F.W. Parker Charter Essential School
Minutes
DevComm October Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday October 7, 2020 at 7:30 AM
This meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams and can be accessed by committee members and the public at this link: http://parker.school/developmentcommittee
Committee Members Present
D. Osofsky (remote), J. Saxe (remote), K. Tedstone (remote), L. Mitchell (remote), M. Cole (remote), M. VanderWilden (remote), S. Cassat Green (remote), S. Reinhorn (remote), T. Sumner (remote), Z. Basma (remote)
Committee Members Absent
J. Bartsch, J. Churchill, M. McKenna
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance and Guests
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
K. Tedstone called a meeting of the Development Committee of F.W. Parker Charter Essential School to order on Wednesday Oct 7, 2020 at 7:30 AM.
C.
Approve Minutes
M. VanderWilden made a motion to approve the minutes from DevComm September Meeting on 09-09-20.
J. Saxe seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
II. Development 2019-2020
A.
Our Essential Commitment Fund
Katrina shared the final version of the Our Essential Commitment Fund mailer and updated the group as to the progress of the fund and as to when that mailing will hit mailboxes.
B.
Community Conversation Activity
A discussion and activity was done to look at the materials that were used last year at the Community Conversations. What should we keep, tweak, and delete?
What we want participants to come away with:
-Parker is a public school
-Tuition dollars follow the student to charter public schools
-All public schools fundraise. Charter public schools have to pay for their own facilities without access to municipal support or state subsidies: they fundraise instead.
-Parker's facilities story has several chapters. Twice in the past the community of Parker has answered the call for capital funding- with gifts ranging from $1-$150,000. We are in the third chapter.
-It's our turn to stand up for Parker.
Conversation around what to keep, change, etc...
-Adapt the venn diagram for on-line ability
-Scatterplot for where last year's gifts were- "what could you do to move yourself to the next quadrant? what's the right amount to give?"
-the tuition dollars explanation may be too complicated for people to grasp when we are asking them to remember/think about other important facts
-Maybe the story of Parker could be homework
-The Story of Parker could be a video with voice overs with current students
-Should we talk about per pupil funding and how it impacts Parker- unpredictable budget forecasting
-Highlight an example of a building project in a neighboring town and what MSBA funds meant for the town and what they were able to do facilities-wise. What does the fact that these funds are not available to charter schools mean for my family and child?
Katrina will touch base with Marena and Debbie about their advisories helping with the video portion of this presentation.
What we want participants to come away with:
-Parker is a public school
-Tuition dollars follow the student to charter public schools
-All public schools fundraise. Charter public schools have to pay for their own facilities without access to municipal support or state subsidies: they fundraise instead.
-Parker's facilities story has several chapters. Twice in the past the community of Parker has answered the call for capital funding- with gifts ranging from $1-$150,000. We are in the third chapter.
-It's our turn to stand up for Parker.
Conversation around what to keep, change, etc...
-Adapt the venn diagram for on-line ability
-Scatterplot for where last year's gifts were- "what could you do to move yourself to the next quadrant? what's the right amount to give?"
-the tuition dollars explanation may be too complicated for people to grasp when we are asking them to remember/think about other important facts
-Maybe the story of Parker could be homework
-The Story of Parker could be a video with voice overs with current students
-Should we talk about per pupil funding and how it impacts Parker- unpredictable budget forecasting
-Highlight an example of a building project in a neighboring town and what MSBA funds meant for the town and what they were able to do facilities-wise. What does the fact that these funds are not available to charter schools mean for my family and child?
Katrina will touch base with Marena and Debbie about their advisories helping with the video portion of this presentation.
C.
Donor Relations
Katrina highlighted the great work that the Alumni Council is doing and the 2000-2001 zoom reunion that is happening at the end of October.
D.
Grant Work
Katrina updated the group about the grants that have been applied for in the areas of arts, 1:1 device program, computer software, and the NTC program.
III. Other Business
A.
The group talked about tasking the Board with thinking about Connecting with potential partners for Parker. How does one think about engaging another person in these kinds of discussions. Stef talked about Marshall Gantz's work at the Kennedy Center
Katrina also mentioned Malcolm Gladwell's work on identifying the traits of a Connector. Jennifer and Katrina will be doing an introductory activity with the Board at their October meeting, but the group asked Stef if she would think about further work in this area.
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 8:36 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
K. Tedstone