Dr. Smith — Provided a few updates about the building's purchase and next steps. On Monday, I hand-delivered our Right of First Refusal document to TPS.  Jesse and I met with the Tulsa Facilities contractor, Randle Russell, last week to talk about next steps. We discussed the planning, design, and ordering process for planned repairs and renovations, and the timeline for these projects, some of which will take some time. Major renovation work with the HVAC will take place in the summer of 2027.  However, work will begin this summer to shore up all the operational systems, including HVAC, electrical and plumbing, and address any other stop-gap repairs we need. TPS’s facilities lead, their maintenance lead and the IT lead will be onsite on Friday, April 17th for a walkthrough with myself, Cathy and Jesse. At that time, TPS will give us a list of things they will remove or decommission that will remain in the building, and a timeline for any removals. There are two notable maintenance repair projects that have been ongoing.  One is a water leak in Marilyn Gates’ classroom and that project is about 2 years old. There have been some repairs, but the work is not completed.  Also, this past September, we had to close school due to the air conditioning going out.  TPS had to order a water pump that was shipped across the country and installed, but there is a second water pump that was ordered that also needs to be replaced, and that repair has not been completed. I have spoken with Mindy at TPS, and she has stated TPS will not expend any more money on the facility after the purchase of the building is closed. I raised a number of concerns about those two incomplete projects. She will elevate the concerns to TPS leadership. 

We started the 30-day window with POSSIP for the culture and climate survey today. The first enrollment window has closed, and the second has opened. All spots available during the first round have been filled except one for the senior class, leaving us with a school-wide total of 153 students on the wait list. Finally, last year, we applied for Title VI Indian Education grant.  We received a grant of nearly $10,000. This was our pilot year and our student engagement numbers have been low, as have the parent engagement numbers. The Title VI program and grant requires quite a bit of work for it to function correctly. Our population numbers have increased this year, but the number of students wanting to engage in this program remains low. I met with the Indian Parent Committee (IPC) that runs the program and recommended that, rather than us continuing to apply for that grant, we suspend the application grant that is open right now and no longer apply for those funds until such time in the future when both student and parent engagement increases. We will spend the funds we have received from the grant this year and, moving forward, we will create an Indian Education sub-account in the activity fund. Gift funds from the Cherokee Nation will fund the future plans for the Indian Education club. The parent group has voted to suspend the grant applications for now and disband the formal IPC organization, replacing it with a more informal parent leadership group. 

Dr. Hahn reports the school is in the testing phase of the year, and it is going well. I’m still conducting observations, and we are still building towards our goal of collective efficacy, which is getting teachers into each other’s classrooms more and getting good ideas out into the air as much as possible. From an instructional standpoint, teachers are doing really well. We’re currently in the season of planning curriculum, schedules, substitute teacher orientations and student orientation for SY27. Brainstorming has begun for ways to get parents informed and involved.  TSAS has a robust messaging system for parents that we’d like to ramp up for next year, and we are both planning and working to have students start emailing their parents frequent progress reports. We have piloted some of that already, and we are getting good results thus far. I have been meeting with 918 Fund to secure funding for the Summer Symposium. The person that handles grants emailed Dr. Liesa and me, wanting to hear more about what our plans are for the next few years. Some calendar change legislation has not been finalized and we are trying to balance calendars with other schools so that we are all set up for success, and we are preparing to have it all worked out by the may board meeting. 

Dr. Smith — The Friends of TSAS are still recruiting. There are two TSAS parents up for approval. Melody Allwine and Erin Abbott were instrumental in the Trivia Night that we had in the fall. The FoT are looking at two more members to add to the foundation that have specific fund-raising experience, and we are hoping they will be up for your review in May. The Friends of TSAS are also creating more formalized requests for funding. One of the things we talked about is making sure that when teachers are planning field trips, that they can articulate the instructional benefits as tied to the subject students are learning in the classroom. We would like to see the proposals for funding made to the FoT also express the educational benefits to students. In two weeks, the Speech and Debate team are presenting and Mr. Donaldson will be presenting about his Exploring Oklahoma program in May. The remainder of the year, the Friends of TSAS will be working on the strategy and goal setting for the next year.