A. Touchette presented the Enrollment and Marketing Report

• 359 scholars enrolled
• 4 additional applications as of last week
• Bulk appointments from kindergarten, 2nd highest 6th grade entry point
• Applicants mainly from word of mouth, daycares, etc.

Presented by Mr. KT

• 5 Year Sprinkler: 2 items flagged for spinrkler, one item will cost about $1500 other item for Backflow equipment
• Remaining repairs for HVAC - we mainly need to make a decision for replacement about the 3rd rooftop unit #7
• Unit #14 functions properly, but heat exchange circulation is showing failure. HVAC coral fenced is working double time to maintain temps and would have to be ordered from manufacture with 3-4 month turnaround time. Estimated to cost $33K and $10K for the install
• Units #11 (library) and 12 (gym locker rooms) - both are functional, but we would need to repair eventually
• New roof install was completed today. There was a slight delay in permit due to Durham county and the Fire Marshall. Normal operations were not affected. Only the exterior of school was affected, so buses were routed to the front of the school as a workaround. KT will now install new ceiling tiles that had leaks.
• Preventative maintenance: semi annual replacements of filters between now and the second week of May. The elevators annual inspections by the Dept of Labor are happening next month and the quarterly fire sprinkler inspection are scheduled. Lastly, the 5yr fire alarm inspection for elementary school are also scheduled. The inspections for the fire alarms and sprinklers inspections will be done in June. Both elementary and middle school buildings will be synced moving forward.
• D. Powe asked if 3 month lead time is realistic and if we need to move it up, KT states Unit #7 needs to be prioritized because it supplies the main admin offices.
• Mrs Jackson asked to pause the planning so that costs can be quantified and adjusted for the budget. A special meeting can be called if it's determined we need to move the timeline up. 

Presented by Q. Oliver

• We have completed data analysis and instructional alignment throughout Kestrel, this is mainly through professional development and student-centered improvement. 
• Dr. Grubs observes the classes and the teachers doing direct instruction as well as student engagement. This aligns with the standards that we have to teach for EOG purposes and to ensure our students are prepared for next steps.
• During instruction, Dr Grubs takes notes then gives feedback to the perspective teacher. She informs them on how we can move forward with student-centered improvement like fostering more engagement and areas of more focusing with small group or intentional instructional learning. The data analysis takes place during our POCs, that happen on a weekly basis.
• The main focus areas for growth are increased instructional consistency, improved student engagement strengthen data-driven instruction and supporting new struggling or struggling teachers. This allows us to understand how Kestrel should look instructionally across the board, K-8 and discusses standards that need to be met.
• This requires all grade levels to discuss this information with Dr. Grubbs, look at the data and see how we can implement that in our classroom with direct instruction as well as small group instruction. Dr. Grubbs also does co-teaching and modeling lessons where she'll go into a classroom and model how the instruction for Kestrel should look like across the board through proper direct instruction and how to implement student engagement
• Currently, Dr. Grubs is working with K-2 with a literacy block and how to truly implant that in a better way to be student centered. This gives our teachers more confidence because we are able to walk into the classroom and guide our scholars to master those standards with a clear breakdown. We also have a clear breakdown of why it is important to do our lesson planning. This makes a difference for classroom management and the formative assessments assist us in having those higher achievement rates for NC Check in.
• This approach allows a mixed component versus just doing Google Classroom on the Chromebook or doing packets, it allows for a mixed component of student engagement and allow student choice. We are seeing growth in formative assessments because our scholars are being able to do more hands-on. We have a lot of scholars that learn by hands-on methods, so it does increase their mastery level and gives a chance to increase our data points for NC check-in and EOG. 

