Opened it up for public comment, no public comment. 

Meekerley talked through what outcomes discussed in their committee meeting. Including instructional quality, SOA plan progress, retention risk, and external validation. For example, there was a significant difference in performance in students who joined Boston Prep in sixth grade vs students who gained after sixth grades. Additionally, we engaged in a couple partnerships including SpringPoint which came through our Barr grant. This was the second visit in the last two years, so they were able to see our growth over the past couple of years. They noted we have adopted new strategies but we needed to make sure all teachers returning and new are well equipped to implement. 

Additionally, reviewed some of the things that the data revealed. 

Discussed what looking ahead should look like in terms of suggested priorirites. 

1. Thinking deeply and critically how to integrate data into our systems and implement in a purposeful way

2. Expand student supports- we should continue, we are welcoming two new interventionalist in the fall and need to think through how to implement into meeting the students needs the most

3. Operationalize equity- make sure we are closing gaps specifically in the transition from 8th grade to 9th grade

4. Make sure all of our instructional tooks are coherent

5. Strengthen family and community- we have improved communication with parents, but want to make sure to continue to make this a priority

Finally, the outcomes committee met and reflected on how they did in outliving the charter. First off, Sarah James used to chair the outcomes committee, but Sari Laberis will be chairing this committee moving forward. Some of the things discussed:

1. Strategically pick key data points to focus on and communicate to the greater board

2. Anchor strategic plan dashboard

3. Establish a data cadence

4. connect family and student perspective

Principals voiced over updates from this year: key ways to keep parents informed, they are excited about the interventionalists for tier 2 and tier 3 supports. The HS principal specifically voiced the retention policy and thinking about and planning for future years and how to minimize that, the silver lining is we have been very proactive about these decisions which means they have not come as a surprise to families. 

Discussed the updates in terms of where the class of 2026 will be going. 97% accepted to 1 four year college, 93% completed FAFSA. Of 75 seniors, 49 to 4 year college, 16 to 2 year college, 4 certificate programs, 2 work/military. 

Diving further, last year 82% of students were accepted, which shows growth, last year 90% of students were accepted, also showing growth. We will have 16 students projected to graduate in August, there will be a ceremony for this in August, and and 2 students are being retained. 

Shared some alumni update, of the class of 2026, 17 of 48 (35%) students will be earning a 4 degree within in 6 years, 52% of students will have earned some form of credential.

Some things we are excited about is the summer/winter recovery is still happening. This year we had 21 students have payment for more course. 

Questions posed about persistence data

VaLonda kicked off the meeting by reflecting on the mission and taking a look at where we are in terms of the work we need to do and make sure we are all aligned. 

Reflecting on scale of 1-10 how strongly do you personally align with our mission? Which part of the mission feels most important to you?

Trustees voiced they feel aligned but specifically the lifelong ethical growth piece, and making sure that is part of the everyday experience and not only here but once they leave the building as well. We don't just care about them succeeding through college, but continue to be good people.

Some people focused on the importance of succeed in college, because families also emphasized that work starts at home as well. It is appreciated it, but getting them to succeed in college is crucial from the school.

VaLonda shared she is aligned at as a 10, the ethical growth is crucial, but getting an education through college, and the difference between a college education, and the parents who we bring their students here want that for their children, and we cannot lose sight of that. We want to make sure that students lead lives of choice, and we want them to be successful in what they do.

VaLonda shared data about why our mission matters. Whether we like it or not our black and brown children need to work against systemic racism, and ensure we are preparing them to succeed. Shared some stats about income disparities. 

Took time to reflect on if we are currently meeting our mission? Why or why not?

Trustees shared that the persistence data we just looked at shows no, we have never fully met the mission, but it is bigger than it has felt in a long time. Family trustee shared that her experience showed it work because her students graduated from college and had a job. We are not meeting it for all students, of the returning team, 0% of the team felt like we were entirely meeting the mission. This is heavy to sit with, no one wants to feel like we are failing students because they are doing the hard work, but there is more work to be done. 

We are succeeding in getting our students to college, and our on time graduation consistently exceeds state and national averages. We are great at getting them there. But are our students prepared to be successful once they are there? 

Our data is showing that our students are not prepared. For example we used to say that the MCAS was our floor for preparedness, but now our students are not meeting these standards. Our 10th graders are not passing.

Reflection: What data point are you sitting with as you reflect on our mission to prepare students for college success? 

- Comparison to charter peers, state, BPS, it sticks out that we are behind other schools, parents are choosing to send their kids here because we do have a high bar.

- SGPs sticks out, if we are below that, it means our students are starting to decline, this is a good warning sign to understand if we are headed in the right direction

We can all agree that we have room to grow. We have come a long way, we have adopted new curriculum, we still have room to grow to ensure we are preparing student better.

Three things we are focused on: Community, Engagement, Excellence.

Community: you are going to be focused on every day to ensure we are building urgency and engagement. From attuned report 72% of classrooms engaged students. Only 1/3 of classrooms observed had over 80% of students on task. On task rates ranged from 16% to 100%. 

We are going to really focused on having classrooms that are calm and focused spaces. We will plan bell to bell lessons that are paced out well. We will implement a first 10 minute routine in both MS and HS. Not a minute to waste. We know that students cannot learn from instruction they are not participating in. 

Engagement: there is an uneven use of the materials, and in many cases it is a diluted use of the curricula when it is being used. A focus on instructional systems, making sure our teachers are prepared to have an engaging class, you need to know the teachers moves needed to make the instruction great. We will maximize instructional time to ensure every minute of class is 60 seconds of teaching and learning for every student. 

