No members of the public present.

Bill reviewed the Executive Director’s report as shared with the Board. He shared that the school just held its inaugural Staff vs. Student Basketball Game in the gymnasium and it felt celebratory to use our new space and have families in the building again.

• Meghan discussed the FY23 budget proposal. It has been reviewed by the finance committee and is substantially similar to the budget shared with the Board in March. She reviewed the budget memo, including the minor updates made since the Board reviewed the budget at the last meeting.
• Bob asked and Meghan confirmed that the school is within guidelines/benchmarks for cash on hand and expenses.

• Amy provided an overview of the Financial Entity Summary provided in the Board Packet and the discussion that the Finance committee had with the financing consultant for the building project. She shared that the committee was not concerned about the structure itself but wanted to understand how the legal entities were related and how funds move to ensure they can effectively provide oversight.
• Doug shared that the committee discussed with the consultant where there were areas of risk in the structure and felt comfortable with the level of risk inherent in this financing.
• Bob shared and Bill emphasized that the 3 entities are all designated as support entities to the school and that there is an overlap of Board members on each organization’s board to ensure they remain aligned and risk is mitigated.

• Bill discussed the proposed permanent charter amendment. He shared that the proposal would reduce our school year from 183 days to 180 days, which is a reduction of 2.5 school days. The proposal also reduces staff training in the summer by 2 days.
• Bill discussed the rationale for this change, which is similar to the temporary amendment proposed and approved at the last meeting (e.g., more experienced staff and school overall, logistical challenges of first week not being aligned with SPS schedule, low attendance in first week, additional full-year staff planning time, and employee recruitment/retention given our longer-day schedule).
• Sally asked if summer school would continue for the long-term, and Bill shared that it is the vision for Summer School to continue for multiple years, and that there would at least always be a program for students with an extended school year in their IEP.
• Bill shared that from the small group of families at the PAC meeting today, there was support for this change. He also noted that this was discussed at the Academic Achievement Committee.

• Bill discussed the Academic Dashboard as presented.
• He highlighted that the ANet ELA data is generally on track or nearly on track to pre-pandemic levels, but that writing scores were significantly lower than in pre-pandemic years. He noted that Math scores were not as high, but that the team still believes that the data indicates that students will show growth on MCAS.
• Sherriff noted that the Academic Achievement Committee discussed these results and they are focused on seeing growth over the next 1-2 years, rather than assuming it will happen this year or focusing on hitting pre-pandemic scores.
• Bill noted that the return to pre-pandemic levels may also not be uniform across the school, given the unique impact of the pandemic on each grade’s curriculum and student experiences.
• Bill highlighted the growth shown on STEP recently. He noted that being below target does not mean students are below grade level.

The next scheduled board meeting is on Wednesday, 5/25/22 at 5:45 PM.

THIS MEETING WILL BE HELD AT SPRINGFIELD PREP, and all Board members are requested to be present in person.

If needed, the Zoom link in Board on Track will still be available for those who cannot attend on-site.