Milestones testing is going well. There was a technology issue on the first day and covered that day with make ups on Friday.

Donica Johnson:
Finished day 5 of testing today. Thursday will resume 4,5,6, and 8th grade testing. Will continue through next week.
Scores will be returned more quickly due to online testing, typically coming in on a rolling basis within 6-13 business days.

1st Public Hearing on the 2020 Budget.

If you have detailed questions that are unable to be answered today, please attend next month's Finance Committee Meeting. May 22nd 8:00am at Kelly Street House.

Full presentation can be found in the agenda packet in BOT.
Budget Objectives do not change unless approved by the board.
FY2020 forecast enrollment between 797 and 810. Optimum enrollment of 824 FTE by 2021.
Estimated gross funding estimate per FTE = $14,000, which is 2.93% higher than FY 2019.
Healthcare expenses - quote due early May; meeting is Thursday. 
Red Thread has been segregated out of the school budget.

Compensation:
All WIA salary tables are aligned with APS schedules to reflect 95% of APS published salaries as of April 2019. Originally planned to be done in 2021 and were able to get it done a year early.
All certified teachers and instructional support staff will also reflect either a $1,000 and $2,000 increase across the board.
All non-certified and non-teaching staff will be updated to reflect an additional $1,000
All Principals, AP, Directors and Managers are also aligned to 95% of APS published salaries; no additional dollar increase for these workgroups.
Total compensation represents 78% of overall FY 2020 budget; current year is 75%.

Capital Budget and Special Items
Total of $265,000 including unplanned MTC new trailers and infrastructure, media center project, interactive boards for PYP, and IT infrastructure. In addition to this, there is a planned healthcare subsidy of $250,000 to offset the potential rising healthcare cost.

Unrestricted Cash
Beginning of year - $3.3M
Unrestricted Cash - $1.309M
Cash reserves - $1.991M
YE Cash reserve estimate - $1.476M

Second public hearing for final year 2020 Budget Review and Adoption will occur at the June Board Meeting.
 

No public comments this evening.

Training hours must be completed by June 30th.

Board officer nominations are due by May 10th - please submit to Tom and Mazie Lynn via email.

 

Please make sure all board members give by June 30th. 
ED Evaluation - retention is high so far for this year; anticipating some departures next month.

Information session hosted by APS. 

Matt Underwood from APS:

Some slight changes since the informational session a few weeks ago. 

APS has continued to get feedback from the working group of school leaders and administrators they've been working with the last 7 or 8 months.

APS plans to proceed forward with a school finder tool. This would have information on all APS charter schools in one place (will also include all district schools). Will serve as an additional marketing tool for WIA. Anticipated to be built over the summer into the beginning of the school year with a launch in early fall.

Wants to collaborate with student assignment office to have the application management system and administrative transfers within the district be provided by the same vendor and housed in one system.

Lottery - anticipating waiting a year on the unified lottery pilot. Hoping for this year is to get charter schools to be part of a common application process for the next enrollment cycle with each lottery being managed by the individual charter schools. Data would be collected by APS through their system and then fed back to the schools to actually manage their lotteries. 

Currently evaluating proposals for application management systems next week. Goal is to have a selection by the end of this month. Seeking commitment from schools by August/September for those that wish to be a part of the common application process for SY20-21.



 

Put on July agenda to discuss in more detail with the new board members.
 

Discussed benchmarks - The tests are not on continuous information. When you see a dip, that is new information - not the same information as tested before.

Frequency of testing
    3 MAPPS
    4 Write Score
    6 Benchmarks

Discussed going down to
    4 Benchmarks
    4 Write Score
    3 MAPPS

This would help alleviate some of the testing fatigue that students may be experiencing and at the same time would limit the data teachers have. At the same time, this would increase the instructional time provided to the students. 
   

Winding down activities for this fiscal year.
Donor event next Thursday evening. 
We have a contract with a new development person that will be starting this summer. Will be working on grants.
 

As a reminder, we provide quarterly financial statements, not monthly.
Full statements available in the agenda packet via BOT.
 

Previously discussed under executive director updates.

We have 8 candidates. Interviews are starting tomorrow and running through next week.
Very nice variety in the mix. 3 spots to fill. 

Only remaining are Governance. Will clean up this month.

Will launch this month. Please complete.

Reviewed specifics of contracts to be approved.
Reviewed Jason's PD expenditure for summer PD.