Bill provided a brief report. 

• The school is hiring for a Director of Special Projects and Bill asked board members to share this with their networks. 
• The next board meeting is on 8/28/19 and standing committee meetings will resume in September. 
• The DESE Renewal Inspection will take place the week of 9/16, with the specific day to be determined. 

There was no public comment.

The board discussed the memo from QPD regarding the status of the State Street project.  Due diligence is underway with QPD managing the process.  The board discussed the due diligence budget and the specific types of work that would take place.  Bill requested approval for up to $95,000 in due diligence spending as outlined in the due diligence budget that was presented, plus an additional $10,000 to cover limited diligence spending should the need arise, such as taking additional samples.  By the August meeting, the board will have much more detail about the building and site and be in a position to make decisions about project viability. 

Bill reported on discussions with Heritage Academy about renewing the school's lease for a third year (the 2020-21 school year) as a back up should it be necessary.  The school has reached an agreement to lease the space for $215,000, an increase of $10,000 over this year's rent, and anticipates working on a lease agreement over the next few months.

Bill presented the DESE Annual Report for 2018-19.  He noted that aademic progress for 2018-19 has been very strong across subjects and grade levels, according to ANet, MAP, and STEP.  While the school is not meeting its Accountability Plan goals related to STEP, this is related to the fact that the goal is quite ambitious and the school is scoring STEP very rigorously.  It is not an indication of underperformance.  He noted that the school continues to enroll and retain students that mirror the student body of the Springfield Public Schools.  The board discussed the language of the "Capital Plan" section and suggested a minor edit.

Bill presented the Application for Charter Renewal and noted that overall, the school has performed well on its Accountability Plan and the Charter School Performance Criteria (CSPC) and this is a very positive report.  He highlighted and discussed select areas in the report, including the sections related to compliance, dissemination, performance data, family survey data, the new CSPC criteria related to cultural responsiveness, professional climate, governance, and the plan for the next five years.  The board discussed the renewal process. 

Sally gave a Capital Campaign report and discussed progress towards the goal, highlighting the Davis Foundation's leadership matching gift.  Sally and Bill shared plans for next steps to leverage this grant. The board discussed how the work was going with Andrea Pursley and Sally, Bill, and Meghan shared that they feel she has been indispensable to this campaign given the time and expertise needed to execute on a major campaign like this.   

Meghan presented the June financials.  The end of year results were very strong  The change in net position at year end was $305,015, representing a surplus of more than $200,000 beyond what was budgeted.  This was a result of increased government grants and conservative spending throughout the year.   Meghan noted that school raised $196,000 in private support this year but that private support funding came in lower than budgeted on the School's statements because these funds were raised through the Friends of Springfield Prep and is represented on the Friends' financial statements. These funds will be transferred to the School in FY20 to cover specific programs and materials for which the grant funding was raised.  Meghan also noted that the school did not receive per pupil revenue in June due to a Department of Revenue error (this impacted all charter schools); this will be corrected in July.  Finally, the school received confirmation that this summer it would get the receivable it has been expecting.

Meghan reviewed the memo regarding contract approvals, explaining that all of these contracts have been approved as part of the FY20 budget, but that approving these contracts separately helps to process these payments efficiently without requiring additional signatures. 

The board discussed the board meeting schedule for FY20 and was in agreement that it made sense to keep the meetings scheduled for the last Wednesday of every month.  Bill will be in touch with committees about scheduling committee meetings.

The next board meeting is Wednesday, 8/28.