Due to the recent departure of 2 Board of Trustee members, the Board now contains only 6 members and quorum consists of 4 members. Since 4 Board members are present at this meeting, QUORUM IS MET.

T. Frey welcomed everyone and said she is very excited to be here for new school year, and with our new school leader. It's very exciting. 
Two of our Trustees have left the Board: 

• Deidre Medina resigned as President of the Parent Association in May 2025 and therefore relinquished her seat on the Board of Trustees. If she chooses to be an at-large member of the Board of Trustees, she can apply and then would be subject to the same application process as everyone else has been.
• Geena Kuriakose, our Board Secretary, resigned her seat on the Board due to personal family matters. She wants to remain involved with the school, but she cannot dedicate the time that's necessary to remain as a Board member; she will remain a community member of the Academic Committee when she can. We invited her to please reapply to the Board when she has the time and is available to do so. 

Our Board of Trustees now consists of 6 members. This is a clarion call for board member recruitment, which is something we'll return to. Board members Nicole DiStefano and Rebecca Peters are both out of the country on vacation and unable to attend today's meeting.

T. Frey introduced an "ice breaker" at the start of the meeting with a Mood Meter developed at Yale University which contains a colored graph of moods and feelings. She asked each Trustee to choose a word from the graph that describes how they are feeling at this moment. In going around the room, the attendees chose: inspired, focused, proud, pleasant, optimistic, thoughtful and hopeful. 

• M. Harmon-Vaught stated that we're hopeful to hone-in on the academic goals, because we have Principal Livingston with us today and because academics are obviously a keystone part of the school's planning and work. There's some other goals that we hope to engage with more deeply in future conversations when we have other Board members in the room. Some of the agenda topics planned for today's meeting will be postponed until more Trustees are present and available to join in the discussions.
• T. Frey added that when T. Castanza presents the goals that there's a new column about specific board engagement, and which committees of the Board will be responsible for working with the school's leadership on those goals. Since R. Peters, our Treasurer, is not here today it doesn't make sense for us to deep dive into the finance goal. At our September Academic Committee meeting we'll dive more into the academic goals, but we can start the discussion today. 
• M. Harmon-Vaught said that after we talk about the school's goals, we'll spend a little time thinking about how we can use Board meetings to best support pursuing those school goals and how we want to organize our time.  Last year we tried structured meetings that were different from past meetings, and we want to think about what worked and what we want to change for the school year ahead. Finally, we have several items of new business that will require Board engagement and votes today. We'll close today with a closed Executive Session before adjournment.

T. Castanza gave the following presentation on the school's goals and the activities to be performed in service of these goals for the upcoming school year:

Goal 1 - IMPROVE SCHOOLWIDE ACADEMIC DATA/IMPROVE ACADEMIC OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS. Bridge Prep School will show increases on the 2025/2026 NYS Assessment as follows, compared to the 2024/2025 exam: 

1. Aggregate Standards-Based Trend Toward Proficiency(All students)
2. SWD Standards-Based Trend Toward Proficiency
3. Aggregate School Level Proficiency in Math and ELA: at least 7% points in ELA and at least 8% points in Math
4. SWD School Level Proficiency in Math and ELA: at least 6% points in ELA and at least 6% points in Math

Goal 2  - ROBUST RECRUITMENT TO CAPACITY - ENROLLMENT & STAFFING. The CEO will ensure that the organization meets the designated enrollment targets outlined in its charter, including subgroup specific targets, for the upcoming school year (26/27) and that the organization’s outlined staffing plan is met and executed for the upcoming school year (26/27).

Goal 3 - ORGANIZATIONAL PRESENCE & INVOLVEMENT IN THE EXTERNAL COMMUNITY. In the 2025-2026 school year, the CEO will identify and develop new partnerships within the community that yield increased enrollment, increased external revenue and secure new resources for the organization.

Goal 4 - EFFECTIVE FISCAL MANAGEMENT. By June 2026, BPCS will remain in sound and stable financial condition according to the NYSED Charter Performance Framework and will approve a FY27 budget aligned to the school’s current and future needs.

Further details were given in each section of the presentation and a question and answer session was included throughout. The goals' document was displayed for reference during the presentation.

Among the many points which were discussed:

MOVING TO A NEW BUILDING: Perhaps it's time for us to start exploring a private facility for housing certain grades or our entire school; we need a longer-term facility; although we are fortunate to be here at the Petrides campus, there are limitations on our classroom space; we also need our own gymnasium and/or auditorium; every other charter school on Staten Island has a new building; the reality is, we are competing with these other charter schools who have brand new facilities and we are losing students to them based on their better facilities. In addition, many Staten Island residents are confused about where our school is located on the Petrides campus. Strategic space planning needs to be done for our future. Can we afford a new building? It would be helpful to ask BoostEd, our finance partner, to do a deep analysis and talk about the rental assistance process with the Board. Before we think about moving, we need to make sure that our students are actually achieving and being successful, and that the work we're doing is having an impact on them. Because we have to make sure that we're doing the work to sustain a new building.

DEEP DIVES INTO AREAS THAT NEED IMPROVEMENT: How we can appropriately structure those into our full Board meetings for this year so that all Board members can be aware and able to support/hold accountable our school colleagues, and not just the Board committee members being familiar in each area. Build trimester checkpoints into our Board calendar for the year, so that we are also stepping back to ask how the students are doing each trimester.

SCHOOL EVENT CALENDAR FOR BOARD MEMBER ATTENDANCE AT EVENTS: It would be good for the Trustees to come to the school's information sessions/recruitment sessions/teacher-recruitment sessions, or similar events with elected officials. In order for the Board to know about school events, T. Castanza offered to share (quarterly) all upcoming school events with the Board starting at the September Board meeting. 

PARTNERSHIPS: With local elected officials who can champion for our school in many areas; with local hospitals for pediatrician roundtables where we can present information about our school; with higher education institutions such as Wagner College for new student teachers and establish a student field work residency - we were able to secure 10 Wagner College students to come to our school to obtain field experience for Wagner's early childhood program. how can we replicate that with some of our New Jersey partners, Seton Hall or Fairleigh Dickinson, which has a dyslexia program. Part of our work as an organization and charter school board, is reintroducing ourselves to the community to establish who we are, what we do, and where they can find us.

The Board returned to OPEN PUBLIC SESSION at 4:40 PM.