Presented by T. MacFadden

• We had spirit week right before spring break
• Kinder: Completed egg search on playground
• Career Day was a success. We sent our a Thank You message to parents and those in the community that participated. I want to thank two board members that presented, Mr. Patterson and Mr Davis. It was super cool to see all the kids engage so deeply. We received great feedback overall from various partners and folks that were in attendance. Our scholars really asked great questions during the presentation with our partners at ASPIDA. Board President A. Davis complemented the ability of the ASPIDA presenter (Mr. Joshua Davis) was able to discuss project management with elementary schoolers was wild and super duper cool to see. We want to continue to think about Reimagining Kestrel and how maybe we can implement some of those ideas and lessons at our school and not just for career day.
• Q3 ended on the 27th and Q3 report cards went out on April 10th, then NC Check-in started today.
• Spring pictures are coming up on the 15th, then we have the PTA virtual meeting coming up on the 16th and the Spirit store being held on the 24th
• Show What you Know will happen on April 30th
• iReady Diagnostic #3 is scheduled for may 7th for grades 1-5
• Spring Show will occur on May 8th
• May 11th will be be a Teacher Work Day
• A. Davis asked Mr. McFadden if the discipline data can be presented so we can see how it presents currently compared to last year so we can determine how to gauge it by either month over month or YTD. Mr. McFadden stated overall our OSS numbers are definitely drastically down compared to what they were last year. Also, the removal data for the elementary school is a little higher than what it was from last year. These are the main two data points that are different. Mr Touchette also stated he can share previous data with Mr. McFadden as well and overall the numbers are significantly down from where we were 2 years ago in terms of suspension and all major consequences. Mrs A Davis stated that's the kind of data we need when it comes to preparing grant proposals, it helps us to present our results to support our efforts of a restorative school and show data that we are keeping kids in school. We can also show that we are using alternative methods for redirection and correction. 

Mrs. Tonya Jackson presented the Executive Director's Report

• We successfully completed our federal program monitoring, so it is now closed. We were found to have all of our major programmatic components in compliance.
• We rescheduled our bond presentation. Those meetings are recorded and posted to a platform called EMA. We were scheduled to do that just before spring break, but due to a scheduling conflict on the other side we are working to get that back on the books.
• We are still in our Teacher Performance Evaluation system. We are giving feedback in an ongoing way and as we approach the end of the year, those summative performance evaluations are going to be given to our faculty. We released the intent forms and most individuals I want to remain in their current assignments. There were a couple requests for changes, but nothing substantive and we anticipate having our employee agreement out by May 1st so we can have the signed contracts back in hand by the end of May.
• We are also working on county billing so identify the number of students that come from different localities to help us get the local funds. This is done with the support of CSP. That was completed this month and we also just submitted our March claim for school nutrition.
• When it comes to federal funds, as long as we submit our claims and paperwork in on time, we have had no issues with getting federal funds. We have to strongly ensure we get those submitted within 10 business days.
• We are still working on our draft budget for the fiscal year of 27. Our plan is to have a draft budget prepared to share with the board during our next monthly meeting. 
• Tonight I will be making a recommendation for a school counselor position and for a classroom teacher position, both will be done in closed session.
• Our epicenter analysts have not changed from the previous month because we had about 2 months where nothing was due. This is the month that we have several major reports due to the state and they are all part of the performance framework.
• In the month of April, we are due to submit some policy work, grievance and Board residency and the procedure for our criminal history check. During May, we will submit the language, instruction education plan for the upcoming school year, and that is through the Multilingual services.
  
   

