There were no requests to speak at this meeting.

Eight Characteristics of Effective School Boards

Eddie Ingram walked the Board through an article that he wanted to share with us and suggested we hold a training session on the topic.

Mike Cournoyer presented an update on the High School's theme for this year: "You can do hard things".  Sergio Martin asked about the process that Mike follows to get the things the HS needs to support running the school. He shared he would start a discussion with Kathleen Foley and if it was not able to be resolved at the school or school district level, he would work with the appropriate people moving up to the Board.

Mallory St Brice shared with the board a new dashboard for HR that is being shared in several venues. Time was spent discussing

• The number of vacancies particularly the issue with 10 open SPED positions.  The school has been open about the gaps with DESE.
• The absences rate of 7.7%
• The reasons for Employee separations
• Staff diversity
• Considering hiring student teachers as Substitutes.  The school has reached out to several local colleges/universities to make connections with graduates.

It was noted that the HR department has been publishing a monthly newsletter that has been well received.

Board Members were reminded to complete their 

• CORI Forms and submit them to the school administration.
• Annual Conflict of interest forms that are emailed to them by the BMMS System
• Annual Open Meeting Law receipt of materials

Bylaws

The board discussed the Bylaws and previous conversations to update them.  This will require detailed review and the conclusion was to assign it to the Governance Committee to recommend changes.  We are required to approve them annually.

Renewal of the Trustee Terms

As stated in the Bylaws Trustees terms can be renewed for up to three years.  An effort should also be placed on spreading Trustee Terms so they do not all expire in the same year.

Susie Girard and Ramona Royal both shared that they did not intend to extend their terms.  Ramona is open to rejoining the board in the future if her schedule and the Board commitment changes.

Board Officers

Kathleen continues to be interested in being the Board Chair but expressed this would be her last year as a trustee.  Badawi Dweik also expressed that this will be his last year as a trustee.

Matthew Yezukevich expressed interest in continuing as the Treasurer.  The secretary Position was open due to Susie Girard vacating the position.

Board Committees

With the loss of two trustees the Board discussed their bandwidth.  They requested Heidi Berkowitz post a notice to the community to search for additional Trustees.  Trustees discussed how to staff the Staff Recruitment & Retention as well as the Student Recruitment & Retention Committees.  It was decided these two committees would be discussed again at next months meeting. 

The District Administration was encouraged to review their current membership and recommend changes as appropriate to level their workload.

Annual Board Assessment

The Board reviewed the annual Board self assessment and how it can be used to seek new trainings as well as fill gaps in skillsets.

Saanvi Kumar left at 8:00 PM.

The Massachusetts Public Records Law requires us to identify a "Records Access Officer" (RAO).  This person will need to assess and manage requests for the release of records.

DESE was interested in how often the Board members attend training along with the types and who hosted the training.  Susie Girard came up with a method of tracking the training and suggested adding it to the agenda to remind folks to report the training.

Sergio Martin shared that he attended several trainings this month and would send the details.

DAG & TAG have been combined into a single team with listening sessions included in the conversations.  They had a second meeting today.  They discussed and article at the suggestion of Linda Morse called "The Eight-word Mission Statement"  

no update was provided

no update was provided

no update was provided

no update was provided

See DAG section of the minutes.

Nothing at this time

2nd Reading: Privilege of the Floor Policy

• Change wording on the second page to: "The Chair may use a timer."
• Fix capitalization for the word "Should"

There were no appeals this month.

Heidi Berkowitz reviewed enrollment status and shared they are trying to fill 25 seats while working with the Principals to determine where to fill the students.

Anissia Vixamar walked the Board through the submitted update.  They will be sending a survey out to students to ask what areas they will focus on initially.

Lesly Michelot walked the Board through the submitted update. There was a discussion on how the school is working with parents to improve behaviors on the transportation buses.  

The roof RFP is almost ready to be submitted.

Karen Calvert and Sergio Martin gave an update on Finance.  The Massachusetts Charter Association due have increased by $30,000 this year. The Board expenditures are also up.  Kathleen Crawford requested details on the Board expenditures.

The Finance meetings will be on the 1st Thursday of the Month going forward 

This Committee has not met since the last Board meeting.  The next meeting is tomorrow 09NOV2022.

This Committee's first meeting is scheduled for next week.

This Committee has not met yet.