Jacqueline Bennet, Committee Chair, directed the attention of the Committee to the Executive Director Mid-Year Review. Jordan Pina, Chief of Staff, shared the historical process with new Committee members and confirmed that the purpose of today’s discussion was to make a recommendation to the full Board of Trustees. Sonya Pratt, City on a Hill (CoaH), Executive Director (ED), began by providing an overview of the progress she has made on her goals for school year 2022-23. 

She began with her first goal, which she defined as: Follow through on the next steps pertaining to CoaH’s probationary status. This included maintaining and updating The Department of Secondary Education (DESE) on weekly attendance rates, as well as enrollment and waitlist figures, as well as financial updates. Pratt reminded the Committee that following school year 2021-22, the Charter School Office of DESE offered the School the opportunity to attend a monthly meeting with DESE in lieu of written reports in which she provides an updates related to the School's Action Plan and school-wide goals for the year, as well as hear real-time feedback from the Department. The Goals document has been, and continues to be a living document that has reviewed at least weekly at the Leadership Team level, as well as monthly updates to all staff. In addition to remaining in compliance with all probationary conditions listed above, Pratt confirmed that CoaH also completed October 1 SIMS state reporting, School Year 2023-2024 Pre-enrollment estimate submission, and successfully submitted the School Year 2021-2022 audit and Charter School End of Year Finance Report (CSEOYFR). Pratt also confirmed that by the end of June 2023 CoaH will have met the following requirements: finalize school year 2023-24 pre-enrollment claim, preparing for and executing a DESE site visit, end of year share out with DESE, as well as finalizing the budget for the upcoming year with CoaH’s Board of Trustees. Currently, Pratt believes CoaH is on track to completing these tasks. The Committee inquired about the planned process for creating the Enrollment Plan to share with DESE, and Pratt shared that given its implications on programming, finances and probationary conditions, it is a core piece of the strategic planning process she plans to discuss as her next goal.
 

Pratt then defined her second goal as managing a strategic planning process which includes School Years 2024-2028. In order to create the strategic plan, CoaH recognized the benefit of working with a consultant, and ultimately decided to work with Prospect Leadership Group. Prospect Leadership Group recently completed their initial two-day interview process with staff members, in addition to reviewing documents provided by the School. The next step in the completion of this goal calls for Pratt to recruit members to join the Strategic Planning Committee which will help Pratt and CoaH to identify key focus areas of improvement following the initial review by Prospect Leadership Group. Pratt also confirmed that she will continue engaging DESE in CoaH’s direction during the strategic planning process. Committee members inquired as to whether the relationship with Prospect Leadership Group was off to a good start, and Pratt confirmed it was. She shared that that team is comprised of fellow current and former charter leaders that had a previous relationship with the School. The Committee also asked when Pratt expected the process to be complete, and she confirmed that she expects the Strategic Plan to be ready for approval by the Board by the June 2022 Board Meeting.
 

Next, Pratt shared that her next goal is leveraging an enrollment and attrition team that is responsible for developing a plan to combat attrition and increase enrollment. Pratt has assembled the team, which includes members of the recruitment, data, community engagement and compliance teams, and has identified initial key areas of improvement for enrollment and retention. By June 2023, Pratt’s team will have analyzed current and historical lottery and attrition data, submitted a final enrollment plan to DESE, and enacted a plan to combat attrition and promote enrollment over the next couple of years. Pratt noted she believes this goal is currently on track.
 

Then, Pratt named her wish to strengthen the relationship between the Board of Trustees and the CoaH community as her fourth goal. Pratt hopes to do this in collaboration with the CoaH Governance Committee through aligning on expectations for interactions with the School following return to in-person events. Pratt has already begun to engage with new board members directly through one-to-one conversations and sharing invitations to School events, and will continue to do so. By the end of June 2023, Pratt aims to have created enough opportunities for at least 70% of all board members to attend a school event.

As her final goal, Pratt shared that she will continue to her professional development and hone in on her skills as an organizational leader. Pratt has been a member of the Boston Charter Leader of Color group, New Charter Leaders cohort, Boston Charter School Alliance, and One-to-One executive coaching with The Management Center and will continue to use her new found skills to improve CoaH. 

Pratt invited the Board to ask any questions they may have about her presentation. The Committee thanked Pratt for her in-depth presentation, and shared that she addressed all of their questions throughout the presentation.

Jacqueline Bennett, Committee Chair, then directed the attention of the Committee to the ED Contract Discussion. The Committee asked Pratt to present her proposed changes, which she named as shifts to her bonus structure and professional development stipend to put her in line with that of previous City on a Hill leaders. The Committee acknowledged they were not the body who approved the previous leaders’ contracts, and asked Pratt to explain what differences, if any, between the work that she and her predecessors did that might explain the difference in bonus structure. Pratt explained that, despite being the Executive Director of a single school rather than a Network, there has been no reductions in the work requirements of the Superintendent (Executive Director) role. Pratt added that she has also absorbed responsibilities previously held at the Network (District) level given the loss of roughly 10 roles during the consolidation of CoaH into a single school in July 2020. Jacqueline Bennett, Chair, asked the Committee if there were any concerns. The Committee discussed the importance of employing an equity and inclusion lens on this topic, reiterated their satisfaction with Pratt’s work since she was appointed ED in July 2021, and shared that they had no reservations in recommending the amendment to the Board of Trustees for discussion.