One City Schools
Minutes
One City Regular Board Meeting
Date and Time
Tuesday July 27, 2021 at 4:00 PM
Location
Normally, we will meet at One City Schools, 2012 Fisher Street, Madison, WI 53713. However, due to COVID-19, we will meet by Zoom conferencing for this meeting.
Join the July 27, 2021 Board Meeting via Zoom at https://onecityschools.zoom.us/j/96414211790
Meeting ID: 964 1421 1790
Dial by your location
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Directors Present
G. Derzon, G. Ladson-Billings, J. Krupp, J. Pope-Williams, L. McDonald, S. Klug, S. Martyniak, T. Balsiger, T. Jaeckle, T. Pedracine, W. Akhtar
Directors Absent
C. Gaines, C. Zdeblick, N. Wray
Ex Officio Members Present
K. Caire
Non Voting Members Present
K. Caire
Guests Present
B. Pickett, C. Hodge, D. Stephan, F. D'Abell, G. Wiseman (remote), L. Allen, M. Ruffin, X. Zupan
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
J. Krupp called the meeting to order.
C.
Approve Minutes from June 22, 2021 Regular Board Meeting
G. Derzon made a motion to approve the minutes from the June 22, 2021 Board meeting.
W. Akhtar seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
II. One City Parent Board Member Input
A.
One City Parent Update by Parent-members of One City's Board of Directors
Monthly meetings with be set up with parent Board members and the One City leadership team. Parent Board members will draft a monthly letter with a list of parent concerns and feedback, and One City leadership will respond to those concerns.
Both the letter and the response may be posted publicly for anyone to review. This will help to facilitate effective communication between parents and One City leadership
Both the letter and the response may be posted publicly for anyone to review. This will help to facilitate effective communication between parents and One City leadership
III. Finance Committee: Discussion and Actions
A.
Review and Approve One City's June 2021 Financial Report
T. Jaeckle reported that the June charter school payment came through.
He further reported that we have now paid down $50K of the FCI debt owed toward purchase of the preschool. S. Klug asked who FCI is and why One City owed them money. T. Jaeckle replied that Forward Community Investments lent OCS money to buy and renovate the preschool building on Fisher Street.
G. Derzon asked when the debt would be paid in full. T. Jaekle replied that final payment will happen within the next year.
T. Jaeckle reported that the fiscal year wrapped up on June 30th, and that OCS cam in $500, 000 under budget (not including the $14M gift from Pleasant Rowland) due to increased fundraising, PPP funds, and COVID grants.
Adjustments still need to be made to the final budget, but no major adjustments are anticipated.
The charter school was not fully enrolled last year, which cost us $28K. Unfilled seats cost the school a lot of money. J. Krupp asked if unpaid tuition is part of the problem. T. Jaeckle replied that this is just having to do with the charter school, which is tuition free, and not the preschool.
S. Martyniak wondered if we have outstanding pledges that were made to the original building?
T. Jaekle stated that staff and N4N will review and share the information.
He further reported that we have now paid down $50K of the FCI debt owed toward purchase of the preschool. S. Klug asked who FCI is and why One City owed them money. T. Jaeckle replied that Forward Community Investments lent OCS money to buy and renovate the preschool building on Fisher Street.
G. Derzon asked when the debt would be paid in full. T. Jaekle replied that final payment will happen within the next year.
T. Jaeckle reported that the fiscal year wrapped up on June 30th, and that OCS cam in $500, 000 under budget (not including the $14M gift from Pleasant Rowland) due to increased fundraising, PPP funds, and COVID grants.
Adjustments still need to be made to the final budget, but no major adjustments are anticipated.
The charter school was not fully enrolled last year, which cost us $28K. Unfilled seats cost the school a lot of money. J. Krupp asked if unpaid tuition is part of the problem. T. Jaeckle replied that this is just having to do with the charter school, which is tuition free, and not the preschool.
S. Martyniak wondered if we have outstanding pledges that were made to the original building?
T. Jaekle stated that staff and N4N will review and share the information.
S. Klug made a motion to approve the June 2021 financial report.
J. Krupp seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
B.
Proposed Budgets for the 2021-22 School Year Discussion and Vote and Capital Campaign Discussion
K. Caire reviewed the proposed budgets for 2021-22. He stated that we would not be at full capacity until 2024-25, and that we will have consistent operating costs at the building every year. Operating costs for the past 5 years have been shared by WPS and have helped to shape our proposed operating budget. L. Lange helped to compare our bank statements, projected budget, and actual costs from the past year.
