Opening Items

call to order 5:06pm

back to order 7:16pm

Trustees:     
Emilie Larew (Chair)                   Emily Hirsch 
Leslie Woolley (Vice Chair)          Rocky Montz
Dara Williams (Secretary)            Andrew Paris
Susan Ackerman                       Ellen Pfahler
Amanda Campbell                     Robert Rene
Deanna Hamilton                                            
        
                            
Student Liaison: Ben Makhani

PCHS Management:
Dr. Pamela Magee, Executive Director / Principal
Greg Wood, Chief Business Officer

 

Non-agenda items: No individual presentation shall be for more than two (2) minutes and the total time for this purpose shall not exceed sixteen (16) minutes.  Board members will not respond to presentations and no action can be taken.  However, the Board may give direction to staff following a presentation. Speakers may choose to speak during the public comment segment and/or at the time an agenda item is presented.

Crage Ah spoke - public comment. Steve Cifenelle incident was the focus.

Tom Kaleo spoke -- public comment. Gave strong accolades to Coach Steve Cifenelle and the incident.

Monzan Alzade spoke - pubic comment. A former wrestler of Coach Steve Cifenelle and gave accolades to the coach.

Delila Chapman -- public comment. Gave compliments and reflected on Coach Steve Cifenelle and his service with students.


 

February 21, 2017 Regular Meeting

Reviewed changes we need to our meeting minutes for February. We have some misspellings we need to correct

Carol Croland - name spelling update
Cristina Coatland - name spelling update

Update to list the full name of the policy we approved.

Motion was to table and bring the MMs back for approval for our next BoT Mtg in April.

Academic Excellence

Ms Cervantes gave a presentation regarding the ELAC program at Pali. She reviewed our ELAC program improvement system that has been helping our student (for the last 5 years) to improve on their performance.Our metrics have been showing increasing higher scores. We have new tests based on different state requirements and she wanted to point out that English Learner Progress requires scoring higher on more difficult testing requirements. Students will have to hit strong passing grades to meet the measures of CELDT and Reclassification rates that are part of the new State Indicators. This is required for all students who are English Learners.

The English Learner Advisory Committee meets with Ms. Cervantes (once a month) and everyone is invited, which focuses on student learning needs and funding.
The ELAC Committee is recommending:
1) more adult teacher aid for math classes; Algebra 1 A/B, Geometry and Algebra 2 A/B.
2) Allocating funds for Writing Center to be open during the entire school day
3) Adding at least five courses to the existing ones during period 7.
4) When choosing priorities for placement of courses in the Master Schedule, ELAC courses should receive priority.
5) Grouping English Learners in academic classes when possible.
6) Hire a Spanish/English Tutor /Counselor for student servicing and to provide support.
 

Jeff Hartman spoke - SMC contract updates:

Section (3.8 on page 42) we decide if a student gets a second dual enrollment. SMC wants to make sure we are approving dual enrollment.

Section (6.4) SMC courses taught by our teachers. Our teachers take the curriculum and teachers take the courses and put their spin on it. This section is to ensure this is SMC curriculum

Section (  )

Section (6.14) - SMC may have to sent a representative to ensure that the information being taught in the classroom is the correct curriculum.

Section 7.2 we pay our own teachers! It keeps things clean and we avoid complexity and SMC is out of it and its just their curriculum.

Section 7.3/7.4 - SMC pays their own professors, they just use our room.

Section 7.4 - if we want SMC's professor to stay later, we would pay them for the overtime. We would be responsible

Section 7.7 - teachers have to stay with the student the whole time.

7.12 - SMC can resind teachers arrangement 

8.6 - SMC has some rules, if you drop the class on the SMC side, you can still get credit from the Pali side.

Section 13.2 - SMC agrees (agreement) they will provide us a roster with grades and we can give them their credits. Eliminates headaches by having an expeditor.

Dara Williams suggested we get some additional clarity about the terms. And we modify the CCAP start/end dates Feb 14 and end June 14.

Objective is to put in processes in place to help students with cronic truencies/abscences.

There is an opportunity to partner with some other schools which will give us acess to other resources that can bring us resrouces we need.

Dashboards and the need to quicly look at shcool data to measure progress and it ties into our school-wide goals. This tool will give us quick access. Schoolzilla is a platform that is growing.

It takes about three months to build our dashboards the way we want them. We are meeting with Schoolzilla reps this Thursday to discuss further.

August Board retreat - gave us the opportunity to identify goals.

The key areas:
Teacher communications, Improving our Sports Programs, Unity Programs and more.

Dr. Magee put together a document which came from al the Administrators - highlighting the key positive areas that are happening at Pali and what the Administration is doing to improve the Points of Pride at Pali - based on reflecting our (1) year progress.

Governance

Review the existing policies - Rocky shared updates. Finalized all the paperwork to explain what is needed to apply. 
Reviewed policy/procedures (they are in good shape). Goal is to increase number of candidates. Goal is to get Infinite Campus working to help us get all information metrics, get parents to vote.We still need to focus on identifying good candidates. We have two weeks left based on timeline until March 31, 2017.

 

We have 6 seats open.

Please fill out your paperwork - if you are interested and get it to Shelby Ladnier in the front office for processing.

We would like to know all details, or challenges to those who would like to re-run. We want parents to run - only if your student is already a student. No loop holes for parents who's children will be incoming.

Rocky needs a contract approved and financing by April 18th to move forward with this project this summer. He asks that a final decision be made as soon as possible. April 18th is very late, and if we cannot make that date of approval work, this project will move to next year, and we have safety concerns.
I.5 million is what is has been requested. The Board will have to have a special 24 hour advanced meeting to look over the contract.

