Thank you for attending since we moved the board meeting due to weather. Unfortunately, we need to say goodbye to Lou Tobacco as a trustee as he as a new position. He is removed as per the bylaws for multiple unexcused absences. This is done to ensure quorum.  

There is still no letter received and total silence. We have executed the retainer agreement for the pro-bono law firm who will secure a trademark attorney. L. Wedinger also wants to get copies of the insurance policies to see if we have trademark infringement coverage. T. Castanza will forward policies. 

The teacher training institute is part of our charter and will remain as part of the larger picture of strategic planning for the school and board. 

The Chair sent out a draft set of goals and process to the Exec Committee for input.  Email all input in writing to the Chair. She will incorporate and send to the ED for review.  Then it will be brought to the larger board for input once vetted through the EC and ED. 

L. Wedinger and L. Timoney had an initial call with Board on Track to discuss strategy and recruitment.  We will have weekly calls and report back.  

The Governance Committee recommends we vote to engage Board on Track and then opt out or engage on Dec 15th and pay full fee.  The Executive Director is directed to change the board line budget to $9K + board expenses. 

We reviewed funding, grants and census with ED.  Based on BEDS data we are spot on. We had a request by ED to explore getting a debit card for the school.  ED will propose a relationship with a bank for a funded, branded debit card not to exceed $5K.  We don't anticipate any changes to financial and control structures. With the disbursement of the Walton Funds the appropriate account to house it should be interest bearing and insured.  We authorize ED to work with BoostEd and M. Langella to figure out what is most appropriate. Choose two or three banks and present to finance committee.  It may need to be more than one account based on insurance limits of up to $250K. The money should not be sitting for too long without being in an interest bearing account.  It was commented that we may want to leverage the larger account to offset the costs of the debit card or it may make us eligible for grants. ED indicated he wants to look at Northfield. We need to ensure the Walton money is separate and apart from any operating expenses. The Walton money will disbursed next week.  The ED will report back to the Finance Committee prior to November's board meeting and George will bring that recommendation to the EC ideally this will be done before we get the Walton money.  ED will have call with BoostEd on 10/29 and report back. ED to email board and they will respond to ED with any recommendations.

R. Kerr is at the school once a week working with the leadership team and taking a forensic look.  She is in the classroom and with the OG professional developer. The form of the academic report will be ground level.  Looking at lesson plans with the OG trainer, how OG trainer debriefs with teacher, etc.  A. Margolis to be looped in too. OG trainer is at the school Tuesday and Wednesday.  Regina Skyer is also coming to the school and A. Margolis will be there as well if available. 

Northfield Bank - grants for charter schools. Time to re-engage them as a community partner based on our brand.  We use local businesses SI Fast Signs, On Your Mark, Special Tees, etc.  We've had success with that so far.  
The Walton Grant - L. Wedinger looked over wording.  They give a lump sum immediately.  BoostEd coming on Tuesday to review budget vs. actuals. 
Per Pupil Monday - came in today a little higher.  P2 to P3 saw an increase of $25K due to team working with CSE and diving into each child and their needs.
Enrollment - we continue to monitor and need to remain at 86. Current is 87 students and we are losing a student who is relocating end of month.  We can backfill up to Nov 28th.  First grade has no wait list so we can enroll immediately or add to second grade.  We are being as clear as we can when speaking with families about what the school offers. L. Timoney stated we need to be the dyslexia and reading disabilities school. 
 

Feedback on the dashboard - it is too broad and needs more detail.  We need to understand targeted skills by color and grade.  These target skills should be on the dashboard. Also it should list IEP testing accommodations. A. Margolis will visit the school and review with ED who will send her the learning targets. 

Initial OG evaluations are still underway and the November dashboard will be full of numbers and populated. Groups are formed and can be different than their class. 
 

We need to think about strategy and how we allocate the grant money.  Per L. Wedinger - we need to ensure to align with Walton objectives. 

ED - proposed a day that Josh can come and sit with us based on Josh's availability. The Board wants to discuss strategy and ideas and then ask the budget person. It was decided by the board to hold this strategy meeting on Nov 16th and incorporate a board meeting thereby cancelling the Nov 13th board meeting.

Fox News - has triggered 10 pieces of outreach to the school.  We have been invited to Child Mind Institute on Friday for a panel on school choice with Winston Prep, York Prep and Windward.  At the Rockefeller Institute panel in Albany with the Dr. Shaywitz and Windward, and first question came to Bridge Prep. They are looking for public schools to offer our option.  They are interested in the dyslexia piece and educational options. Pix11 with air in mid-November and ED will alert board. 
NYSED Visit - R. Kerr, David Frank and Regent Cea came to the school for a visit and saw OG, Science class and the first 6 weeks in terms of performance framework which guides our reauthorization. Per the Chair, it was a well done visit.  NYSED was impressed by our structure of the classroom, school and grounds.  David Frank said congratulations to TC and the board and he is proud to see our first month and to keep doing your job so I don't have a hard charge.  He the tweeted out a picture of our OG goals chart. One critique was we didn't speak about math deeply like we did reading. We expressed we equally deep and Jesse the DTL spoke about Singapore Math.  His team will be back in the Spring and looking specifically at math.
Other notariaty - A. Margolis spoke recently on a panel in NYC and was approached by women interested in our school. District 2 is trying to open a school and CEC 2 wanted to meet and get ideas if we can help them at all. 
ED is putting together a binder that documents and lays out our program from beginning to end with artifacts like teacher observation forms and student rubrics. The Chair noted there has been a lot of outreach and the ED needs to be judicious with his time.  Vice Chair echoed they can read the charter to learn more.  
 

ED - is meeting 10/24 with a teacher who has offered to do some punch list items some changes.  Per ED it can be done in 20 minutes. Items like populating the teacher page with names, email addresses, administration, etc. ED said the bucket list will be done. ED thinks the website needs an overhaul. 

After much discussion, it was agreed we need another plan because or the urgency to update the site. Registration is coming in two months and the site needs to look structured like a school. The Governance committee is delayed and can't ask any potential board members they are recruiting to look at current website. L. Wedinger asked for the bucket list of items and will make an inquiry about cost. The bucket list includes adding all recent positive press (Fox 5, Rockefeller Panel), pictures, teacher information like name, class and email, and wording to reflect we are an active and open school.