K. Caire explained that he reached out to a former colleague from Achievement First Preparatory Schools helped with the preparation of One City's proposed budget.
K. Caire stated that we will receive $900K in grant dollars eventually, but can only use $150K
toward development of our secondary school during the next school year.
We anticipate receiving $9,600 per student from DPI for grades 6-12. MMSD will receive $18K per student. One City will get only 23% of the cost of Special Education, so we will pursue other opportunities to help fund our Special Education program.
K. Caire explained that we could receive an extra $1.5 million if we were funded for the
extended day programming that was approved. We have consulted with our attorney to see if it is possible to sue for the funding we should be receiving. We have learned that it may be difficult but not impossible and we can reach out to DPI to advocate for those funds.
We currently allocate funds to school-wide costs that accurately reflect the percentage of time to the elementary school and the preschool.
The cost of innovation, including our extended school day and school year, our Academies Program, and our healthy meals program, means that we must spend more per pupil than other schools, yet we receive significantly less.
Teacher salaries will increase in the later grades as we begin hiring more expensive teachers, such as teachers for our technology courses.
Expenses include student uniforms, textbooks, iPads, curriculum materials, school health office, healthy meals program, grounds maintenance, janitorial services, and internet.
J. Krupp suggested looking into solar when putting together construction budgets to help offset electrical costs.
We will have as many as 90 employees in our secondary school once we're offering grades 6-12, so we'll have as many as 140 employees working in the 1707 W. Broadway building. Under personnel, we have included salaries, social security, COVID benefits (such as child care assistance and money toward Princeton Club memberships), retirement plan, healthcare, life insurance and staff development.
For the elementary school, we have added before and after school programming and project that 8% will participate in the before school programming and 15% in after school. We have had to increase our rates for this service to $40/week for before school and $75/week for after school, with family rates at $65/week for before school and $125/week for after school.
We are hiring a VP of Government Relations and establishing a 501c4 organization will help us win government funds so we don’t have to rely so heavily on fundraising. As it stands, we will have to raise $550K/year for the elementary school. We only get 60% of revenue we need for our 4K students. We have to fundraise nearly $1M to cover the remaining per pupil costs that aren’t covered by DPI.
At the preschool, AnjiPlay costs will be cut in half
G. Derzon stated that it would be ideal to have additional government funding, but it probably will not be available for a while because the bi-annual budget will be set shortly. He wondered if winning additional funding in the next 2 years is a real possibility. K. Caire replied that it is feasible, though it will be difficult as there is a lack of understanding in our legislature around charter schools and how they operate.
J. Krupp suggested that we must be prepared to continue fundraising for the foreseeable future.
K. Caire stated that Mark Pocan is the biggest opponent of charter schools on the national level, but he hasn’t spoken on education on the state level. We must educate him on charter schools and ask him to advocate for us to win additional funding. G. Derzon inquired as to whether Mark is accessible to having such a conversation and K. Caire responded that he is hoping that Mark will contact One City. G. Derzon suggested meeting with Mary Solinger as she has some connection to Mark Pocan.
No vote was taken on the 2021-22 budget at this meeting. The Board will vote at a special board meeting or at the meeting on August 24th.
K. Caire explained that he reached out to a former colleague from Achievement First Preparatory Schools helped with the preparation of One City's proposed budget.
K. Caire stated that we will receive $900K in grant dollars eventually, but can only use $150K
toward development of our secondary school during the next school year.
We anticipate receiving $9,600 per student from DPI for grades 6-12. MMSD will receive $18K per student. One City will get only 23% of the cost of Special Education, so we will pursue other opportunities to help fund our Special Education program.
K. Caire explained that we could receive an extra $1.5 million if we were funded for the
extended day programming that was approved. We have consulted with our attorney to see if it is possible to sue for the funding we should be receiving. We have learned that it may be difficult but not impossible and we can reach out to DPI to advocate for those funds.
We currently allocate funds to school-wide costs that accurately reflect the percentage of time to the elementary school and the preschool.
The cost of innovation, including our extended school day and school year, our Academies Program, and our healthy meals program, means that we must spend more per pupil than other schools, yet we receive significantly less.
Teacher salaries will increase in the later grades as we begin hiring more expensive teachers, such as teachers for our technology courses.
Expenses include student uniforms, textbooks, iPads, curriculum materials, school health office, healthy meals program, grounds maintenance, janitorial services, and internet.
J. Krupp suggested looking into solar when putting together construction budgets to help offset electrical costs.
We will have as many as 90 employees in our secondary school once we're offering grades 6-12, so we'll have as many as 140 employees working in the 1707 W. Broadway building. Under personnel, we have included salaries, social security, COVID benefits (such as child care assistance and money toward Princeton Club memberships), retirement plan, healthcare, life insurance and staff development.