If this is going to be a two step process, Board needs to be aware of that.
2 step process:
1.2 million is what the track/field will cost so it's the minimum needed. We need a 1 million dollar loan and it has to be ready by April (sign off).
$300K for stadium can happen in a separate project.

The Board needs a contract with the details. 

We have been fundraising and will continue thru the summer. We can look at financing the balance  and paying it back wihen we get the fundraising (as long as there are no pre-payment penalties) to pay down the loan.

We do make money on renting out various space on campus.

Last year at this time to consolidate and pay off the pool loan, we asked the board to vote on a life time health benefit account to lend the Civic Center permit.
We entered into a five year $835K loan paying back (4 1/2 interest). $710K balance, $29K interest has been paid.
The County wants Pali to reaffirm that the Board will intraf-und this loan with the Civic Center Permit Account. The timetable to pay this off is a five year loan payback.Greg supports the continued relationship of this arrangement.

Dara moves to approve the cash borrowing. Ellen Pfahler seconds the motion. Motion passes. All not interested voted, Employees 4 abstanded. All non -employeed voted yes.

Finance

Starts on page 67 - gives school districts opportunity to reaccess their reports and they can revise or change projections to the end of the year.
Summarize: Total assets of 17.7 million dollars. Liability: 7million Fund balance: Liquid Assets:10.5 million
Required: format breaks down revenue and expenses to show all areas - Greg proposes certain guidance based on our selected funds and explains to the Board the key value of this report.
Special Ed is an example of a program we are required to put in place. Emilie Larew commented that we are using some of our funding to support these programs and bring benefits to our students.

We provide to special needs students (270 students currently enrolled). We as a Charter school are above the norm. It is a misnomor that we do not sponsor special ed students. If we increase this number, we would have to get more funding to support the need.

All school districts are wrestling with budget and funding issues/increases. Do we need to make cuts to accommodate changes? 

l Budget & Finance Committee Meetings, we discuss forward planning. They are formulating to lay out strategies and present to the Board. To anticipate and delegate new direction.

 

We have from our auditors/cpa our returns.

The documents attached, are federally mandated and show transparency (show salaries/benefits).
How are we using fundraising revenues/expenses against those activities.

We have not filed yet. We have until May 15, 2017.

 

Student Transportation Request for Proposal (RFP)

We have an increase of $200K for Transportation costs currently. We have (853 students currently using our transportation services) and that may increase as the school grows and diversifies more. That number has increased since 2015. Due to the diversity of our students and financial challenges, Pali has not increased the monthlly charge. Pali needs to find a way to fund the ever increasing costs We may be able to save 1 million costs per year with the right solution. We have to find a way to accommodate the students, and yet we have to find a way to get funding to offset the cost to Pali. The Board to put out a Transportation proposal and we need to add some resources to analyze the costs hitting Pali every month.

We have not changed the monthly charge to parents for transportation costs for three years, even though we have been subsidizing the cost increase for the last 3 years. We are looking for better prices and we have put out a bid. 
Can we use Blue Line Services or other.

We may want to create a Transportation Committee?

 

Cafeteria Request for Proposal (RFP)

Deficit $37K

Sodexo has been the same food provider and they are potentially losing money every year. They tried to solve their problem by revamping their staff (clean house) etc., to save on labor cost.

At the CCSA Conference, Greg suggested perhaps we can network and get some other options regarding food service opportunities.

Greg proposes putting out a Food Service Bid to prospects; advertising, engaging all stakeholders and fully engaging students for tastings and get their buy in. Potentially buying a biometric service to put your finger print.

We will have about $133K to spend (2018/2019). We can strategize and maximize the money.

Table this discussion. Revisit when we have 2017/2018 budget. Move to the June 6th BoT Agenda.

Table to next month.

CGI is helping LACOE get up to date. We have been given the opportunity to help them reformat and customize their system. We have an MOU a shared cost five year committment to fund this committment. We will need to pay $13K a year to fund this project and be on the front end of the project. Greg would like the Board to approve of this. The Budget Committee approved this.

Robert Rene makes a motion to approve the LACOE Financial System MOU.
Ellen Pfahler seconded. 

4 employee's abstained.

Motion passed.

We have implemented the new Website. We are making changes as we go

Dara suggested we send out a communication to help people understand (an e-mail tutorial). 

As submitted

Including Consolidated Application (CONAPP)

Stands as submitted.

As submitted

As submitted

Amy passed out additional materials.

6 people retired last year. We reviewed 2015/2016 Retirement Projections and 

Track & Field = $1.2Million needed
Lighting Project Prop 99 to help fund
Raised $29K from Auction
Selling Bricks - introduced at last Saturdays auction
Mike is working with Cindy Cesan to get sponsorship for the track.
Corporate Sponsorship - where they can have a small logo on the 20 yard line.
Special Solicitation - AYSO

Income for rental fee's could pay off in 3 years, but we need to fund this by June 2018.

Mike mentioned there are ways to eleviate some budget constraints like repositioning for raising money for English Learning needs.

ASB update - swim team won

spring sports are under way.

Unity day/Activity Day - cool events going on to promote a more inclusive nurturing environment to all the students @ Pali High.

Would like to get a two week paycheck instead of one month.

Sharing student grades.

Amanda Campbell has resigned from the Board.

As submitted

The next meeting date is likely to change. Going to be postponed to June 2017.

Originally scheduled for March. It has been postponed. Susan Frank and Amy Nguyen are deciding.

Emilie is working on getting this rolling (within the next 6 weeks).

Moved to approve by Rocky Montz and was seconded by Andy Paris

Moved to pass by Rocky Montz and seconded y Andrew Paris

(Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to paragraph (2) or (3) of
subdivision (d) of Section 54956.9)