T. Pyscher read the WIHS land acknowledgement.

K. Lieberman read the WIHS mission and vision.

Guests: Diana Marker

Discussion on if a WIHS staff member can join the board. 

Action item: Diana Marker with WA Charters will research the charter law and rules to see if having a staff member on the board is a conflict of interest, then Cindy will follow-up with Jessica, the new ED, about this question.

Another option is for the staff member to serve as an ex officio status in an advisory role, but not a voting member role. We will continue to explore this.

To discuss later on during the Board strategic planning meeting in March.

T. Psycher will send out a doodle poll for the Board auto-ethnography work. We may decide to combine the auto-ethnography work during our strategic planning work.

• Average attendance has improved since January
• Enrollment has dropped a bit at semester change
• SBAC scores were reviewed
  • Action item: Request for March academic report: Cliff will break down specific skills and standards, and trends in particular content areas that are represented in the "Not Yet" score level
• New schedule started in early February which provided more time for school-wide events

The Commission is not ready to give the final amendment and will have the amendment ready to approve at the March Board meeting.

Bely Luu led a discussion on the Fundraising Training

Follow-Up on the End of Year Give

• All board members must sign the Fundraising Volunteer Privacy and Nondisclosure Agreement and send to Christine to file on Board on Track
  • Board members will have the list of donors and if respective Board members will call their contacts who donated, and a hand written Thank You card
  • Donors will be invited to a school tour; there are 6 student ambassadors who will lead school tours. There are 3 dates are on the calendar: Apr 15th @ 10:30am, May 17th at 1:30pm, Jun 3 @ 10:30am
  • Each Board member will receive an email with the donor list and the process to invite. Board members will notify Cindy if any of our donors want to tour the school

Need for Mental Health Staff & Resources

• There is a need in our budget to provide mental health resources for our students.
• Licensed mental health professional was identified as first priority as an area of need. 
  • The Board discussed how important it is to hire someone who brings lived experiences (BIPOC, LGBTQ+) and a strengths-based (not deficit) perspective.
• We will need to carve out sustainable funding to hire someone for longer-term.
• Discussion on other therapy models--group therapy, peer support, creative engagement, milieu therapy, healing-centered engagement, etc. There may be possible ways to partner with NWYS.
• Action item: Mental health staff job description will be reviewed and tweaked, take a look at resources at NWYS, 

WA Charters put together this Bellingham specific Mental Health Resource guide that may be a resource to help support WIHS's search for support. https://wacharters.box.com/s/vfqbhe61ud6nq4ibmtazhnvfo1wepj5u 

The mandatory Governance vs. Management Training will be done later; either Patrick or Rachel from BoT. Cindy will investigate if a self-paced training could be done in April. Diana will ask Patrick about developing a PearDeck training for us.

Board calendar reviewed

• Strategic planning meeting in March/April to begin planning for leadership transition
• Cindy and Jason to setup meeting to go through transition plan materials shared by Rachel from Board on Track

Board Member Report and Board Recruitment Sample Policy Discussion--tabled to next meeting

We have identified legal resource to assist us with our school handbook, particularly our transportation policy. The amended policy will be ready for the March board meeting.

Gov. Inslee will lift the mask mandate for March 21st. 

• We will see if Whatcom Co. Health Department recommends about maintaining the mask mandate.
• WA Charters recommends surveying the parents about mask mandate prior to making any new policy. WA Charters developed a template to send a letter to parents.
• Staff and school nurse are expressing in favor for extending mask mandate.

Action item: The CEO Evaluation report needs to be shared with Cindy by either Nasreen or Kira. 

Jason McGill shared about Healing-Centered Engagement model--Shawn Ginwright

• Partnership opportunities between WIHS and NWYS to serve youth in the community, particularly to serve BIPOC students and families, and to make changes at the systems level and provide interventions and support focused on prevention.
• We will continue to discuss partnership opportunities at future Board meetings and our upcoming Board retreat.