There were no public comments.

Kruti Vyas was not able to attend.  We will consider the interest during out next board meeting.

No PTO update was provided to Jeff Landry.  (PTO activity is touched on during the directors report)

Jeff Hood shared that Ginger, Marc, Jeff L. and Jeff H. had discussions towards this topic. 

That we are executing against a larger plan, with out first step being to establish a data driven understanding of the current status of our school, a visioning of what long term success would look like, and then a process of identifying gaps between the two.  

We discussed that for the plan to be useful we intend to go wide with the effort, engaging, students (perhaps the Middle School student council), the staff, parents, DESE, etc.

For right now in the process we are thinking about ending 2025 establishing that clear and accurate picture of where we are.  Tactically, the next activity will be the first rounds with the stake holder surveys, along with a swot analysis.

There was no questions / comments.

Hannah reviewed this policy,  

Veronica had a question associated with the reimbursement amount and that it was not clear what is the amount?  In her experience, tuition reimbursement was done based on a grade of A being 100%, B being 90%, etc.  

Paul, is this only for future classes?  Yes.  

Kristin,  when does this go in effect.  Immediately, but will apply to reimbursements for classes starting next year.   

We provisionally voted and approved this policy subject to the policy being modified to repay an employee up to 100%. 

School nurse, Mindy Rameau, reviewed this policy, to be in alignment with current Massachusetts public laws.

Jeff L, was the schools prior practice in compliance? Generally it was according to Mindy.

Veronica, we need to create a sub committee for the directors evaluation.  Jeff H Veronica, Jeff L to help…

Jeff Hood participated in an advocacy call with Representative Andy Vargas's office last month, he was not able to make the call, and we spoke to Sasha there (our former student). 

Ginger reviewed the report she provided at a high level.

DESE, accountability amendment just approved.

The change submitted by Jeff L to DESE regarding leadership is still something we have not heard back regarding and Ginger will follow up.

1st goal; To elevate teaching and learning, Michelle, staff person working 1:1 with a student, now doing math intervention when that person was out … (Shannon is back), sees 29 students, 29 more could use services, will use Michelle to provide some full time support in this space.  May need to use her for a sub during the winter.

MCSPA gave Hill View a nice shout out via linkedin regarding literacy work upstairs in the Birch room … we are working on getting that fully implemented.

On the topic of family & community engagement, a food pantry was created  & Carla is managing that.

Trunk or treat was held last month, a wonderful  event! Great Trunks!

November 4th, the school held a full day of professional development.  The school invited all Haverhill public schools.  4 from River Valley attended, this was a part of the school’s accountability goal.

Next week is the gratitude feast, serving pie to the students and staff.  Kids will sit with others with the same birthday month.   Longer term there is a vision make this a recurring event and that we invite graduated alumni.  Kirsten is also going to do this in her classroom.  For nut free / gluten requirements one parent offered to make pies for that.  

December  2nd there will be a session to be held on the topic of screen time, this will be discussed during the parent teacher conferences on Friday.

December 11th is the Winter concert

Jan 27th will be a session on ADHD, next will be anxiety

For the MLK holiday the school is looking to have a day of service in the community, this may be expanded to a week or service.  

There will be a mid year visit DESE, which have some board action items.  Jeff H will connect with Jeff L in the coming days to review the requirements and work to provide any supporting resources.  Veronica asked/confirmed that  historically they have meet with board members?  This was confirmed.  

Enrollment update.  We have steady numbers.   Veronica made a request, that on the chart in the report, can we please add the waiting list number for each grade.  Ginger will do this.  

Today was the last day for Dennis, Rob Stevenson replaced him and he started last week.

From Marc, the roof repair was completed.  Also the 2nd HVAC failed unit is now up and running.

From Marc, we no longer will be working with Insource.  Moving this to Central Source.   We discussed it's critical to have the board have accurate financials every month, and Marc explained how there were questions he had on the accuracy of the accounting from Insource. Veronica, asked Ganesh if he received Quick book access.  No.  

For Marc, Jeff H asked if he provided Pentucket Bank the information requested.  Marc sent information, and also left a voice mail and email to ask if he needed anything else.  

No meeting held this month. 

Jeff H asked each board member, if they have time and capacity, to consider assisting Jennie Green with the Rock and Roll bingo fund raiser being held in the spring.  She was working to have small discrete tasks that could be worked on to assist the larger effort.

Finance didn’t get details from Insource until right before the finance meeting.  Ganesh worked with Marc, in summary it was reported that the financials were favorable compared to the budget.  Some things are expected to be wrong with the accounting from Elizabeth … cash wise the school has 89 days vs the DESE expectation of 60 days, the nutrition category is favorable as compared to the budget, the debt service coverage ratio 1.74, which is also in alignment with the DESE framework.  A more robust analysis is expected when the accurate November data is received.   Jeff L asked if the salary numbers were trending favorable?  Marc said  they have salary showing at under what was projected  … we know that is not correct … and it shows the  gap increasing monthly.  Analysis / forecast shows under by $455K… expect something is wrong with the spread sheet.  We didn’t have the opportunity to review all cells in details.  We found several items recorded incorrectly.    Jeff H made the point that there was concern that we don’t have accurate financials.  If we need to escalate or if the board needs to help get us involved.  Marc spoke to the transition to the new accounting service, and when they take over the contract.  Jeff l, made the point that if we need to go through payroll we can.   

No December meeting.  January 22nd will be our next meeting.