Good first semester at WIA.  Spent a lot of time on Charter Renewal, followed by Single Gender discussion and decision to move on without it as part of our core.  Happy to have the board, parents, teachers and staff walking through this year together.  Turn over to Ms. Lawrence and Ms. Price regarding the situation with the nurse this week.

Ms. Lawrence - Sent out a communication Wednesday after learning of the events that occurred last Tuesday.  The counseling team became involved to assist with the well being of our student body.  Explained what a hygiene check is and checked in to see how the students involved were feeling.  Clearly, we need formal ethics training in the near future and reiterated expectations with staff.  Ms. Lawrence sent a more detailed letter to the families that were directly impacted; including an account of what exactly occurred based on the statements received and the follow up actions taken by the administration.  Administration apologized to the students for the incident that occurred.  There have been a lot of questions around the employment status of the nurse involved.  Formal ethics training scheduled for January through PAGE.

Ms. Price - Last finance meeting of the year last week.  Had a significant water bill due to a leak in the building pipes that was larger than anticipated and working with City of Atlanta to rectify.

Focusing on procurement practices and p-card policies.
Budget revisions currently going on.  We work in real time, adjusting weekly based on LTM meeting for expenses.  We are waiting on revenue numbers.  No idea what the forecast revenue is at this time.  Hope to present the budget revision in February rather than January.

Jason - One of our students lost a parent about a week and a half ago.  The school did everything we could to support this student during this time.  He had a positive birthday experience and even got to meet one of the Atlanta Hawks today.  Thank you to everyone who helped make this possible.

Kate Henry - parent
Does the school have an anonymous forum for teachers to raise questions or concerns?

Jason - We don't have a formal policy and it would not have assisted in this situation.  We had someone who took it upon themselves to abuse trust in a quick and decisive way.  We are here to protect kids and this was a bad moment for the school and for this individual.  We have a culture where people feel comfortable expressing their opinions.  We need to continue to reiterate "if you see something that doesn't feel good, tell someone".  We do have a grievance policy, but it's not anonymous.  We also have a teacher advisory counsel (PYP, MYP and a larger group).  Teachers and staff can raise things with the administration and the administration has an opportunity to share ideas with teacher groups prior to implementation.

Rachel Quartarone
Have we thought about having a parent advisory counsel or committee?  Doing more with students in middle school, but sometimes feel like parents are the missing part of the equation.  A way for parents to share feedback with Jason without bombarding him with emails.

Jason - Definitely something we can look into.  I see WIA as a very young school.  There have been a lot that has happened over 10-11 years and while we may have had that sort of forum before; have heard mixed reviews on it.  Come from a culture where there were school councils.  Don't want it to turn into a gripe session, but definitely willing to look into it because there is value in it and you can get a pulse for what's going on.  May only get the pulse of the very few and it may not be representative of the entire student and parent body.  What would the outcome be?  How do we balance it?  Meeting and then recommendations with buy-in.

Also have opportunities for parents to participate via the four standing board committees, which often overlap the above.  Also, the PTA is a great way to continue partnership between the board, staff, and parents.

APS reached out to us and asked for assistance and we were happy to do that.

APS made partial payment as promised in January.  Anticipating to be paid in full by EOM January

Need first week of January for State Charter Renewal prep.
January 4th 4:30pm - 6:30pm
Expecting State interview in January.

Happy holidays.  Let's come back January 8th to hit the road running, get our kids ready, and have a great 2018.

We've moved to BOT to consolidate communication.  Asking chairs to create a one pager when the full minutes are available on BOT seems redundant. 

Moving forward, starting in January, all committee chairs will create their section of the monthly board agenda and upload most recent draft minutes to their section no later than 5:00pm the Tuesday prior to the board meeting (7 days prior).

Tracking goals - TRL to look into OKR training via video with BOT.


 

Reviewed Dr. Pullen's next steps the school is taking to meet benchmarks for Charter Renewal. 

Title I tutoring starts in January.  The tutoring is coming through Title I dollars, but it is available for everyone.  We will target students based on their individual levels.  The students have already been identified and the tutoring starts in January.

Administration is already looking at 2018-2019 planning to ensure scores move up as expected.

Looking at various ways to educate parents on what leveling is and making sure everyone understands it's based on standards and groups in various subjects.  This is an action item that could be in a newsletter forum or an in-person.  Also looking at change management training to help with staff and parents through the single gender transition.

GA Gives Day - Raised about $5,000 that day!
Current YTD total is around $38,000, which is on track for what we want
A couple of events for donor dinners in February (small groups of donors)
Moving towards Chinese night and Chinese New Year being the premier event at WIA. Want to continue to grow that.
We have our first new business partners that have contributed to the school.

No other comments.

In process of updating policies - including family/student handbook and board policies as well.  Have administration and staff partnering on this effort.  Working on getting that wrapped up by end of the school year.

Need to have a handle on everyone's intent to return to the board next year.  We want to mitigate the risk of mid-year turnover.  Have requested all board members email Mazie Lynn and Tom with intent to return to the board for 2018-2019. This will allow us to get our recruitment to match the skill sets needed. 

Reviewed attendance requirements under the GA Open Meetings Act and how that compares to our Bylaws.
When the Open Meetings Act (O.C.G.A. 50-14-1(g)) is read alongside our ByLaws the following is allowed:
 
Call-in Attendance: assuming we have a physically present quorum, each board member can call-in to two meetings per year and be considered present and fully able to participate and vote. This applies to regular meetings and committee meetings such that a Board member can call-in to two regular meetings and two committee meetings per year. After two call-ins, a member who calls in can remain up to speed on the issues, but is considered absent and unable to vote. As you would imagine, the law does allow for exceptions where there are emergency conditions or a written opinion of a physician or health professional allowing for the absence.

Total Absences: Our ByLaws allow for removal from the Board after either two absences in a row or three total absences. Thus, assuming call-ins did not happen month-after-month, there is room to call-in up to four times without jeopardizing Board membership. On the 5th call-in, removal would become an issue.

Absences to look at are those for "regular board meetings" and "regular committee meetings".  Not special or emergency meetings or training sessions.  Also clarified that the requirement is for each board member to sit on one committee with a preference of two.

It's important to have the conversation regarding commitment when meeting with potential new board members.
Need to think about our networks and get people in our pipeline.
Governance is going to keep board recruitment on the agenda and board members can report back on what people are doing with regard to recruitment.

APS has approved a recommendation of a 3-year charter renewal with an optional 2-years should our academic performance improve from where it is now.  This recommendation has now gone to GaDOE.

State requires a majority of the board attend the interview.  We can submit times and dates.  We will send in packet, then they vet for 2-3 weeks; not sure if they schedule during this time period as well.  Offering the 16-19 of January. 

Thanks to Donica Johnson for all of her help during the charter renewal process

February meeting to be attended by Thomas Ryan-Lawrence

Great overview of what's going on during the year and the events that have already happened.
Parents are interested in supporting the teachers
Fundraising going well. Dine Outs raised $1,000; Your Pie Dine Out raised $7400 to be split between ANCS, Parkside and WIA. So far and Dragon Warrior raised $13,000. 
Green and healthy committee and pedometer challenge

Katie worked with Carla Smith to get our school zone flashing lights facing the right direction for the safety of the students.  Now working on getting them working on Hill Street.

Minutes for Executive Session are not public, but are kept on record in Board on Track.