For the elementary school, we have added before and after school programming and project that 8% will participate in the before school programming and 15% in after school. We have had to increase our rates for this service to $40/week for before school and $75/week for after school, with family rates at $65/week for before school and $125/week for after school.
We are hiring a VP of Government Relations and establishing a 501c4 organization will help us win government funds so we don’t have to rely so heavily on fundraising. As it stands, we will have to raise $550K/year for the elementary school. We only get 60% of revenue we need for our 4K students. We have to fundraise nearly $1M to cover the remaining per pupil costs that aren’t covered by DPI.
At the preschool, AnjiPlay costs will be cut in half
G. Derzon stated that it would be ideal to have additional government funding, but it probably will not be available for a while because the bi-annual budget will be set shortly. He wondered if winning additional funding in the next 2 years is a real possibility. K. Caire replied that it is feasible, though it will be difficult as there is a lack of understanding in our legislature around charter schools and how they operate.
J. Krupp suggested that we must be prepared to continue fundraising for the foreseeable future.
K. Caire stated that Mark Pocan is the biggest opponent of charter schools on the national level, but he hasn’t spoken on education on the state level. We must educate him on charter schools and ask him to advocate for us to win additional funding. G. Derzon inquired as to whether Mark is accessible to having such a conversation and K. Caire responded that he is hoping that Mark will contact One City. G. Derzon suggested meeting with Mary Solinger as she has some connection to Mark Pocan.
No vote was taken on the 2021-22 budget at this meeting. The Board will vote at a special board meeting or at the meeting on August 24th.
IV. CEO Update and June 2021 Organizational Report
A.
CEO Departmental Reports: Key Topics and School Highlights
K. Caire reminded Board members that department reports are included with their agenda packets and they should take a few minutes to read them and reach out to department leaders with any questions.
B.
One City Student Enrollment Update for the 2021-22 School Year
M. Ruffin provided current enrollment figures for the fall of 2021:
She stated that we are still slowly receiving requests to enroll in the higher grades. S. Klug asked how many seats are there are total in 4th grade? M. Ruffin replied that there are 48 seats in each grade.
F. D'Abell corrected that number to 24 as the decision was made to budget for one 4th grade class instead of two. J. Krupp stated that means that we are only 9 students short for a full 4th grade class.
W. Akhtar asked if the number includes those registered for the Scholars Academy. D. Stephan responded that we populate the academy with students from the total enrollment.
W. Akhtar asked how many students have disenrolled for next year?
M. Ruffin replied that less than a dozen, most for reasons such as moving out of state, and some did not complete their enrollment forms by the deadline
T. Jaeckle pointed out that there is $500K in revenue from the state left on the table if we don’t fill those seats.
The state does their pupil count on the first Friday in September to determine how much funding we will receive.
J Krupp asked if filling the “homegrown” grades is going to continue to be a problem as we expand?
M. Ruffin said that enrollment for those grades may be more challenging; however, older siblings of current families will be eligible next year, so those siblings will fill some of those seats.
V. Ramakrishnan reminded members that scaling up for charter schools is a process.
It was noted that families prefer to have one drop off point, so we’ll be able to bring more families with older children to us when we offer the older grades. We have to get over this hump where we only offer lower grade levels before we can bring families with older children to us. This does not minimize the effort we will have to put into recruitment.
G. Derzon asked if we can focus our marketing efforts this August? M. Ruffin replied that we are hosting a celebration event this Friday and are closing on the building soon, and will continue our door-to-door flyer distribution.
G. Wiseman mentioned that we are working to build partnerships with different organizations in Monona, and those will help us to promote enrollment in the future.
T. Balsiger asked if we have considered a referral program for current families? M. Ruffin responded that we will explore that possibility.
- 225 (4K-4th grade)
- Full in 4K, 5K, and 1st grade
- 9 seats available in each 3rd grade class
- 15 total students enrolled in 4th grade
She stated that we are still slowly receiving requests to enroll in the higher grades. S. Klug asked how many seats are there are total in 4th grade? M. Ruffin replied that there are 48 seats in each grade.
F. D'Abell corrected that number to 24 as the decision was made to budget for one 4th grade class instead of two. J. Krupp stated that means that we are only 9 students short for a full 4th grade class.
W. Akhtar asked if the number includes those registered for the Scholars Academy. D. Stephan responded that we populate the academy with students from the total enrollment.
