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River Valley Charter School

Minutes

Executive Committee Committee Meeting

Date and Time

Wednesday September 10, 2025 at 7:00 PM

Location

River Valley Charter School

Middle School Great 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.

Committee Members Present

C. Whitford (remote), D. Herrera

Committee Members Absent

None

Guests Present

J. Nickerson, K. Kuse, T. Murdy

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance

B.

Call the Meeting to Order

D. Herrera called a meeting of the Executive Committee Committee of River Valley Charter School to order on Wednesday Sep 10, 2025 at 7:07 PM.

C.

Approve Minutes

C. Whitford made a motion to approve the minutes from Executive Committee Meeting on 06-04-25.
D. Herrera seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.

II. Director Update

A.

Director update

  • Wonderful beginning of the school year
  • Big difference in E1 — gelling much more quickly — testament to the teachers and ability to purchase materials to support class environments.
    • More similar to the Kinderhaus environment to make the transition easier.
  • Ticket sales for the event were boosted after school event at the school on 9/9.
  • Fully staffed except for PT support, 1.5 hours per week.
  • Meeting with Blue Lion HR next Wednesday, 9/17, at 0800 to talk about packaged HR services
    • Need someone new from the outside
    • Hilbie is more of a payroll company with some support from HR
    • Potential to move away from Hilbie for HR and keep them for payroll
  • Talked to the staff about a culture/climate survey
    • Reached out to Mass Charter - Sarah is looking into that and plan to connect this week
  • Grounds
    • Fence is up around the playground and all the equipment is gone at this point
    • Landscaping will require a few weeks and then the playground team will come in after
    • PR from Mass Charter (Paris) wrote up a blurb about the playground and pushing out to the papers
    • Plan to reach out the donors about the playground

III. Executive Committee

A.

Director Discussion

  • Director Goals - to be completed by March/April timeframe
    • Caregiver Community — strengthen relationship with the caregiver community — Aligns to Goal 3 of the Strategic Plan (Montessori Caregiver Education)
      • Key areas:
        • Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) 
        • Parent Education Series
        • Coffee with the Executive Director 
        • In-person Parents Alliance Meetings 
      • Focus on scheduling in the near term
    • Create a teacher evaluation plan to support continued growth - aligns to educator evaluation tool goals
      • Evaluation Rubric — Target having evaluation in hands before end of calendar year
        • Planned based on DERS tool
    • Alignment with Goal 1 - Define Org Structure of RVCS by Thanksgiving Break (Nov 25)
  • Karen to make changes in a word doc and send to Exec Committee 

B.

Board Business

  • Follow up on policies on the website 
    • Recommend having a conversation with Elizabeth who reviews the handbook every year
    • Has to be on the website
  • DESI accountability visit this year based on special education
    • Routine meeting 
    • Make sure that we are following proper IEPs
    • Karen feeling better about SPED with right staff in place and research on students in advance 
      • Make sure Gen Ed teachers are coordinating with the SPED teachers 
    • Need to understand historical state of IEP support in support of discussion
  • Finance
    • Talked to Cynthia from Central Source - 25 audit field work is complete
      • Ready for October meeting
    • Discussion on how to complete the FY 
      • Final statement estimated to come in $65K more profitable - good for RE
    • Looking at current year, we are on track to plan
    • Spent $200K on grounds redesign to date
  • Board Goals - need to align with CoT to take point on this 
    • Consolidation of goals from committees
  • Board Education - fill 10-15 min per meeting based on goals
    • CoT take point on identifying opportunities to add for each meeting

C.

Set Board Agenda

  • OML Review
  • Director Update
  • Director Goals: Vote
  • Board Member Norms
    • Wear your badge
    • Know your elevator speech
    • Key FAQs about board for internal and external purposes
    • How to make board more fun
    • Call on people to make sure they are prepared

IV. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
D. Herrera

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.