Opened for public comment, no public comment. Reviewed the mission to set and remind what we are working towards.

Meekerley lead review of academic and school health metrics. Our enrollment numbers are still slightly below our goal of 690 at 679. in terms of absenteeism, are below BPS and remains stable since October meeting. Suspensions are still not where we would like them, and we are addressing the issues that rise. Our staff vacancy is a win, we only have one vacancy. Also previews persistence data for this year, and is on track to meet metrics.

Mid year update was given, we saw strongest growth in grade 11, several grades are now meeting or exceeding the 60% standards mastery benchmark. We saw ELL increase +8, but there is still a persistence gap between GenEd and IEP learners. Instructional teams have developed a 6 week reteach plans to align with the gaps we saw. Particular emphasis was on multi-step learning and reasoning. Question, was asked about what the student growth marks we would like to see. Take away is that we saw growth but still not as much as we would like to see. Clarified, that you want 100% of students meeting 70% of the standards at minimum. Clarified that math was not as strong but there was growth. This data will be reviewed in depth at next outcomes. 

For persistence update we had Ariel Perry from the persistence team and Alissa a current senior student. Aaron Canto our director of Persistence. Our goal is 85% of graduate matriculate, 99% of BP students have applied to college, 75% have completed FAFSA,  81% of students have been accepted to a 4- year college already. Notable wins, reintroduction of college prep seminars, on the spot college visits gained early buy in, growth in AP and pre-college credits. Persistence challenges, expanding early decisions applications, fly in exposure more of our students are interest out of state and competitive schools, requiring strategic budgeting and accommodations, college preparedness we continue to partner with our HS team to ensure our students are prepared as possible for their time in college. We want to make sure our students continue to have over a 3.0 and send them to colleges that have high graduation rates.

Question: How many of the summer enrichment represent these out of state experiences? For example the Syracuse, NYU. We had a Colorado college rep come this year, we are hoping to send a student to a program there this summer. We have a lot of resources here for colleges, but we do want to open it up to students to visit other spaces if that is what they want. This requires resources. 

Has there been research into doing an experience at a NESCAC or HBCU: we consider also the financial burdens of schools, but also encourage students and families to explore their college needs. We hope that in the fall and spring visits we are exposing all students to school that have been proven to be affordable for students and families. Canto also mentioned that the further you go, the more likely you are able to persist because you are forced to get more immersed in the campus and learn to gain new networks. This was from the case study in 2019, and we are getting close to needing to conduct a new case study and compare to the national trends.

60% of alumni graduates early at a four-year degree in four years. 55% of students are currently on track to earn a degree in 4 years. 

Some wins we have seen are that students we have alumni counselors more on campus again, we've seen an increase in alumni desiring to reconnect with the Boston Prep community and alumni counselors. A lot of our touch points are around how do you use BP as a support,, but how do you use the resources on your campus to get support and internships and ultimately land a job after graduation. In high school we are working on that in terms of executive functioning so that they leave BP ready to advocate and thrive. Transitioning from survival to thriving. 

Question was asked: how are we tracking post college graduation careers? We are starting to track it, but there have been challenges tracking proactively. This is something that down the pipeline that we want to start regularly track so we can ensure our students are using their degrees to its fullest potential.  But the focus for now is focused on earning the degree. Alumni after graduation are connected with through an alumni newsletter, but this is also something that we are working on building a stronger foundation with. 

Question: How are we seeing how High school mastery is impacting persistence data? We are still seeing that high school GPA is still the biggest indicator of how they will do in college. There remains an urgency around this. 

Welcomed Alissa a senior and Ariel who was her college counselor to take through their journey.  She has been accepted to 14/21 schools she has been accepted. 

How has the process been? Junior year it was focused on what kind of schools am I looking for in schools? The counselors really know me well they are my coaches and counselors, and they know the kind of careers they are looking for. Which has really helped.

Asked Ariel how her experience is, being able to have facetime students in school and multiple times a week. Especially for students who have lower GPA and are seeking options in 4 year colleges and help them navigate those options. Also working with students who are high performing and allowing them to explore further. We have been really enjoying have the college seminar. We do think that getting this exposure earlier than junior year in a more targeted sense. And showing them their transcripts for the entire high school and what will be sent to colleges. We need to think about what this targeted support could look like Freshmen and Sophomore year.

What resources are sent to families to support sophomores? We are thinking as we use the newsletter of what would be helpful.

We have seen a trend in increase number of applications student are submitting. Additionally, we have seen a trend in students applying to more unknown universities. This is because of students taking ownership over their own college research process. We are finding that further options of schools do have comparable financial aid packages, so as an office we are gaining a wealth of knowledge and able to expand our options we bring.

Alissa shared what programs she has been participating in, this past summer she stayed on Phillips Exeter campus with around 700 students. As well as MSsquared program, which has helped her develop as a person, and is advocating for other students to join and gain more connections. Because of this program she has gained connections with people with a Dean at yale. 

Sarah  explained the purpose behind the Board composition survey, this reason that we do this is to ensure we understand all the needs and strengths of the board. To ensure we are able to fulfill all board tasks. This survey revealed that we have strong analytical and problem solving skills, experience with data, long range budget planning, solid start up temperant. We are seeking more development, facilities, governance, and finance specialized in school budget. We always encourage this group to think about their networks and if there is someone you think would be interested in connecting with the work being done at the school. 

