As requested by Board Chair, a scholar should speak or present at each meeting. 

Tonight, Ra'Shyia Dunlap joined the board to share her experiences with medical, social and emotional supports from middle school to high school. She discussed coping techniques, therapy supports, testing supports, and other accomodations. Dunlap shared she feels like its a family-like environment and shared her experiences with leadership team members and experience as part of a village. 

Attendance: Monday-Thursday are content class days and experience consistent high attendance. Noticing decreases in Friday attendance due to Freedom Friday schedule. These concerns are being addressed during Q3 Purpose Pathway meetings. 

Enrollment: 209 is current enrollment. Still getting enrollment requests right now. We are accepting students on rolling admissions if courses align with current course offerings. Sometimes we try to push for a start at a new quarter or new school year. Two students are currently outstanding. We're seeing a push from students who were participating in online programs. 

End of Q3: Just returned from spring break. Saw an increase in GPAs and grades from beginning of quarter to the end of quarter. It was a quarter long climb-- students staying for after school office hours, Saturday study days, and more supports. Messaging to families has been centered around partnership with family, student, and school. Hyperfocused on supports for individual students who are struggling with motivation, effort, or academics. 

Curriculum/Supplemental Programs Update: Planning course offerings for next year are happening. Increasing the number of AP courses that are offered. Adding a senior seminar course-- both college and career seminars. Also looking at other programs for village planning and curriculum. 

Observations and Updates: Teachers select an observation for AJA to attend -- April 10th-April 12th. More data will be shared in May board meeting. 

Professional Development

ELL-We are constantly looking for ways to increase supports and programming for ELL students. Kaitlyn Reimer has been attending Saturday seminars for multi-lingual learners with our current ELL consultant to increase supports and model around PD. 

Culture- Weekly data meetings and daily culture walks. We haven't done as many culture professional development as much as academic sessions. Individual walks and feedback are happening with teachers. Academic development are happening weekly-- culture data is being sprinkled in during staff meetings. Planning for norming and systems for next year are happening now.

Leadership- Operations, Advocacy, Human Resource and Hiring. 

Parent & Community Updates

• Enrollment Iniatives: Lunch & Learns, Middle School Partners, Shadow Days etc. Working with partners to determine how we can last minute kids who haven't chosen a school yet. 
• Job Shadowing: May 5th, 2023

School Culture: School culture was extremely busy with behavioral issues. We're experiencing different issues with increased number of students. 23 suspensions YTD: 61% physical aggression and 13% Physical Aggression

Increased the frequency of surveys that go out to students, staff, and teachers. 

Doing a lot of work with peer mentors to try to support with behaviorial issues or culture concerns. AJA is working with student council on these efforts. 

Concerns from scholars around racial issues. Latinx Heritage Month vs Black History month concerns.

Staff Culture: Early release and Friday rotations happening for staff members. 

Talent/Hiring: Hosting interview day this Saturday, March 25th. Leadership team has been interviewing for leadership positions, instruction, and operations postions.  Phone screens and interviews are happening currently as well. 

Scholar Trips: HBCU College Trip for Upperclassmen; sophomores in STL; 9th grade camping trip

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Academic Reports 

• CAO, Kaitlyn Reimer, joined to share academic data from YTD. 
• Internal Goal: 80 points total for total growth points for the school year.
• 20 points growth in ELA and Math in both semesters. 
• Typical annual growth for SAT is approx 50-60 points. 

We're excited about 9th grade performance; concerned about 10th grade; and somewhat concerned about 11th/12th grade. 

Reflections:

• 9th grade math data-- strong data for Ms. Ndahayo. Best results coming from a first year teacher. 
• ELA team: all teachers have been with us since year 1 and shows in outcomes in terms of students. 
• 10th grade: Seeing stagnancy; seeing less experienced teachers struggling and COVID impacts this grade level. Their experiences varied drastically from our innagural cohort
• 11th grade/12th grade: Disappointed in results because students are participating in weekly SAT prep coureses via zoom on Fridays. 

Response

• Short Term(Jan-May): Switch to co-teaching model and assessment data presentations; get better faster for teachers in 10th grade 
• Long Term (23-24): Unit Test Based Interim Assessment Program
• Curriculum Codification Project 

No Updates Here. 

With Courtney rolling off, we need to determine who is going to be filling this role. 

Build calendar of requirements and compliance on the governance side. 

Nothing major to share or mention.

Looking at financials for the STL <> BELIEVE CCHS. 

Budget approval for May; Finance committee meeting will be able to do a deep dive review at April meeting. 

Next month's meeting will be happening at the AMP. 

Treasure Map Template shared with team members --> Need board members to complete + add folks in their network. 

• Development Committee moving and off the ground. 
• Scholars participating in board meetings
• Academic team sharing updates and reports 

May 5th job shadowing day!! More exposure the better for our scholars. 

Next board meeting is at the AMP. Bring a friend, someone from our network, or spouse!