W. Akhtar asked how many students have disenrolled for next year?
M. Ruffin replied that less than a dozen, most for reasons such as moving out of state, and some did not complete their enrollment forms by the deadline
T. Jaeckle pointed out that there is $500K in revenue from the state left on the table if we don’t fill those seats.
The state does their pupil count on the first Friday in September to determine how much funding we will receive.
J Krupp asked if filling the “homegrown” grades is going to continue to be a problem as we expand?
M. Ruffin said that enrollment for those grades may be more challenging; however, older siblings of current families will be eligible next year, so those siblings will fill some of those seats.
V. Ramakrishnan reminded members that scaling up for charter schools is a process.
It was noted that families prefer to have one drop off point, so we’ll be able to bring more families with older children to us when we offer the older grades. We have to get over this hump where we only offer lower grade levels before we can bring families with older children to us. This does not minimize the effort we will have to put into recruitment.
G. Derzon asked if we can focus our marketing efforts this August? M. Ruffin replied that we are hosting a celebration event this Friday and are closing on the building soon, and will continue our door-to-door flyer distribution.
G. Wiseman mentioned that we are working to build partnerships with different organizations in Monona, and those will help us to promote enrollment in the future.
T. Balsiger asked if we have considered a referral program for current families? M. Ruffin responded that we will explore that possibility.
C.
Facilities Report
D. Stephan reported that the Planning Commission in Monona unanimously supported our zoning application on July 12. Zoning requires that we create a private road exclusively used by OCS that is separate from the WPS campus.
On July 19th, the City Council approved the application.
Our plan is to to close on 1707 W Broadway tomorrow (7/28).
Our attorneys have recommended that we create an LLC (One City Broadway LLC) to hold the funds related to our new property separately from our 501c3 (One City Schools, Inc.) The LLC is necessary for us to pursue new market tax credits (a $4-5M loan to put towards the new facility).
We should have 80-90% of remaining funds at the table before we will be granted this loan.
We will have a full presentation where our legal council will explain the process next month
Announcements of new market tax credit awards are going to be made in August, so there will be a heavy fundraising lift very soon.
J. Krupp asked if we have discussed the LLC with your insurer? D. Stephan replied that we have and
our insurance will cover the new facility.
On July 19th, the City Council approved the application.
Our plan is to to close on 1707 W Broadway tomorrow (7/28).
Our attorneys have recommended that we create an LLC (One City Broadway LLC) to hold the funds related to our new property separately from our 501c3 (One City Schools, Inc.) The LLC is necessary for us to pursue new market tax credits (a $4-5M loan to put towards the new facility).
We should have 80-90% of remaining funds at the table before we will be granted this loan.
We will have a full presentation where our legal council will explain the process next month
Announcements of new market tax credit awards are going to be made in August, so there will be a heavy fundraising lift very soon.
J. Krupp asked if we have discussed the LLC with your insurer? D. Stephan replied that we have and
our insurance will cover the new facility.
G. Derzon made a motion to approve the creation of an LLC.
T. Jaeckle seconded the motion.
The board VOTED to approve the motion.
D.
Staffing Update
D. Stephan reported on the positions we have yet to fill, which include:
J. St. Onge shared that she grew up in the Madison area, and spent 20+ years in HR at a real estate firm. She is looking forward to support One City as we grow.
D. Stephan shared that J. St. Onge helped us write the position description for our Director of Finance, which will be posted shortly, and that she will help onboard our new hires this fall.
G. Wiseman stated that J. St, Onge also helped with orientation for our new team members last week and asked F. D'Abell to talk about how that went. F. D'Abell said that 20 new employees participated in a 2-day orientation at the UW South Madison Partnership site on Park Street.
Survey results showed that new team members felt energized and inspired after the orientation
- Lead Teacher
- Cook
- Float Cook to support both the preschool and elementary school
- Receptionist for 1707 W. Broadway
- Preschool float
J. St. Onge shared that she grew up in the Madison area, and spent 20+ years in HR at a real estate firm. She is looking forward to support One City as we grow.
D. Stephan shared that J. St. Onge helped us write the position description for our Director of Finance, which will be posted shortly, and that she will help onboard our new hires this fall.
G. Wiseman stated that J. St, Onge also helped with orientation for our new team members last week and asked F. D'Abell to talk about how that went. F. D'Abell said that 20 new employees participated in a 2-day orientation at the UW South Madison Partnership site on Park Street.
Survey results showed that new team members felt energized and inspired after the orientation
V. Other Business
A.
Other Business
No other business.
VI. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 6:10 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
G. Wiseman