R. Gardner attended the National Association of Recovery Schools Annual Board meeting and reported that all the schools in the country are below their enrollment budget. The student that existed 5-7 years ago is a different student than what we see currently in our schools.  The schools have to create a continuum within their schools and we are  looking at more prevention services to offer to help gain more referral sources. The good news is Hope Academy is  ahead of the game and already putting new programming in place. There were  a lot of conversations at the board level around why enrollment was down and some of it has to do with  the  normalization of marijuana around the country, this is affecting how and when the parents intervene with their kids.

B. Elliott referred everyone to the Fairbanks Strategic Plan 2019-2020 KPI sheet in their packet and walked the Board through the various components of the KPI sheet. The biggest issue is inpatient volumes, the outpatient volumes are running strong. There is a lot of competition from for profits and not for profits for our inpatient clients and there is a lot of pressure from insurers to push from inpatient to outpatient treatment. She is optimistic that things will turn around in the first quarter.

 

A. Levander discussed the decision that the Fairbanks Executive Committee has made, that after June 30, 2020 they will not be in a position to provide Hope Academy any direct and indirect support. We received that word in November and since then have held Interdisciplinary Committee meetings to determine the best course of action for Hope Academy. Our current charter is due to expire June 30, 2020. We need to submit our application to OEI by June 30, 2019 for a new charter. We've been researching different options and the Interdisciplinary Committee hopes to have a recommendation for the next board meeting. We are creating a communication plan to share with families, the board, and our students.

In this time of transition Amy offered her thanks to those that are working on the committees. There are a lot of moving pieces to this and we are on a tight timeline to notify the mayor's office of our intentions.

 

K. Turner shared that Dr. Rebecca Kelly is not renewing her term to the Hope Academy BOD and that they will not be renewing her seat until it's determined what the next steps are for Hope Academy.

The November Marketing Committee meeting was cancelled, as it was felt that they needed to allow them time to to think through what our message will be as we move forward.

C. Kenney shared that the Faces of Hope nominee for 2019 is Susan Brooks and she has accepted. She will be present at the Taste of Hope to accept her award.

Grants are just $10K shy for the year's goal but we believe we will hit that.

Sponsorship for Taste of Hoe is at 50% of our goal. Whatever you can do, if you are aware of businesses to work, please do so to help us hit our goal.

There is a second event that we're working on for September of next year, which is a breakfast event at Embassy Suites up in Noblesville. There are also a couple of small salon events planned for next year.

The push for ticket sales will be increased after the first of the year. We are now up to 11 restaurants, with a goal of 20 restaurants.

L. Gagyi gave the Academic Excellence Committee Meeting update. As part of our charter review we had to host site visits by OEI. One group came in to talk to parent and students and another group came in to observe our special ed classes.  Our metrics for credit completion and attendance are really strong.

G. Eckart commented on the board survey results. She advised that they are beginning conversations with the board and the role that board members play to make sure that they understand the information in the board packets.

We scored low on the audit portion of the board survey because members don't understand what information is in the 990 report.

J. Shopp went through the balance sheet. She noted that we are behind budget in our grant revenue. We do have grant funds that we have not spent ($52,276) that we don't recognize until we have spent that money.

Total expenses were higher than budget and she went through the highlights on that. We have a favorable expense in salaries due to a vacancy in a position that had been budgeted for.