River Valley Charter School
Minutes
Board of Trustees Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday April 24, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Location
River Valley Charter School, 2 Perry Way, Newburyport. Middle School Great Room
MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the River Valley Charter School is to provide a rigorous academic program
based on the Montessori philosophy and rooted in the history, culture and ecology of the
Merrimack River Valley. Students will reach their full potential as scholars and become self-
reliant, productive members of society. They will be adept at critical thinking and creative
problem solving and will be fully prepared to succeed in future schools, careers and civic life.
Trustees Present
A. Fields, A. Ting, C. Getz, C. Martin, C. Whitford, D. Herrera, E. Bradley, E. Rankin, E. Simone, M. Connerton, N. Durkee, T. Murdy
Trustees Absent
None
Trustees who arrived after the meeting opened
N. Durkee
I. Opening Items
A.
Call the Meeting to Order
B.
Record Attendance
C.
Board Expectations
On table in front of BOT members, given pause for all to review and reminder from DH that we lead with grace and courtesy.
D.
Public Comment
None
E.
Approve Last Board Meeting Minutes
Correction from MCAST to MCAS
| Roll Call | |
|---|---|
| E. Bradley |
Aye
|
| C. Getz |
Aye
|
| E. Rankin |
Aye
|
| E. Simone |
Aye
|
| C. Whitford |
Aye
|
| C. Martin |
Aye
|
| M. Connerton |
Aye
|
| A. Ting |
Aye
|
| N. Durkee |
Abstain
|
| A. Fields |
Aye
|
| D. Herrera |
Aye
|
| T. Murdy |
Aye
|
II. Montessori Minute
A.
Montessori Minute
Montessori Minute--
MS Humanities--
Two student presented on their country projects
1. Vietnam w/ focus on food. Shared spring rolls in real time with the board and arts and holidays with beautiful visual arts.
III. Director Update
A.
Director's Report
DH-- Excited free lunch
Paperwork k - 12 at mainstream NBPT school do not need to fill out paperwork. Are we certain that our families will need to fill out paperwork? Maybe because we are partnering with Triton and they are requiring the paperwork.
Dave will be the point person for handling of the free lunch under his job title.
JLE will ask Dave if paperwork does need to be complete.
MC-- Asked for an explanation on backfilling when students are retained (repeat grade)
3 - 4 students will be retained this year.
Parent survey participation has been low, low this year, unclear reasoning but not necessarily JLE/our job to recruit people to give their opinion.
Do we launch this in another format in the future?
Mold Topic-- Several mitigations in the past to address this issue, every 5 years seems to be this pattern. Approach with this particular mitigation has been more long term fix.
Insurance
MCAS absence numbers were high but not related to opposition against the testing
Detention Ponds-- "newer info" will be updated after attorney meeting 4/25
B.
Grounds Project- Update
IV. Board Business
A.
Board Business Topics
DH asked JLE to give an overview of how the updating of new restraint policy came about.
JLE "we are suppose to be looking an all policies and this seemed have a lot of language that needed to be updated.
Policy has not been shared with family.
SRT-- student response team
B.
Restraint Policy- Vote
JLE outline where the changes were made, highlighted in green and largely these updates are state mandates and
Open discussion regarding language use, trustees concerns etc.
| Roll Call | |
|---|---|
| E. Bradley |
Abstain
|
| C. Getz |
Aye
|
| A. Ting |
Aye
|
| C. Martin |
Aye
|
| A. Fields |
Aye
|
| E. Simone |
Aye
|
| M. Connerton |
Aye
|
| N. Durkee |
Aye
|
| D. Herrera |
Aye
|
| E. Rankin |
Aye
|
| T. Murdy |
Aye
|
| C. Whitford |
Aye
|
C.
Salary Line Item- Vote
Finance Comm. rec'd 3% increase in salary line item
This 3% increase may be used for new position creation, specials support etc
This does not mean that JLE is giving a 3% raise to everyone in the school. This is just a salary line item-- JLE uses at her discretion.
V. Committee on Trustees
A.
Approve Minutes
B.
CoT Update
Saturday Morning May 18th is our retreat 9 to 12. Bagels, bring your own coffee.
We will discussing board goals, leadership transition and a Montessori demonstration.
Pre-retreat work w/ with a Montessori Podcast.
Overview of 4 members nominated by COT for election to the board--
Achala Mathew Godino, Patti Ganley, Derek Mitchel and Jonathan Nickerson.
There resumes and questionnaires will be added to board on track documents for all to review ahead of the May BOT meeting and vote
AT-- Plug for all to start thinking about BOT EC leadership position for the coming year, reach out, ask question etc.
VI. EC Committee Business
A.
Approve EC Minutes
VII. Accountability Committee
A.
Approve Accountability Meeting Minutes
No minutes 2/2 to quorum not being meet
B.
Accountability Update
VIII. Development Committee
A.
Approve Development minutes
B.
Development Update
April 30th vision event-- an open house with landscape architects from Copley Wolff and share your ideas for the future redesign of RVCS grounds.
BOT member encouraged to attend
IX. Finance Committee
A.
Approve Minutes
B.
Finance Update
X. Director Search Update
A.
Update
Entered executive session
XI. Closing Items
A.
Public Comment
B.
Board Survey
C.
Adjourn Meeting
- APRIL Director's Report to the BOT_APRIL2024 Meeting.pdf
- Proposed Revisions to POLICY_Physical Restraint_February 2015_January 2016 UPDATED.pdf
- River Valley Charter School _ Essential Elements Review (April 2022) - final rubric.pdf
- 2024 Accountability Plan Template FINAL.docx
- 2024 Accountability Plan Guidelines FINAL.docx
- AP Webinar Training 2023 FINAL.pdf
Erin Seaton has resigned from the board as of this afternoon.