Ms. Tonya Jackson presented Finance 

• We have used 100% of our state funds.
• We have received 63% of our local funds at this point. 62% of the funding is coming from Durham county, this is our largest source of local revenue.
• 89% of federal funds have also been received. As of right now now, we are tracking higher revenue then expenses, but we are also at that time of the year where our bottom line becomes very evident. Overall, we are in a good cash position.
• Based on our unreconciled March 2026 budget analysis report, we are about 75% of the way through the year. I will call attention to anything that is 100% of more.
• We are working to resolve a few items with our auditor. The copier company gave us a good incentive to switch to their company by paying out our previous contract and that expense is included in our budget; however, the revenue we received in the last fiscal year is not and it shows up as us being well over our budget by 41%.
• In our insurance category, it's at 113% and this is due to an increase in our general liability coverage
• No huge changes with books and supplies
• The expenses dealing with band and dance are covered by revenue directly from band and dance, so it's a money in and money our situation
• For facilities, we just completed our roof install, so the second check, which is the final payment are now invoiced, so that number is going to be a bit higher. All of the HVAC repairs, replacements and inspections that Mr. KT discusses hit the facilities line.
• The Technology and Athletics lines are staying steady compared to where they were the previous month
• Overall, our revenue YTD has been a bit more than $4.8M and expenses YTD have been about $4.3M, so we are in the black. 
• Our days's cash on hand as of March 31st is 214.33 days and the Daily Cash expenditure is around $16K per day to operate the organization and we have 214 days of unrestricted cash on hand. Also our debt service ratio has dipped to 1.04. This is not a tested period as the next one will be the end of June. Currently, we are slightly below the expectations of 1.15
• Mrs A Davis asked if we anticipate our debt service ratio coming back up closer, or is this reflective of kind of where we know we're going to end up at the end of the year? Mrs Jackson stated she will have to look back to be certain, but she thinks we have at least one month where the revenue is flowing a little bit slower and we still have some local and federal dollars that will come in. Mr. VanHook also assured we have 1 or 2 months during this past 12 months where revenue dipped low. If there is one concern, it's going to be timing of when we receive the Durham County funds. Last year, they sent them a little later in the fiscal year. There's been talk that they will have them within this fiscal year, so that's been the one thing to look out for, is when we get those Durham County payments. Another thing to note is that the roof payments are coming out of fund balance, so from an overall P&L perspective, that's going to net and not affect this for the current year.
  
   

Mrs. Tonya Jackson stated we will seek bids for two contracted services--for transportation and janitorial services. It is respectfully requested that the board votes on that action to post the RFPs. Once posted, contractors will have 30 days to submit their bids then we will review. Vendors will be notified following the June meeting, then contracts would be prepared.

D. Patterson made a motion to approve the posting of the RFPs for both services. A. Davis seconded the motion. Then the entire board gave their consensus. 

Ms Rhodes and Mrs Hernandez presented updates about community engagement for the Grandparents Support Program.

• We are planning to have vetted grandparent volunteers to come into the school to support teachers by watching their classrooms during restroom breaks and just providing overall support to our scholars and staff. 
• Essentially, we would have an orientation to discuss rules of engagement, do's and don'ts and expectations of the program.
• We have a list of grandparent's from the most recent Grandparent's breakfast during the book fair, so we plan to start sending outreach emails to those to introduce the program and gauge interest
• Teachers will be able to submit request help without needing to manage volunteers minute by minute. We want to ensure this program operates as seamlessly as possible. The grandparents will sign up for shifts (between 2-4 hours) to provide coverage in the school and we can also assign backups just in case. Also, a staff member will be appointed as the main point of contact
• We can use the current information we have collected from previous meetings or roll out another survey to teachers and staff to ensure we understand where this coverage is needed most.
• We will establish clear success markers to determine what is working and how or where we may need to pivot. 
• A few roles that we are considering starting with include Classroom Helper, the break coverage partner, Lunch and Transition Support, reading and encouragement partner, and then a school welcome ambassador.
• Ms Rhodes discussed the outline of launch over the course of 2-4 weeks. The first step is emailing outreach to engage interest and make intro phone calls, once we have a list of interested grandparents, we will then take them through the intake process (obtain background check, etc.), provide a survey to determine what areas may be the best fit for them, then host an orientation to cover ground rules.
• A Davis stated our faculty have asked for explicitly around morale and this type of support, and it's very tangible. We will work out the logistics, background check and other things to figure out to make sure people understand the parameters. So what we would like to do is get our Mr. McFadden or Mr Touchette to so some outreach to community engagement committee to talk through what a small scale version of this could look like to try out even as a pilot. We are not sure about a full blown roll out right now due to us getting ready for testing and at the same time, we do not want to lose out on energy that we received from he staff members during our half day session. 
• Mrs Jackson stated the Admin team will review the plan. Mr. Touchette and Mr. McFadden can facilitate the onboarding just like it's done for substitute teachers so they will know what their expectations are for the school space, what their role is, how to get support and what support is available. We have to ensure we have very clear parameters in place for how assistance is requested just like the scope and depth of the work of the work that we are asking grandparents volunteers to do. Mr Touchette agreed stating that we give subs a tour and overview of the building and they get clear expectations from Mr. McFadden and Miss Mcneil such as check-in procedures
• D. Powe mentioned if we would have to have any consideration for a unique agreement or a normal volunteer agreement which can be posed to Attorney Bowens as something in general to think about. 

