There was no public comment.

The board discussed the Letter of Agreement with QPD.  Bill noted that the agreement had been reviewed by the school's counsel.  He explained that QPD is the only company that provides comprehensive charter school development services in Massachusetts and that the company has successfully helped many schools to manage their building projects.  References from a number of these schools have attested to the high quality of Mr. Baldwin's work.  

There was discussion about the specific nature of Mr. Baldwin's expertise.  Board members who had recently met with him at a Finance Committee meeting and site tour noted his experience helping schools put together financing, as well as his technical expertise, critical due to the complexities of public building requirements in Massachusetts.  Bill also noted that he has industry-specific experience: he understands the unique risk profiles of small charter schools and can provide important oversight of the design process so that the final product is affordable and high quality.

 

Bill proposed cancelling committee meetings in December due to holiday scheduling conflicts but scheduling a December board meeting to address potential building decisions, if needed.  The board scheduled a meeting on December 18 at 5:45 pm.

Sylvia de Haas-Phillips facilitated the retreat section of the agenda.  All board members introduced themselves and shared their reason for serving on the board.  Then, they completed a board self-evaluation, which were collected for the Governance Committee to review. 

Bill presented the organizational priorities that he believed the board could support.  The board then split into two groups to discuss these priorities.  The groups came back together and shared out what they discussed in small groups.  The board discussed these topics: board recruitment to ensure that the board has the skills and experience it needs to further its goals, especially related to a potential facility project; succession planning for management to ensure the school's stability in the event of any expected or unexpected changes; the Executive Director evaluation process, and ways to make this more objective and goals-driven; the need to have a facility task force or committee that is tasked with providing oversight of the facility project (the finance committee was identified as the most appropriate committee for this, but noted that it needed additional facility expertise to complement its finance expertise); fundraising, and the way that board members could help to further the school's fundraising goals; and ways for board members to get to know the school better and introduce themselves to teachers, staff, and family.

After groups presented the topics they discussed, Sylvia shared information about a "consent agenda" meeting format and recommended that the board consider moving towards this structure as a way to prioritize strategic topics each month versus devoting time to routine monthly business.  The board was interested in using this format.  Sylvia noted that this would require some board training and that if it did decide to use a consent agenda, board members would always have the right to remove an item from that agenda if they believed it warranted more discussion.