Board Chair, H. Blumenthal said he'd like to continue with the tradition of submitting an educational piece the same as Ed Graf had done in the past. He reminded everyone that the Board Retreat will be on 8/29/15 at the school. He went over items that would be on the agenda for the retreat such as each committee chair will talk about what they wish their committees to accomplish this school year, the discussion of expansion of the school and tracking board attendance.

Salutatorian, Markus Reneau, will be attending Yale University and has won 2 substantial scholarships over the summer. He won a $10,000 Scholarship, plaque and certificate as the top winner of the contest presented by the ELKS Department of Education. The contest was held during the Grand Lodge and 112 Grand Temple's annual convention in Las Vegas. He was the first place winner of the local, state and regional contests and represented Region 5, which included Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee. Former recipients of the ELKS Oratorical Contest include Thurgood Marshall, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Oprah Winfrey. It was suggested that the Board recognize his accomplishments and send congratulations.

Harry read the new Mission Statement.

Sean Wilson reviewed performance data and announced our students are going in the right direction. Scores exceed the state average but there is still room for improvement on the ACT. We need to revisit our science courses. The IB diploma program is stable and the # for the course option has increased. IHS is increasing the quality of opportunities with extra curricular activities. Carol Allen asked how leaders were selected and Mr. Wilson said they were either self selected, faculty directed or student influenced. He discussed the technology improvements and communication upgrades. He explained how staff was incorporating the SP. Mr. Hughes asked about immersion and Ms. Wolfers asked if dual enrollment, ELL and ESL students fell into the same category as other students. Sean said some students may take a different path but IHS would help all of its students acheive their best education. He said going forward IHS will strive to live out the mission and vision of the school.

Mr. Blumenthal discussed the financials. He explained that we are required by state to have 5% of our general fund held in reserve and that we are exceeding this at 19.7%. He gave a shout out to the finance department for a good job. He said the Finance Committee will be looking at expenditures as they apply to the building. He said going forward the committee will also be looking at the Strategic Plan.

A discussion was held on the IHS Policy on Board Financial Fiduciary Responsibility. Board members must continually monitor and have an understanding of the school's financial statements. Board members are encouraged to come to the Finance Committee meetings. Either the Head of School or the Director of Finance will email each Board Member monthly financial reports as soon as they are available or advise that they are on Board on Track. Further the Board Chair and Treasurer will have direct access to the Director of Finance to ask questions, however, other board members must go through the Chair, Treasurer, Head of School or attend Committee Meetings. This Policy will be up for review 3 months after approval to ensure it is achieving its goal of helping Board Members become more knowledgeable about IHS' financials, minimizing disruptions in the Finance Dept. and increasing Board Fiduciary Responsibility.

Carol Allen announced that the AC did not have a quorum at their meeting and encouraged attendance of all committee members in order to be productive. The next AC meeting will be 9/8/15 and she plans to set the AC goals for the 2015-2016 school year. These goals will be monitoring the Dashboard, monitoring and tracking the Academic Programs Pillar of the SP, and continuing its review of the One App process.

Governance Committee recommended a By-law Change that would have the PTO Rep to be recognized as a non-voting ex-officio member. The PTO Representative would not be included in Executive Session unless invited by VIBE Board of Directors. Laval Hughes recommended we review this and asked that we have a full understanding of the consequences. We should consider that we may be invalidating actions made in the past. Maria Garcia asked why do they have to be NON Voting since they are vetted and have background checks like other board members. Betty Wolfers commented that she believed past minutes would reveal there is to be a PTO Rep on the Board.

Laval Hughes said goals for the committee had not been set as of yet. The committee did a walk through of the building and said another walk through was planned during the Board Retreat. Currently we are in the process of installing new locks and doors, digital cameras and other items to insure the safety of the students. Our Science labs now have showers. Electrical issues have been addressed. The air conditioning needs to be upgraded to be more efficient. New drapes will be forth coming because the old ones are fire hazards. Also, the loading dock needs rails. Roof work is in progress and there is talk about installing an elevator. Facilities Committee has plans to look at goal 3 of the Organizational Sustainability Pillar which discusses the expansion of the school. M. Roney mentioned she'd be looking at funding issues in the Finance Committee and K. Turner agreed Finance could make recommendations for funding improvements.

Stacie Retzlaff reported that the SP Committee's goals for the 2015-2016 School Year will be to track the action items in the SP by using a tracking tool created by Committee Chair. The tool is uploaded onto Board on Track for all to use. Other goals are to review the language in the SP and determine if more realistic due dates are needed for some of the action items and to make recommendations to committees and board members to track parts of the plan that fit with those committees. The SP Committee will meet the first Tuesday of every month at 6pm except in December.

The Board went into Executive Session at 8:01pm.

The chair passed out a survey on the meeting's productivity and efficiency to be completed anonymously.