Strike any wording in minutes that may be misinterpreted as seeking permission versus a courtesy while maintaining content. 

We discussed finance, audit firm, financial report, and financial policies for the school which will all be discussed further in the meeting. 

Everyone received the financial policies and procedures in the board packet. We also have 2 pages of addendum from the audit firm. The treasurer asked if there were any comments. One outstanding question the treasurer has is related to security donations to the school.  According to the addendum, the procedure is that you must sell the security donation the day it is received for cash.  The treasurer's understanding is that you need to value the securities but not necessarily liquidate, and the decision to sell should be at the school's discretion. Also, there are a few typos that need to be edited. There will be another round of changes after the audit firm reviews. Tonight we vote on the main document and discuss any addendum or changes in the next executive committee meeting.

L. Wedinger participated in a phone call with our law firm regarding the 501c3 application. The attorneys reviewed our bylaws and code of ethics and have a few things they want us to incorporate.  They want us to clarify these items and Laurel will 
redraft both documents once all the comments from the lawyers come back.  We have been fully in compliance as this is already in the law, but we will specify wording regarding advisory members, board of regents, attendance, conflict of interest, recusal, etc.  We will do things they consider mandatory and will also provide clarity.  We can put in application for 501c3 with the bylaws as they are currently written. There was one particular area that we will take up in new business and that is the executive committee having 5 members. 

We are starting to get potential candidates and are in the thick of recruiting.  The committee is on track to submit new board members to the State in March. The process consists of potential board members filling out an application, financial disclosure form, fingerprinting, the board voting on new board members, and submitting all documents along with a letter from the Board to the State.  Their approval can take up to 45 days. 

Board on Track training - L . Timoney will email the link for the training that already occurred for those who could not make it.  There will be follow-up training for committees to learn how to create and upload information to board on track. L. Wedinger stated that Board on Track monitors every log-on and download of information. We should all be utilizing Board on Track. 

The Academic Committee will come back into play once we hire the DTL. We will concentrate on curriculum once this person is hired. 

There were no questions about December financials. If there are any questions, ask G. Winn or T. Castanza.

501c3 - All information was sent to the law firm. They have a corporate team and a tax team and both are ready to move forward. The1023 form was filled out, signed, and the only barrier to submission is them compiling paper work and getting it signed off by their supervisors. We anticipate submission by end of week and T. Castanza will send an email when submitted. 
CSP Grant - All materials sent to the State. All documents approved in Grants Gateway. Last piece is the MWBE plan which requires you to spend a certain amount of your grant money on MWBE vendors. We are working with Bill Brinkman to finalize the MWBE plan which should be done by weeks' end and submitted. When NYSED approves, we will receive 20% of the total amount of the grant. It is anticipated to take 2-4 weeks to get disbursed. 
Website - The website is completed and looks good. It is a recruitment tool and if you see a change you want, email T. Castanza.
Siting - Conversations with the DOE yielded that they do have a site for us for 3-5 years and have a long term site as well. There were no specific buildings mentioned, just neighborhoods. As of right now, it is not a reasonable offer of space. It is not settled and there is a meeting in late January which may determine more in terms of siting. 
Student Recruitment - Reach out to the SI Advance regarding an editorial after we hear about siting. T. Castanza speaking to Alex Zimmerman at Chalkbeat on Friday. Chalkbeat recently did an article that DOE is spending $325 million to send students with disabilities to private schools. 

 

Committee is M. Casale, L. Timoney & T. Castanza.  Hiring processes and procedures have been established, and hiring of the DTL and Office Manager are underway. Little Bird HR refined job specs, and we are using JazzHR software company for a nominal fee. Jazz HR hosts our job applications and tracks candidates. Candidates can be sorted and moved through the process utilizing Jazz HR. All candidates must submit a resume and answer some screening questions to help us sort through candidates. Jobs went live this morning to 15 job sites and our website. Shortly after, we received 37 applications for Office Manager and 10 for Director of Teaching and Learning. Applicants will get a template email response their application was received but we have to generate the email. We also communicated to all candidates who applied to us prior to this process and invited them to apply through Jazz HR. If anyone has candidates for these roles, please let us know or invite them to apply.  Timeframe for DTL is ASAP and Little Bird suggested keeping the job post up for two weeks. By Friday T. Castanza will review all resumes.  We will then phone screen candidates and bring the finalists in for in-person meetings. Actual start date is flexible, but benefits need to start the 1st of the month. We have options of benefits packages from Little Bird which are in line with our budget.  We can offer full coverage and offer vision and dental on top of that. In order to qualify for benefits, we must have 2 employees and go through an underwriting process. By Feb 1 we should have OM candidate identified. For DTL, by mid-February we could possibly have candidates identified but we may need to actively recruit for this role.  We need to have a realistic hiring date for DTL and review benefits. DTL may be employed full time, or we may need to hire as a 1099. We have to make a decision on background checks - either just fingerprinting or national background check for $150 per employee. Full background check was agreed upon. M. Casale offered space at Leap Academy as temporary office space for Bridge Prep.

Jenna Gyimesi has been very helpful putting together one-pagers about the school and F. Santarpia has been editing. People can apply online or print out the application and mail it. We are going to translate the application into Spanish, minimally. Other languages are Arabic and Russian. We have Bridge Prep t-shirts being made and other swag, postcards are being made, weekly student recruitment calls on Monday at 8:30pm,  and have a list of info sessions and meetings we are presenting at. We have asks out to YMCA, JCC, and St. Peter/Paul. We will post all events on social media and our website, we will have a tracking sheet of stakeholders we want to engage and assign a point person. We are meeting with CSE on Feb 4. L. Tobacco said to use him as a resource for pediatricians we can reach all in one shot with Grand Rounds at SIUH. M. Casale recommended doing a share fair.  Outreach has been done to a large swath of people. L. Tobacco offered auditorium at SIUH. Info sessions - it would be very helpful to have another board member at these meetings.  FAQ document is created and will be shared in Google Drive folder along with all marketing materials which can be accessed by everyone. 

L. Wedinger to apply for a City Council grant for an after school Soccer program. Deadline is in February. 
Walton Grant - process is opening in March.
Who will be responsible for grants? This is a time consuming role and requires a lot of attention. Bill does Title 1 and Title 2 but not other types of grants. Bring up at next meeting for grant writing and fundraising. 
Congrats to Vickie who completed her degree - Master's in Public Administration. Graduation is in May. 
Thank you to Lou for arranging the room and food for our meetings. 

Propose to add L. Tobacco to the Executive Committee as required by education law to have 5 members.