There was no public comment.

Janine Shopp reported the finance committee reviewed cash flow and year end cash flow projections, marketing efforts, grants, and next year's enrollment projections.

Brian Anderson reported cash is in a good position. The board reviewed the statement of financial position. Grants have been accrued for GPS and Alt Ed revenue.  The year has been fiscally well managed by Hope Academy.  As of end of March, cash balance is $374K.

Budget vs. actual as of February of note is that revenue, specifically  revenue from the basic grant and the charter grant is behind budget due to enrollment - everything else is a positive and ahead of budget. 

Technology is over budget, but we have grants to cover this so it is of no concern.

Slightly over in salaries due to one extra person hired that was not expected. 

Overall, we are ahead of budget.  Ongoing structural expenses are in a good place. 

Reviewed the cash flow summary report as of February - no significant changes in March

Beginning next year, we will not see a September dip in cash flow as we did this year due to a payment to Fairbanks.

Projections have not changed much through March. We expect about $300K in cash at year end depending on timing of reimbursements. We had anticipated less than $25K when we projected for the charter school board. This means we will not have to access the line of credit this year.

Marissa thanked the team for successfully managing the budget and the cash flow in such uncertain times. These are exciting times.

Brian explained that we have projected 35 for ADA for next year and current ADA is 39.  Good news that the $10K per ADA has passed for the next biennial state budget. Charter Innovation grant is now $750/student but got increased to $1000 for next year. Basic grant is increasing to an unknown amount, but it is an increase.  We expect CARES  funding of $89,000 for reimbursable COVID related expenses.

Amy said Charter School Innovation money was increased by $1250 in second year of state budget cycle.

Marissa asked what our final ADA number is - Linda said it is 39 currently.   This year's ADA is what we will budget for next year.

Next year's proposed budget will be presented to the finance committee in May for approval in June by the board.

Marissa thanked Brian for his summary and explanation of the current financial situation.

We are on track to hit all 4 objectives in goal tracker.

For Tactic 3, we have focused on cash flow rather than to 5 year proforma.

There are no concerns and collaboration between the committees, especially from Marketing and Development  has been very good.

Linda's report was distributed in the meeting materials 

Graduation is Saturday, May 22 at 1:00 p.m. at the Cristal DeHaan Fine Arts Center.  The board is encouraged to attend.  Dr. Rob Manuel, president of UIndy will be the featured speaker along with Brandon George, Vice President of Recovery, Programs, Advocacy at Mental Health America Indiana and the Indiana Addiction Issues Coalition.

Transition meetings are taking place to review summer plans and fall schedule for each student with their families.

78% of this year's students will return in the fall.

Student led conferences were at 90-95% which is a strong showing for high schools.

Staff appreciation will take the place of individual appreciation days in May.

Deb Leser reveiwed the dashboard for Academic Excellence as of March 2021.

We dropped a few students in February, but back at 25 now with a few new students in March and April.

Marion County student enrollment exceeds Hamilton county now.

Other metrics are about the same, although Special Ed is higher than historical.

Attendance is higher than average.

Credit completion is very good online - the teachers have done a great job engaging students in online learning.

The Junior class has been impacted heavily by COVID and has several students off-track, but we will work to improve that.

A dramatic shift in Recovery and Wellness grades compared to beginning of the year.  Great recovery is happening.

NWEA comparison looks at students who took it both times.  Reading saw the greatest increase in grades based on testing.  Students will take NWEA again the first week of May. We use NWEA because the Mayor's Office requires a formative testing instrument which measures change in skill level over time.

With a higher special ed population, we started with lower scores and have seen good improvement.

Parent group attendance and after school program is growing. Caroline Hartman, our GPS coordinator, is doing a great job with the GPS programming.

Rachelle reported that we have hit 2 of 5 goals for categories of referral sources that resulted in enrollment. Those are referrals from treatment providers and schools.

Our marketing is focused on brand awareness and having the public undertand who and where we are. We are using a multi prong approach of billboards, digital ads, email and social media posts to accomplish this.

The Outreach Team has been communicating twice a month to lots of referral sources  including DCS- IPS, schools, treatment providers, and the recovery community.

The partnership with Aspire will help bring more awareness to families looking for support of their students in recovery.

We learned that DCS thought Hope Academy was closed when Fairbanks closed their adolescent unit.  Targeted messaging to them is planned to educate them and invite them to take a tour of Hope Academy.

Enroll Indy process is not open at this time.  We got eight contacts from Enroll Indy of which one was a stretch of a fit.  We get at least 2 contacts a week from our website. Google analytics are a good way to see website traffic and to learn how people are using the website..

