Prior to this meeting, the school based team discussed whether we should have 1 or 2 more board meetings this school year. To make sure all necessary votes and discussion points are thoroughly met and discussed. To decide the answer, the committee looked at the end of year topics that need follow-up. Opened it up to the committee to see if they think we should keep the scheduled board meetings or condense to one June meeting. 

The committee discussed, if we are discussing board recruitment at this upcoming board meeting. Or are we shifting to start onboarding in the fall of the school year. Specifically, for one team staff trustees, Meekerley and Lauren want the school staff for that year to be the ones voting in the trustees. Claire and Kim, mentioned the importance of being strategic with the trustees that we are bringing in. And making sure we have board that has broad strengths they bring. We want to make sure that trustees that we bring in fill the gaps we currently have. We want to prioritize finding a former educator to have on the board, in addition to one team and family trustee. Also, mentioned having someone who is data savvy would be helpful for the Board. Lauren mentioned the importance of bringing in people who align with the goals of the board, where we want to head in best service of the school. 

Meekerley mentioned that other schools post Trustee public Linkedin and idealists, for trustees and staff tor repost. Lauren backed up that the benefits of this is that it sets the expectations that it is a job and that it broadens our outreach to new potential board members. Sarah mentioned there are some concerns with bringing in someone that is not directly connected to the school. The committee discussed reaching out to corporate partners as well to see if they have employees who would want to support us by being a committee member or trustee.  As a school we need to be crystal clear on what focuses of the school that they will need to support in the upcoming school year. 

Lauren, pushed to make sure that the Board members have that they are on the Board of Boston Prep. To start the conversations for greater networks that they support our school. Additionally, there are Boston Prep social media posts that they could start by posting. 

Specifically next year we hope to have more people in the higher ed space, people in finance backgrounds, people in non-profit space, real estate offerings, etc. 

Pivoted to discussion about the specific responsibilities of what it means to be on the Boston Prep board. Attendance at meetings is mandatory, at what threshold does attendance become a problem? It is important that people are at the retreat, the Toast, committee meetings, board meetings. We need to be clear on what we expect out of Board members and what we need them to bring to the table. This conversation needs to happen with current board members as well. 

The committee reviewed an example of a trustee handbook from another school as well as an old trustee role description from Boston Prep.

Lauren and school team are going to work on a draft of a trustee handbook over the summer to reset the expectations for both new and existing trustees. We will also think about what current trustees can do to help us expand our pipeline of trustees. For the board meeting we will need slide about how board recruitment will work, what we need for the school priorities, and what we need from trustees. 

Discussed, how and when the school will share students, staff, and family data with the board in the upcoming meetings.

Sarah shared that we are going to follow the same process and timeline for ED evaluation. Meekerley had her mid year already, and there will be interviews with direct reports. There will be a narrative finalized before the end of the year and in September the entire data will be input into it.