Bridge Preparatory Charter School
Minutes
Executive Committee Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday March 10, 2021 at 8:00 AM
Location
Dial in: (701) 802-5114
Passcode: 5094595#
Committee Members Present
G. Winn (remote), L. Gyimesi (remote), L. Timoney (remote), M. Casale (remote), R. Kerr (remote)
Committee Members Absent
None
Guests Present
F. Ebanks (remote), T. Castanza (remote)
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
L. Timoney called a meeting of the Executive Committee Committee of Bridge Preparatory Charter School to order on Wednesday Mar 10, 2021 at 8:03 AM.
C.
Approve Minutes
L. Timoney made a motion to approve the minutes from Executive Committee Meeting on 02-10-21.
R. Kerr seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
D.
Welcome from Chair
R. Kerr welcomed the attendees and noted that this time of year it is important to review what we've done, committees should be taking an assessment to wrap up with this school year, decide what needs to be accomplished in committees and what will need to go to the full board. Financial details of the proposed Staff Plan need to be worked out before the end of this fiscal year, and will dovetail with the Finance Committee and the Academic Committee.
II. Committee Reports
A.
Finance
Finance Committee Meeting was held on February 22, 2021 at 12pm.
G. Winn gave the following report:
The Accounting & Finance Procedures Manual is being reviewed and updated, a copy will be shared with the committee at the next meeting; FY2022 budget being reviewed; fire and emergency drills log was discussed; there were financial variances that occurred last fiscal year with complex issues of staff pay/overpayments; need to further research employment law regarding required communication with staff and employee rights; an employee questioned the legal basis for a payment plan; we need to make sure we are compliant; would like to confer with board member L. Gyimesi regarding legal points, to dig in deeper; unable to say whether these variances would occur again; doing background research now. Another oversight issue is that when the ED signs off on payroll no one takes ownership of reconciliation between the school and the third party vendors who actually make the payments; we need to look into how to approach this, either in staffing or practices.
B.
Governance
Board Development & Governance Committee Meeting held on March 3, 2021 at 8am.
L. Gyimesi gave the following report:
An update on recruitment efforts – finalizing 2 viable candidates to join the board: who both attended the last general board meeting; they are still completing paperwork; recruitment will continue on an ongoing basis. Update of annual review of bylaws; we need to align the Charter, the bylaws and the Family Association bylaws concerning the appointment of a parent member to the Board; discussion will continue. Outreach will be made to NYS for guidance as to the requirement for vetting of, and/or the process for utilization of volunteers, out-of-state members or non-board committee members. Brief discussion was held on whether the Financial Policies and Procedures Manual needs to be updated; consensus was there may be a slight procedural change, but otherwise the policies are up to date.
C.
Academic
Academic Committee Meeting held on March 9, 2021 at 6pm.
R. Kerr gave the following report:
Some Dashboard highlights for the upcoming regular board meeting: baseline upward progression is seen in OG and Math data, there is positive growth; we need to look at the structure of the Dashboard to make it more usable. ED says that students are doing well with 4-day in person instruction. The board needs another deep-dive into academic data in April; our goal must be to align our data with NYSED requirements and what they will review this year for our charter; we still have a lot of work to do. We will add and update the RTI program in our next agenda.
III. Executive Committee
A.
ED Support/Transition Plan
The ED Support/Transition Plan was not covered during the public session of today's meeting.
B.
Staffing Plan
Board members discussed the following:
We need the leadership of a Director of Teaching & Learning as soon as possible. The Staffing Plan being offered by ED is for a later date and longer term. A Hiring Committee needs to be formed, DTL job needs to be posted and urgency relayed to the ED. Math assistance is needed either with a Math Coach or help from Singapore Math. A Singapore Math consultant offered help and will be investigated related to fees and contract. ED should address this at the next board meeting. A larger discussion regarding school hours and after-school programs will be addressed at the Academic committee meeting.
IV. Executive Director
A.
Check In & Updates
T. Castanza gave the following report:
We can post the job opening of Director of Teaching & Learning by the end of this week; but we need to be clear about the start date for the candidate; it takes at least a couple of months to find the right candidate and an additional 2-4 weeks to get on staff; the ideal target date would be June so that the candidate can do planning and development over the summer for September. It is more difficult to hire facility in March than after the school year ends. We can post the position now and it would be great if a candidate could start right away, but if not, it may be June before we have anyone in place.
Regarding the alignment of school day change – it is considered a non-material change by NYSED; this was verified by NYSED when the documents regarding the change were submitted to NY State. Our charter does not specify the specific start and end times of our school day; NYSED will want to know that the Board of Trustees is aware of the change, but no board vote is necessary; the alignment of the school day is an organizational issue; the topic will be touched on at the next board meeting; and will need to be discussed with the board and the Academic Committee further; a survey was sent to students’ families about this change.
Suggestions from board members:
Perhaps we could hire someone for the DTL position who has a math background; someone with a literacy or math focus; when we see the resumes we can see what their background is. A request was made to ED to email the job posting to the board who can share it with our academic contacts.
Another Academic Committee meeting can be held for further discussion on the hiring of DTL and the change in the alignment of the school day; the Finance Committee should also be involved. The committees can then advise the full board regarding these topics.
V. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 9:27 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
K. Baldassano