Melisa Lemire, Chair, directed the attention of the Committee to the Site Visit Discussion. Sonya Pratt, Executive Director, shared that while City on a Hill's upcoming site visit performed by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is scheduled for February 9, virtual focus groups have already been started with a Parent/Guardian Focus Group having been held this week, with additional focus groups for Board members, students, teachers, and administrators scheduled over the next week. Pratt confirmed the Committee that these focus groups last roughly an hour, and will include group discussion around each stakeholder groups experiences of the School. Jordan Pina, Chief of Staff, also reminded the Committee that as a targeted visit, the site visitors will focus primarily on the charter school criteria that are included under academic programming and organizational viability. 

The Committee inquired as to the timeline of next steps and any follow-up, and Pratt shared that it is unusual to have much to discuss on the day of the visit, as the site visitors are either observing or interviewing throughout the entire day and require additional time to process information. Pratt shared that the School has also held a meeting with all staff to discuss what faculty can expect throughout the visit, and encouraged folks to share their truthful experiences and put their best foot forward.

Lemire then directed the attention of the Committee to the Compliance Updates. Pina shared that the upcoming visit is currently the top priority of District administrators, but are currently seeing strong positive trends across data related to probationary conditions. She confirmed that administrators are preparing for the February 15 Claim Submission, which provides DESE with a snapshot of enrollment, among other key accountability indicators. While the School is still accepting students through its February backfill deadline and therefore does not yet have a final number, preliminary data is showing that the School is expecting enrollment number just under 200, which is an increase over the previous October 1 submission. Pina also reiterated that the School's cross-functional Enrollment and Attrition Committee is meeting bi-monthly and working to collect and utilize additional data points throughout the recruitment, enrollment and retention processes. The Committee inquired about the possible impact of the upcoming submission, and Pratt and Pina confirmed that tuition may be adjusted based on increased enrollment and the School remains in a very strong financial position, which will be further discussed at the upcoming Finance Committee Meeting.

Pratt also confirmed that the winter administration of the NWEA MAP Growth test was just completed, and while the data is continuing to be reviewed by administrators, initial trends show overall growth and indicate that the School is on track to meet the goals within its Academic Action Plan. Then, Pina also reminded the Committee that it will soon be time for the related processes of creating the School Year 2023-2024 Budget and Staff Recommitment, and that the School is beginning to prepare for both.

Next, Lemire directed the attention of the Committee to Board Growth and Engagement. She reminded the Committee that there are currently two candidates in the pipeline who have completed the interview process with Officers and have shadowed at least one meeting, and are now ready to be presented for vote at the next meeting. The Committee acknowledged that this would then bring the total Board to 13 Trustees, but that discussions with some Trustees have revealed that it is likely that 2-3 members may be stepping down due to personal reasons. Given this, the Committee began to discuss how to deepen the pool of candidates given applications to the School's website have been reviewed. Committee members pointed to the exercise of using a portion of a recent Board meeting as a workshop to produce ideas for additional enrollment activities, and resolved to ask each Board member to use time within the meeting to submit a list of connections they would reach out to about possibly joining the Board. The Committee reiterated the goal of finding additional experience in law and finance, as well as those who may have attended or had a child attend City on a Hill and current residents of Roxbury.