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River Valley Charter School

Minutes

Executive Committee Committee Meeting

Date and Time

Wednesday October 8, 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, J. Nickerson, T. Murdy

Committee Members Absent

None

Guests Present

K. Kuse

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 Oct 8, 2025 at 7:04 PM.

C.

Approve Minutes

J. Nickerson made a motion to approve the minutes from Executive Committee Committee Meeting on 09-10-25.
T. Murdy seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.

II. Director Update

A.

Director update

  • HR Platform
    • Spoke with two companies - both recommended
      • Blue Lion HR - one time implementation fee and monthly minimum of 2 hours
      • HR Solutions at Work - broader capabilities but difficulty in getting number back
    • Recommendation for Karen to request rates by tomorrow with push to move forward on climate survey at a minimum ASAP
    • Has spoken about the plan to get an HR firm in place at both of the last two staff meetings
    • Need to identify the team of people that are aligning to the HR company to ensure that its not a single point
    •  HR company should report to the board when issues arise around the director but to the director otherwise
    • Driver is underlying lack of trust in the school that needs to be addressed
      • Roll out has to be transparent and rolled out by the HR firm and not by the director
      • Need to drive this in the best interest of the students
  • Grounds Redesign
    • Trucks leave on 10/13 with the playground and arrive on the 15th
    • Meeting on 10/15 with all players to go over the plan - Ashville Playgrounds and landscapers to go through logistical plans
  • Development
    • Great parent event with a lot of buzz - raffles were a lot of fun
    • Information sent out in the Current around the annual fund
  • Org Chart
    • Plan to finalize org chart with HR firm 
  • SPED Audit
    • First time we have an English Learning in the school
    • Jane Patterson agreed to take the training to be a screener
    • Putting this in place will support the student as well as align to DESI rules
    • Great support from DESI
    • Policies need to be written around this - templates from MA Charter that can help
      • No support need from board, completion within the next month - plan for review at next board meeting
  • Found that we are also not compliant with SEPAC, ELA, and fire drills - working to get up to speed
  • Found someone who works for Amesbury Early Intervention and will support physical therapy and special needs
  • Director Goals
    • Time on the calendar for Coffee with Karen - sent out in the Current and sent out via email
      • Add to the RVCS Facebook page
    • Org Chart development will align with the HR roll-out
    • Policy status review on-going
      • Need to ensure all policies are centralized and all have historical update status

III. Executive Committee

A.

Director Discussion

Financial Overview

  • Financial Committee met today 10/8 with the auditor - plan to have final version of the audited financials and will need to vote on this at the next meeting - make sure to add this to the top of the agenda for discussion 
  • Daniel Dennis Company will provide an overview with presentation by Colleen
  • Small edits required in the financials that are being worked but close to completion
  • Statement will include financials from the Foundation as well
  • $210k savings will be shown at $130k - more driven by how the numbers are shown 

Accountability

  • presentation of MCAS results to committee next week and then in the next board meeting (add to the agenda for board meeting)
  • Internal audit information provided to the committee

 

B.

Board Business

  • Committees have sent goals CoT with only a few exceptions 
    • Add goal for EC of finding an executive director board review tool
  • Holiday Potluck planning - add to the board agenda (10 min)

C.

Set Board Agenda

See notes above.

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 8:13 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
T. Murdy
Documents used during the meeting
None

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.