L. Gyimesi welcomed the attendees and said that this is a time of Thanksgiving, this is a time for reflection on what we are thankful for; she is very thankful for all the time and effort that board members give to Bridge Prep and the commitment that everyone shows in keeping the school alive and well; she wishes everyone a wonderful holiday with family and friends. Let's open the meeting.

G. Winn gave the following update: 

• He thanked L. Gyimesi and M. Harmon-Vaught for putting together the Board Strategy Session this week; he knows a lot of work went into it and he is thankful.
• We had a very productive Finance Committee Meeting on November 7th looking at 5-Year Budgets that the management team provided; E.D. and BoostEd walked us through budgets based on various scenarios depending on directions we might take as we prepare for our renewal; there isn't much more for the committee to do with that now; we haven't really combed through them in detail; it was good to see what is flexible so we can take a look at options and communicate as a board in how they will reflect our revenue and our costs.
• E.D. shared the BOCES from Suffolk in Long Island and it really walks through the state-mandated reporting that all LEAs have to account for; notably there are variations that effect charter schools; that is the foundation of the Compliance Calendar we have been discussing at our meetings. As we look at that and other measures that the E.D. and the leadership team are working on that don't appear on the list, but are things we produce, he feels comfortable that the board will have a good understanding of what the team is doing and what we are accountable for to authorizers.
• He thanked everyone for the work that got us to where we are.

The date of next Finance Committee Meeting is still to be determined.

M. Harmon-Vaught gave the following update:

• The exciting news is that Becky Peters has agreed to join the Board of Trustees and we are prepared to put forward her name tonight; he asked G. Winn to speak on this.
• G. Winn said that B. Peters' background is not only in working within charter schools on the finance and operations side, she has also been on the public audit side with the Big 4; the experience that B. Peters brings is significant, and the ability to focus on detail and back us up is a welcome skill-set and comes in a very personable and thorough human being; everyone on the Finance Committee is going to sleep better at night having B. Peters onboard.
• L. Gyimesi added that not only is she grateful that B. Peters is joining the board in the finance area, with her background in basketball, there may be another activity to add to the school.
• B. Peters said she is happy to be a part of Bridge Prep and is thankful for the opportunity; she's glad her love for spreadsheets can be put to good use.

The next Board Development & Governance Committee Meeting will be December 6th at 7:45 AM.

R. Kerr reported that the Academic Committee met on November 8th and the following was discussed: the meeting centered around statistics; the MAP data and the NYS standardized test scores; she gave the floor to T. Castanza and C. Volpe to review the data.

T. Castanza said that we report data in a concise way that lines up with the way the school operates on a trimester basis; as we review our charter goals and school-level goals; we've determined on the following timeline: November for Trimester 1, February for Trimester 2 and June for Trimester 3. C. Volpe will review MAP data for Trimester 1 and what exactly each of those assessments mean; we also have some new assessments this year and we are growing and refining our data. T. Castanza will review the state assessment data and what it shows us. 

MAP DATA

C. Volpe shared the MAP data dashboard with the board members and examined the various levels of results indicated in the document, beginning with ELA. The document indicates the percentage of students who are at-or-above proficiency/or/ below proficiency and by how many levels; in the last year we have seen a lot of progress; we are partnered with Core Collaborative to target students; MAP tells us where teachers need to focus instruction; proficiency can be hard to meet, but MAP has a formula for projected growth; we look at who made projected growth and who made growth overall. 

T. Castanza added that Charter Performance Benchmark #1 talks about growth and the NYS assessments also talk about growth. Projected growth is used by the school internally to see how our students are doing; overall growth is looked at for reauthorization in Benchmark #1. It's all about "growth" but we use the data in 2 different ways.

C. Volpe said that the MAP data reports allow us to look at students who have high achievement & high growth/high achievement & low growth/low achievement & low growth/low achievement & high growth; we can target those students and see who is at the cusp of proficiency. Map results are very important to our teachers. We will be working on "test stamina" for our students, their ability to sit for a test. OG assessments are 40 minutes per student, MAP fluency is 20 minutes for the class.

STATE ASSESSMENT DATA

T. Castanza said in our charter we have 2 different ways of looking at academic data; the charter performance benchmark #1 and the academic goals that were established in the charter and approved by NYSED, which are the goals focused around MAP.  Those goals are growth from trimester to trimester, growth from year-to-year, and students who have been in our school for 2 years. That data is built into the projected growth data discussed earlier.  The majority of the students in our school are Tier 3 students (lowest achieving level in reading and math); he reviewed graphs and data showing the affect of COVID on Tier 3 student proficiency (10%-15% drop in reading and math); testing data is our first assessment and will remain our baseline data for Bridge Prep. Our sample size is small: 41 students took 3rd grade ELA test; 38 students took 3rd grade math tests; NYSED will compare our school's test results to the District test results. 

