R. Kerr welcomed all attendees and wished everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow. She stated that Frank Santarpia has resigned from the Board of Trustees due to returning to on-site work full time; he said remaining on the board would be challenging and he will be sad to leave such a wonderful group of people; R. Kerr thanked him for his service to the board and said he was an enormous help establishing our school site due to his liaison with the Borough President's Office; he was especially helpful in getting our school up and running when we didn't know if we would be given public DOE space or have to locate in a private space.

R. Kerr said that much of the Executive Committee discussion will be covered by the committee chairs at tonight's meeting so she will not go into detail, but she is looking forward to this Saturday's presentation by Pasek Consulting and also anticipating the E.D. Support & Evaluation Committee update.

The next Executive Committee Meeting will be April 12th at 7:45 AM.

G. Winn reported that the Finance Committee met on March 14th and the following was discussed:

• The school's annual tax return was completed and a draft was attached to tonight's agenda for review by the Board of Trustees; over the next few weeks, he welcomes questions and comments on the tax documents from the board; 
• E.D. is looking into the possibility of using a credit card instead of a debit card for incidental school spending; F. Ebanks is looking into the feasibility of this for a non-profit organization; E.D. is also looking into the appropriateness of using a debit card and getting clarity on the use and replenishment of funds of a debit card. 
• Our audit was clean and completed without any exceptions.
• The first draft of the budget was reviewed and items discussed were program-related and staffing expenses; there are place-holders in the budget due to possible merit-pay salary increases but we do not have details on that yet; further information on the budget will be discussed at our April Finance Committee Meeting and full board meeting. We want to share the budget information as early as possible for board approval; final budget will be voted on at the May board meeting.
• A brief discussion on the BoostEd contract; there is a automatic renewal term for the contract and there has been no significant changes, so the contract renewal is ready to go. T. Castanza stated that he would like to see the major contracts approved and in place before the final budget is brought to the board for a vote, so the budget can be as accurate as possible.
• L. Timoney added that R. Illuzzi has amassed over $5,000 in fundraising; T. Castanza said that they worked with BoostEd to establish a process to make sure that all donations are tagged properly and deposited into the appropriate accounts. This will make all future audits smoother.

The next Finance Committee Meeting will be April 11th at 4:30 PM.

L. Gyimesi reported that the Board Development & Governance Committee met on March 3rd and the following was discussed:

• The Board of Trustees Evaluation Survey results are now in and have been shared with the board; this will be discuss in further detail later tonight; 
• The Board Member Job Description is completed and will be posted online after approval;
• Pasek Consulting will be giving a virtual presentation on charter renewal this Saturday, March 19th at 8:30 AM, followed by a meeting of the Board Task Force on Charter Renewal. Pasek Consulting would like each board member to introduce himself/herself and speak briefly about their tasks.

The next Board Development & Governance Committee Meeting will be April 7th at 8 AM.

L. Timoney gave the following update:

• The E.D. Support & Evaluation Committee will meet again with T. Castanza in April - when a date is established, the board will be notified. 
• Board on Track is finalizing the E.D. evaluation template and it should be posted online by March 28th.

R. Kerr reported that the Academic Committee met on March 9th and the following was discussed:

• The Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) data report was focused on: the interpretation and implications of the data; once we know what the data is telling us, what are the implications for instruction; what steps has the school taken from these data points; what are the trends and plans for next year;  
• We discussed planning for SETSS, academic intervention, curricula changes in Math; there is a direct focus on what the data tells us and what the teachers tell us.

