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Voices for International Business and Education

Minutes

Facility Committee Meeting

Date and Time

Wednesday September 13, 2017 at 6:00 PM

Location

727 Carondelet St. New Orleans, LA 70124
Voices for International Business and Education http://public.boardontrack.com/VIBE_1

Committee Members Present

A. Tufail, C. Allen, K. Katner, L. Lopez, M. Roney, S. Retzlaff, S. Wilson, T. McGregor

Committee Members Absent

None

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance and Guests

B.

Call the Meeting to Order

K. Katner called a meeting of the Facility Committee of Voices for International Business and Education to order on Wednesday Sep 13, 2017 at 6:02 PM.

C.

Approve Minutes

S. Retzlaff made a motion to approve minutes from the Facility Committee Meeting on 03-07-17 Facility Committee Meeting on 03-07-17.
A. Tufail seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.

II. Facility

A.

Set meeting dates for the year

  • The suggestion is to meet every month at least through November. 
  • By January, the committees need to submit their strategic plan reviews/recommendations to the board.
  • 1st Tuesday of every month at 5:30 pm

B.

Discuss Strategic Plan Pillars and Insignia's post-retreat report.

  • CA shared about the Chairs' call from last week to follow up on the retreat and post-retreat report. 
  • Minutes - We will continue to share the minutes after the meeting with all board members to keep them abreast of committees' progress
  • AT is suggesting to share the agenda and minutes ahead of time with all attendees.

C.

Strategic Plan pillars and progress monitoring

  • Goal 3, Objective 2 -> IHSNO Supports needs and academic achievements of staff. 
  • Objective 3,
  • Goal 2,
  • Goal 1 Determine long-term lease
  • KK and TM are working together in setting up a meeting with the school board 
  • AT inquired about having a path to secure the lease of the building. 
    • KK explained that we have precedence with  previous leases
    • SW stated that there is no policy around this process.
    • AT suggested that it is important that we establish the path we want to follow in order to focus our energy on a game plan that guides the school board in granting what we want and organize an effort around that. 
    • KK explained that we need to get to a school board member so they can bring up the point and make a motion at the board and move it that way. 
    • AT stated that we need an outline our negotiating points and know if they affect our negotiation process or not
    • SW shared that we recently received an assessment from the School board, but we need to create our own. Since there is no current policy with the school board, we need to help that process. 
    • AT suggested drafting the plan SW verbally shared, and use it as the plan of action to move the committee forward in that direction to refine and be ready in a backward planning mode. We need to be prepared and be proactive, rather than reactive. 
    • AT requested that the administration draft a simple roadmap/plan of action to gain a better understanding of the next steps an plan to achieve long-term lease or acquire the building.l 
    • KK  suggested getting an abstractor to get an idea of the guidelines of use/negotiation of the building. KK will reach out to find out how much will this process cost. 
    • SW asked what are the questions we'd like to answer through this document? 
      • KK suggested to get the 1) abstract; what this building is really worth, 2) research school board policies and other charter schools' leases, 3) re-evaluate the property.
      • AT  suggested to adopt a timeline and work from there in 
      • KK suggested to contact Jaime (Adams & Reese) to research other schools' policies/leases and create a policy for us to be presented to the School Board. 
      • MR suggests establishing milestones dates and specific action items
      • The school board has already established that the building is at a 60% function
      • SW at this point, we are not negotiating a purchase price, but getting a longer lease (control). We need at least 30 years lease to better our chances to borrow money to modernize, upgrade the building.
      • 1) How much do we need to invest in this building? Assessment of gaps between where we are and would like to be? 2) lease perspective, 3) how do we position ourselves to have better chances at negotiation. Are basically the main questions AT is asking to establish on the "road map" that SW will draft. 
    • AT asked SW for his point of view on the plan for the facility. SW expressed that the property was intentionally left out of the support provided by OPSB for the school's property to increase the market value to be sold later for another purpose rather than an educational institution. 
    • SW recommended taking into consideration that we will not receive tax funding to pay for our debt services. 
ACTION ITEMS THAT CAME OUT OF THE COMMITTEE MEETING: 
Main points/goals: 
  • Get an abstract of the building and property in order to get an understanding of the history of the property (not its value). This will tell us who the true property owner is and if there are any conditions on the ownership of the property. KK will contact some real estate attorneys to get names of abstractors to contact and get prices on what it will cost. 
  • Research other schools Board's (a) policies regarding leasing owned property to charter schools and (b) the leases that they use. Should we ask Jamie? (Attorney from Adams and Reese) to give us a cost estimate on doing this research for us.  
  • Evaluate the building for two reasons, (a) what it will cost to repair and renovate the building to make it a stat of the art facility, and (b) the present value of the building in its present condition. 

D.

Board Development

  • CA called for board members to grow in responsibilities and step up to the plate and communicate their interest to her. 
  • Committee Chairs, and other officers. 
  • CA is working on a line of succession for the future. This is CA's last year on the board. 
  • There is a potential new board member coming down the pipelines

III. Other Business

A.

Other

  • KK has a suggestion for a potential board member
  • CA reminded us that we need to focus on the areas that the governance committee has established for board recruitment
  • KK Still thinking about the Xavier University president. 
  • CA suggested to run it by Rob. 

IV. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 7:00 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
K. Katner
M. Roney made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
A. Tufail seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.