The Executive Director will join us later in this meeting, and we have two subcommittees to finalize. 

A robust discussion was had with the following agreed upon phraseology regarding Bridge Prep's parental leave policy. We want the verbiage to be clearly written, legally sound and as evergreen as possible.

• Collapse and simplify the policy to cover up to 8 weeks of supplemental paid parental leave.
• Strike any wording of covering a waiting period of parental leave at full salary.
• Strike any wording of intermittent leave; all leave must be consecutive.
• Differentiate clearly the benefit being provided by Bridge Prep and the eligibility for the school's parental leave. This is different from the NYS Paid Family Leave which is a state provided benefit.

Outstanding question: can we differentiate intermittent leave vs. consecutive leave and how does LittleBird advise?

Voting on the policy will be taken up at the December Board meeting after the policy has been finalized by ED & LittleBird.

Executive Director Tim Castanza will chair the newly formed Facilities Task Force. The task force is charged with siting for next school year and long-term siting and will provide updates to the Executive Committee. Members include R. Kerr, F. Santarpia, L. Wedinger, A. Volpe. 

The Executive Director Support subcommittee will consist of members from the Executive Committee and will be chaired by Laura Timoney. There will be trimester check-ins with the ED to provide support and feedback with the first meeting scheduled for November 16, 2020.  The ED gave input on the evaluation goals which will be taken up by the ED Support subcommittee. The final evaluation will include the entire board.  

We are awaiting the updated budget which will be presented to the finance committee by the ED next week.

Committee meeting was held and Covid and intermittent school closures were covered. The dashboard will be presented to the Board with monthly items and baseline OG assessment data. Going forward, progress will be reported towards baseline assessments.  

There will be an accessible Board handbook created and housed in BoardOnTrack. This will include board protocols and procedures for new board member orientations. Committee descriptions for Finance and Academic are needed for the handbook. We are also focusing on long and short-term board recruitment strategies. 

The ED was updated on the formation of subcommittees and L. Timoney will follow up with ED regarding parental leave. ED will follow up with BoostED regarding the updated budget including student register. 
Staffing: There is a teacher leaving at the end of November due to a personal situation. ED suggested hiring an additional teacher to use as a sub and possible teacher for the following school year. Some related items will be taken up in the finance committee. 
Instructional Lead: NYSED is aware of vacancy and suggested putting a letter on file for renewal reflecting fidelity to the charter, and we are currently meeting instructional support needs. 
We are considering hiring two strong Reading and Math Coaches. We will determine what model is best for Bridge Prep and NYSED will then vet with us. 
There are no material changes to be considered at this time prior to the December 15th deadline.