Bridge Preparatory Charter School
Minutes
Executive Committee Meeting
Date and Time
Wednesday September 8, 2021 at 10:00 AM
Committee Members Present
G. Winn (remote), L. Gyimesi (remote), L. Timoney (remote), M. Casale (remote), R. Kerr (remote)
Committee Members Absent
None
Guests Present
K. Baldassano (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 Sep 8, 2021 at 10:03 AM.
C.
Approve Minutes from June 7th Special Meeting
L. Timoney made a motion to approve the minutes from Special meeting to discuss salary structure on 06-07-21.
R. Kerr seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
D.
Approve Minutes from June 9th Executive Committee Meeting
L. Timoney made a motion to approve the minutes from Executive Committee Meeting on 06-09-21.
G. Winn seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
E.
Welcome from Chair
Rose Kerr welcomed everyone back to the start of a new school year; she is looking forward to the new board trajectory. There is a lot of work to do but it's moving us to an enhanced approach as Board of Trustees.
II. Executive Committee
A.
Committee Chairs & Structure
Rose Kerr made the following structural proposals keeping in mind the board's trajectory, sustainability, successors and co-chair model:
- Executive Committee - the Board of Trustees Chair Rose Kerr will remain in place as the Executive Committee Chair
- Finance Committee - Co-Chairs will be George Winn and Laura Timoney
- Academic Committee - Co-Chairs will be Rose Kerr and Maria Casale
- Governance Committee - Co-Chairs will be Laurel Gyimesi and Azalia Volpe
- Laurel Gyimesi will develop a Task Force on reauthorization, fundraising, recruiting new board members, and strategic planning for the board; reauthorization is the main goal but fundraising and public relations are significant areas and it would be helpful to have sub-committees to share the duties. We will work on developing our newest board members' potentials for greater roles in committees.
B.
ED's Role & Goals
- Last year we formed a task force for the Executive Director's evaluation; now we will go in a new direction for the ED role and goals; we will hold the ED to specific goals; he needs time to get the new school year up and running, but we should set up the ED Goals Committee early; a separate ad hoc committee can start working on getting the ED goals written; any board member interested in serving should notify L. Timoney.
- M. Casale suggested making some non-intrusive unannounced visits to the school; board members can stop by the school in a casual way without formal announcement. As long as we show ID and sign in, that should not be a problem with the safety agents.
- The new Interim Acting Director of Teaching & Learning (DTL) is Cheryl Otterbeck, a former 2nd grade teacher; she is a very good teacher but she has no supervisory experience and it would be unfair for her to be doing observations.
- Some other schools have positions such as Chief Development Officer and Head of External Communication and the board might be interested in seeing the job descriptions for those types of positions.
- L. Timoney added that Becky Peters, a professor at Fordham University Gabelli School of Business and a finance associate for NYC Charter School of the Arts may help as an advisor to our Finance Committee; she may also consider becoming a member of our board.
C.
Executive Committee Dates & Time
After discussion, the Board Members tentatively established the following committee dates & times:
- Executive Committee Meeting - 1st Tuesday of each month at 7:45 PM
- Academic Committee Meeting - 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7:45 PM
- Finance Committee Meeting - 2nd Monday of each month at 4:00 PM
- Governance Committee Meeting - To be determined after discussion with Azalia Volpe
- Full Board of Trustees Meeting - 3rd Wednesday of each month at 7:00 PM
D.
Finalize Board Agenda
The following topics will be added to the agenda for the upcoming Board Meeting on September 15th:
- A resolution to appoint new Board Member Mark Harmon-Vaught
- The school's supplemental policy related to COVID vaccination and testing for staff
III. Executive Director Update
A.
ED Update
T. Castanza gave the following update
- Regarding COVID safety protocols, we are trying to determine which are mandates and which are recommendations; the only rules that supersede our school's own policies are NYS & NYC Department of Health and NYSED policies; there is a Dept of Health universal masking policy for staff and students; NYC DoE has mandated COVID vaccinations for all staff, but our school is able to require either vaccination or weekly testing of staff and students, as per NYS Dept of Health recommendations; 10% of our students will be randomly chosen for COVID testing; parents get their child tested and submit the results to us; there is no consequence if a parent does not submit the test results; this is the procedure we followed last year; DoE has offered our school the option of testing students at school, free of charge, with parental consent, but we decline that option. If at any point there is any change in the policy, we will share that with parents and the board. We start testing on 09/20; DoE starts testing on 09/27. DoE has mandated that all school staff be vaccinated by 09/27; we waited to see what NYS guidance would be, but nothing was forthcoming so it is up to us to determine our staff policy; we currently have 22 teachers; 68% of them are fully or partially vaccinated and 32% are not vaccinated; our school non-instructional staff has 69% fully or partially vaccinated and 31% unvaccinated. Vendors, if paid by DoE must follow DoE COVID policy; vendors paid by our school must follow our COVID policy. Our school's COVID teacher policy will be presented to the full board at the next meeting.
- Mr. John Lee was terminated as DTL on September 1st; we now have an Interim Acting DTL, Cheryl Otterbeck. We expect to post the DTL job position and hire someone permanently by the end of November.
- Due to a recent teacher resignation and student spacing requirements, instead of having 3 second grade classes, we will have 2 second grade classes but are still able to meet the necessary student spacing rules.
- Construction has been completed on our new space in Building A at Petrides; our 4th grade classes are now in Building A; our other grades are in Building E. The administrator for Building A is Fahron Ebanks; the DTL will be administrator for Building E and the Executive Director will have office space available in both buildings.
- Summer professional development went well; the Singapore Math professional development offered by Shelly DuBose received a great response fromour teachers; Ms. DuBose will be returning in January for another session.
- We want to hire a company to overhaul, manage and maintain our school's website; a proposal was given to F. Ebanks and will be reviewed by the ED before being submitted to the Board of Trustees for approval; there is a 6-week process for set-up, so we hope to start as soon as possible.
- The financial audit is moving forward; will share the results with the Finance Committee and the Board of Trustees in October.
IV. 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 11:13 AM.
Respectfully Submitted,
K. Baldassano