Voices for International Business and Education
Minutes
Board Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday January 18, 2017 at 6:00 PM
Location
International High School of New Orleans Community Room 727 Carondelet St. New Orleans, LA 70130
Voices for International Business and Education http://public.boardontrack.com/VIBE_1
Directors Present
A. Tufail, C. Allen, H. Blumenthal, J. Carter, K. Katner, M. Roney, R. Keller, S. Retzlaff, S. Thomas, T. Ceballos-Meyers
Directors Absent
B. Schilling
Directors who arrived after the meeting opened
S. Thomas
Ex Officio Members Present
L. Lopez
Non Voting Members Present
L. Lopez
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C. Allen called a meeting of the board of directors of Voices for International Business and Education to order on Wednesday Jan 18, 2017 at 6:05 PM.
C.
Mission
Stacie Retzlaff read the mission
D.
Approve Minutes
S. Retzlaff made a motion to approve minutes from the Board Meeting on 11-16-16 Board Meeting on 11-16-16.
J. Carter seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Report of the Chair
A.
New item
- Student Don Lawrence (12th grade) shared about his experience as an IHSNO student. He spoke about the benefits of learning Arabic as foreign language. The student about the benefits of IB and how the program has opened his mind to understand other cultures and backgrounds.
III. Report of Head of School
A.
New item
- Two HoS reports were shared dating January 6th and 13th.
- The legacy project is on the works and will commence on the summer of 2017.
- We are currently facing some challenges with EnrollNola in the middle of the year as they often come without proper documentation and then we are liable for the lack of provision of the required services. We are in conversations with them to express our discontent as this impacts students' academic success.
- The number of students taking IB courses has increased as well as students in the diploma program.
- We are actively investing in the program for both students' assessments and faculty professional development.
- It was suggested that we have a Special Education specialist to come and talk to the faculty and administration regarding compliance requirements and the consequences of failure to provide services.
- Students will be involved in the development of the legacy project.
- We are fortunate to have a full time nurse on site looking after the well being of our students.
- We have no vacancies at the moment, we have two faculty members out on medical leave.
- We have fulfilled the position for Institutional Development Manager and the Civics teacher position.
- We continue to develop our staff and faculty members through communications training and practice sessions. We want to ensure that our team members are equipped to have the proper conversations seeking resolution and clarity to be successful at the roles they play in the organization.
- Our staff and faculty have been trained on the active shooter training ALICE.
- Our athletics department is doing a great job in moving our students to winning places.
S. Thomas arrived.
IV. Report of Executive Committee
A.
New item
- The committees are working on their goals and have been submitted.
S. Retzlaff made a motion to Approve all the committees goals.
M. Roney seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
B.
New item
- C. Allen and R. Keller have had evaluation meetings with the HoS and need to start talking about renewal of contract.
- The options are to plan a separate meeting for this specific purpose or add it to a board meeting.
- It is difficult to get board members to come out two nights in the same month if a separate meeting was to be scheduled.
- Rob, Shontell and Carol will have a conference call on Monday to discuss questions or points to discuss regarding contract renewal for the HoS.
- Carol will share with the rest of the board members information specially for new board members to have some background information.
C.
New item
- A description of the development committee was shared on January 17
C. Allen made a motion to To approve the development committee description.
S. Retzlaff seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
H. Blumenthal made a motion to Change the charter and the wording on the bylaws to align with the new committee structure including the development committee.
S. Retzlaff seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
V. Governance
A.
Board Action
- A meeting will be scheduled for the committee within next week.
VI. Facility
A.
New item
- A meeting will be scheduled soon. There was no quorum for last meeting, but a discussion was had.
- The goals for the committee have been submitted inclusive of future projects.
VII. Finance
A.
Report of Finance Committee
- The dashboard including November and December financials were shared with the board.
- There are no significant variances. We are observing cash decline over the months.
- The MFP will be received in March after adjusting the number of our enrollment count from October.
- We are currently working on our credit line with First NBC and exploring options of financial institutions.
- The expenses due to the union are the expenses that have us over budget.
- The organization is currently working on revising each departments budget.
M. Roney made a motion to The finance committee recomends that the board accepts the November and December 2016 financials as distributed.
S. Thomas seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
- The disposal of Fixed assets policy was presented.
- The policy addresses the definition of a fixed asset, depreciation and disposal. The policy is intended to be specific and clear about the process of determining the sales value of the item and make proper disposal of it.
- Board approval will be required when the sales value of the asset is $5000 or more. A change of wording is suggested from "may" to "must" or "shall" in all bullet points.
- We want to make sure we are using the right amount of the value for the item.
- An asset purchased for less than $5000 that has appreciated in value will require board approval. There is no limit on the appreciated value.
M. Roney made a motion to That the board approve the fixed asset policy with the following amendments: the fourth bullet point will replace by shall.
S. Thomas seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
VIII. Academic
A.
Report of Academic Committee
- The committee met and information was presented regarding what is going on in the student population from mid-year enrollment, behavioral issues, health issues, college applications and EOC remediation plans
- Our number of suspensions are way lower than last year as well as physical altercations.
- This year we are using a different approach about conflict resolution with the adults in the building as well as with students. We are making use of restorative approaches and circles for students to talk about their issues.
B.
Executive Session
C. Allen made a motion to Move into executive session for legal updates.
M. Roney seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
IX. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
J. Carter made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
H. Blumenthal seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:25 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
L. Lopez