Melisa Lemire, Board Chair, directed the attention of the Committee to the Compliance Update. Jordan Pina, Chief of Staff, began by reminding the Committee of the eight conditions of City on a Hill's probationary status, which include ongoing updates to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) on academics, enrollment, finances and governance practices. She confirmed that the School remains in compliance with all ongoing conditions, and reminded the Committee that Senior Leaders hold a monthly meeting with DESE, which Lemire also attends. She shared that recent meetings have focused primarily on updates to the School's enrollment initiatives and Academic Action Plan.

Pina shared that Sonya Pratt, Executive Director, has coordinated a cross-functional enrollment team which consists of staff members from the student recruitment, community engagement, operations, data, and compliance teams. This team will be tasked with not only creating and implementing a comprehensive student recruitment plan for School Year 2023-2024, but also ensuring that student attrition across all grades is also reduced. Pina also shared that the School continues to closely monitor financials as they relate to enrollment, and confirmed that School Leadership remains confident in the financial stability of the School Year 2022-2023 budget with current staffing and enrollment.

Pratt then provided an update on the Academic Action Plan goals. She confirmed that the School continues to utilize NWEA's MAP Growth Test to assess individual student growth. She reminded the Committee that given the test focuses on growth rather than achievement, the School will not have results until mid-winter and early-summer following the next two administrations of the test, but shared that other academic indicators, such as passing rates, indicate improvement over results from the same period in the previous school year. Pratt also shared that the School has raised it's goal related to Average Daily Attendance (ADA) from 85% to 90%, as the School's efforts to reduce absenteeism, including hiring a full-time Family & Community Engagement Coordinator, have contributed to positive trends in this area. Lastly, she shared that the School is also shifting its attention from recruiting for school year 2022-2023 to school year 2023-2024, and will continue to update the Board on this work as well as the wider Enrollment Committee's progress.

Next, Lemire directed the attention of the Committee to Board Growth & Engagement. Lemire shared with the Committee that Ollie Osinubi submitted her resignation to the Board earlier in the month due to personal reasons, returning the Board to eleven members. She reiterated the Board's goal of achieving a body of at least 14 members, and shared that she would be calling for a vote for a candidate who had shadowed the October 2022 meeting and met with leaders at the December 2022 Board Meeting later in the evening. Pina also confirmed that two additional candidates were confirmed to shadow the meeting and would meet with leaders during the month of January. The Committee then discussed additional candidate skill areas that the Board should pursue, and noted specifically the need to find additional members with non-academic backgrounds, particularly finance and the legal field.

Lemire then transitioned to speaking about Board engagement. She shared that several members with low attendance had been identified, and she and Ted Gildea, Vice Chair & Treasurer, would be reaching out to those members to have conversations. She confirmed that the meetings would have an explicit goal of re-engaging the Trustees and, if it was no longer possible for them to perform the duties of Trustee, to discuss plans to transition them off the Board. Both Lemire and Gildea re-affirmed their desire to raise the overall attendance rate at all meetings beyond that of simply meeting quorum requirements, and to ensure that all Trustees feel invested in the School.

Next, Lemire transitioned the conversation to discussing logistics for the Spring 2023 Board Meetings. She reminded the Committee that the extension of An Act Relative to Extending Certain State of Emergency Accommodations, which allowed for public bodies to meet remotely following the COVID-19 Emergency, is currently set to expire on March 31, 2023. Pratt confirmed that in addition to this, she has also heard from her peers in the Charter Leader space that many other Boards are also transitioning back to in-person meetings and shared her desire for Trustees to be better connected with the School, students and staff. The Committee agreed that for both reasons, the Board should begin to discuss shifting to the in-person format. 

Pratt also reminded the Committee of the School's ongoing space constraints, and that return to in-person meetings would mean that the School would not be able to host meetings during the School day. The Committee discussed options for space, including those that were used before the Pandemic, and agreed that they would inquire about new member's ability to donate space during the full Board Meeting.

Pratt also shared that as part of the School's ongoing Strategic Planning Process, the consultants are requesting to speak with members of the Board to engage in the initial discovery process. She also shared that the School will be having a Site Visit from DESE in February 2022, which would also require Board participated, and recommended that the Board also discuss adding a meeting to January 2023 to address both topics. The Committee agreed that both were key priorities, and discussed potential dates to propose to the full Board.