Bridge Preparatory Charter School
Minutes
Executive Committee Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday April 14, 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), R. Kerr (remote)
Committee Members Absent
M. Casale
Guests Present
F. Ebanks (remote), T. Castanza (remote)
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
As quorum is not met, this meeting is being held informally, with no official actions taken. Topics discussed by those present are for informational purposes only.
L. Timoney opened the meeting at 8:07am with 4 Board Members present.
C.
Approve Minutes
D.
Welcome from Chair
R. Kerr welcomed everyone and offered congratulations to Executive Director T. Castanza on the birth of his son Jack. T. Castanza is currently taking some paid time off and will return to the school on 04/22.
II. Executive Committee
A.
School Update
R. Kerr discussed the following topics:
- We don't yet have the specifics on how many students will be taking the NYS tests this month; the number of families who have "opted-in" for the test will be updated by the ED later in this meeting;
- A Director of Teaching & Learning (DTL) has been hired: John Lee will be starting on 04/19 and expects to attend the next Academic Committee Meeting on 04/20.
- The Joint Public Hearing on our school's expansion and relocation will be held virtually on 04/19 and we hope that board members can attend and support our school by speaking at the hearing.
- Student Admission Lottery was successful - ED will update us on that later in this meeting.
- NYSED will be virtually visiting our school on 05/14; classrooms will be viewed and teachers/staff questioned; academic data will be reviewed;
- District 31 data expert (Dan) has agreed to work with us to reformat our data Dashboard and make it more informational and concise.
The next Executive Committee Meeting will be 04/26 at 7:30pm.
III. Committee Updates
A.
Academic
R. Kerr discussed the following:
- Our new DTL John Lee will be at our next Academic Committee Meeting on 04/20. We are looking forward to working with him.
- J. Lee, T. Castanza and District 31 data expert Dan will work together on the data to present to NYSED at their virtual visit of 05/14.
The next Academic Committee Meeting will be 04/20 at 6pm.
B.
Governance
L. Gyemesi discussed the following topics:
- The Board of Trustee Handbook is now posted online on Board On Track; the handbook is not yet complete and still needs some fine-tuning; the bylaws are also posted there; everything is in one place and available to view; thank you to K. Baldassano for her work on completing and formatting the handbook.
- Our annual review/update of the Trustee Bylaws is still being worked on;.
- We are in the process of recruiting 2 additional Trustees for the board but they are still completing their paperwork and have not yet submitted the documents; we have some good trustee prospects for the future; and may be able to continue recruitment through the rest of this year;.
The next Governance Committee Meeting will be 05/05 at 8am.
C.
Finance
G. Winn discussed the following topics:
- The Finance Committee will meet next week; we don't have a completed budget or staffing plan yet.
- A job description for the Finance Committee will be added to the Trustee Handbook after the committee members can review and comment on it at the next committee meeting;
- Our tax returns need to be completed, reviewed, approved by the Board and submitted by 05/15.
- Staffing Plan: the handling of payroll and variances need to be reviewed monthly and our methods of resolving the variances may need to be updated or changed; proper resolution and employee notification is important; we can only recover 8 weeks retroactively from the date the employee is notified; we may need to change our procedures; perhaps an audit could help with this, but a separate, optional audit will cost $5,000; we have our annual NYSED audit this summer, and we need to decide if we want to ask for a separate audit as part of that process.
The next Finance Committee Meeting will be 04/19 at 4pm.
IV. Executive Director Update
A.
Facilities
T. Castanza discussed the following:
- A virtual Joint Public Hearing will be held on 04/19 at 6pm and members of the school community, Board of Trustees and the public can express support for our proposed expansion and co-location at Petrides; I will share the link for the virtual hearing with the board; the Family Association has been working on getting families to submit comments and attend the hearing.
B.
Check In & Updates
T. Castanza discussed the following topics:
- Student Admission Lottery was held on 04/05 and went smoothly; NYC Charter Center was involved as the required 3rd party; 55 admission offers were made for grades 1-4; 43 families accepted; we have a wait-list of 46 students and we continue to receive applications; 2nd grade was the lowest applicant grade; 1st & 4th grades had the highest number of applicants.
- Our NYSED liaison Kim Santiago will virtually visit our school on 05/14; she will visit classrooms and speak to teachers/staff and school leadership; I will share the agenda for that visit with the board members. The visit is not evaluative, and will last for only 2 hours.
- Although NYSED does not require us to submit academic data during this brief "check-in" visit, Kim will look at whatever data we wish to share. Since our academic data shows growth based on our assessments, we believe it will be beneficial to submit our high-level data; J. Lee and Dan will work with T. Castanza to prepare the data to submit.
- Hiring Update: Our new DTL John Lee will come onboard on 04/19; he will attend the next regular board meeting. We are also continuing to hire additional staff, an Instructional Math Coach and additional teachers for our expanded grades; we have some amazing teacher resumes being reviewed now.
- NYS Grade 3 ELA Test will be on 04/22 and NYS Grade 3 Math Test will be on 05/06. F. Ebanks is our Testing Coordinator and has shared test manuals and training with our staff.
T. Castanza invited Fahron Ebanks to discuss the state testing process:
- NYSED testing for 3rd graders begins on 04/22; parents who wish their children tested must "opt-in" for the testing; we invited parents to attend a meeting explaining the testing; 40% of our 3rd graders will take the tests, we are still awaiting responses from 13 families and will follow up with those parents; the only students in the building on 04/22 will be 3rd graders taking the test; 1st & 2nd graders will be home that day along with any 3rd graders who are not taking the test.
V. Other Business
A.
Adjourn Meeting
There being no further business to be transacted, the meeting was adjourned at 9:05 AM
Respectfully Submitted,
K. Baldassano
K. Baldassano
VI. 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 9:05 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
K. Baldassano