• Bill recognized board members that represented the board as part of the charter renewal process and Ron and Kelvin for joining the Puerto Rican parade.  Bill shared upcoming events at the school and invited board members to attend.
• Bill reported that the site renewal visit went smoothly and the next step is that the school will receive a summary of review in December or January.
• Bill updated the board on the status of the alumni support program.
• Bill shared plans for board 1-on-1 meetings.

Amy presented the audit findings:  

• The headline is that this was a clean audit and there were no findings.
• We had a partner rotation this year and the partners shared that it was a smooth audit and that Marelin and Meghan were excellent to work with.
• The auditors reminded us to be mindful of our surplus and that we should track this so that we do not 
• Mary Kate noted that the financial ratios looked good and that we are in healthy shape.  She also noted that we are happy with the choice we made in terms of audit partners given we considered other auditing firms last year.   

• Ron noted that it is excellent to hear that a new audit partner validated that our financials and controls are in good shape.  

Sally thanked Meghan for the advice she's provided to the financial leader of another board she is on.

• Meghan Hoagland joined the meeting.  She introduced herself and described the work she has done and is doing at Springfield Prep.
• Bill presented their ongoing work with Hagar Berlin, focusing on strategic fundraising and storytelling to celebrate the school's 10-year anniversary. They shared the goal of expanding the school's donor base and growing additional foundation support. 
• Bill introduced the "Next Chapter Campaign" to raise approximately $300,000 annually for after-school, summer programming, high school advising, and alumni support, aiming to raise these necessary funds on a shorter 2-3 year timeline rather than annually, allowing for better long-term planning.
• Sherriff asked about whether this means we are prioritizing our Alumni Support Program over other fundraising.  Bill explained that we are hoping to be able to support existing programs and add this new program, and that  donors may be attracted to different programs.  He noted that if they fell short of fundraising goals, we would have to make choices, but there may be ways to do all of the programs, either in a more limited way or by offsetting some of the costs with program fees and a scholarship/hardship waiver option (e.g., for after school and summer programming).
• Bill asked how the board feels about making this more of a board priority than it has been in the past.  Sherriff felt like it was our strategic priority.  Sally agreed that it feels like the right time and we have never had someone in this role, like Meghan, to support board members in this.
• Meghan and Sarah described this as sharing opportunities to invest in our community.   
• Sarah suggested expanding the email list to include parents, and Bill agreed that this opportunity felt more appropriate than direct fundraising appeals to parents, given our public school status.
• Bill discussed the upcoming annual appeal for after-school programming and the potential for a board match.  The board agreed that matches like this are compelling and Bill said he would be in touch with board members about this.

Jess presented the MCAS and accountability slides. 

• She presented the school's strong performance, including exceeding state averages across subjects, improving in English Language Arts and Math, seeing significant decreases in the chronic attendance rate.  
• She highlighted the school's strong results for racial subgroups and low-income students.
• She noted that there is variation across grade levels, and explained that we have been working to better support grade levels and cohorts with lower performance.  
• She shared a question that came up at the academic achievement committee, about how students are doing who did not meet expectations.  She shared that in ELA, about 18% of students are very close to meeting expectations (about 2 items away).  In math, this is 20% (also about 2 items).
• She highlighted the SGP as a real bright spot.  DESE considers 60% high growth and we were at 60% in ELA and 59% in Math.  So, overall, as a school, we were high achieving and high growth.
• Amneris asked about our approach to intervention for students who are struggling.  Jess described how teachers reflect on curricular changes in terms of whether they meet student needs, as shown in the MCAS data and other forms of data.  This is essentially our process for continuous growth.
• The board talked about subgroup data and celebrated the results of Black and Latino and Low Income students.  Jess noted that there continues to be a gap between low income and non low income students in math, which is a gap that we need to continue to focus on closing.  
• She noted the gap between general education students and students with disabilities.  
• Bill described student performance and how it compares to other districts.  Compared to our sending district and many other area districts, the school's performance is very strong, though there is still a gap between our outcomes and those of the state's highest performing districts.  He also provided details about the school's accountability percentile and progress towards targets. 
• Jess reviewed the ways the school has responded to this data since we received it in early summer.
• Sally shared appreciation for Jess's leadership and how we are always using data like this to improve over time.
• Amy expressed gratitude for this information and for the way we present this data.  

Bill and Jess provided an overview of general school data and the VOCAL survey results. 

• In every category our school had higher favorability categories than state averages.
• Our least favorable student responses tend to be about student to student interactions versus interactions with teachers.  It seems like we may have more work to do supporting healthy peer relationships.
• There were very few discrepancies between subgroups, which is positive.
• Ron mentioned that his 7th grade nephew hasn't developed strong relationships even after many years at the school so this is something he is focusing more on with his kids.  There was discussion about the ways students can develop these relationships across the school given that our school isn't a neighborhood school like some district schools are.  

Bill described the proposed approach

• Sarah noted that going to fewer meetings makes sense but it makes attendance at each meeting more important.  
• Bob agreed with this approach.  
• The board was in agreement and Bill will update the schedule in BoardOnTrack. 

• Sarah reminded people of the ED evaluation, which is due next week.  She expressed the importance of completing this given that this is one of the board's key responsibilities.