American Dream Charter School
Minutes
ADCS Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
SY24-25
Date and Time
Monday April 21, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Location
403 Concord Avenue
Bronx, NY 10454
Trustees Present
A. Cabrera (remote), L. Rojas (remote), P. Simon (remote), R. Espinal (remote), Z. Martinez (remote)
Trustees Absent
None
Guests Present
M. Melkonian (remote), N. Gallagher (remote), S. Espinal
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
L. Rojas called a meeting of the board of trustees of American Dream Charter School to order on Monday Apr 21, 2025 at 5:30 PM.
C.
Approve Minutes
L. Rojas made a motion to approve the minutes from ADCS Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting on 03-17-25.
R. Espinal seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
D.
Executive Session - HR Matters
II. Educational Success
A.
Benchmark 1: Student Performance
B.
Benchmark 2: Teaching and Learning
C.
BENCHMARK 3: Culture, Climate, and Student and Family Engagement
III. Organizational Soundness
A.
BENCHMARK 4: Financial Condition
Financial conditions provided by NG
- Financial conditions provided by NG.
- We're closing our old Chase checking account, but it will remain active for one or two more board meetings.
Flag-Star bank
- We still have our flag-star accounts. We have begun the process of opening the accounts with the new bank that we discussed with Nick, but no funds have been transferred over and before. Before we make those moves, we will be in touch with Roslyn.
B.
BENCHMARK 5: Financial Management
C.
BENCHMARK 6: Board Oversight and Governance:
D.
BENCHMARK 7: Organizational Capacity
IV. Faithfulness to Charter & Law
A.
BENCHMARK 8: Mission and Key Design Elements
B.
BENCHMARK 9: Enrollment, Recruitment, and Retention
Lottery and Enrollment Update
- We held our 12th annual lottery in early April.
- Our key entry point each year is 6th grade, so we want to focus on that.
- This year, we did not receive enough 6th grade applications to run a lottery — we had 82 applications but needed 87.
- While that’s not ideal, it’s not cause for concern. We offered seats to all applicants on lottery day, and applications are still coming in.
Current 6th grade status:
- 42 students have accepted and begun the registration process.
- 38 students received offers but haven’t responded yet.
- 10 families declined their offers.
- That gives us 80 active 6th grade applications (either registered or offered a spot).
- We expect 6th grade applications to continue coming in over the summer.
Total School Enrollment
- We currently have 594 students enrolled.
- This is down slightly from 600 earlier this year due to a few normal student discharges.
- Enrollment remains strong, and we’ll continue recruiting for 6th grade through the summer.
C.
BENCHMARK 10: Legal Compliance
V. 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 6:00 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
L. Rojas
ADS High School Graduation & Testing