Dr. Rev Marion Newton provided an invocation.

Ken Lee led the committee members in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Dr. Khalil Graham read aloud the mission statement. 

Elayne Brunson read aloud the vision statement. 

There was no unfinished business from previous meeting.

• Summary of Key Points
  • Dr. Khalil Graham reviewed roles and responsibilities with every member of the committee.
  • We are looking for fundraising and community engagement conversations.
  • Every year we need to decide as a group what the fundraising priority is.
  • Community initiatives, local, state, and national initiatives are what we look at. 
  • Come July, we want to be very clear on our expectations of what the committee will do.
  • Largest donors include: Charter School Growth Fund, New School Venture Fund, Williams Edwards Price, Pilgrims Pride. Potentially Darla Moore in the future. 
  • If we will be a seven-figure fundraising school, that cannot be Dr. Graham and Trevor alone. 
  • LSC has not found many people to be a grant writer part-time for us. Attempting to have someone do it on a volunteer basis is very difficult to find.
  • We are not pursuing a full-time fundraising person due to financial constraints. It needs to be a team of fundraisers vs just being one person.
  • The current budget is holding LSC back from hiring a CDO due to LSC being so new and young. The upfront investment is large.
  • There are 5 buckets of work: teaching and learning, school operations, school finance, advocacy and development, and HR/talent/compliance. Two people are owning all of those buckets. 
  • $1M deficit to open up the school next year the way we want to.
  • Board meetings feel like its reporting news and are not more interactive. The bridge between committee meetings and the board meeting is vast currently. 
  • Closing out Q4, the board is speaking to the board more vs Dr. Graham speaking to the board. 
  • Ken Lee prefers to have an agenda and action items during board meetings as to not be distracted or lose momentum. 
  • As the campus is growing, it will not pay for itself until it reaches the 450 child mark. Usually, that is around Year 3.
  • Advocacy pieces, local revenue opportunities, national revenue opportunities, and grants are ways for LSC to get money and fundraise. 
  • Previous committee member, Steve Creech, reached out to the city manager and did not get much traction there as far as a grant writer is concerned. 
  • USC Columbia has a grant writing professor and he is looking for someone who is a graduate and eager to learn and start out for LSC. 
  • Revenue from the Quixote Club is not generating revenue for itself yet. It needs to figure out how to sustain itself before LSC asks for money.
  • Darla Moore Foundation Update: Her Foundation president spoke to Dr. Graham and he will share the LSC plan with the President. Feedback received is that the Foundation is very interested in donating $6M over the next few years. They also want a 36-38 month turnaround to open up an LSC in Lake City. It would be K-2 and grade 6. Roughly 600 children to start in one building.
  • 10-week program at USC Columbia for grant writing. Roughly $1200 program.

There was no new business discussed.

There are no next steps at this time.

No board directors commented during this portion of the agenda.