River Valley Charter School
Minutes
Committee on Trustees Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday January 14, 2026 at 6:00 PM
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.
Committee Members Present
C. Getz, E. Bradley, J. Nickerson, T. Murdy
Committee Members Absent
K. Kuse
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
T. Murdy called a meeting of the Committee on Trustees Committee of River Valley Charter School to order on Wednesday Jan 14, 2026 at 6:02 PM.
C.
Approve 12/10/25 Minutes
J. Nickerson made a motion to approve the minutes from Committee on Trustees Meeting on 12-10-25.
E. Bradley seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED to approve the motion.
II. Committee on Trustees
A.
Update Bylaws
- Group agrees to send out the updated bylaws in the agenda for the upcoming board meeting with recommendation to approve the bylaws and send to DESE for final approval
B.
Board Retreat
- Plan for Kate Scott, who will be facilitating the retreat, to join the upcoming board meeting
- Plan to have interviews with all board members (20 minutes) to better plan the scope of the retreat
C.
Action Items
- Bylaws to the board agenda
- Key points from discussion into the board agenda
III. Other Business
A.
Discussion
- With multiple members that will be leaving the board at the end of the year, we have to think strongly about succession planning and filling board roles next year
- Recommendation to continue to leverage skills of board members, as well as larger community to support the school
- Recommendation to push an effort to reach out to families and alumni to build a school "rolodex"
- Add larger community people that would be willing to help on a case-by-case basis (advisory basis) - identify level of support willing to provide
- Montessori Minute - this was removed as a time savings in the board meetings
- Suggestion to have all board members take time to observe a class to better understand the Montessori structure
- Pull the structure for the guest in a Montessori classroom
- Suggestion to have all board members take time to observe a class to better understand the Montessori structure
- Board Recruiting
- Losing multiple members including Albert, Erin
- Add call out for committee support into the Current
- Potential to expand out the Current again to include PA and other inputs
- Board Survey-
- Accountability processes for teachers and what deficiencies have been identified and how they are being addressed - will pass along to Karen to address as appropriate
- Concerns about board member health and involvement - addressed two board meetings ago as a group discussion with minimal feedback
- Appreciated executive sessions, current processes, need more opportunities for open discussion
- Good listeners in the group
- Board member burnout
- Talk to Karen to understand what the teams need for administrative support - interest from the teachers to have direct interaction with the board
- Could we have a scheduled meeting between board members and faculty to allow them to feel heard (with Karen's advance approval)
- Maybe a lunch discussion with board members
- Include executive committee and founders potentially
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 7:30 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
T. Murdy