Harry Blumenthal read the Mission Statement.

Board Chair announced the retreat will be along the lines of an open meeting but with some order. Hence, public sitting at the table versus in the audience. He'd like the Board to begin looking at policy and brainstorming to come up with effective policies. He also said he'd like the Board to conduct a S.W.O.T. evaluation; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Chair discussed the importance of Board/Committee Members sending an RSVP for meetings because without them Chairs do not know who will be attending and this pushes items up for vote to the next month when there is not a quorum. Next, Board and Administration introduced themselves to new Board Member, Mariska Roney. Harry said he would not hand out an evaluation form for this meeting thinking the retreat would be more like an open discussion as opposed to a structured meeting.

Sean Wilson with the assistance of Tim McGregor, Facilities Manager, lead attendees on a tour of the Building. There was a general consensus that there was vast improvement from what we had on Day One.

Sean Wilson discussed the responsibility of the Board to understand our Financials. Denise Deno, Director of Finance, presented a Video Presentation "Understanding Monthly Financial Reports". A working lunch was held during a Power Point delivered by Holly Bunn, IB coordinator. She explained in detail the International Baccalaureate Programme. A binder, "V.I.B.E. Board of Directors Guidebook was given to the Directors and Mr. Wilson went over it's contents. He also went over the Dashboard and asked Board to provide their comments on how to reduce it to a one page document.

Each Committee Chair briefly went over what they hoped to achieve during the current school year.

Harry asked each Board member to name what they felt were major issues concerning IHS. These were School Expansion, Faculty Retention, Funding the IB programme, Tracking the Strategic Plan, Board Compliance, Awareness of issues with the Facility when they happen, Marketing, Board Nominating Process to include diversity and skill sets needed, Board Training.

There was a general consensus that the Retreat was informative and very good.

Karen Dwyer commented that this Retreat was one of the best we've ever had.