River Valley Charter School
Minutes
Development Committee Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday February 3, 2026 at 6:00 PM
Location
RVCS Middle School Great Room
2 Perry Way
Newburyport, MA 01950
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, K. Kuse, M. Connerton (remote), M. Curcio, M. Makin, T. Murdy
Committee Members Absent
E. Rankin, J. Leslie
I. Opening Items
A.
Call the Meeting to Order
B.
Record Attendance
C.
Approve Minutes
Meg C. Abstained-not at the last meeting
II. Development at RVCS
A.
Annual Appeal Update & Review
B.
Review of Development Plan
Events looking forward that bring community together—new family event. Let’s bring back the Custom House in May for new families mixed with 8th grade parents.
Consideration of a generous giver reception for people who give over $500.
Charitable fund opportunities discussed—
Institution for Savings Charitable Foundation - need to start the paperwork now and begin building that relationship.
Mason’s Charitable Children’s Fund- start with sending them a read a thon sponsorship.
Part time grant writing support would be ideal and Karen is exploring this.
C.
Read A Thon (2/2-2/13/2026)
Read A Thon dates 2/2-2/13/2026
As of Day 2: Update: $10,417; Total Minute Read: 2778
Karen read to both kinderhaus classes—“Robert the Rose Horse.”
Shout out Chris Getz who is one of our sponsors!
More print flyers coming next Friday. Current will feature an article
2/13—Celebration Day for end of read a thon delivery of treats
Annual Fund — numbers amount, not available. Still ahead of where we were last year in both in amount and number of donations. Gifts still tricking in but not in the burst we initially saw.
Next year we need a more consistent process for getting thank you cards out more efficiently for volunteers.
Do we need a development director?
What steps worked well this year in terms of the annual fund roll out-
1. Training dinner was very valuable in terms of answering the why? “Eye opening and more than informative.”
2. The party last week- volunteer appreciation event- was also valuable.