There was no public comment.

The Board welcomed Doug and Sally to the Board.
Bill informed the Board of events happening at the school including:

• Read Across America Day, where grades partnered up for a read aloud activity. 3rd grade students read to 1st grade students and 2nd students read to Kindergarten students.
• Our 3rd grade students are doing an engineering experiment in science using Knex cars and magnets.
• 3rd grade students are participating in an "overtime" challenge where they earn points through hard work and demonstrating core values. At the end of the challenge they are awarded an MCAS "jersey" to acknowledge their work preparing for the upcoming MCAS assessment.

The Board discussed a formal compliant against the school that Danielle received via email from a parent.  Danielle followed up with the parent twice in an attempt to schedule a meeting but was unsuccessful.  Danielle read the parent complaint in full to the members of the Board.  The parent cited three incidents that took place over the past three years involving her child.  The board heard the school leadership's explanation of its response for two incidents and decided it would postpone hearing on the third incident until school leadership could look back to its records and present at the next board meeting. 

The Board discussed the status of the school's new facility on Longhill Street. Bill reported that there has been a lot of progress. The developer has closed on his purchase of the two adjacent properties and has reported that he is in the process of finalizing his lease arrangement with the Shriners.  The school is working to finalize its lease with the developer. 

The school's occupancy would be phased, with school gradually moving into the building as it expands.  It plans to lease space in the existing building only for the next school year, then in a new addition.  

To expedite the lease negotiations, Bill proposed using the next month’s Board meeting as a deadline to have a lease agreement in place for the Board to review and approve. The Board agreed and noted that the Board has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure the school has a place to operate for its committed enrollment.

The Board reviewed the February Academic Dashboard. Meghan noted that the two most recent student withdrawals were siblings who moved to West Springfield and transitioned to West Springfield Public Schools.  She also noted that the school was aware of the drop in attendance in February and the school is working with families at risk of chronic attendance to address the issue.

The Board discussed current STEP data and the apparent difficulties with 1st graders making 3 levels of growth in 1st grade. To alleviate this problem the school is considering adjusting our goals to have students make 4 levels of growth in Kindergarten and only 2 levels of growth in 1st grade due to the specific skills required in 1st grade levels.

The Board also reviewed STEP data for original cohort students compared to those students that enrolled in later grades. This data highlighted a need to provide additional supports for students that enroll in later years. STEP data for ELL and SPED students was also discussed - while ELL and SPED students perform lower than their peers on STEP and ANet, they are performing well above the network average on ANet, which is an indication of strong performance.

Bill reported that the school has hired 86% of staff for the 2018-19 school year. Two of the school's current teachers will be relocating next year and 1 teacher will be moving into a role outside of the school. Both of the school's Associate Teachers will be moving into teacher roles at the school next year.

Bill reviewed the process of the site visit and its focus areas with the Board.  Four members of the Board will be present for the Board focus group during this site visit.

Tricia presented the February financials to the Board. The school continues to be in a good financial position, with the areas of the budget that are over budget being offset by areas that are under budget.  Meghan stated that the FY19 budget would be presented for Board approval at the April Board meeting. Bill reviewed the upcoming Valley Gives fundraiser which will take place on May 1st. Bill proposed setting a goal of bringing in 45 donors and raising $4500, with the a goal of 5 donors per Board member.  The board agreed that this seemed like a reasonable and doable goal and committed to working to reach it.