Development committee was discussed by Mrs A. Davis:

• A. Davis stated that she has shared the Our Table community campaign to get our picnic tables replaced and to do social-emotional type learning around food security. In the next month, we should have an idea of who our initial contributors will be. A. Davis is still doing outreach and collecting lists of people to reach out to over the next few weeks. We also have a section of our website where we can accept donations directly. We just wanted to make it easy for people to be able to give, you know, as an individual donor. But then, obviously, the the people that we're talking to right now are people that we're hoping, honestly, will just fund the whole thing. Ask big or don't ask at all. 
• A Davis is also preparing a grant to be submitted to Durham County by Friday for food security, where they have $300K they anticipate to give across 15-20 organizations between $20K-50K for initiatives around food. The neat part about the grant is that we can do educational pieces that you can start gardens, we can do all types of things, and so one of the things that has been explored off and on. Since I've been at Kestrel is this idea of possibly some hydroponic gardens or some kind of community garden. Nothing made, nothing huge, you know, we're not trying to turn the field into a farm. But something that allows us to, again, capitalize on learning opportunities, but then also engaging. And as we've been brainstorming, we actually really love this idea as recipients of our National Food school lunch program, because one of the cool things is, should our scholars and our community get really invigorated around this, we could have our own internal salad bar that we have grown ourselves. We discussed this with some folks during career day. 
• We have a local chef that has been doing some training and some workshops with students and parents, and so potentially opportunities for student engagement. So we have another opportunity to possibly augment our fundraising with our table, our community, but then also have something that's a little more sustainable. We did have a few food based organizations that we thought could volunteer during career day, but they could not, so we are also trying to keep them on board and get them on campus. There is a group called Cora, which is a local food bank/grocery story, another local food bank and then there's a co-op that's up in Eastern Durham, called Cip. We are hoping to get them to become a campus partner with us as well. 

Academic Excellence was discussed by Ms Q. Oliver

• We have kind of paused for a while because we want a chance to work with getting college students in that need internships.
• We are trying to draw up a proposal so we can explain what that would look like and reach out to the schools in a timely manner, instead of doing it like we did this year, we want to catch them before they do their placements and everything.
• the 7th graders went to Shaw University in March to tour the grounds, listen to a presentation from the University's president and eat in the cafeteria alongside college students. They also met different student -ran organizations. This Friday, our 8th graders will be going to Duke University to tour the grounds, one of the gardens, eat in the cafeteria, and attend different presentations.
• Some teachers are also excited to do more college tours next year. We will also give 6th graders a chance to tour universities as well. 
• Overall visiting universities has opened up a lot of partnerships for our scholars. We are hopeful to add UNC-Chapel Hill because we have a lot of scholars that want to go to those colleges once they leave Kestrel. 

Ms Rhodes outlined the items discussed during closed session.

• We discussed consideration for a third grade instructor and school counselor
• We discussed the interview process for a few other positions that we are hiring for the upcoming school year.
• A. Davis submitted a motion to approve the recommendation for the school counselor position, Ms Rhodes seconded the motion,  and all board members were in favor of this motion. Motion was passed. 
• A. Davis submitted a motion to approve the recommendation for the third grade teacher position, Mr D Patterson seconded the motion,  and all board members were in favor of this motion. Motion was passed.