She then gave the floor to T. Castanza and C. Volpe:

• T. Castanza said that the academic data is driving decisions for every leadership team member, which is how it should be; the data is telling us not only about our students academic progress but also the needs of our teachers; where we need to refine staffing and the need to engage our families; we have to do a better job of talking to our families about academic data; we will be sharing individual MAP data with parents; there will be training for teachers in MAP data later this week. MAP data is a good predictor of state assessments because it is nationally-normed and standards-based. 
• C. Volpe is looking forward to the MAP professional development being given this Friday, devoted to how administrators and teachers can apply reports. She then reviewed the MAP ELA and Math data with the board members. She looked at the data to see what was happening with Orton-Gillingham (OG) instruction; she found that teachers are not getting enough time to finish or get past the OG drills, so there will be an increase in the OG instruction time from 45 minutes to 1 hour and an additional support person will be added to take students most at risk and give them more intense OG instruction.
• T. Castanza then reviewed and compared the data from Beginning of Year (BOY) and Middle of Year (MOY) for each grade in READING: 1st grade: 34% showed growth; 2nd grade: 45% showed growth; 3rd grade: 76% showed growth; 4th grade: 61% showed growth. These results are on-target for the upcoming charter review. G. Winn asked where our school sits in relation to other schools taking similar tests. T. Castanza said we don't know because individual DOE district schools do not share their MAP data. 
• C. Volpe then reviewed the data from Beginning of Year (BOY) and Middle of Year (MOY) for each grade in MATH: 1st grade: 45% showed growth; 2nd grade: 46% showed growth; 3rd grade: 82% showed growth; 4th grade: 75% showed growth. We currently use a high-level Math program and the flow doesn't align to priority standards, so we will be working on curriculum mapping to meet priority standards first; she is also looking into a new Math program, the enVision Math Program has more visuals and might be better suited to our students. 

R. Kerr said that students come into our school significantly below level academically, so continuous significant progress is important. C. Volpe added that COVID also caused students to lose a lot of instruction time. R. Kerr responded that data/teachers/students/parents are all important cogs in the wheel of academic improvement.

The next Academic Committee Meeting will be April 13th at 9:15 AM.

T. Castanza gave the following update:

• Chancellor David Banks is scheduled to visit Bridge Prep on April 1st from 10 AM-11 AM. He is expected to bring members of his team, as well as several elected officials; Board of Regents Member Dr. Christine Cea and David Frank from NYSED will also be here. Board of Trustee members will receive invitations to the Chancellor's visit after DOE submits further details to E.D. The Chancellor and guests will visit 2 classrooms: 1st grade and 3rd grade, followed by a parent roundtable discussion. 
• We are working on a process for transitioning our 5th grade students into District 31 middle schools with District 31 Superintendent, Dr. Marion Wilson and her team. Deirdre DeAngelis is also on this Middle School Task Force. We have a meeting and presentation on Monday night with 5th grade parents to discuss this and to get their feedback.
• At this time we have 116 applications for admission for 49 available seats; the upper grades have very few available seats; the admission lottery will be held virtually on April 6th at 5 PM.

T. Castanza reported that first draft of the budget is complete and was shared with the Finance Committee to be presented to the full board. We are planning now for the upcoming school year regarding space and facilities, capital improvement and specific orders needed. We will give further details to the board in April; we are also looking into purchasing technology, curriculum and additional furniture and want to have upcoming expenses in place by the end of May in time for the June 30th budget deadline.

After discussion by the Board of Trustees, it was decided by mutual consent to table the adoption of the Revised Code of Conduct until board members could review the latest version of the Code.

This item will be brought up again at the next Board Meeting on April 13th.

After discussion by the Board of Trustees, it was decided by mutual consent to table the adoption of the Revised Complaint Policy until board members could review the latest version of the Policy.

This item will be brought up again at the next Board Meeting on April 13th.

G. Winn submitted a draft copy of the Bridge Prep tax return IRS Form 990 for 2020 to be reviewed by the board. It can be voted and approved by the board at an upcoming board meeting in April or May. The fiscal year closes on June 30th.

L. Gyimesi shared the Board Assessment Survey results with the board; the results show an overall score of 3 or Intermediate rating; board members asked for more training in areas of finance and academics. Further details on the survey results can be covered at the task force meeting after the Pasek Consulting presentation on Saturday, April 19th. That meeting will be open to the public and recorded on Zoom; Pasek Consulting will hold their presentation first, and then we will move into our task force meeting afterwards. Further information is on the meeting agenda sent to board members.

A. Volpe said that the Family Association Report was omitted from the agenda and she will be brief since it is so late: 

The Family Association will be delivering food to the Calvary Assembly of God Food Pantry on Saturday.