch White points to the first slide and restates that this is good for us - research shows that diversity is a good thing. Summer Hill will be added the year after next. 

Matt added that our middle school campus is still right on the cusp of being entitled to Title 1 funds for free and reduced lunch. 

Tiffany Mitchell asks when the diversity committee meets. Matt lets us know that a formal first offical meeting has not occurred yet but they will be on the school calendar and open to anyone who wants to come. 

See Report. 

Alice Jonsson spoke about meeting with Matt to get feedback on areas to be thought partners with administration on categories such as diversity. The committee will support the diversity committee in their efforts. It is a large task but it is in our strategic plan. We want there to be direct board support on this diversity plan. Spoke about going from door to door in Martin Street Plaza (enrollement outreach) and having a very meaningful experience. It was good to have face-to-face contact and shake peoples' hands. 

Alice also offers Cathey support to collaborate on any PTCA events coming up. The board wants to help facilitate in however they can with everything happening across the campuses. 

Public Affairs: Eric shares about the legislative and policy matters affecting charter schools. SPLOST funding can only be spent on capital expenses. Eric will be on agenda for next month for full public affairs update. 

 

Ryan Camp presented the total investments held by ANCS dated 9/30/2015. We are well in line with our funding and our budget will keep increasing. Some variances include the salary and benefits because they increased. The budget will be updated to reflect that. 
Curriculum and classroom expenses will change because we mostly spend in the beginning. Professional services is also seasonal - most goes to the audit. The lunch program is going great - our revenue is up. 

Ryan Camp presented the committee's goals. These  are tentative. The first goal is budget review. Next is reserve funding. Third is technology. Fourth is facilities and maintenance upgrades. We are moving forward. We have already started putting some elements in place including IB program, teacher pt/ft, etc. We are now trying to find out where reserve funds will go. Philippe has done a great job going through out facilities and making a list of everything that needs to be repaired. We need to decide how we are going to fund all of these improvements. Part of it will come from reserve, part from operational, part from grants. From a technology standpoint, we are figuring out how much that will cost. Mike Boardman has given guidance on this matter. We will move forward from here. 

Philippe Pellerin added that our trailer lease is expiring on November 3rd. We have to go to the trailer company and ask about what our options are on this. One of the biggest problems is that we don't own the underlying property. There are many options: going month to month, getting a new trailer, etc. In the next month there will be an update about this. 

Philippe also spoke about the cracks in the gym at the MC. It is not an area of concern right now. If the cracks increase then we will evaluate again. 

 

Narin presented the committee's goals. Key Initiatives are developing messaging and building outreach. Developing gifts program for levels of givers. Having a winter meet for parents who have given or having names on the website of people who have given. Initiatives also about improving technology and have board member giving. See document. 

Mitch points to bringing the initiatives together in one place. He will take it as a to do item. Also, let Narin or Mitch know about board giving. Board discussion on board giving. 

Lia Santos speaks about board giving parents vs non parents. Also, about same information on different softwares and not having that and having to create something again. 

Narin states that there should be a standard look every year for the Grandparents and Special Friends day mailer. This will be easy for those who are developing and those who are getting them in the mail. 

Lia Santos followed up on her report from the October meeting. Lia and Matt met on October 6th. Lia conducted analysis of ANCS salaries compared to the APS pay scales. Generally ANCS is paying less than APS, but the reasons why faculty are staying have to do with many other elements. 

Main things that are being worked on are board positions. Filling seats with skilled members. Training and assessment of board members. Last thing is Executive Director evaluation and support. 

Leigh says that we are putting together a nominations committee to do interviews, etc. Several board members are on this committee and it is open to any other interested members. Let Leigh know if you would like to be on this committee. Looking for a diverse group of applicants, parents, non-parens, inside or outside of community. Everyone is asked to spread the word, the more applicants the better. The retreat is in January and we will talk about what we are looking for. 

Tara asks if there needs to be less than 50% parent-board members. Discussion on this topic by Philippe, Tara, Matt, Leigh, Mitch, Lia and Melissa. Deciding on the number of board members is flexible. 

Board Secretary, Melissa McKay-Hagan gave an update. All of the Board committee meetings need to be posted on the ANCS website: calendar. Use the Courier and Calendar Submission form. Also, add them to the calendar in Board on Track. At the board retreat, we talked about the new requirement of the Georgia State Board of Education for all charter school boards- We need to track our progress on Board Training. The document explaining this was presented by Matt at the board meeting last May. (on the ANCS website)
 -New members: 15 hours/year (3 hrs min in charter school finance and budgeting, 3 hrs min in best practices on charter school governance the constitutional and statutory requirements relating to public records and meetings, and the requirements of applicable statutes and rules and regulations.)
 - Old members- 9 hours/year (3 hours shall include the whole board governance team training provision) Whole Board Governance Team training, at a minimum of three hours, shall be conducted annually.  Discussion on Board on Track and its use - creating documents, uploading, sharing, adding people, etc. Board members will keep track of their own training on Google Spreadsheet on Google Drive. The Board retreats count as training. There is also board training through Board on Track- webinars, articles under the Knowledge and Training section of the website  Melissa will keep the Board updated on the plan for Mid-year retreat in January
 

The Board entered into Executive Session to discuss a legal matter and a contract matter.