At the moment of calling the meeting to order the following members were on their way:

• B. Schilling 
• R. Keller 
• S. Thomas 

Student at the Board meeting was Marissa Demasiliere. 

• Marissa is going to Xavier University for Marketing. Her ultimate goal is to open her own restaurant. 
• She learned to love cooking from her grandmother. 
• She has worked at different restaurants. 
• She is starting school this summer. 
• Marissa cooked during iStudio creating edible arts. 

• Thank you to all board members for attending to iStudio

Thank you to all board members that came to the staff luncheon. 
Teachers really appreciated the luncheon.
A thank you card was sent to Ms. Lee, the owner of Five Happiness, who provided the food at a discount, and to the cafeteria staff person who helped set up and take down. 
All attending board members had the opportunity to interact with staff and faculty. 

• End of year celebration for staff and faculty will be at Dave and Busters and board members are invited as well on Friday May 26. 
• End of the year retreat for leadership will take place on May 30 - Jun 2 in Mississipi. 
• iStudio was a great event paired with GiveNOLA event. 
• IHSNO has received a National Beta School of Merit status. 
• EOC testing took place with some hiccups, but we are expecting great results when they become available. 
• Final testing is currently taking place and will be done next week. 
• Graduation is next week. Sheba Turk will be the guest speaker for the graduation. 
• Student recruitment efforts are continuous. 
• Two course offerings have been eliminated from the course offering for next year: music and Business Computer Applications. This is in order to allow for double blocking of English and Math to better prepare our students. 
• We have been audited in the Sped services, and few findings were addressed. We are currently working on remediating such findings. 
• We had some students that did not show up for testing. Students will be charged for missed IB testing. Seniors have to pay these fees in order to be able to march during graduation. 
• We have a great food service response. Our students are eating more and not paying any fees for lunch/breakfast. 
• We currently have 8.5 positions vacant. 
• The leadership team is currently working on a School Improvement Plan for next year. This is a critical component to identify the goals of each department in alignment with the strategic planning with the departments' input for their individual areas. 
• Today we had the Junior Baccalaureate Ceremony, and tomorrow will be the Senior Baccalaureate Ceremony. 
• Tonight, four members of our faculty/staff are graduating from the Leading Educators program. We have a new cohort starting next school year in the same program. 
• IB 5-year Renewal process is taking place through the surveys that different groups are taking in order to assess the program as implemented at IHSNO and measure our success as an IB school. 
  • Thelma Ceballos has not received the survey 
  • Harry Blumenthal has not received the survey 
  • Kevin Katner has not received the survey 
• A. Tufail asked if the demand for 11th and 12th grade demand of seats will impact the overall enrollment. SW stated that we have seats open by grade taking in consideration attrition and promotion from lower grades. 
• M. Roney asked about the approval of doors. 
• C. Allen asked if we have applied for approval of the hanging gardens. TM stated that it has already been approved. 

• Election/re-election of Directors

In absence of R. Keller, Dr. Thomas reported for the Governance Committee.

• The committee didn't meet this month, but there was a meeting yesterday regarding the community park. 
• The plan is to start breaking ground during the summer so it is ready by August when teachers come back. 
• Outdoor classroom, park, and open area are the considered spaces at the moment. 
• It was  agreed to use artificial turf. 
• A water reservoir is also included in the plan to be used for educational purposes. 
• The park committee voted not to install a swing set. They are currently looking for a playing structure that is inviting to the "child". 

• The committee is recomending the approval of the April financials. 
• We are doing better than we thought in terms of losses and revenue. 
• We were banking with FNBC, and the transition of the bank has not affected us. 
• We are still looking for future banking options. 

• Budget for the next school year was presented. 
• The finance committee recommends to move the approval of the budget to the June meeting. 
• The June public hearing has been moved to Saturday, June 17th. The budget will be on display 10 days prior to presenting the budget for approval. 
• This is a very important process since once approval is voted on, it is more difficult to make any changes. 

The meeting did not meet this month. 
Fr. Carter wants to have an overview of the IB program at the next committee meeting. 

• Congratulations to all staff members and specially to Nuria for the iStudio effort. 
• Now that we have a new board member, Anne Kock will be included in the development committee. Current members are T. Ceballos and B. Schilling. 
• S. Thomas asked about the iStudio money, if that is different from the GiveNOLA money. 
  • Since some of the silent auction items were not paid for the night of GiveNOLA. 
  • The event gave us a baseline of what the organization can raise on a given night and how can we improve it for next year. 
  • Feedback from K. Katner was that it was a great idea to include in the GiveNOLA pot. 
  • Feedback from A. Tufail is that we should not rely only in internal donations, rather broaden our external donors list. 

• S. Thomas asked about the different grants that are currently on the works. 
• N. Arias mentioned that there are grants from Best Buy, GNOFF are currently being drafted. 
• M. Roney asked that the Development committee shares the Grant pipeline with the finance committee. 

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