The goal is all this work will great the environment for excellence. From the attuned report, grade level content was in 66% of classrooms, but facilitation of the lesson reduced the rigor of the task in 73% of classes. No one is trying to do this, but sometimes there is a misconception of what productive struggle looks like. 

Across many classrooms, a pattern emerged of teacher elaborating on student answers, and we are eliminating the challenge. The majority of students showed grade level work verbally or written in only 24% of observed classrooms. 

The focus on excellence will allow teachers to internalize what the highest level of engagement and work product will look like.

Question: The essence of this, the well experienced teacher will need to fundamentally need to change how they approach the lessons. 

- we are cutting away anything that is extra at this point, and focus on teaching teachers how to teach well, VaLonda has sat in on interviews and building a team of individuals committed to doing the work, we also have Chris Cook who is going to be chief of schools, and developing a plan to develop teachers and leaders. Part of choosing these words creates a framework in which we can measure our improvement in many ways. in terms of thinking about how we change staff, we are hoping this will make it easy. By having protocols and processes in how we run classrooms by each grade. Make sure that we are very clear in what we looking for in classrooms. Right now the tool we use for observations there are many focal points, by centering on the framework we are looking for focus. Everyone wants excellence, but we want to eliminate the feeling of being on an island. We have a lot of time with the teacher in the late summer. We will have 10 days with returning facility, and 15 days with new staff. And we will use this time together to ensure everyone is in the same place. We are trying to eliminate the extra. We are hoping to shift a bit to collaborate with the peers.

Chris cook was given an hour with the returning team to discuss about all the ways we talk about the mission. We had multiple conversations about all the work that is going to be done, we asked them to make a commitment to all the work. 

Making sure that the team coherence is aligned for leaders, on top of that there will be weekly observations, the tools we use to measure success need alignment. Different observers are not totally aligned on what needs to look like. And this is the focus for the summer. 

Are there going to opportunities for teachers to role play try on different techniques? For the August PD time period, there will be every day there will be 90 minutes of practice built in. We will lead into teacher like teach like champion. This is stuff that we do for in clinics for teachers, but the good news on this. This will feel like an adjustment, there is an answer to every teachers problem is just down the hallway. There are also excellent teachers here that we can use to model what needs to be done, And how we leverage the expertise in the building. We can august to do this modeling. 

Can you say a word on the balance between good instruction with clear instruction, and how to run a productive classroom, vs the other two buckets that excellent and engagement?

- We have to figure out from each teacher where they are getting the feedback on each, different leaders will be focused on different aspects, this will be continued to be mapped out. There is some ideas of different cohorts of staff focused on different focus. We are also bringing on an additional instructional coach who will be focused.

VaLonda will be reaching out to everyone by email to set up time to connect. 

Pivoted to discussing the budget. As a reminder the major changes are reducing our number of students enrolled from 690 to 670. The good news is we have received good data on the number students. We currently are projecting high 670 to 680 range.

From a staffing perspective, we have really been making a shift to add more staff in front of students, and more aligned with model. We did have to reduce back office size. We have had to add additional contingencies into the model because of difference pressures of federal grants. We will get our full federal grant allocations later in the summer. 

The budget requires 1.4 mil from fundraising. The debt service coverage ration 1.15x debt  service, scheduled 1.15 milx reserve funds of 1.5 mil. 

Reminder that there is an operational shift, because we will be cutting bussing as well. 

The finance committee to recommend the FY27 budget for approval on 6.22.

Trustee thanked  finance team for budgeting and responsible we are. And making sure we are on track.

previewed we just kicked off the audit for FY26 with the auditors, we have some compliance works. Reminded trustees to complete the financial disclosure and conflict of interest forms. There will be an audit summary in October, field work in September. 

Development team shared a quick reflection on development, they set out a number of metrics. We set out a lot of metrics, we saw growth in terms of the number of donors, specifically in toast sponsors. We are not yet seeing the level of giving to ensure we are fully meeting our goals. In a number of years in the number of donors. There is work to move donors up to make sure we are getting the level of giving we are capable of.

Currently, year to date we are at 1,434,000. We still have 20,000 gift that we typically get, we expect we will finish at 1, 470,000 of the goal. Last year we did hit the goal, We are a bit under. 

The development team did vote to keep the same goal. We see a path to 1.4 mil, but there is work to be done to get to the 1.5 mil.

The board has a received a complaint related to governance. We have received a formal complaint from a parent, this happens, and is an important part of being a charter school. Families have the right to file a complaint. They have filed the same exact complaint to DESE and has been logged in the PRS system. The board has 45 days to formally respond to a complaint. The board chair meets with board attorney and the executive director. 

The recommendation, that we tell family that they have logged it with the PRS, and we will defer to the legal system that the PRS follows, and if they have concerns after that we can go from there. The board should hear back by July and they can go from there. 

Governance committee wanted to provide a quick update on what they have been doing this year. The committee what intentional on keeping an eye on membership, they spoke with between 7-8 folks in joining the board, they have continued to refine trustee onboarding process. We have added Sari and Ben this year. And we have about 4 new folks joining committees. 

We have supported school leadership to manage ED transition.

Additionally, managed board meetings and committee meetings and making sure everything is in compliance with open meeting law. 

Reviewed the changes to committee assignments. Including non-voting committee members.

Reviewed the chairs for the committees

High level we have set dates for next year and the meetings, keep an eye out for calendar invites. One of the things we want is to have an in person meeting September 9th, very important to have people here. Keep an eye out for this info. 

There will also be additional meetings added on for ED search, Bryant will be leading this search.

One of the things we wanted was a clearer trustee onboarding plan. We will continue to discuss this, part of this is trustee buddies for them. We also hope to get an alumni trustee on

Board Chair thanked the 3 trustees rolling off.