Bill reported out on highlights from the November MCPSA Delegate Assembly meeting:

• There is some concern is that opponents of charter schools will try to chip away at critical aspects of charter schools, primarily their autonomies and the charter tuition formula.
• Public opinion still views charters as successful, so the referendum was not a loss on that front, but it was a political loss. 
• There is concern that the initiative led to the dissemination of a lot of misinformation about charters.

Bill received, and is now negotiating, the lease.  The primary concern at the moment is the construction timeline.  The next step is for the school and its counsel to meet with the developer and finalize details regarding timing and environmental assurances.  A major concern of the board was that the project could not be delivered on time, and if that is to occur, what recourse would be available to the school.  Bill shared that he has begun discussing the possibility of extending the Veritas lease for another year to accommodate the school should the construction be delayed.  The board discussed the possibility of using a temporary site but the consensus was that two moves would be very harmful to the school and that it should be an absolute last resort.  In sum, the school needs to solidify its back-up plan and simultaneously Bill is working with Craig, David and John to iron out details.
 

Danielle requested that board members complete the survey by the end of the week.

Robin reported out the highlights from the finance committee meeting.  

• The school is in strong financial shape and there are no concerns with revenues or expenses
• The negative change in net position is error; it is actually is a positive

Bill reviewed the academic and culture trends from the Academic Dashboard:

• The economically disadvantaged number is updated including additional information
• Attendance is trending in positive direction
• STEP data was disappointing due to overall performance and a lack of growth in many students.   Wendy and Bill attribute this to these possible causes: (1) They have been coaching a lot around co-teaching subjects and math, but less around literacy blocks; (2) Professional development focused on more advanced literacy skills because those were a challenge at the end of last year, but did not focus enough on early literacy skills; and (3) the school did not administer benchmmark assessments to all students in the first few weeks of school, so we may have learned too late that there was a slump over the summer.  Wendy and Bill have taken a number of steps to rapidly address this data: (1) They've used this moment to create urgency; (2) they have increased professional development on specific skills; and (3) they have created tools to track who we are targeting at specific points in day so teachers doing "micro-interventions".  They will report out on progress at January meeting.
• Also, Wendy will be giving a presentation on the various assessments we use at the next Board meeting

Peter noted that it would be his final meeting as a Trustee.  Danielle thanked him for his service to the school over three years.  Bill also noted that he would share more video and pictures from school events at board meetings to help the board remain connected to the amazing work teachers and students are doing every day.