George Clancy appears as a guest in the attendance.  This is incorrect but cannot be edited.  At the time of this meeting, George was a voting Board Member.  All votes recorded in these minutes were unanimous and included George's vote.

Katrina Tedstone introduced the "Telling the Story" activity to the Board.  Katrina explained the activity - matching the 10 Common Principles with real applications from daily life at Parker.  Katrina assigned attendees to one of three breakout groups and groups were given 20 minutes to engage with the activity.  After 20 minutes, attendees reconvened in the larger group to discuss the process and share observations from their smaller group discussions.
Katrina said there will be time allocated to build on this activity during the January Board Retreat.

Todd Sumner said that the annual Board Retreat will be held remotely on January 12 from 4 - 7:15pm.  Todd said that the retreat would be facilitated by John Tarvin and said the general outline will be:
A.  Conversations with Students
B.  Capacity Building / Telling the Story
C.  Goals Review and Goal Setting

Todd asked Board Members to consider this question and to be prepared to discuss it at the retreat - "At the end of the pandemic, when we look back at our Board's work, how will we know we've been successful?"

• Martin Turnbull said the Board should be prepared to hit the ground running and help students who have fallen behind.
• Christine Regan-Davi said the Board should set goals that are not reacting to the environment and provide something measurable.
• Stefanie Reinhorn said providing support and a holding environment for teachers and administrators so Parker emerges with faculty and leadership intact.
• Mary-Wren VanderWilden said that the Board will need to transition from keeping afloat to higher strategic aims.
• Jennifer Saxe said the Board should revisit their Strategic Plan.
• Steve Roach said this question could be asked of the students who will participate in the retreat.

Todd said that surveys would be sent to parents and students in the next few days to collect views on Remote Plus learning and moving forward.  Todd said Parker would continue with the Remote Plus plan for the rest of the semester.

Martin Turnbull said that the Climate Control project is close to 100% done.  Martin said that staff is learning how to use the control system.

Glenn Penna said there are no updates from the Finance Committee.

Michelle McKenna said the state budget for FY21 is not yet final - it was passed in the legislature and will be sent to the Governor for approval.  Michelle said the proposed budget includes a 1.99% increase for inflation over last year's budget and 53 million dollars for COVID expenses with 3 million of that allocated to be divided between the state's charter schools.

Todd Sumner said Parker's budget development for FY22 will start with a different assumptions in terms of revenue.  Todd said that the Student Opportunity Act will likely not be funded anytime soon.

Glenn said the Board Retreat will include time to think about finances.

Katrina Tedstone said:

• the Essential Commitment Fund is over $112K - at this time last year, it was $52K
• Giving Tuesday focused on alums and was successful
• additional Development highlights are included in the Board Meeting packet

Mario Silva-Rosa said there is nothing to report at this time.

George Clancy said the Governance Committee met in early November to review the Board assessment process and to discuss potential Board vacancies.  

George said the Board on Track assessment tool determines a 1-5 rating with 5 being excellent and the assessment of the Parker Board was 5.  George said while the process is a bit flawed, it is worthwhile.  He said a better process would allow for narrative comment.

George said future work of the committee should include:

• an annual review of Open Meeting procedures by the Board
• review of the school leader succession plan

George said four Board members may term out in June which would bring the total number of Trustees to nine - the minimum under the bylaws.  George asked Board members with expiring terms to be please notify the Governance Committee so conversations can be had.

George said Trello revisions implemented by Balu Balasubramanyam have made the system more user friendly.
 

There were no comments from the public.