River Valley Charter School
Minutes
Executive Committee Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday August 21, 2024 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.
The mission of 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 and 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.
Committee Members Present
A. Ting, C. Whitford, D. Herrera, E. Bradley
Committee Members Absent
None
Guests Present
K. Kuse
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C.
Director 90 Day Check in/ Update
D.
EC Business
Board orientation this Saturday at RVCS-- 9 to 12! New members, EC and COT were invited.
All new members have been approved by the state and eligible to vote at next meeting.
Board Goals--
Onboarding new director (EC)
Dashboard develop for all committees (All)
Better board time management (COT)
Develop strategy for continued giving (Development)
Policy Organization (EC)
Create/track DEIJ metrics and scores to ensure a fair and inclusive organization (COT)
Shifting in committee chairs and
Governance Check In
Annual Report- submitted on time
Finance Update/Audit- Dave Draper is heading it up. The Finance committee will do audit prep in September and submit for board approval in October. Central source has been moderately hard to work with over the summer and CW has noted a discrepancy . Tuition dollars came in 8,000 less than anticipated.
SOA (Student Opportunity Act)-
Accountability Plan- provisionally approved. DH will co-chair this committee, EB will shift and attend development meetings and DH will step back from that committee.
Grounds Re-design project--
1.5 million projected cost now-- needs to be phased
Wet lands cannot be re-located
Pond dredging- foundation has allocated this money up to but not
$100,000 actually received in hand for
Greenspace Grant- $10,000
Lisa Mead- $375/hour-- planning attorney; approved for 15 hours.
E.
Set Agenda for Board Meeting
Parent focus group-- would like to see a director's note back in the Current.
Current is moving to every other week-- director's note will come back and Montessori minutes will be moved there.
Prelim Agenda for BOT 8/28--
- Board Expectations
- In Person Introductions
- FY 25 Board Goals
- Director's Update
- Committee Assignments & Leadership Appointments
- survey link- updated
Staff came back today-- felt excellent to have everyone back in the building and connected again.
Staff was very receptive to training offered
Working towards efficiency
Full staffed-- with the exception of School Psychologist.
New speech Path-- Katie Fournier
Jen Cort is an education consultant in the areas of equity, inclusion, diversity and justice- flew in from DC and will be giving a training to staff tomorrow about how to handle the election year with neutrality and DEIJ.