There was no public comment.

Two students, Kaira (8th grade) and Analia (7th grade), joined the meeting to discuss their experience at Camp Beyond.  The board asked them a variety of questions: how safe and comfortable did they feel?  What did they do during their downtime?  How was the food? What was their favorite part? How did they grow?  The students shared their responses.  Both described really liking the camp experience and feeling like it made them feel more responsible for themselves and more independent.  

Bill shared that school is now underway for the 2023-024 school year and things are going well so far - the school is fully staffed, fully enrolled.  Bill reviewed some highlights that have happened throughout Summer Institute and the start of the year, including training with Jon Bennetts for early literacy teachers and the school’s annual Open House for families.  Bill reviewed the opening session slides that were shared with staff during  Summer Institute and explained the “Not Done Yet” theme for this school year.  Bill acknowledged Sarah for joining a session for our new staff training over the summer and highlighted the upcoming Latinx Heritage month event upcoming later this month.

Bill provided the rationale for the school’s performance evaluation system redesign, including the fact that the current system is  onerous for managers and that it does not fully align with the schol's priorities, values and goals, which have evolved over time.  Bill reported that the school requested three proposals and after review has ultimately determined Rebecca Cagle's could best meet the school’s needs and tailor a new performance evaluation system more directly to Springfield Prep for reasons of quality and value.  Sherriff asked about how the proposal and this work connects to our Strategic Plan and Meghan shared that this work was one of the strategic plan actions the working group identified.

As a reminder, we moved $125,000 into a capital reserve fund last year.  We have recently completed a window project to add operable windows to every classroom.  This was mostly funded by a grant, but there was about $30,000 that was not grant funded.  We also added a new sidewalk at a cost of approximately $10,000 to make drop-off and pick-up safer.  We are proposing a transfer of $40,665 from the capital reserve fund to cover this facilities work.  Amy noted that the projections table was very helpful.  Ron noted that this is exactly the kind of improvement this fund is intended for.  We are anticipating some facilities needs in the future and have considered the possibility of vehicle charging stations.

Meghan provided more details about the ways the new lease accounting standard impact our budget and financial statements even though they do not impact the actual cash expense.  We see a significantly increased expense in the early stage of the lease, but this will decrease in the later stages.  Amy noted that sometimes accounting can be counterintuitive and does not make logical sense.  Meghan noted that the goal of this discussion is to make sure the board understands that this is not a concern.  Sherriff asked if this change in accounting standard changes how we manage our budget.  Meghan explained that one impact is on the surplus calculation.  In terms of managing our budget, we should keep an eye on our cash flow because the profit and loss is not so directly tied to what is happening in our bank accounts.  Now that we adopted the lease standard, we will begin to have year over year financials that allow us to make direct comparisons.

Bill reviewed the board recruitment plan and shared that the governance committee reviewed the plan to identify specific priority areas. Bill noted some current potential future candidates and reviewed their areas of expertise.

Anne framed the slides.  

Sherriff shared themes from governance committee:

• Overwhelmingly positive - a true reflection of job Bill is doing
• Opportunities:
  • Fundraising - figuring out what Bill’s role can and should be in that
  • Role in advocacy and how the board can support that

Bob - the most important job of the board is to evaluate the CEO and support him.  What can we do to better support him?  We are lucky to have such a high-performing CEO!

• We’ve knocked off big things (like the building)
• Need to refocus on academics
• Staff comments/concerns about middle school are consistent and something to keep on our radar
  • Need to ensure that Bill has the staffing in place to support through added complexities - academics, middle school, financials, etc.  Is he satisfied with the support he has?  

Ron - as parent, really pleased with how the school has evolved to get to a place, I praise it.

Post-evaluation - what are Bill’s areas of focus now?  What are his goals that he wants to take on?  

• Look at his job description
• Need 100% participation from the board for next year
• Hold on salary discussion - wait for information for Edgility

Next steps:

• Sheriff will connect with Bill about general feedback
• Wait on Edgility salary feedback
• Share with board in September meeting
• Sarah/Anne to collaborate on the documentation

• Good flow tonight - hit the high points
• Great addition to have the students join - bringing the students into the room was helpful and closed the loop on the camp discussion
• Financial structure - this was a good flow from committee to the board meeting