Thank you to Kelvin for using networks to continue progress on site search.  

Danielle acknowledged Kate for her three years of board service and the board thanked her for her passionate commitment to the school.  

Bill updated the board on David Feinberg's announcement that Charter School Support Services is ending its operations.  He noted that if necessary, there are other charter facility consultants we could use, but that he is confident the school currently has the expertise it needs through its board, management and attorney.
 

Robin gave a report on the December Financials.  Highlights are below:

• Q2 Tuition projections were released by DESE and are still in line with the budget (in fact slightly higher, but not enough to feel confident to adjust the projection at this point).  There will also be another adjustment after March 1 SIMS data is submitted.
• Expenditures overall remain below projected budget, due in large part to savings in personnel costs.
• We are seeing an increase in Nutrition participation.  This has led to an increase in both funding and costs.
• We decided to release contingency funds because our expense projections are at or below target and revenue projections overall are at or above target.
• On the Friends of Springfield Prep side, it was suggested that that we make an adjustment to demonstrate board member donations versus individual donations.
• The Statement of Net position demonstrates a fiscally healthy organization
• The Cash Flow report shows spending as we anticipate and grant revenue coming in as we expected.

John presented the fundraising vision statement and the rationale of having an aligned view of the purpose for fundraising.  Discussion revolved around the following items:

• How to encourage board involvement in development without making people feel uncomfortable 
• The appropriate fundraising goals
• The importance of building the total number of people who give, versus just focusing on the amount of money given
• What we should seek in a fundraising consultant

It was decided that the board would not articulate specific goal for each individual, and that investing in a fundraising consultant to help create a strategic direction makes sense.  Bill and Meghan will meet with a few consultants with the goal of committing a small amount of time to the creation of a development plan that can lay the groundwork for future development efforts.
 

Bill provided a report of the academic dashboard.  Highlights are below:

• There will be two community outreach events this Saturday
• Attendance dipped below our goal last month but most recent data shows increase
• Recent operational changes have led to large drop in tardies
• There was discussion around suspensions; Bill noted that this happens only when students are physically assaultive and that there are a number of students with quite explosive behavior.  The school is working with its special education team, behavior support team, psychologist, and counselor to support these students.  

Alex reported out on the recent board self-assessment:

• Overall, results were very positive 
• Goal should be that board meetings become less driven by the CEO
• Board recruitment score was low - next step is to create a 3-year recruitment plan to have a clear picture of who we want to bring on as we grow the board
• Key takeaway: "one of goals is to have goals and a way of measuring progress."  We will continue to use annual goals to drive our work and will work to create even stronger goals for next year at our June Annual meeting.
• Academic oversight across the board was really strong

Bob reported out on the staff survey results.  Overall, it showed a very positive team culture, which was a great endorsement to the culture of school.
 

Bill reminded the board that the DESE Year 2 site visit is scheduled for March 23rd and that we will need a selection of board members at school in morning to participate in a focus group.  BS will send email reminder.  He also proposed to move March board meeting to 3/8 due to February break - the board agreed.