Tactic 1:  2 of 5 referral sources have met the goal of 2 referrals

Tactic 2:  Current referral sources receive targeted emails from the Outreach Team twice a month

Tactic 3:  Social media posts have exceeded the goal of 2 posts per week.

The Sounds of Hope fundraiser is on Sunday at 7:00 p.m.  Please register and encourage more people to register so we can continue to build relationships with the attendees.

Thanks to Janice Gabe for recruiting the musicians for Sounds of Hope.

Ukamaka will be doing a Speaker Series on Thursday at noon.  Please join us on Zoom.

Next fall we will continue the Speaker Series with Janice Gabe and others. 

If conditions permit, we will also add Salon Events to our Fall events calendar.  Board members are encouraged to invite 6 - 10 of their friends for an intimate gathering to talk about how to support Hope Academy.  

The 4th direct mail piece of the year will be mailed this week.

The Dr. Zielke scholarship will be presented to the Hope Academy valedictorian.  Ben Gonzalez and Deb Zielke have been instrumental in raising the funds for this year's inaugural scholarship and memorial plaque.

We have exceeded our fundraising goal with grants and contributions, although our retention rate is still sagging.

Our 2nd major fundraiser will take place on Sunday, May 2 via Facebook Live.

We have identified 5 new major donors and received gifts from them.

The board self assessment will be coordintaed by Marissa and  the school leader evaluationwill be  led by Colleen and completed by the June board meeting - need 100% participation like last year.

 We are making progress in board and committee recruitment  - we have one new marketing committee member thanks to the recommendation of Ariana Martin at the Mayor's Office of Education Innovation.

We continue to connect with faith based and other key communities. Victoria Wilburn, professor of  Occupational Therapy at IUPUI ahs been instrumental with research and OT students supporting student recovery. 

Other groups we have reached out to include the Indiana Latina Institute, Indy Chamber, and other legislative connections.

We want to have the board well represented by people in long term recovery and reflective of our student population. Alumni and parents have been approached to share their stories on social media and our website blog.

New board candidates will be elected at the June board meeting.  There are several in discussion now about joining the board.

Amy reported that more money that is going to Mental Health and Addiction may be available to Hope Academy -we will invite them for tour of Hope Academy.

Tactic 1:  We have added a committee member suggested by OEI

Tactic 2:  We are connecting with business and faith-based communities to ask for help in recruiting board and committee members

Tactic 3:  Have reached out to Hope Academy parents and alumni to share their stories via video and social media and blog posts.

Amy Levander reported the General Assembly included the $10K ADA money for Hope Academy for the next biennium. Amy will talk with DOE about their federal funding for substance use disorders to assist Hope Academy's programs.

Rachelle reported that in February, IPS reached out to continue the conversation about having Hope Academy become an Innovation School.

$25K price tag has become $10K because we will not be using many services from IPS.  We will finalize a partnership to share students with IPS.

Funding will go to IPS, then flow to Hope Academy.  Our ADA dolllars will flow through IPS, but go directly to Hope Academy which is different than other charter schools.  IPS was pleased with the simplicity of the process.  Hope is the only Innovation School to be considered by the IPS board on Thursday. After approval, it will come for signatures and go into effect on July 1.  This will be a five year agreement.  The agreement can be amended if circumstances change.

We will get the IPS per pupil allotment - at least $500 more/student than what we get now.

We do not expect any problems with the approval as the new board members are very open to innovation.

IPS will be included with the Mayors Office reports.  We do not expect any additional reporting to be necessary.

IPS will get our testing data and we will continue to count students as we do now.  We will get 100% of the funding with the exception of the $10K fee for being an Innovation School.

Rachelle spoke with the folks at the Simon Youth Academy Program. They wanted assurances that Hope Academy would take more than just IPS students.

The Simon staff took a tour of the school and their board will vote for Hope Academy to become a Simon Youth Academy on Thursday evening.

This will mean more Professional Development for the staff through Simon Youth Foundation and 

scholarships for students.

We will update marketing materials and put the Simon Youth Academy logo on the building

SYA staff will come for boot camp in August and do a presentation.  The Board will be invited to join that presentation.  

Marissa noted this has been a two year process so we are very excited to see it come to fruition.

The Simon group is very excited about this partnership because this is their second recovery school - the other is in NJ.

The parents have requested in-person meetings - at this time, they will be hybrid.

In July, starting a mutil group - family and students paired with GPS activities and we will expand GPS program to non-Hope Academy students.

Good attendance by mothers of sons - working on getting parents of girls to attend.

Will have a Social Worker intern for 20 hours/week all next year. She is a UIndy Master's Degree candidate.

Six students are seeing an Aspire counselor.  

Anyone who has returned to use will be required to attend Aspire's Marijuana's 420 program.

No concerns or complaints.

Marissa thanked the board for their re-engagement.