We looked at our state test results and compared proficiency for 3rd grade ELA students with disabilities at Bridge Prep (12%) /NYC overall (20.5%)/District 31 schools (29.7%); and 3rd grade MATH students with disabilities at Bridge Prep (2%) /NYC overall (24.3%)/District 31 schools (28.9%). 

In 4th grade, 45 students took ELA exam; 43 students took MATH exam. comparing proficiency for 4th grade ELA students with disabilities at Bridge Prep (7%) /NYC overall (17.4%)/District 31 schools (23.1%); and 4th grade MATH students with disabilities at Bridge Prep (7%) /NYC overall (24.3%)/District 31 schools (28.9%). We broke the data down to see which students are right on the cusp of moving from level 2 to level 3 proficiency, so close that they may have missed level 3 by only 1 or 2 questions. We can work with those students to help them to meet level 3 proficiency level. Possible interventions were discussed and planned state mock-assessments as practice for students and to help build their testing stamina. 

In 4th grade, 45 students took the NYS SCIENCE test and 76% of all students scored at level 3 or level 4.

Teachers are talking to parents to get the message out that it benefits their children to take the state tests and not opt-out. The state assessments give relevant data about which students to focus on and is a valuable metric for student growth. Assessment scores in the 4th grade have a considerable impact on middle school. 

The next Academic Committee Meeting will be December 13th at 11 AM.

T. Castanza shared a printed copy of his November monthly E.D. Update with board members as well as a copy of the School Leadership Newsletter.

L. Gyimesi wanted to comment on the Board Strategy Session that we held, it was very beneficial; we met with our consultants and covered some good points; she feels comfortable now that we will meet all our deadlines and are on track. We'll need to guide Pasek Consulting on what we believe the narrative should be and where we think out strengths lie; our renewal process is in good shape; we know what areas of the benchmarks we need to focus on. She thanked everyone for participating. R. Kerr agreed that the session was great.

A. Wolkowitz gave the following Family Association update:

• "Trunk-or-Treat" was held on October 29th and we had 35 decorated cars. We sponsored a DJ for the event, who invited the students to have a karaoke sing-along. Even children with speech issues were singing - it was phenomenal.
• Our "Thanksgiving Pie Sale" was very successful - we sold 192 pies. Moretti Bakery will bake the pies which we will pick up next week. They are known for their "Dream Cake" and we may do a Christmas Cake Sale.
• We are planning a "Winter Wonderland" event in 2 parts: a fair at the school where students can shop and invite their parents and the following night students can come to the school in their pajamas, to watch a movie, and have popcorn and pizza; we will decorate the school to look like "Whoville" and invite the Grinch to appear. 
• Fifth graders have voted and chosen their theme "A Million Dreams"; they will design their fifth grade T-shirts; fifth grade dues are $100 to be paid in January; the dues pay for the fifth grade dance, class trip, graduation, award ceremony, T-shirt and carnival. 
• We had a pasta fundraiser that earned almost $400 which will go towards fifth grade events to help keep dues as low as possible; the Christmas Dream Cake Sale proceeds will also go towards fifth grade events.
• Our November "Dress Down Day" charity is Cohen Children's Medical Center; students contribute $2 to participate in Dress Down Day; the money collected will be used to choose what items the children want to donate to the program; each grade will be able to donate a different item. We have a special connection to Cohen Hospital because one of our students was treated there and the child of one of Bridge Prep's teachers was also treated there. The school will match the donation amount collected by the Family Association on Dress Down Day.

T. Castanza added that R. Illuzzi is coordinating a fundraiser "Brunch with Bridge Prep" event to benefit the school on Sunday, December 4th at 11:30 AM at the Staaten; she will send the invitation flyer to the board members. 

Bridge Prep is also participating with the American Cancer Society Pediatric Cancer fundraiser at the Staaten on December 11th. This year we will be buying a table at the brunch to benefit the Cancer Society; if any board members wish to attend, please let him know.

M. Harmon-Vaught said he is thankful for all and wishes everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with their families and loved ones. A wonderful celebration of this moment and all that is happening at Bridge Prep. He believes it is a time for optimism.