Packet ready

River Valley Charter School

Committee on Trustees Meeting

Published on January 14, 2026 at 6:05 PM EST

Date and Time

Wednesday January 14, 2026 at 6:00 PM EST

Location

River Valley Charter School Middle School Humanities Room:

River Valley Charter School welcomes your participation at Board meetings. The purpose of a public meeting of the Board of Trustees (“Board”) is to conduct the affairs of the organization in public. Your participation assures us of continuing community interest in our school and assists the Board in making the best decisions for our school. To assist you in the ease of speaking/participating in our meetings, guidelines are provided at the bottom of this agenda. All materials for all board and committee meetings, are available on our Board on track public portal found at rivervalleycharter.org.

Agenda

Section Number Topic Number Details Purpose Presenter Time
I. Opening Items 6:00 PM
  A. Record Attendance   1 m
  B. Call the Meeting to Order  
  C. Approve 12/10/25 Minutes Approve Minutes Tanya Murdy 5 m
     
II. Committee on Trustees 6:06 PM
  A. Update Bylaws Discuss Tanya Murdy 15 m
   

Next steps per DESE: 

Summary of the key steps in the process for updating board bylaws:

  1. The board engages in a process to review and update the bylaws to ensure alignment with all of the items in the bylaws checklist and the board’s current practices.
  2. The board chair or another board member submits a draft of the bylaws to the Department for provisional approval. (The draft should be sent to me, at patrick.l.buckwalter@mass.gov) The timeline for submission is January 1-June 1.
  3. The Department provides feedback and works with the board chair or another board member to address the feedback as needed.
  4. The Department grants provisional approval of the bylaws.
  5. The board votes to adopt the bylaws.
  6. The school submits an amendment request to the Department seeking commissioner approval of the revised bylaws.
    1. The request needs to include:

                                                    i.     Charter Amendment Request Cover Sheet

                                                   ii.     Charter Amendment Request Letter 

                                                  iii.     A copy of the revised bylaws with the date of the board’s approval added

  1. The amendment request should be sent to charterschoolamendments@mass.gov and patrick.l.buckwalter@mass.gov
  2. The commissioner grants approval of the bylaws.
  
  B. Board Retreat Discuss Tanya Murdy 15 m
   

Review Kate Scott proposal for board retreat on 3/28/25 and external audit. 

  
  C. Action Items Discuss Tanya Murdy 20 m
   
  • Policy Updates
  • Board Survey Questionnaire responses
  • Recruiting for committees and BOT
  
III. Other Business
IV. Closing Items
  A. Adjourn Meeting Vote

THE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the order of consideration of matters on this agenda may be changed without prior notice.

REASONABLE LIMITATIONS MAY BE PLACED ON PUBLIC TESTIMONY The Board Chair reserves the right to impose reasonable time limits on public testimony to ensure that the agenda is completed.