There was no one present for public comment.

Bill acknowledged Doug for his contributions to Valley Gives Day and shared a photo from his lunch with 3rd grade students.  Bill also recognized after school art club students for their recent stop motion film fest and shared a student video with the members of the Board.

The Board welcomed Justin Pistorius as its newest member.

The Board welcomed Jessica Yiannos, the new school Principal for the 2018-2019 school year. A notice regarding the school's Principal transition plan was sent home to families on 6/19.

Bill informed the Board that the school has not yet received approval on its proposed charter amendment but that he expects a decision by next week.

Bill also informed the Board that he has signed the lease to rent space at Converse St. and that the school is working on move preparations including minor building repairs, paint, new carpet in some rooms, and technology updates. The move will take place the week of 7/2. As of 7/9, the school's address will be 594 Converse St.

There was discussion about how to share the news of the address change.  The board decided to notify the school community, work with the JCC to build a good working relationship, and develop some general talking points explaining why the move to this location was necessary. 

Bill provided the Board with a hiring update.  There were 9 teacher vacancies to fill due to growth and attrition, and currently 8 teachers have been hired to fill these. The school is also hiring another nurse and additional non-teaching roles.

Bill, Meghan and Jess reviewed the Academic Dashboard, with a focus on end-of-year performance.  Highlights of the discussion are below:

• Enrollment is strong and stable with a waitlist of 345 students for next year.
• The school met its discipline goals this year and saw a significant decrease in suspensions compared to last year (2.8% compared to 6.2%).
• Reading data according to STEP did not meet goals, but was solid (62% met end-of-year STEP goals with 64% growing more than 3 STEP levels and almost 50% growing more than 5 levels).  The cohort of students who didn’t meet 3 step level growth also includes kids who have “stepped” out (already were a STEP 11 or 12 at the end of the year). Jess noted that SPCS will be using the STAR assessment for 4th grade students to help assess reading next year.  The Board suggested that the school break out the data for students who are already at STEP 12 and would not be able to grow at least 3 levels.
• The school met its MAP goal with 84% of students scoring above the 50th percentile in math and 75% above in ELA.
• The school met the majority of its ANet goals, and performed at the top of the "network" in both Math and ELA for 2nd and 3rd grades.  Significantly, ELL and SPED subgroups outperformed the general education network on this assessment.

Bill updated the Board on the offer made on the South End site.  The offer was not accepted due to the financing and due diligence contingencies.  The school does not plan to move forward at this point but may revisit this option.

Bill proposed some next steps to the Board:

1. Engage Colebrook Realty as a broker to help identify prospective sites.
2. Work with Bob Baldwin will help put together a conceptual finance package to better determine the type of project the school could finance. 

The board agreed to add a time limit of 30 days for the broker to provide a list of available sites.

Meghan informed the Board that through Valley Gives Day and other fundraising, the school brought in $37,000 in fundraising this year, exceeding the school's goal of $35,000.  Meghan also noted that personnel costs are tracking lower than anticipated this year due to high benefits cost projections. 

Meghan noted that the contracts for this year are mostly renewals, including the ANet Assessment, Deanslist and Futures Education.  The school is trying to reduce costs by hiring a full-time SLP to share with Veritas Prep.

The school will cover the same portion of benefits costs it has in the past.  Although benefits costs increased, benefits costs came in lower than projected so this is still under budget.  The school was able to get a lower rate for short-term disability coverage through another provider.
 

Alex informed the Board that each member (Justin excluded) should receive an email from Board On Track with an evaluation link. 
After all evaluations are complete, he will compile a memo to present at the next Board meeting. lex askeds that everyone add narrative to their evaluation responses to guide the evaluation process.

The Board will meet again on 7/25, and will participate in a Board retreat on 8/29 from 5:00-8:00 pm at the Doherty Wallace office. Dinner will begin at 5, and the meeting will start at 5:30.