We have two seniors with us tonight. They are both on the volleyball team:

• Amanda Bartek has seen herself grow socially and has applied to college already. She wants to study law. 
  • Advice for freshmen:
    • Push your self, be very passionate about what you do. Work hard, study
  • Wish or would've liked something else or more out of the school:
    • more 1:1 time with teachers
• Irma Castro likes the diversity in the school as she deems that to be an important thing for students. She is also an IB student and has been accepted to three colleges. She is still applying to other colleges in the state and out of state. She wants to major in Biology for Medicine. 
  • Advice for freshmen: 
    • Push your self and don't limit yourself. Watch who you surround yourself with.
  • Wish would've liked something else or more out of the school: 
    • More college exposure and college readiness support 

We have most of the committee meetings scheduled. We are only missing the Governance and Facilities committee meeting. 

Thank you for submitting the biographies. 
Lynette will follow up with D. Batiste and S. Cunningham regarding their BOT access and taking the skills survey. 

• Board contributions - the pledge form is attached to the agenda. This is a reminder for board members to complete their pledge and submit it to Denise Deno at Finance. 
• Leadership Academy Board - Program designed to help educate board members to serve better. M. Roney and J. Lampton are the board members participating. The VIBE board members have been exposed to similar information at the BOY retreat. 

• The Yondr pouches is an initiative that we started this year that came out of teachers looking at ways how to engage our students better in their education and with each other. Media covered this story and we will be sharing the links shortly.  
• Ms. Andrea Williams just joined the IHSNO team this week to lead the development efforts for the organization she is with us. 
• Mr. David Lewis has joined the IHSNO team as a part-time IT support technician
• We will have the revised budget in alignment with our enrollment numbers. 
• Our enrollment numbers are impacted by three factors this year. Enrollnola has a different process this year, more high schools have opened in the city making completion of high school more readily available without having to attend a full day school schedule, and transportation offer is different this year as well. Last year we had 6 yellow buses, this year we have 4. 
• In order to fulfill the mandate, we had to make some adjustments in order to distribute transportation more equitable for our students. 
• We have to be keenly aware of the schools opening next year which will impact our enrollment as more options become available. 
• We stand with a 60 student variance from last year. 
• KK asked what is our optimal enrollment number - SW stated that 320 would be the least amount of students to continue to operate. 
• KK asked if its possible to get students from ISL with preferred admissions to IHSNO. SW explained that this is an agreement that would have to be approved by OPSB. We also have to be mindful of the impact on our school population. 
• DB asked how has the enrollment difference has impacted our budget and staff? SW stated that the adjustments that have been rearranged to fulfill the needs of the organization taking advantage of the vacant positions at the time. 

• As mentioned before, there is a new mandate for schools to provide transportation for all students that live outside of the 1mile radius of our school 
• MR stated that as a governing body, it is the board's responsibility to monitor that administration is compliance with the law. 
• SW explained that IHSNO has provided transportation in prior years to some students. Prior to 2019, charter schools were not required to provide transportation for all students. 
• Last year we were able to provide transportation on the first-come-first-serve basis and did not provide RTA passes to all of our students. 
• The new mandate was not issued with an increase of funds for the schools to meet the new regulation. 
• In order to meet the mandate, IHSNO started the process of talking about transportation in March 2018 in board committee meetings, board meetings, surveyed parents and students. 
• As previous years, families learn about their transportation options during orientation day. During the month of August, we provided students with daily passes. Starting in September, we issued monthly passes to the students. 
• After the first month of operations back to school, we have reviewed the plan and the number of students served. We have included new bus stops to the routes making sure that our students are not in transit for more than 90 minutes. 
• This plan has been designed to make sure we serve the most students in our organization and also continue to provide our academic. 
• DB asked when and how was the new transportation plan communicated to parents. SW explained that the same way we have done it in prior years. 
• ST asked if the PTO had talked about it during their meetings. SW confirmed that it had been discussed.
• AB asked if students were provided with the opportunity to learn how to navigate the public transportation system? SW stated that we did not provide that "training" for students to know which bus to take from and to home. 
• Also routes took in consideration the geographical distance for students and the bus stops near their homes to get to school in order to determine that it was possible for them to ride the bus effectively with minimum time.  

None

• The academic dashboard was presented to the board. 
• This is a living document that will get updated every month at the academic committee meeting. 
• SW explained that the dashboard codifies the strategic plan goals and objectives. 
• ST stated that the idea for the dashboard is that the board has readily available access to academic information but the dashboard looks more comprehensive due to the information people wanted to see on it. She is hoping that SR will be able to help the board navigate the dashboard with focus on specific areas at every meeting. 

The committee didn't meet on August. The next meeting is on October 2. 
We miss Tim. 
KK shared that AT has an idea of engaging professional support in the facilities area to get the blueprint for a plan moving forward. 
The Small center has engaged with IHSNO in the visioning plan to renovate the building. We have kickoff the process with a meeting with our faculty, administration and board members. There is a second meeting for this Friday to meet with more teachers and administration. Architecture students will come with them. 

 

AT suggested to engaged with a professional assessment to research how much would it cost to meet the main safety code requirements. With the purpose to place IHSNO in a better negotiating position for the long-term lease. This is a Finance and Facilities joined effort. 

SC reminded us of the alumni as stakeholders and the interest on how would they feel about their building being renovated. 

The committee met this month. Discussed student count and budget realignment.

Expecting to have a revised budget at the next committee meeting. 

B Schilling is not in attendance. 

R Keller is not in attendance. 

• Attached to the document is the draft of the HOS evaluation. 
• The HOS evaluation committee met this month to discuss the document. 
• Feedback was provided in the language of the document and the measurable outcomes. The committee agreed on needing something more tangible to be able to measure and validate the assertions made in the evaluation. 
• Coming through the door SW was tasked with creating and developing a strategic plan. The Head of School performance was not codified from the beginning of his tenure at IHSNO. SW created a document in alignment with the strategic plan to evaluate his performance as Head of School. Terminology and vocabulary on the presented document are in alignment with the strategic plan. 
• The document also includes a timeline as to when should the board expect to see things happening. 
• The last part addresses how did we perform as an organization. The academic dashboard covers a great deal of this specific component of the evaluation. 
• This document is also codified with the terminology of the Head of School's contract for easy read and comparison when talking about results. 
• ST asked how often does the committee meet? MR explained that the committee will meet four times a year and any board member is welcome to attend. 
•  MR suggested that SW modifies the HOS evaluation document to make it easier to read. 
• AT asked if there would be an ad-hoc committee for this new process? MR stated that such a committee is the Head of School evaluation committee.  
• AT asked if the presented document is a standard in the industry? as he is suggesting that we compare with what is already created in the industry. 
• MR already has a HOS evaluation system that requires board members input as well as direct reports. 
• MR encourages board members to be active in this effort and review information and ask questions even if they are not in attendance to the HOS evaluation committee.