Introduced Sari Laberis, who the governance has voted to recommend to the board during the current school year. This recommendation reflects alignment with board skill needs, readiness to contribute long term, capacity to grow into future leadership. She works for Curriculum Associates, which is actually the company that runs iReady. She has joined outcomes committee meetings and has already started the work in that capacity.

Question: she would need to leave conversation about voting on iReady, but most of these are actually on management side vs board conversations. We are very excited about her connection to curriculum associates, so she can support in how we think strategically and connect to this data. 

Another context, is governance has been working to bring prospective trustees into the term. So we are being strategic about when we vote trustees in terms of maxing out their term limits. We have been bringing individuals onto committees, and Sari expertise is needed to bring on now. She has an extremely high bar for student outcomes and will be appreciated on the board.

Pivoted to information on the upcoming DESE site visit. We are mid review cycle, and they are sending a team to review the school and functioning. Lily is handling it on the school side, and is coordinating with trustees to attend. This will be virtual site visit. There will be a session to go over the logistics prior to the visit. Our last DESE visit we were renewed without any contingencies. 

The other event coming up is on March 27th, in person at Boston Prep. 8-2 PM. It will be focused on what work the board needs to do to be the most supportive of the school, including succession planning, manual work, etc. 

Updated that we are over 1mil towards fundraising goal. We have vetted that we have 42k fundraising gaps

To close this gap we are need to lean on the trustees to help rally their networks. We ask they send names or emails out to make their asks. Gave some work time. Thank Trustees for all their work and commitment to this.

Tyler led a deep dive into how finances work at Boston Prep.  91% of budget comes from per student tuition, it is about 27.7k per student this year. Federal grants 7% of budget, this a big topic currently amongst the government. This included the lunch and breakfast programs. And then fundraising 3% of our budget, and it has a larger impact on the covenant. But this covers summer enrichment, persistence supports, students trips. Public dollars can not go to alumni work, therefore we need this.

Reviewed the breakdown of expenditures, our biggest costs are staff-- benefits, salaries, staff compensation. Secondly, is our building costs, unlike public districts we have to pay for these, and we have administrative costs. We budget conservatively and want to make sure we breakeven and want to make sure we are maximizing the dollars towards students. 

Covenants: Liquidity covenant, per month we have 2 mil costs, and they say to be in good standing you would want 3x month in cash. The covenant for DSCR requires the school to generate 1.15 for event 1.00 in debt owed. Confirms we can comfortably cover building payments. This is the most restrictive covenant that changes the way we would budget or how we would spend our funds. Tyler also explained the relationship between our foundation and school. There is a lot of relationships between the two. The school gets public revenue to the state and we pay out expenses for administrative costs, and the rent payments aren't sent. The reason the school doesn't own the building, and requires DESE review, the foundation is as 501c3 is protected from this renewal state. The goal is ensure that the most assets are protected by the foundation. Foundation is built by fundraising, and it has annual transfer, loan payment, other foundation expenses including the Toast costs, etc. It is extremely important and Dev and Finance team meet monthly to ensure we are on track with donations, and increasing these are extremely impactful. 

Emphasized that the fundraising goal is budgeted at 1.5. Trustees took time to make sure all trustees are bought in on the fundraising goal, and there is not wiggle room. As a reminder the foundation has a board as well, this foundation board is lead by Bill Clark and John Grandin. They sit on development and finance so there is a lot of communication between. Tyler, Anders, and Lily work with foundation board to ensure there is full alignment. The mission of the foundation is to support the school fulfill its mission. A lot of the foundation members were previously. Questions were asked about how certain we are about the 42k gap. 

We are under enrolled by 11 students, which is something as a finance committee we have discussed and discussed that we are not making the cuts mid year and instead we will be making a transfer of reserves that we have been building in past year. Every dollar we fundraise over the 1.5 mil goal are dollars we can use to close the reserve funds we going to need. We do not want to make any student facing cuts.

Enrollment in schools in Boston is declining, but we need to proactively change how we budget for enrollment in our new reality. To ensure we do not get to the same place budgeting next year. The school leadership team has been working proactively. We really do not want to touch student facing roles. We are still focused on the budgeting non-negotiables: Academic gains prioritized, highest need students prioritized, instructional leadership prioritized.

One change we have already decided on is that we are going to need cut the private bussing, given the gaps we need to rejoin the BPS bussing. This is an initial first move. This would save us about $600,000 in savings. This has helped us close the gap closer to $350,000 gap. This will shift how our operations team has to navigate next year. They are exploring what kind of additional staffing we will need to make. Tyler and Meekerley have also held a meeting to discuss the needs of each team and where there might be room for cuts. For BPS bussing it is for kids 7-12 they are given a T pass. The question was asked about how many students that may have enrollment impacts. This is something that has been concerned and we think the benefits to budgeting outweigh the potential implications on enrollment. 

What things are happening to increase enrollment? Operations team is doing door to door canvassing, bus ads, T ads, mailings. but there are two things we need to do to increase enrollment--- bring new kids to Boston Prep but keep them once there by increasing academic results, retention is one of the main drivers at attrition. For example, a 68 at BP you are retained, but at BPS that you are passing there. We have done multiple supplemental lotteries, we had 4 students join in the month of January. We are still moving forward, the lottery closes beginning of march, and will re-open at the end of March.