River Valley Charter School
Minutes
Committee on Trustees November Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday November 8, 2023 at 6:00 PM
Location
River Valley Charter School
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
A. Fields, A. Ting, C. Getz, C. Martin (remote), E. Bradley
Committee Members Absent
None
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
II. Committee on Trustees
A.
Discussion: Board and committee recruitment for 24-25
B.
Discussion: Board recruitment procedure/policy
Reviewed current recruitment process. Emphasized that an application for Board membership does not equate to automatic board membership accpetance.
Currently, there is very little guidance in the bylaws as to what would disqualify a candidate. Discussed whether some guardrails should be put into place for full transparency and to demonstrate impartiality. Disqualifying attributes could be: directly related to a family member already serving on the board, minimum age, disqualifying criminal history.
C.
Update CoT committee description
Copies of current COT Committee Description was distributed to committee members. Chair asked that committee members review the descriptions for accuracy. Current committee description was from 2011-2012 school year.
D.
Discussion: BoT Volunteer Event
Proposed tasks:
Library Organization
Repair Fencing
Kitchen organizing and deep clean
May need to postpone event.
Welcomed Ali Fields to the Committee.
CG provided perspective as a founder of the school, as to how the original founding board members were brought together and the idea that they wanted to avoid board membership as a "popularity contest", but rather trustees who brought skills and perspectives that could help guide RVCS.
Would like to cast a wide net, looking for a balance of skills, backgrounds, and experience.
- Looking to recruit trustees from the community at large
- Looking for Trustees already familiar with Montessori
-Alums of RVCS
Keep contact with people who have already reached out with interest about Board Membership and reach out to ask if they would like to get involved with a committee this year. (Dev and Finance).
Need to fill 2-4 spots this year. Perhaps we could try to recruit an alum, a montessorian, and a previous parent.