October Financial Numbers

Received $160,036

Expenses $281,257

     Salaries: $83,680

     Benefits: $25,926

     Professional services: $36,326

     Building services: $67,312

     Food service: $16,551

     Supplies: $31,846

     Uncategorized expenses: $15,687

Negative cash flow of -$121,221 for October 2023

Ending operating balance: $671,388

Reminder that donations to school are appreciated.  

Reported on discussion regarding changes to enrollment and lottery policy.  

Overall not many changes to policy from last year.  

Changes to notification clause, communication, and timing for accepting or declining enrollment.  

•      Parents required to notify school of decision within 3 calendar days of enrollment offer in       writing by email 
• Failure to notify the school of decision within 5 calendars days will be considered a declination of the offer (previously 7 calendar days)
• All applicable deadlines will be communicated to parents throughout the lottery process
• Sankofa will maintain a separate list of parents who accept/reject enrollment to assist school in updating the waitlist

Also changed language regarding opening/closing of lottery.  No specific date attached.  Changed language to reflect that the lottery opens the 1st week in March, and application closes the last week in February.

Average attendance

K-87%

1-86

2-91% 

Enrollment numbers

49-K

28-1st

13-2nd

Events

   Digital library card campaign

   Staff Appreciation from families

   Admin appreciation of staff

Have a student that may need hospital home bound care (recent development);  Sarah will meet with Finance to discuss needs;  she will get more information regarding the duration to meet child's educational  grant

CSP grant opened for applications Nov. 20, 2023

  Only year we are eligible

  Sarah attended orientation

  Grant is $0-1.2 million

Adding Student Culture and Behavior Specialist--primary role to take over disciplinary role rather than spreading those duties across multiple staff members

  Applicant offered position-deadline for acceptance is  Friday

2 out of school suspensions-K

7 out of school suspensions-1st grade

  Reason: physical violence to students/staff; sexual misconduct

 Average suspension is 1 day

Conducted staff check-ins

  1st year stretching and difficulties

   staff seeing progress in students

   There is a culture committee-staff helping admin put that 

   Staff fully engaged in moving Sankofa forward

Brought on Jen Owens-curriculum consultant

  teachers concerned about how to communicate what the kids are learning to the families

   brought on consultant to help the teachers move forward on that goal

No further needs for support at this time.

Went through outstanding punch list items--2-3 items left

   contractor reached out to the team to schedule time to get those items taken care of

Reviewed plumbing issue-will be working on that during winter break

Discussed RFQ sent to architects for level 2 and master planning

   2 responses--Nelson and LS3P  

     #s within $1000 of each other

     discussed how to address the interview process to make a decision

    will need approval from Board to move forward with an architectural team

Want to get Board, staff and families involved in discussion of master planning  for next 5-10 years+

Want to get architect in place as soon as possible so that permits can get approved; this will allow construction to begin as soon as school ends in May and completed before school resumes

When will we need to vote?  Probably will need to vote within 1-2 weeks; will need to schedule a special meeting to conduct vote

Will be at Sankofa 2:30-4:00 pm on December 13

   Sarah will meet with staff prior to the party 

Daughter in 2nd grade

Wanted to bring to the attention the impact of the violent students and specifically her daughter

Recently her daughter was assaulted by another student

Student was suspended but concerned that her daughter 

Wants increased focus on student safety for students impacted by violent behavior

Also wants changes to the conduct policy to more stringently address violent behavior

  Re-evaluate policies to address these concerns

Errika responded on behalf of the Board-currently working on making changes to our policies to address these concerns.  Also adding someone to leadership team to specifically handle discipline

Academic Committee-December 13

Governance Committee-December 14 10:30am-11:30am