Lowcountry Montessori School
Minutes
Board Meeting
Date and Time
Thursday March 28, 2019 at 6:30 PM
Location
749 Broad River Dr., Beaufort, SC 29906
The mission of Lowcountry Montessori School is to provide an authentic Montessori education building a foundation for lifelong learning.
Directors Present
C. Lucas, D. Pickett, P. Chester, S. Lemstrom, T. Vande Burgt
Directors Absent
D. Fent
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
D. Pickett called a meeting of the board of directors of Lowcountry Montessori School to order on Thursday Mar 28, 2019 at 6:37 PM.
C.
Reading of Mission Statement
D.
Approval of Agenda
S. Lemstrom made a motion to approve the agenda.
T. Vande Burgt seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
E.
Statement of Compliance with FOIA
F.
Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting
T. Vande Burgt made a motion to approve minutes from the Board Meeting on 02-20-19 Board Meeting on 02-20-19.
S. Lemstrom seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Director's Report
A.
February update.
Lot going on. Gearing up for RTR. Enrollment packages coming in. Looking to next year trying to figure out the Primary for next year. Will talk more about that later. Interviewing for next year. Becky and Amy went to Ohio and we started second interviews today. Becky and Sarah going to CERRA in Columbia tomorrow. Amy and Sarah went to Newberry to a job fair there. 15 interviews in OH. 4-5 getting second interviews from that.
III. Committee Reports
A.
Academic Excellence
Didn’t meet this month. Working on the state of the schools report and hope to have that done by next month.
B.
Governance
Did meet. Move elections to spring. Made a time table. Nominations in early April, elections in May. Seat at May meeting. Looking into what needs to happen to change that. If it’s bylaws then we would need two public meetings. May have to fit one in next week. The special meeting could be a conference call. Monday and Wednesday at noon would be good. Post the meetings tomorrow. Amy will email Dwayne to set that up. That speeds up elections. Patrick and Sarah would end their terms and the others would be up next year. First reading and Second reading on motion to amend election calendar to Spring.
C.
Finance
They met about the budget and made a couple of adjustments. Net for the school is 26K in the black. Talked about preschool collections. Ms. April is working on it. Still a little low on that. Got an increase in one of the revenue line items from the state. Expenses are on par with where we need to be for the year.
P. Chester made a motion to approve Jan and Feb financial reports.
T. Vande Burgt seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
D.
Fundraising
Raise the Roof coming up a week from Saturday. Trying to get the raffle in place to get the car there. Looking for volunteers. The raffle winner needs to pay 25% to the school. Sales tax for a car is capped at $500. Looking to sell 1000 tickets at $50 each. Car is roughly 22K. We are waiting for a backup plan from the dealer in case we don’t sell enough tickets. Post that we charge a transaction fee for credit card payments. Clay will research some other third party drawing companies for the raffle. Staff/Board Members cannot participate, but their spouses/families can. Must be 18 to participate.
E.
Facilities
Application is to the USDA. Collecting information for the feasibility study now. The architects will have mock-ups for RTR to show. Amy can update Board on EB5 funding at Monday’s meeting.
IV. New Business
A.
USDA Loan update
B.
Procurement policy
Matt has been working on that. I think it was shared with the Board. We will need some Board input on that. Needs to be in place by end of school.
C.
Primary fee structure
The day of the lottery we were told by our District that we would have to re-lottery our Kindergarteners. Our solution we have offered is to have a free 8am - 11am program and charge for early care, lunch buddies, extended day and after care. We will discuss at Wednesday’s meeting.
V. Executive Session
A.
Executive Session
D. Pickett made a motion to enter executive session.
P. Chester seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
VI. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
P. Chester made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
T. Vande Burgt seconded the motion.
The board VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:01 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
D. Pickett