Ms. Davis opened the chat box for public comment. No public comments submitted.

No public comments.

Mr. Touchette discussed the upcoming on-site vaccine clinic in partnership with VaxOn. VaxOn is handling all consent forms and medical requirements, Kestrel is simply providing space for their use. 35 parents indicated on a survey that they would be interested in their child receiving the Pfizer Pediatric COVID-19 vaccine at school. The clinic will take place on November 16 and has been advertised on our social media, website, and Class Dojo. Thus far we have 21 scholars signed up to receive their vaccine at the on-site clinic. The administration is excited about the opportunity to provide convenient COVID-19 vaccines for our scholars.

Ms. Vargas provided an update on our current and ongoing marketing efforts. We are continuing to backfill seats with any new scholars who apply. As of today, we have 443 enrolled scholars with 3 scholar applications pending and 2 scholars on the waitlist. The School and Community Handbook needs to be updated to reflect the changes voted on last month.

We are currently offering bi-weekly tours with plans to increase to weekly tours if there is a demonstrated need. 5000 postcards for our next mailing should be ready in the next couple of weeks. Online marketing and targeted ads are continuing, with a new "Watch Me Soar" series.

Flyers with QR codes linking to our application will be delivered to any local businesses with public bulletin boards within the next few weeks. Our lottery application will be opening on November 15 and our lottery database is currently being prepared.

Projections for next year have been set at 548 scholars with an allowed overage for scholars who enroll and do not show up for the first day of school.

The facilities committee has been working diligently on the bond process. As of today, the school has completed all required due diligence components and the complete and final design-build agreement is prepared for the Board to review.

The facilities committee is hoping to have permits in hand within the next month to begin earthwork by Winter Break. Additionally, the committee is hoping to have a financing agreement within the next 30 days.

Fees for the pre-build agreement are beginning to arrive, and these fees roll over into the design-build agreement once it is finalized. Mr. Matthews reviews the monthly charges from the design firm before they are sent to the school for payment. These fees are currently being paid out of cash on hand, but are reimbursable to the school once the bond issuance closes. Once the bond issuance closes, Mr. Matthews and the trustee will review the fees from the construction company.

To be discussed in closed session.

Mrs. Villegas shared an update regarding the Hawks at Home Virtual Academy. We currently have 398 scholars (89%) in-person and 49 scholars (11%) continuing virtually. After our first re-entry date on November 1, we have seen more scholars returning to in-person instruction.

The administration is hoping that this trend will continue and more scholars will return in-person, however, plan to continue to offer the virtual option for our families.

Mrs. Villegas shared details regarding a new partnership with the Human Development and Family Studies program at UNC for internship placements.

In collaboration with the School of Education at UNC, we will be welcoming 9 interns to our campus from January to April in a variety of placements based on their interests. These candidates are not teacher candidates yet, as UNC does not offer an undergraduate teaching program, but are planning to pursue education in their graduate studies. 

The interns will be supervised by Ms. Villegas along with their classroom mentor who will provide day-to-day guidance. Ms. Villegas has a university contact who will support with the supervision of the interns, and the interns have a contract regarding expectations.

Ms. Goram requested information about vaccination status of interns. Mrs. Villegas reported that she is working with Ms. Buckholz on this, but her expectation is that interns will be treated as staff members, and if they are not vaccinated will be tested weekly as part of our COVID protocol.

Mrs. Jackson proposed an additional teacher workday on November 29 to allow staff time to complete self-paced training for our many new initiatives this year. The administration has given staff members several Wednesday afternoon staff meetings "back" for working on these training, but we have not made significant progress on self-paced training for two of the major initiatives due to a lack of time.

This would be a non-instructional day for students and a remote workday for staff.

Mrs. Jackson presented the monthly Executive Director Report.

Of note, the data manager report is changing daily based on continuous enrollment.

Mrs. Jackson highlighted the attendance report and noted that the school is beginning to hold attendance meetings with families of scholars who are not attending school regularly. 

The school is implementing assemblies to review expectations as well as classroom guidance to promote a positive school climate and reduce discipline incidents. Discipline data is not necessarily comparable to last year since students were fully at home last year.

Mrs. Jackson presented our current Epi-Center report. We are 100% in compliance with our current Epi-Center requirements and have submitted a few of our upcoming requirements early.

Ms. Davis shared her praise for the administration for having the budget and audit information prepared early this year.

Mrs. Jackson shared the budget analysis for September, which is the most recent analysis available from CSP. The October report will be available on Monday. This is a typical delay in having the transactions finalized and reports prepared after the close of the month.

CSP has recommended that we establish a Finance Committee that can review financial documents in advance of the monthly Board meetings.

Two areas that Mrs. Jackson highlighted include:

CSP has added a line item to the budget called "Fund 4" for pre-build fees so that it is clear what is reimbursable once our bond issuance is closed.

Our Facilities line item is slightly over budget due to the purchase of PPE.

Mrs. Buckholz shared that we were able to have our audit submitted before Fall Break, exceeding the deadline expectations. There were no findings or non-compliance issues with the audit.

Each sub-committee discussed their current work and upcoming goals.

The Academic Sub-Committee discussed the possibility of seeking community partnerships to support our new academic initiatives.

Due to our new one-to-one initiative, our wear-and-tear on technology is now outpacing our ability to replace it, and Mrs. Jackson would like to seek a community partnership to support technology resources. In addition, the idea of the Academic Sub-Committee participating in textbook adoption was presented.

Mrs. Callahan presented the research regarding parental leave policies at surrounding school districts and charter schools. This research will now go back to the newly formed Governance Sub-Committee to craft several proposed policy options along with cost considerations for each policy.

There are no changes to the current masking policy. Looking to the future, the ABC Collaborative may have new recommendations regarding masking outdoors. There is evidence in our school data that the masking policy is working to reduce COVID exposures in our school.

The Board discussed updates to the lease agreement for the current Elementary School campus. More information is needed before the Board can vote on the updated contract.

Mrs. Callahan read the report from the closed session.