Jessica Bowen was appointed as Timekeeper.
The Chair announced that the meeting was being videotaped and the Board would go into executive session at the end of open session to consider the purchase and lease of real property, discuss legal strategy and negotiations with represented personnel, since open discussion could have a detrimental effect on the process. The Board will not reconvene.

 

Roger Jarrett made record of open action items:

• SMART Goals for Board Committees
• BoardOnTrack Use: Committees entering agendas and minutes

Executive Director Ellen Linzey provided her monthly presentation. This month featured a summary of the 2019 PSAT results. See attached presentation.

Ellen Linzey also provided a Mid-year check-in on her Executive Director Goals for 2019-2020. See attached progress on ED goals, that includes two supporting documents, Professional Priorities and Administrative Evaluation Tool.

Faculty Representative Jessica Bowen provided her monthly update. The faculty just got back from break and are busy with the schedule process, proposing and making course recommendations for the 2020-2021 school year. The faculty are happy and appreciative of the administration's effort to communicate and reach out to teachers. An example: The faculty were asked to provide feedback on a proposal to change the current schedule procedure followed when there is a 2-hour delay. Teachers were asked if they would prefer to keep the current protocol of starting two hours later, losing the first two periods...or starting the day at 10:00, but every scheduled class meeting but on an abbreviated schedule. 

Parent Representative Maura Webster provided her monthly update. She reported that parents have been quiet, but she would like to take the opportunity to mention the Golf Tournament Fundraiser on June 22!

Jill Schafer presented the results of the Pulse Surveys. It was noted that the Board does not direct the administration on how to address the issues of a survey, rather the Board collects data and presents it to the administration, which will assist and guide school leaders with administrative decisions.

It was also noted that information gathered from multiple choice survey questions are not as meaningful as open comments. Responses to survey questions can sometimes be misleading or seen as negative due to the rating process. The comments provide a much more accurate assessment of concerns. Topics of parent concern included PlusPortal and timely posting of grades and the impact on families due to the school day starting 10 minutes earlier. There was a lot of positive feedback indicating that parents believe that the Core Values are important.

The Board discussed whether the fall pulse survey is actually necessary and perhaps just one survey in the spring would be better received. This will be discussed further.

Roger Jarrett thanked Jill Schafer and Liz Saul for the hours spent on processing the pulse survey results.

Roger Jarrett provided an update on the January 25, 2020 Strategic Planning Meeting. The meeting will begin at 8:30am with breakfast, with work beginning at 9:00am. Homework will be due by January 17. During the first session, Nan Dill will conduct 4-5 hours discussion on Vision Development.

Following Nan Dill, Ben Hammel will conduct 1-2 hours using a brainstorming method from Lean Sigma called Kaizen. (See attached slides.)

Discuss 1-3 topics. Each topic will be a group exercise to complete five stages

• Stage 1 is a open discussion of what is working well and what is not working well
• Stage 2 is a brainstorming session using sticky notes to capture everyone’s ideas on what we can do to improve “what is not working well”
• Stage 3 consists of creating an “affinity” of the brainstorm ideas, grouping them based on similarities
• Stage 4 the BOT will evaluate each “group” of ideas on action items we can do to improve or address the issue
• Stage 5 is to prioritize and assign the action items for follow up

A straw vote was taken to determine which of the five topics would be considered up for discussion. The number after the topic represents the number of votes in-favor.

• “White Building” current functions and opportunities (10)
• AMSA’s BOT Community Presence, 4 core towns and beyond (1)
• AMSA’s BOT Corporate Presence, locally and nationally (5)
• AMSA’s current Vision and Future Vision, Where we can Improve and Grow (0)
• AMSA’s BOT relationship and offerings with those “close to home” organizations like administration, faculty, and PTO (1)

Education Committee chair reported that their next meeting will be held on January 16. Kate Driver, Director of School Counseling will be a guest to discuss what the Guidance Department offers in mental health services and assisting students and families in their college search.

Development Chair Ben Hammel and Maura WEbster reported on the Development Task Force focus and purpose..CODE ( Community, Outreach, Diversity, and Engagement). Creating collaboration and expanding outreach, social recruiting committee, identifying passionate contributors.

Governance Chair Jill Schafer reported that the committee discussed the Executive Directors Goals with Ellen Linzey. The Executive Director reported on her goals earlier in the meeting.

Finance Committee Chair Kristin Carney provided a summary of the November 2019 financial statements. (See attached finance report.)

The general agreement is that the Board is doing a good job with meeting effectiveness and should continue doing what they are doing; utilizing a timekeeper and putting votes at the top of the agenda.

February BOT Meeting Agenda Items:
Lottery